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Secrets Of Cinema
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00:19She's a girl dreaming of escape, he's a boy too wild to be tamed.
00:25They were horribly alone until their worlds collided, and they fell in love.
00:38We've seen this all before, but all around the world we keep returning to watch them laugh
00:44and despair before running across town and into each other's arms to live happily ever
00:53after.
00:55In this series, I'll be looking at some of cinema's most enduring genres, from the heist
01:00movie to horror.
01:02I'll be exploring the conventions which underwrite our favourite movies and examining the techniques
01:07filmmakers use to keep us coming back for more.
01:10And I'm going to start with perhaps the best loved genre of all, romantic comedy, or the
01:16rom-com.
01:17I'll show you the key ingredients of an affair you'll always remember.
01:21It's a film for anyone who's ever been in love.
01:32Ask any filmgoer, rather than a film critic, to name their five favourite movies, and the
01:37chances are at least one of them will be a rom-com.
01:40And more than likely, a rom-com whose plot is some variation on one of the oldest storytelling
01:46formulae, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again, the end.
01:52It's the sheer simplicity of this formula that makes it so endlessly reinterpretable.
02:23More than any other genre, the rom-com has universal appeal.
02:26I mean, go to any cinema in any country in the world, and the chances are they'll be playing
02:31a rom-com.
02:32What are you doing?
02:33I don't care, let me get it.
02:33And wherever they play, they'll probably begin with characters looking for love.
02:38I don't ask that much, do I?
02:40I mean, I don't ask to be famous, and I don't ask to be rich, and I don't ask to
02:43play center
02:44field for the New York Yankees or anything.
02:46I just want to meet a woman.
02:48I want to meet a woman, and I want to fall in love, and I want to get married, and
02:52I want
02:52to have a kid, and I want to go see him play a tooth in the school play.
02:57It's not much.
02:59This is one of my favorite movies of all time, Ron Howard's Splash.
03:03I must have seen this film a hundred times, and I know every word and every shot of it
03:08off by heart.
03:10Hi.
03:12It's the story of a man who falls in love with a mermaid.
03:17I take it you know this girl.
03:20Yeah, I do.
03:23Who is she?
03:26I don't know.
03:28Of course.
03:30Now, Splash is silly and foolish and fanciful, but it makes me laugh and it makes me cry.
03:36To me, it's the perfect romantic comedy, a fairy tale in which love is the magical element.
03:42Splash brilliantly applies the rom-com formula to a classic three-act structure.
03:48In act one, man meets mermaid.
03:52In act two, man and mermaid fall in love, but midway through, man and mermaid are separated.
03:59After a period of heartache and despondency, act three sees man overcome various obstacles
04:04to get mermaid back.
04:06The end.
04:06Despite its fantastical premise, Splash actually sticks pretty close to long-established genre
04:13rules.
04:13But it also tells us something very interesting about the history, the fluidity and the sheer
04:19persistence of the rom-com.
04:21Look at this sequence from Splash.
04:25Madison, played by Daryl Hannah, relaxes in a salt bath which reveals her true nature.
04:32She's a fish.
04:35Now, that shot directly quotes from this film, a British fantasy con from 1948, starring Glynnis
04:42Johns as the mermaid Miranda.
04:45Miranda?
04:47This is Nurse Carrie.
04:49Hello, Nurse.
04:49Have an oyster.
04:51It's a mermaid.
04:52I've always believed in them.
04:54Oh, Doctor, this is delightful.
04:57Now, Miranda wasn't called a rom-com.
04:59That term didn't really come into popular use until the late 60s, and it wasn't included
05:03in the OED until 1971.
05:06But its mixture of romance and comedy proved hugely popular with audiences, making it one
05:11of the biggest British box office hits of the year.
05:19Now, look at this.
05:21But the one influence on this Oscar-winning film which nobody disputed was Splash.
05:26In fact, Shape of Water is basically Splash meets Creature from the Black Lagoon, with
05:32Sally Dawkins as Tom Hanks and Doug Jones as Daryl Hannah.
05:40Although it contains elements taken directly from romantic comedies, you wouldn't call
05:46Del Toro's genre-shifting movie a rom-com.
05:48It's more of a fantastic, dramatic fable, which perhaps explains why it was nominated for
05:54a whopping 13 Oscars, of which it won four, including Best Picture.
06:01By contrast, Splash picked up just one Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, the one category
06:07in which rom-coms do tend to get some kind of awards recognition.
06:13She's really hungry.
06:18Critics often tend to think that there's very little that's challenging about rom-coms,
06:22that they're just a bit of formulaic fun.
06:24But ask anyone who's ever made a rom-com, and they'll tell you that creating that effortlessness,
06:30pulling off a series of specific story moments or elements within a surprising and satisfying
06:35overall structure, is very hard indeed.
06:39Let's look at those elements in more detail, beginning with one of the most basic, introducing
06:43your leading characters to the audience and to each other.
06:47Ah, Summer, everyone?
06:49Everyone?
06:50Summer?
06:51Excuse me, I have to take this.
06:54It's nice to meet you all.
07:09The meet-cute has become a defining characteristic of the rom-com, establishing two characters
07:14who are often polar opposites, and then setting them up for a series of mishaps in which they'll
07:19fall in and out of love.
07:20Actually referring to the 1938 movie Bluebeard's Eighth Wife.
07:25You tell your president that if I can't buy pyjamas without the trousers, I'll...
07:28I'll buy the trousers.
07:31Yes, I may buy the trousers.
07:33How do you do?
07:35How do you do, madame?
07:36How do you do?
07:36How do you do?
07:37That goes on a lot, by the way.
07:38One rom-com referring to another.
07:41Characters are constantly quoting lines from other rom-coms or watching them.
07:45In Sleepless in Seattle, for example, Annie and Becky know every line of an affair to
07:50remember.
07:51Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories.
07:56Why don't you try it on?
08:01I'm sorry.
08:02Sorry.
08:04John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale kind of replay the meet-cute from Bluebeard's Eighth Wife over
08:10a pair of the same gloves in Serendipity.
08:12Um, listen, you take them, aren't you?
08:15No, no, no, you saw them first.
08:16So the meet-cute is an event that doesn't have to be spectacular or dramatic, but in some
08:21offbeat way has to force our prospective lovers to notice each other, to look into each
08:25other's eyes for the first time.
08:28Go soak your head and see if I care.
08:32In The Lady Eve, Barbara Stanwyck trips up Henry Fonda.
08:36In Bringing Up Baby, Catherine Hepburn crashes Cary Grant's golf game.
08:41Oh, dear.
08:42You shouldn't do that, you know.
08:44But that...
08:44What shouldn't I do?
08:45Talk while someone's shooting.
08:47Well, anyway, I forgive you because I got a good shot.
08:49But you don't understand.
08:50See, there it is, right next to the pin.
08:51But that has nothing to do with it.
08:52Oh, are you playing through?
08:53No, I've just driven off the first tee.
08:55I see you're a stranger here.
08:56You should be over there.
08:57This is the 18th fairway, and I'm right on the green.
08:59Of course, when it comes to the modern rom-com, one name stands out above the crowd, that
09:04of Nora Ephron.
09:06A journalist who turned her hand to screenwriting and then to directing, Ephron was the master
09:10of taking old rom-com traits and turning them into something new.
09:14Someone who knew how to follow the rules and break them at the same time, right from
09:19Act One.
09:20Let's look at this establishing scene from When Harry Met Sally.
09:25In her screenplay, which she wrote after several eye-opening conversations with director
09:30Rob Reiner, Ephron describes finding a couple in a fairly melodramatic embrace.
09:36Then a car pulls up.
09:40And we see...
09:53Oh, hi, Sally.
09:55Sally, this is Harry Burns.
09:57Harry, this is Sally Albright.
09:59Nice to meet you.
10:00So, this is the moment when Harry meets Sally.
10:04And what's lovely about it is that neither Harry nor Sally seem particularly interested
10:08in meeting each other.
10:10Indeed, Harry is in the process of swearing lifelong allegiance to someone else, and Sally...
10:17Sorry.
10:18He is only interested in the practicalities of getting to New York.
10:23The mundanity of Harry and Sally's first meeting is exactly what makes it so magical,
10:27and perversely what makes it so memorable.
10:30It tells us that this is to be no ordinary rom-com.
10:33On the contrary, it's a film that's going to dance with rom-com conventions, whilst constantly
10:38wrong-footing its audience.
10:40With precision and clarity, the film has set out its stall, mapped out its intentions.
10:46Harry and Sally set off on a road trip from Chicago to New York.
10:50It's an 18-hour trip, which breaks down into six shifts of three hours each, or alternatively,
10:55we could break it down by mileage.
10:57There's a map on the visor that I've marked to show the locations where we can change shifts.
11:05With brilliant economy, Efron and Reiner tell us all we need to know about Harry and Sally's
11:10chalk-and-cheese characters, establishing the opposing traits which will clash,
11:15and connect throughout the movie.
11:17Grave?
11:19No, I don't like to eat between meals.
11:26I'll roll down the window.
11:29And before we know it, we've come to the nub of the matter, the key conundrum at the
11:34centre of When Harry Met Sally.
11:36You realise, of course, that we can never be friends.
11:39Why not?
11:40What I'm saying is, and this is not a come-on in any way, shape, or form, is that men
11:45and
11:45women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
11:50Can Harry and Sally be friends?
11:52And how are they ever going to fall in love?
11:55That, incidentally, is a classic screenwriting device.
11:58Some point, round about the 15-minute mark, a character will openly or explicitly state
12:03the core theme of the story.
12:05And by the end of the first act, when Harry and Sally meet not very cute for the third
12:10time, you really do want to know how it's all going to end.
12:17Hi, Harry.
12:19I thought it was you.
12:20It is.
12:21Yeah.
12:21This is Marie.
12:24Where's Marie?
12:26How are you?
12:27Fine.
12:28How's Joe?
12:29Nora Ephron was notable for being one of the few modern rom-com filmmakers whose work earned
12:33awards and, to some extent, critical approval.
12:37Ephron's dialogue was typically sharp and astringent in tone, often in perfect counterpoint to the
12:42plots.
12:43There's a rhythm and a music to her dialogue which is full of sly aphorisms and uncomfortable
12:47truths, like a sort of modern-day Dorothy Parker.
12:51Destiny takes a hand.
12:54Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that
12:58happens is accidental.
13:00Marriage doesn't work.
13:01You know what works?
13:03Divorce.
13:05Divorce is only a temporary solution.
13:09Marriages don't break up on account of infidelity.
13:12It's just a symptom that something else is wrong.
13:15Really?
13:15Well, that symptom is fucking my wife.
13:20There aren't many modern screenwriters who can rival Nora Ephron, but for me, Richard
13:25Curtis, who wrote the Oscar-nominated Four Weddings and a Funeral, comes pretty close.
13:30Now, I'm fully aware that some serious-minded critics can get very sniffy about Curtis's
13:36output, despite, or perhaps because of the fact that he's been responsible for some of
13:41the most commercially successful rom-coms of all time.
13:45Um, hi, Charles.
13:48Hello, John.
13:49How are you?
13:49How are you?
13:51Good, good.
13:52This is, um...
13:53Carrie.
13:53Carrie.
13:54Delighted.
13:54I'm John.
