Actually, since watching 10 in Dr. Wexler’s class last Monday, I have seen two other very good films in the romance comedy genre, both written and directed by Woody Allen: Manhattan, and Midnight in Paris. While enjoying all three films, my reflection will concentrate mainly on Blake Edward’s 10. Tamar Jeffers McDonald, the author of Romantic Comedy, Boy Meets girl Meets Genre, states that the “evolution of the romantic comedy was influenced by its social context…the particular climate of American society in the late 1960’s and early 1970s affecting the way in which romantic comedy of this period developed” (McDonald 59). Hence, 10 reflects the sexual revolution of the 1960’s perpetuated mainly by the use of the birth control pill. So we can have a plot whereby the protagonist, George Webber, gives up his very pretty, sophisticated, and sexy girlfriend, Samantha Taylor, for a quest fantasy for a younger, prettier, and perhaps sexier woman physically in Jenny Hanley. The scenario of this film is boy has girl, boy leaves girl, boy get another girl, and finally, boy goes back to original girl.
Although it ends like a traditional romantic comedy of an earlier decade, it is what happens in between that differentiates it from the traditional to the radical romantic comedy. The near ending of this film throws out the window what McDonald refers to the former girl object as “saying no to the wrong kind of sex” as Jenny, the younger 10 female, exemplifies the “changing societal attitudes to sex” when she willingly accepts George as a sex partner even though she is on her honeymoon with another man (60) (Although this is within realty it is still far-fetched). This film thereby satisfies the “thematic concerns of the radical romantic comedy [that] all derive from issues of self-reflexivity, a heightened consciousness of self which these films exhibit across three main areas:
· “Self-reflexivity about the romantic relationship and the importance of sex to both genders
· Self-reflexivity as a film text in the tradition of other films
· Self-reflexivity as a modern and more realistic form of romantic comedy to earlier texts” (67).
Surely, sex is important to all three characters, including the women. Samantha remains an unsatisfied mate to George while George is pining for his fantasy girl Jenny. This follows previous movie texts; however, the genders are inverted. Usually it was two men vying for one woman with the “better” protagonist winning. A more realistic aspect of women are reflected here: with both Samantha and Jenny wanting and enjoying sex; however, Samantha typifies the more traditional and wholesome need—which is monogamous sex with the man she loves, in this case George, whereas Jenny typifies the complete opposite, a woman who loves sex just for the joy of it without needing the prerequisite emotional attachment.
Ultimately, George is more like the traditional Samantha, because the prospects of free and unemotional sex with Jenny prove empty to him, so he gladly goes back to Samantha whom he really loves. In addition, this radical romantic comedy incorporates standard loves songs which George sings to Samantha in the last scene, sealing the deal and winning her back. The film broaches on a homosexual relations between George’s songwriting partner and his much younger lover, which is also a departure from traditional romantic comedies of the 1950s and 1960s, however—and typically—“the romantic longings of this gay couple end with a downbeat finale which appears to suggest that a homosexual love affair is doomed to fail”( 80). Thus Blake Edward’s 10 includes three modes of self-reflexivity of the radical romantic comedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment