Title: I do and I don't
Description: "From one of our leading film historians and interpreters: a brilliantly researched, irresistibly witty, delightfully illustrated examination of "the marriage movie": what it is (or isn't) and what it has to tell us about the movies--and ourselves. As long as there have been feature movies there have been marriage movies, and yet Hollywood has always been cautious about how to label them--perhaps because unlike any other genre of film, the marriage movie resonates directly with the experience of almost every adult coming to see it. Here is "happily ever after"--except when things aren't happy, and when "ever after" is abruptly terminated by divorce, tragedy, or even murder. With her large-hearted understanding of how movies--and audiences--work, Basinger traces the many ways Hollywood has tussled with this tricky subject, explicating the relationships of countless marriages from Blondie and Dagwood to the heartrending couple in the Iranian A Separation, from Coach and his wife in Friday Night Lights to Tracy and Hepburn to Laurel and Hardy (a marriage if ever there was one). A treasure trove of insight and sympathy, illustrated with scores of wonderfully telling movies stills, posters, and ads"--
Subjects: Marriage in motion pictures, Marriage in popular culture, Motion pictures, New York Times reviewed, PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies
Places: United States