13:55Hi, John.
13:58So, John, how's that gorgeous girlfriend of yours?
14:00She's no longer my girlfriend.
14:02Ah, dear.
14:03Still, I wouldn't get too gloomy about it.
14:04Rumor has it she never stopped bonking old Toby Delisle, just in case you didn't work out.
14:09She is now my wife.
14:12Well, in fact, Four Weddings was critically well-received, certainly in comparison to Love,
14:16Actually, which Curtis directed as well as wrote, and which became the focus of pointed
14:21critical barbs.
14:22This is Aurelia.
14:25Ah.
14:27Uh, bonjour, Aurelia.
14:31Bonjour.
14:32Uh, je suis, uh, très heureux de vous avoir ici.
14:37Unfortunately, she cannot speak French, just like you.
14:42Yet, decades later, Love Actually has proved itself to be one of the most popular Brit pics
14:47of all time, a Christmas staple that's up there with It's a Wonderful Life in the affections
14:52of its fans.
14:52And one of the reasons it's so successful is precisely because it knows and plays with
14:58so many of the genre's most familiar tropes.
15:03Take this meet-cute between Hugh Grant's Prime Minister and Martin McCutcheon's Downing
15:07Street staffer.
15:08Hello, Natalie.
15:09Hello, David.
15:10I mean, sir.
15:12Shit, I can't believe I've just said that.
15:14And now I've gone and said shit.
15:15Twice.
15:16I'm so sorry, sir.
15:18It's fine, it's fine.
15:19You could have said fuck and then we'd have been in real trouble.
15:21Thank you, sir.
15:22I did have an awful premonition I was going to fuck up on the first day.
15:25It's a Cinderella-style encounter, which, despite the fruity language and modern political
15:30setting, is firmly rooted in age-old myths of handsome princes and happy ever-afters.
15:39We know that these characters are going to end up together.
15:44Hello.
15:45Is, uh, Natalie here?
15:48Where the fuck is my fucking coat?
15:52Oh.
15:53Hello.
15:55Hello.
15:56Because, at its heart, this is a fairy tale.
15:59Albeit a fairy tale with fucks.
16:06It's no surprise that the underlying themes of so many Disney animations mirror the central
16:11story of the rom-com.
16:13Think, for example, of Snow White, waiting for a prince to come and carry her off to his
16:17shining castle.
16:18Those kind of tropes can crop up in the most unexpected places.
16:23Liverpool in the 1980s may look about as far from Disney as you can get, but Letter to
16:28Brezhnev still contains clear traces of those fairy tale elements that are so prevalent in
16:34rom-coms.
17:03I've dreamt about you.
17:04After all, the movie is rooted in the harsh realities of Thatcher's Britain, and it's
17:09not afraid of portraying a world in which prospects are limited, dreams are crushed, and people
17:14are afraid of losing what little they have.
17:19But while some films take pains to disguise their fairytale origins, other rom-coms use music
17:26and even dance to play up their fantastical nature.
17:43Take a look at this from 1896.
17:46This is reportedly the first kiss captured on moving film, and it caused a sensation.
17:51But it's no random smooch.
17:54The actors, May Irwin and John Rice, are reenacting a scene from a stage musical in which they starred
17:59called The Widow Jones.
18:01In popular entertainment, romance and music have long been intertwined.
18:08The beginnings of rom-com in the movies are in the days of silent comedy.
18:12Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd blending slapstick with pathos and melodrama,
18:17often to ridiculous romantic effect.
18:27In 1927, the silent movie It, starring Clara Bow, brought many of the elements together
18:32as a poor shot girl falls for the heir to a retail empire.
18:37But the arrival of sound in the late 1920s triggered an explosion of musicals in which
18:42the guy who was the best singer and dancer got the girl, but only if she too could sing
18:46and dance.
18:47The titles remain twin genres, with each feeding of
18:57I'm a true champion.
18:59I'm a true champion.
19:25are still there, even if they're a little more hidden,
19:28often in the form of a musical montage.
19:41That's become such a staple of the rom-com genre
19:44that the makers of The Naked Gun were able to parody it
19:47with a hilarious effect in this infamous getting-to-know-you sequence.
19:53The musical montage can provide a very effective editing device
19:56to compress days or even weeks of events
19:59into less than a minute of screen time.
20:03I had a wonderful day, Frank.
20:05I can't believe we just met yesterday.
20:07But that element of the magical and the surreal,
20:11which we so associate with classic musicals and Disney fairy tales,
20:14always seems waiting to burst out.
20:18Look at this sequence from Notting Hill,
20:20in which the seasons change around Hugh Grant
20:23as his character is separated from Julia Roberts' actress heroine.
20:27Lovely fantasy sequence from 500 Days of S...
20:31Dancing in...
20:32But if our characters live in the kind of world
20:34where they can break into song and dance at any moment,
20:37why should we take them seriously and invest in their relationship?
20:41Well, you can believe almost anything
20:44if you're watching the right actors.
20:54Dexter, are you sure?
20:55Not the least bravest, will you?
20:56You bet.
20:57You didn't do it just to soften the blow.
20:59No, Taisy.
21:00Not to save my face.
21:00Oh, it's a nice little face.
21:02Oh, Dexter, I'll be y'all now.
21:02I promise to be y'all.
21:04Be whatever you like.
21:04You're my redhead.
21:05Are you all set?
21:06All set?
21:07Rom-coms are often defined by their casting.
21:09Think of Cary Grant and Catherine Hepburn
21:12in The Philadelphia Story,
21:13Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle
21:16and You've Got Mail,
21:17Kajol and Shahrukh Khan in Dilvali, Delunya, Le Gengue,
21:21or Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
21:24No, I want to find Beverly Hills.
21:25Can you give me directions?
