The Subject of Love, On a Very Cultural Level: Responding to Crises in the Hollywood Romantic Comedy

Abstract

From internal and structural challenges that hinder the production of films to global conflicts that influence the stories they tell, Hollywood cinema has repeatedly proven its resilience and influence within an increasingly globalized world. This paper aims to illustrate responses to crises in the history of Hollywood using the example of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and its remake, You’ve Got Mail (Nora Ephron, 1998). I argue that a genre like the romantic comedy—although primarily associated with lighthearted themes—also reflects crises immediate to the lives of its audiences, whilst coming back to a nostalgic yearning for the “good old days.” In doing so, it not only caters to the needs and wants of its original audience but also serves as a document of its time.