Happiness and Tears, after Cavell : New Readings in Hollywood's Comedy of Remarriage and Melodrama of the Unknown Woman (Suny series, Horizons of Cinema)

Deb, Paul (EDT)

State University of New York Press（2025/12発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 398 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9798855804720
• DDC分類 791.430973

Full Description

Explores contemporary expressions of these two genres, and their continuing relevance, in recent Hollywood films.

Stanley Cavell's influential philosophical work on American cinema concerns itself with the thought that some of the most popular movies of Hollywood's Golden Age constitute two related, but previously undefined, genres that he names "the comedy of remarriage" and "the melodrama of the unknown woman," respectively. In this collection, the first devoted to the subject, leading figures in philosophy and film studies provide detailed readings of more recent Hollywood films that show how these two genres continue to be inherited in American cinema, not least by the films' participation in a certain moral outlook—concerning personal and cultural transformation—that Cavell calls "Emersonian Perfectionism." The films discussed include Rich and Famous, As Good as It Gets, My Best Friend's Wedding, Revolutionary Road, On the Rocks, Palm Springs, and Tenet.

Contents

List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
Paul Deb

1. The Question of Sex: Thoughts on the Cavellian Couple Inspired by Rich and Famous
Catherine Wheatley

2. Asking for More than As Good as It Gets
Daniel Varndell

3. Contesting Marriage: My Best Friend's Wedding
Sandra Laugier

4. Imagining Life Together: Psychosexual Intimacy, Social Roles, and Contemporary Comedies of Remarriage
Richard Eldridge

5. "I Saw a Different Life. I Can't Stop Seeing It": Perfectionist Visions in Revolutionary Road
Paul Deb

6. I Love You, Man: The Bromance as Remarriage
Rex Butler

7. The Time of Their Lives: Before Midnight and the Conversation of Marriage
William Day

8. Golden Years: Generational Contest, Terms of Talent, and Remarriage in Noah Baumbach's While We're Young
David LaRocca

9. Staging Unknown Women
Murray Pomerance

10. Moral Imperfectionism and Ethical Melodrama: The Case of Carol
Robert Sinnerbrink

11. The Same Only a Little Different: A Star is Born is Reborn (Again)
William Rothman

12. An End of Wandering: Coming to Believe in Palm Springs
Steven G. Affeldt

13. The Comedy of Remarriage in the Age of Lean-In Feminism: Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks
Fiona Handyside

14. The Proving Window: Inversion, Perfectionism, and the Unknown Woman in Christopher Nolan's Tenet
Stephen Mulhall

List of Contributors
Index