21:26Sure.
21:27For five bucks.
21:30Ridiculous.
21:31All these screen couples seem perfectly cast.
21:34You can't really imagine...
21:34Reiner was casting When Harry Met Sally.
21:36He thought about Albert Brooks for the male lead,
21:39a character Nora Ephron said was based on Reiner himself,
21:42before opting for his old friend Billy Crystal,
21:45conversations with whom had inspired key scenes.
21:48For the role of Sally,
21:50Reiner had considered both Susan Day and Elizabeth Perkins
21:53and was on the verge of casting Molly Ringwald.
21:56Only when that fell through did the role finally fall
21:59to Meg Ryan and her famously sparkling eyes.
22:08Do I have something on my face?
22:11Look at rom-com leads and the way their eyes sparkle.
22:15Sparkles created by catchlights,
22:17known in the industry as Obies,
22:18after actress Mel Oberon,
22:20giving the eye a pinpoint of light that makes it glitter.
22:27No one's eyes sparkle more than Meg Ryan's.
22:30And once a sparkly new rom-com star has been born,
22:34casting directors are loathe to let them go,
22:36which may be why the same faces pop up again and again.
22:50One reason to celebrate rom-coms as a genre
22:53is that they've generally been well ahead of the pack
22:55when it comes to giving women strong, intelligent roles
22:58with good dialogue,
22:59which in turn attract good actors.
23:02Think back to the Hollywood screwball comedies
23:04of the 30s and 40s,
23:05to films like His Girl Friday.
23:08Well, would you mind if I sat down?
23:10There's been a lamp burning in the window for you, honey.
23:12Here.
23:13Oh, I jumped out that window a long time ago.
23:16And the Lady Eve.
23:18Stop that.
23:19Must I?
23:19Oh, sorry, I thought it was the horse.
23:21No, it was me.
23:23Eve?
23:24Yes, Charles?
23:25I suppose you know what I'm thinking about.
23:28Possibly I have an idea.
23:30These were slapstick-filled rom-coms
23:32told at a furious pace
23:34with wisecracking central partnerships
23:36in which women gave as good as they got.
23:38You're telling me a ridiculous story about a leper.
23:40You're telling me a ridiculous story about a leper.
23:41Well, where is the leper?
23:42Right in there.
23:43I don't believe you, Susan.
23:44But you have to believe me.
23:45I've been the victim of your unbridled imagination once more.
23:47All the way talking about...
23:52That'll teach you to go around saying things about people.
23:55Bringing Up Baby is a classic example.
23:57We've already seen The Meat Cute,
23:59in which Catherine Hepburn toys with her prey,
24:01Cary Grant, on the golf course.
24:03She spends the rest of the movie pursuing him,
24:06with a baby leopard playing a bizarre role
24:08in the inevitable scuppering of his forthcoming wedding.
24:12She's definitely the hunter and Grant the hunted.
24:16But what about my leopard?
24:18That's your problem.
24:20It's not all my problem.
24:22Susan, will you please go away?
24:24All right, David.
24:25Since he likes you so much,
24:26I've decided to give him to you.
24:28I won't take him.
24:30You've got him.
24:34This was, of course,
24:36leading up to and during World War II,
24:38Hollywood's golden era,
24:39a time when women in Britain and America
24:41were by far the largest constituent
24:43of the cinema audience
24:44and were taking up increasingly more pivotal roles
24:47in society and the economy.
24:49In The Lady Eve, for instance,
24:51Barbara Stanwyck and director and co-writer
24:53Preston Sturgess give us one of the funniest
24:55and strongest female characters in cinema,
24:58a con woman taking Henry Fonda's heir
25:00to a beer fortune for a ride
25:02and inadvertently falling in love with him.
25:05He's returning to his book.
25:06He's deeply immersed in it.
25:08He sees no one except...
25:09Watch his head to him when that kid goes by.
25:12Won't do you any good, dear.
25:13He's a bookworm, but swing him anyway.
25:15If there's a dominant point of view in this movie,
25:17it's Stanwyck's.
25:19That view is brilliantly set up by Sturgess
25:21in a scene in which she and a roomful of other women
25:23eye up a handsome but oblivious leading man,
25:27Fonda's naive Charles Pike,
25:29all coolly assessed in Stanwyck's hand mirror.
25:32Well, you don't like her either.
25:33Well, what are you going to do about it?
25:35Oh, you just can't stand it anymore.
25:36You're leaving.
25:37These women don't give you a moment's peace, do they?
25:39Well, go ahead.
25:40Go sulk in your cabin.
25:41Go soak your head and see if I care.
25:46Henry Fonda, by the way,
25:48proves himself the master of the cinematic pratfall,
25:50literally falling for Stanwyck over and over.
25:54Good-lum.
25:56Salam.
26:00So, rom-coms have long had a history
26:02of breaking the male-dominated model of mainstream cinema,
26:06but the genre isn't entirely free of its own gender stereotypes.
26:10A staple of rom-coms past and present
26:13is the heroine who is too busy pursuing her career
26:16to make time for love,
26:17often the neurotic single girl or divorced woman.
26:22Welcome to the launch of Kafka's Motorbike,
26:26the greatest book of our time.
26:34Obviously, except for your books, Mr. Rushdie,
26:38which are also very good.
26:42Bridget Jones is perhaps the most famous modern example,
26:46but that character,
26:47which began life in Helen Fielding's newspaper column,
26:50has many distant cinematic relatives,
26:53ranging from Barbara Stanwyck's cynical cookery writer
26:56in Christmas in Connecticut
27:01to Angela Bassett's single-mother stockbroker
27:04in How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
27:06You need a husband and your son needs a father.
27:09Had one, got rid of him, so glad I did.
