AAUW Forum Series

HOLLYWOOD COMEDIES OF REMARRIAGE: Beloved films from 1930s and 1940s By popular demand, Terry Ebinger returns to tell us how Hollywood?s peerless romantic comedies used unrivaled star power, wit, and glamour to subvert Production Code censorship with sophisticated satires of gender, class power, romance, and marriage. Fantastical screwball antics ingeniously disguise erotic interplay with quicksilver banter, wild gamesmanship, extramarital escapades, superb writing, and masterful direction. We?ll approach this subgenre of romantic comedy through myth, philosophy, psychology, and the genius of legendary directors including Frank Capra and George Cukor. We will examine pivotal scenes, iconic movies as archetypes, as well as legendary dialogue in six movies: Wk 1) It Happened One Night: Marriage as Adventure, Inner Awakening. Wk 2) The Awful Truth: Marriage as Performance, Quippery, Laughter. Wk 3) His Girl Friday: Marriage as Wrestling Match, Working Partnership. Wk 4) The Philadelphia Story: Marriage as History, Destiny, Humanizing Deflation. Wk 5) The Lady Eve: Marriage as Gamesmanship, Loss of Innocence, Wisdom. Wk 6) Adam?s Rib: Marriage as Midlife Role Review, Gender Rivalry, Renewal. We recommend watching these widely available films before each class. Film clips and illustrative camera shots will be presented during class. Instructor: Terry Ebinger, MS, was a licensed psychotherapist and depth psychological educator before becoming a film scholar. Her film classes are a blend of film art, cultural history, archetypal psychology, and the symbolic language of cinema. She has taught at College of Marin, SRJC,and SSU OLLI and Cinema Cafe at cinemaandpsyche.com.