What makes romantic comedies so addictive, comforting, and worthy of rewatch after rewatch? Even the cynics among us love watching two people fall in love and overcome obstacles on the path toward Happily Ever After — or, at the very least, Happily for Now.
This May, Erin Carlson — bestselling author of I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy and Queen Meryl: The Iconic Roles, Heroic Deeds, and Legendary Life of Meryl Streep — returns to Roundtable for a history of this great film genre, starting with Hollywood’s Golden Age and concluding with a present-day state of the union.
Over four sessions, we’ll trace the evolution of the genre’s signature pleasures: from the screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, like His Girl Friday, to the Hays Code–challenging sex comedies of the ’50s, like Pillow Talk, and on to the modern revival sparked by Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally. We’ll get to know the beloved stars, incisive writers and directors, and shifting social norms that left a mark on the rom-com, and together, we’ll consider why these popular masterpieces feel both timely and utterly timeless.
Stay curious!
The Roundtable Team
A Contemporary History of the Romantic Comedy
4 SESSIONS | STARTS WED, MAY 20 | 1 PM ET | ONLINE
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