27:13And the last time I checked,
27:14Walter was still Quincy's father,
27:16in case you've forgotten.
27:17You still need a man in your life.
27:21Look, Angela,
27:22just because Kennedy writes, produces,
27:24directs and stars in all three acts of your drama,
27:26don't fool yourself.
27:27Every woman doesn't need that kind of guidance.
27:29I'm not used to girls like you.
27:32That's because I'm one of a kind.
27:35And then there's the girl
27:36who seems to embody the free spirit
27:38of the women of the Golden Age,
27:40but whose key role is actually
27:41to take a dull male protagonist
27:43and show him a good time,
27:45while often showing no sign
27:46of an independent life of her own.
27:49Hey, now we actually have a shot at being friends.
27:53The manic pixie dream girl
27:55is a 21st century term
27:57coined by film critic Nathan Rabin,
27:59who said in his review of Cameron Crowe's
28:01terrible rom-com Elizabethtown,
28:04that such characters exist solely
28:06in the fevered imaginations
28:08of sensitive writer-directors
28:09to teach broodingly soulful young men
28:12to embrace life
28:13and all its infinite mysteries and adventures.
28:16A far more credible take
28:18on contemporary male-female relationships
28:20came to us via the breakout rom-com hit of 2017.
28:24Is Pakistan in the house?
28:27Woo!
28:28Really?
28:29You're not from Pakistan.
28:31I would have noticed you.
28:34Almost.
28:35Like, I wanted to struggle.
28:35The Big Sick was inspired
28:37by the real-life relationship
28:38of leading man Kamail Nanjiani
28:40and co-writer Emily V. Gordon,
28:42whose character Zoe Kazan
28:44plays on screen.
28:46What's your name?
28:48Emily?
28:49Emily.
28:51I want to show you something.
28:53Emily.
29:10There was a similar blend of autobiography
29:13and invention in Annie Hall.
29:16You want a lift?
29:18Oh, why?
29:21You got a car?
29:23No, I was going to take a cab.
29:25Oh, no, I have a car.
29:28Do you have a car?
29:31So, I don't understand.
29:32If you have a car,
29:34so then why did you say,
29:36do you have a car,
29:37like you want a lift?
29:39I don't...
29:40I don't...
29:41I, jeez...
29:41In which Diane Keaton,
29:42whose real name is Diane Hall,
29:45won an Oscar playing a role
29:46that was essentially
29:47a fictionalised version of herself.
29:49Yeah.
29:50Please, go ahead.
29:51I told you it's a mistake
29:52to ever bring a live thing in the house.
29:54Stop it.
29:54Don't do that.
29:55Go to that one.
29:55Maybe we should just call the police.
29:57Dial 911.
29:58It's the Lobster Squad.
30:00So natural is the chemistry
30:01between her and Woody Allen,
30:03whom Keaton had dated in real life,
30:05that you almost forget
30:06that Annie and Alvie
30:07aren't real characters.
30:09One crawl behind the refrigerator
30:11that he'll turn up
30:12in our bed at night.
30:13Get out of here with that thing.
30:15Jesus.
30:16Get in.
30:17Talk to him.
30:18You speak shellfish.
30:19That sort of chemistry
30:21can't be taken for granted.
30:23Much as I love
30:24four weddings and a funeral,
30:25and I do,
30:26I've never entirely bought
30:28into the idea
30:28that Hugh Grant
30:29and Andy McDowell
30:30were made for each other.
30:31Instead,
30:32I find myself more interested
30:34in the fate of
30:34Kristen Scott Thomas' Fiona,
30:36a friend of Grant's child's
30:38whose feelings go rather deeper.
30:41How about you, Fifi?
30:43You identified a future partner
30:44for life yet?
30:46No need, Ray.
30:50Deed is done.
30:52I've been in love
30:53with the same bloke for ages.
30:56Have you?
30:58Who's that?
31:00You, Charlie.
31:08It's a poignant scene,
31:10thoughtfully written
31:11and subtly played,
31:12but perhaps it's just
31:13too affecting,
31:14almost knocking the film
31:15out of balance.
31:16And it always leaves me wondering,
31:19wouldn't four weddings
31:19be just that little bit better
31:21if Charles ended up
31:22with Fiona
31:23rather than Carrie?
31:27Jerry,
31:28how does it look?
31:29Tell me, frankly.
31:30It looks like a sunrise
31:31by Maxfield Parrish.
31:33But the role of the friend
31:34and confidant
31:35in a rom-com
31:35is a key one.
31:37And one way of preventing
31:38any untoward chemistry
31:40has been via the trope
31:41of the GBF,
31:42the gay best friend.
31:44You know, Jerry,
31:45I can't imagine
31:45what's got into marriage recently.
31:47She's never hit me before.
31:49Maybe she just never
31:50thought of it before.
31:51Now, that's a stereotype
31:53which is essentially
31:53a riff on the sidekick role
31:55that Edward Everett Horton
31:56played in Top Hat
31:57in 1935.
32:00Rupert Everett
32:01tried to bring something
32:02new to the character
32:03in My Best Friend's Wedding,
32:04but it's thin material
32:05to work with.
32:09Ah!
32:10Ah!
32:11George!
32:12Now, traditionally,
32:13the GBF
32:14tended to be someone
32:15in whom the central character
32:16could confide,
32:18someone from the opposite sex
32:19who presents
32:20no sexual threat.
32:22Just as Nora Ephron suggested
32:24that men and women
32:24could never be friends
32:25because the sex part
32:26always gets in the way,
32:28the gay best friend
32:29solved a problem
32:30with which rom-coms
32:31had long wrestled,
32:32but did so in a weirdly
32:34patronising
32:34and neutralising manner.
32:39Hideous room.
