Stars reveal how they make movie magic
When was the golden age of romantic comedies? Some cinema buffs might point to the ‘screwball’ era of the 1930s and 1940s and films such as Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night, which could usually be relied upon to throw in a little class conflict along with the jokes. If the starcrossed lovers happened to be played by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, we’d even get an unforgettable dance routine as well. Others may have a fondness for Doris Day and Rock Hudson’s ‘battle of the sexes’ offerings, or Woody Allen’s 1970s output. But while it may be short on names like Cary Grant and Katharine (or Audrey) Hepburn, There’s Something About Romcoms (Saturday, Channel 4, 9pm) is here to suggest that the last three decades have also given us some romantic comedies that can be held up as classics. Of course, in the wrong hands, romantic comedy can be a formulaic genre in which behaviour that would land you with a restraining order in real life somehow manages to win the man or woman of your dreams. But when it’s done well, the romcom can make us laugh and cry at the same time. Julie Walters provides the narration, as this programmes goes behind the scenes of some of our favourite films to find out just how they managed to get it right. Among those offering their expert opinions are writer and Love Actually director Richard Curtis, who talks about his dilemma when it came to casting the lead in Four Weddings and a Funeral. The man himself, Hugh Grant, is also on hand to declare his own love for his Bridget Jones’s Diary co-star and onscreen wrestling partner Colin Firth, while the film’s producer James Cavendish explains how the Texan Renée Zellweger came to embody the film’s very British heroine. We’re also reminded that the Brits aren’t the only nation to have challenged the US for romcom supremacy, as PJ Hogan reveals how he brought his own Australian sensibility to the Julia Roberts’s vehicle My Best Friend’s Wedding, one of the few rom-coms to leave us thinking that maybe the heroine really shouldn’t get her man. The show even gets a little arty, as it takes a look at the French film Amélie – and director JeanPierre Jeunet explains why his previous work on Alien Resurrection actually helped when it came to creating a love story.