Comedies - "Isn't Romantic Comedy redundant?"

[Moraldo Rubini]

The question "Isn't Romantic Comedy redundant" hangs as a subtitle to this Forum, yet the question's never come up as a thread. The subtitle needles me every time I enter the forum, as I mutter "No, it's not redundant."

There are far too many romances that aren't comedies. Ah Brief Encounter -- the bittersweet romance interrupted by a train, countered by the more subtle romance of the seemingly mundane homelife that awaits; Ah, the heartbreak of Visconti's beautiful Le Notte Bianchi, with Marcello Mastroianni aching with wistful longing for Maria Schell as she walks blissfully toward the horizon with Jean Marais.

And there are crazy comedies with little or no romance. At least I don't remember a romance in Blazing Saddles, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Was there in Roxie Hart? I don't remember...

Perhaps it can be argued that the best comedies are romantic. My favorites: The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife, The Major and the Minor, The More the Merrier, My Man Godfrey, all have a heart throbbing from the silver screen.

But I have a penchant for romantic tragedies. Garbo's oeuvre! Even the romantic war horses end with more of a tear (or grimace) rather than a smile: Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, A Star Is Born, Sunset Boulevard.

Redundant? Nope.

[MissGoddess]

Maybe they mean "love is a farce" or "love makes clowns of us all"? *lol*

I love romantic comedies best but I still have a weakness for the tragic kind, which used to be my mainstay as a teen. How I revelled in the agonies! Now, I can't take those sad endings anymore. Last night I watched The Razor's Edge and it still has the power to move me and I think Gene Tierney's best performance is contained within this film. It's very tragic in the case of "Sophie's" character (brilliantly brought to life by Ann Baxter) and also for "Isobel" (Gene Tierney), for she is so barren of heart she can only appreciate loss when it affects herself.

And what about Random Harvest? We really wring our hands over "Paula" and "Smithie's" wildly improbably entanglement. I can't say enough good things about this classic.

Yet, for a steady diet give me my romance with a healthy dose of laughter.

[SSO Admins]

For the record, when I put that there I wasn't talking about movies.