32:41Oh, God.
32:42Death by a minibar.
32:43How glamorous.
32:45Today's rom-coms
32:46are, of course,
32:47far more polymorphous
32:48than their predecessors,
32:49thanks in no small part
32:51to the influence
32:52of indie comedies
32:53like Go Fish,
32:54Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
32:56and But I'm a Cheerleader.
32:57We're afraid
32:58you're being influenced
32:59by a way of thinking
33:02and unnatural.
33:05Do you remember
33:06the woman on TV?
33:07Honey, we think you're a...
33:09lesbian.
33:14Now look at
33:15Love is Strange
33:16from 2014.
33:18You guys,
33:19your love,
33:21your dedication,
33:22your commitment
33:22to each other
33:23are an example
33:24to be followed.
33:25May this love,
33:26may this marriage
33:27last forever
33:28and beyond.
33:30To Ben and Joy.
33:31Thank you, Kate.
33:33And to Petra!
33:34It's a mainstream film
33:36about a long-established
33:37relationship
33:38between two men
33:39played by John Lithgow
33:40and Alfred Molina.
33:41And baby,
33:43you've got what it takes.
33:46Not just in the kitchen.
33:48Ooh, baby.
33:50You've got what it takes.
33:54Wow!
33:58Despite problems
33:59with the American
33:59Ratings Board
34:00who ridiculously slapped
34:02a restrictive R rating
34:03on what was basically
34:04a PG-13 film,
34:05this lovely,
34:07insightful rom-com
34:08earned rave reviews
34:09and proved a hit
34:10with audiences,
34:11male and female,
34:12gay and straight.
34:14Hey!
34:15I like your boots!
34:18I said I like your boots!
34:22Goodbye!
34:25And in 2018,
34:27critics and audiences alike
34:28embraced a romantic comedy
34:30about gay characters
34:31that was unashamedly aimed
34:33at a mainstream family audience.
34:35Since its premiere
34:36at Australia's
34:37Mardi Gras Film Festival,
34:39Love, Simon,
34:40starring Nick Robinson,
34:41has been helped
34:41to box office success
34:42with that all-important
34:44family-friendly
34:45PG-13 rating.
34:47Is this the best indicator yet
34:49that in mainstream cinema,
34:51heterosexuality
34:52is no longer the norm?
34:54And that with good writing
34:55and great casting,
34:56today's audiences
34:57will invest in characters
34:58regardless of their
34:59sexual orientation?
35:01We can but hope.
35:10Classical drama requires
35:11a situation
35:12followed by complications.
35:14In the rom-com,
35:15the complications
35:15usually involve
35:16a temporary break-up
35:17prompted by an argument,
35:19a revelation,
35:20an unexpected plot development
35:21or perhaps an interfering parent.
35:23Or,
35:24that old favourite,
35:25the unsuitable partner
35:27or loser guy,
35:28is the person
35:29that the Pursued Party
35:30is already hooked up with
35:31and has to be got out of the way.
35:34From Gene Hagen
35:35in Singing in the Rain
35:35to Bill Pullman
35:37in Sleepless in Seattle,
35:38rom-coms are full of partners
35:40who are destined
35:40to be dumped
35:41by one or other
35:42of the lovestruck main characters.
35:46Marriage is hard enough
35:47without bringing
35:48such low expectations
35:49into it,
35:51isn't it?
35:54Walter,
35:54I don't deserve you.
35:56Charles,
35:57I'd like for you
35:57to meet Hamish,
35:58my fiancée.
36:03Excellent.
36:05Excellent.
36:06How do you do, Hamish?
36:07Delighted to meet you.
36:09These unsuitable partners
36:11are all too often
36:12wet blankets.
36:13It's much more fun
36:14when they have proper
36:15romantic lead credentials
36:17of their own.
36:18All right, Cleaver,
36:19outside.
36:20I'm sorry?
36:21Outside?
36:22Uh,
36:24should I bring
36:24my dueling pistols
36:25or my sword?
36:26And the unsuitable partners
36:28don't have to be men.
36:30Do you really think
36:31I need to go to a party?
36:33You have to do this.
36:35Did you forget
36:36who the fuck I am?
36:37I turned down
36:38Bradley Cooper,
36:39Matt Kemp,
36:40Matt fucking Kemp.
36:41I could have had
36:42anybody.
36:44I chose you, Dre.
36:46Everybody wanted to wife me,
36:48and I chose you.
36:49But once all those
36:51unsuitable partners
36:51are out of the way,
36:52the rom-com throws
36:53the greatest obstacle
36:55in our protagonist's path.
36:59I don't understand
37:00this relationship.
37:01What do you mean?
37:02You enjoy being with her?
37:03Yeah.
37:04You find her attractive?
37:05Yeah.
37:06And you're not
37:06sleeping with her?
37:07No.
37:08You're afraid
37:09to let yourself
37:09be happy.
37:13Every lover in every rom-com
37:15has to go through
37:16a moment of despair,
37:18usually at the end
37:19of the second act
37:19or around the three-quarter point.
37:21I miss Annie.
37:23I made a terrible mistake.
37:27The lover's part,
37:28and it's often a good excuse
37:29for another music-driven montage,
37:32such as here
37:32in Bridget Jones's diary,
37:33when Colin Firth
37:35literally flies out of reach.
37:40The purpose of this scene
37:42is to show our protagonist
37:43that perhaps the biggest obstacle
37:44to true love
37:45is themselves,
37:47whether it's because
37:47of their insecurities,
37:49selfishness,
37:50or fear of commitment.
37:55In Groundhog Day,
37:57Bill Murray begins the movie
37:58as an egocentric
37:59but also self-hating weatherman.
38:01This is pitiful.
38:03A thousand people
38:04freezing their butts off
38:06waiting to worship a rat.
38:08What a hype.
38:09So self-hating, in fact,
38:11that when he gets stuck
38:12in a time loop,
38:13he resorts to killing himself
38:14many times.
38:23Oh, my God.
38:37Bill.
38:41He might be okay.
38:46When he's reached rock bottom,
38:47he has to come to terms
38:48with himself.
38:49He has to learn to be good.
38:51And he realizes
38:51that he'll never be complete
38:53without Andy McDowell,
38:54playing the love interest here
38:56before swiftly moving on
38:57to Hugh Grant
38:58in Four Weddings.
38:59Midnight?
39:00You knew I was waiting
39:01for midnight.
39:03Does this mean
39:04you're going to leave?
39:06Oh, no.
39:08Good.
39:11Perhaps the newest addition
39:12to the rom-com canon
39:13is the so-called
39:14grey rom-com.
39:16While Hollywood is making
39:17fewer mid-budget films
39:19in general,
39:20films about romance
39:20in later life
39:21are on the rise.
39:23He's busy waving his side
39:25at Shah Rukh Khan
39:26in Karl Hornahol.
39:28And, of course,
39:29he put the funeral
39:30in Four Weddings.
39:31Now, this dark side
39:32helps the life-affirming
39:34romantic elements
39:35of the story stand out.
39:36But it works both ways.
39:38Some of the darkest films
39:39I can think of
39:40have surprising rom-com echoes.
39:50How about this
39:51for a structure?
39:52Boy meets girl.
39:53You could come back
39:55to my lab.
39:57Listen, I'll make
39:57a cappuccino.
39:58Boy fuses himself
39:59with insect
40:00in teleporter mishap.
40:06Boy begs girl
40:07to shoot him
40:14in the head
40:14and we've fused
40:16the rom-com
40:17with another
40:17species of film
40:18entirely.
40:19A remake of the
40:201958 horror film
40:22David Cronenberg's
40:23The Fly
40:24is a great example
40:25of the dark version
40:26of the primal myth
40:27of the rom-com.
40:36Can we get someone
40:37to clean the bits
40:38of Jeff Goldblum
40:38off the floor, please?
40:40Even the dream girl
40:41can become a nightmare
40:42with rom-coms morphing
40:44into classic
40:44gothic romance.
40:46Look at Audition
40:47by director
40:48Miike Takashi.
40:51The premise
40:52of this Japanese shocker
40:53sounds like the set-up
40:54for a sharp rom-com,
40:55a lonely widower
40:56who organises fake
40:58movie auditions
40:58to meet dates
40:59and stumbles
41:00upon his dream girl.
41:04In many of the film's
41:05early scenes,
41:07Miike is deliberately
41:07playing with rom-com
41:09conventions,
41:10using cinematic
41:11sleight of hand
41:11to wrong-foot the audience,
41:13lulling them
41:14into a false sense
41:15of security.
41:16And then,
41:17this happens.
41:32But both Audition
41:33and The Fly
41:34do more than just
41:35cleverly play
41:36with our expectations.
41:37That infusion
41:38of rom-com DNA
41:40lends them
41:40an emotional depth
41:42and resonance.
41:43They become
41:43not just shockers,
41:44but tragedies.
41:46Even that defining
41:47romantic comedy
41:48of the 1970s,
41:49Annie Hall,
41:50hides a darker element.
41:52In one early version
41:53of the script,
41:54after this scene
41:55in which Alvy and Annie
41:56missed the start
41:57of a movie,
41:58there was to be
41:58a murder.
42:00Jesus,
42:00what'd you do,
42:01come my way
42:01to the Panama Canal?
42:03I'm in a bad mood.
42:04Bad mood?
42:04I'm standing
42:04with the cast
42:05of The Godfather.
42:06You're gonna have
42:06to learn to deal with it.
42:07Deal?
42:07I'm dealing
42:08with two guys
42:08named Cheech.
42:09But Alan
42:10and co-writer
42:11Marshall Brickman
42:11decided to drop
42:12the murder plot
42:13and stick to
42:14the relationship comedy.
42:15A version
42:16of that unused plot
42:17finally surfaced
42:1816 years later
42:20in Manhattan
42:20Murder Mystery,
42:21which, again,
42:22featured Alan
42:23and Keaton
42:24as a couple.
42:25We solved the mystery,
42:27yep,
42:27we solved the mystery once.
42:28Remember?
42:29It was the noises
42:30in the attic mystery?
42:31The country house,
42:32the bluebird,
42:32I know,
42:33but that was a sweet mystery.
42:34This is murder.
42:35What the?
42:37You agree, right?
42:38It's murder, Larry.
42:39No, no,
42:40I forbid you,
42:40I forbid you to go.
42:41I'm forbidding.
42:43Is that what you do
42:43when I forbid you?
42:44Director Paul Thomas Anderson
42:46knows a thing or two
42:47about gothic romances.
42:48His recent Phantom Thread
42:50has more than a touch
42:51of Daphne du Maurier
42:52about it.
42:53But his 2002 film
42:55Punch Drunk Love
42:56inhabits a very
42:57interesting place
42:58between light
42:59and dark fantasies.
43:00Hi.
43:01Do you work
43:02at the mechanic?
43:03No.
43:05They're not open yet.
43:06They don't get open
43:07until he declared.
43:08Is it okay
43:09if I leave my car,
43:10you think?
43:11I don't know.
43:12I don't know.
43:13The movie centres
43:14on an awkward love affair
43:16between Adam Sandler's
43:17shy Barry Egan
43:18and Emily Watson's
43:20Lena Leonard.
43:21Barry's sisters
43:22are trying to set him up
43:23with Lena.
43:23He resists.
43:24She persists.
43:26They fall in love.
43:27He does something wrong.
43:28He loses her.
43:31Barry sets out
43:32on a mission
43:32to win Lena back
43:33and he gets her back.
43:35The end.
43:36It's the classic formula
43:38once again.
43:43Except if you look
43:44a little bit more closely
43:45some very strange things
43:47are going on indeed.
43:49In an early scene
43:50in a supermarket
43:51while Barry is browsing
43:52the shelves in the foreground
43:53eagle-eyed viewers
43:54will notice that
43:55in the background
43:56he seems to be being stalked
43:57by a figure
43:58who may well be Lena
43:59suggesting that it's her
44:00not him
44:01who's socially problematic.
44:03Now this could be
44:04the set up
44:05for a rerun of Audition
44:06but Punch Drunk Love
44:08resists
44:08the slide to darkness
44:10because other forces
44:11are at work
44:11in its colour palette
44:12costume design
44:14and subtle hints
44:15in the script.
44:17Barry always wears blue
44:19while Lena wears red.
44:21Look closer still.
44:23Barry is obsessed
44:24with flying.
44:25His dream is to earn
44:27unlimited air miles
44:28through coupons
44:29on pudding.
44:30When Lena puts
44:31her arms around Barry
44:32he appears to be
44:33wearing a red cape
44:34like Superman.
44:42Barry also appears to have
44:44unusual strength
44:45and at one point
44:47in the film
44:47he literally tries
44:48to jump
44:49and fly away.
44:54So Barry may be Superman
44:57which brings us
44:58to Superman the movie
45:00a prototype superhero film
45:02in the origin
45:02of today's
45:03Marvel blockbusters
45:04a brand new cycle
45:06of modern fairy tales.
45:07Hugh Jackman
45:08Chris Hemsworth
45:08and more recently
45:09Chadwick Boseman
45:12and stressing the
45:14soap opera romance angle
45:15so Superman
45:16and Spider-Man
45:17spend as much time
45:18on their love lives
45:19as fighting
45:20diabolical masterminds
45:21and bank robbers
45:30all things
45:31which studios
45:32think
45:32will bring in
45:34a female audience
45:35as we've already noted
45:37musicals are a debt
45:38to the fantasy film genre
45:39with dreamy sequences
45:41taking us out
45:42of the present day
45:43and into
45:50remember what Tom Hanks
45:51said at the start
45:52of Splash
45:52and I want to meet
45:53a woman
45:53and I want to fall
45:55in love
45:55and I want to get
45:56married
45:56and I want to have
45:57a kid
45:57and I want to go
45:58see him play a tooth
46:00in the school play
46:02it's not much
46:04well after he's
46:05won his mermaid back
46:06Hank swims off
46:07to live happily ever
46:08after in her
46:09underwater kingdom
46:10where I'm sure
46:11they have
46:11underwater school plays
46:25everyone loves
46:26a happy ending
46:27right
46:27well when it comes
46:29to rom-coms
46:29that's usually the case
46:31with the genre's roots
46:33in fairy tales
46:34the conventions
46:35demand a happy ending
46:39that rush across town
46:49that moment
46:50when their eyes meet
46:52and our protagonists
46:53finally see love
47:02and that long-awaited
47:04true love's kiss
47:06it's what we've been
47:07waiting for
47:08after all
47:11but endings
47:12are not always
47:13meant to be happy
47:14take Pretty Woman
47:16that film
47:17started life
47:18as a script
47:18entitled 3000
47:19about a hooker
47:21and a rich asshole
47:22from the writer-director
47:23of Piranha Women
47:24in the Avocado Jungle
47:26of Death
47:26really
47:27they are two
47:29incredible chicks
47:30I am not a chick
47:32I'm an ethno-historian
47:33with a doctorate
47:34in cultural anthropology
47:35got that
47:36during development
47:37the story changed
47:38it became softer
47:39and probably therefore
47:40more successful
47:41in the original script
47:43the character
47:44played by Julia Roberts
47:45catches a bus
47:46to Disneyland
47:46with her female
47:47best friend
47:49sure you won't
47:50come with me
47:50and leave all this
47:52not in a million
47:53in the finished film
47:55Julia Roberts
47:56winds up with
47:57Richard Gere
48:05so what happened
48:06after
48:06he climbed up
48:08the tower
48:08and rescued her
48:10she rescues him
48:11right back
48:12but which of those
48:13two outcomes
48:13is actually
48:14the happy end
48:15isn't it a better
48:16finale to have
48:17the two girlfriends
48:18finding their
48:18independence together
48:19rather than having
48:20one of them
48:21marry a man
48:21who we already know
48:22lives in a horrible
48:23world full of
48:24horrible rich people
48:37but in a rom-com
48:38we allow ourselves
48:40to leave the real
48:41world behind
48:41and to believe
48:42that love
48:43really does
48:44conquer all
48:50and what if
48:51we're not prepared
48:52to let things rest
48:53with that final kiss
48:56perhaps we can
48:57take hope
48:57from La La Land
48:58with its last
48:59real musical
49:00fantasy sequence
49:01which allows
49:02next time
49:04from the asphalt
49:05jungle
49:05to Baby Driver
49:07how to pull off
49:08the perfect
49:08heist movie
49:14more secrets of cinema
49:15next Tuesday
49:16at nine
49:17and you can
49:18wander through
49:18the back catalogue
49:19of Kermode
49:20Mayo's film reviews
49:21on BBC iPlayer
49:23radio
49:23coming up here
49:24on BBC
49:25for a rom-com
49:26that's a comedy romp
49:27Doris Day
49:28in Move Over
49:29Darling
49:29for a rom-com
49:40and you can
49:40the
49:40at the
49:40and heist
49:42as an
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