20 years ago, before retro sex comediesdown with love” was released in American theaters, raising expectations. At the 2nd annual Tribeca Film Festival, the film was selected as a spectacular opening night selection. A cheeky promo for the two stars, his image was all over the place.Ewan McGregor was riding high after ‘Moulin Rouge’ one-two punch (2001) and “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” (2002).
Then the movie flopped.
Down With Love, directed by Peyton Reed and written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake Most major streaming platforms) is nothing like the rom-coms of the time. “Pillow Talk” (1959) and “The Lover Comes Back” (1961), a cheeky battle between the sexes starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Roger Ebert New comedy accepted, but many Critics shrugged at what they saw as a fluffy homage to something far superior.
The US audience never showed up, proving that the old bedroom meant little to the average 21st century audience. ended with By contrast, “How to Lose a Man in 10 Days” was another rom-com released that year, which took in $105 million. “Something’s Gotta Give” is his $124 million.
In 2003, the golden age of romantic comedies was in flux. Heavy titles from the last decade, some directed by Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail), others directed by Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Notting Hill), Injecting a balance of realism and fantasy, modern sensibility and gloriously messy women into a cheesy happy formula. These caused the studio to hit the pay dirt and (as usual) they responded and increased their output.
“We always knew this was going to be a bit of a marketing challenge,” Reed said in a video interview about “Down With Love.” He adds: So we embraced that difference with a signature set and built-in artificiality. ”
Prior to Down With Love, Reed directed the cheerleading competition comedy Bring It On. This was his playfully composed sleeper hit. The routine features Busby’s Berkley his style of choreography, and one of his sequences involving a pill-swallowing dance with his instructor is Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz.” It’s no wonder that when Reid stumbled upon Alert and Drake’s script, he was immediately drawn to its old-time spirit and visual idiosyncrasies. , I liked the idea of a very stylized comedy, where the wardrobe shapes the humor,” he said.
“Down With Love” takes beats from Hudson Day comedies, but goes back to dozens of movie treats from that era. Like Natalie Wood in Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Zellweger’s Barbara Novak urges women to treat sex as casually as men and forget about rings. I write world bestsellers. McGregor’s catcher block — the “James Bond of male journalism” — enjoys a schedule of booty calls. He makes a dashing first appearance in Chopper, descending straight from the latest champagne-fueled all-nighter to Know magazine headquarters. His manly men are endangered by Novak’s papers, so disguised as a disrespectful astronaut from Texas, he courts his enemies to prove her feminism is at the fore. Fuel the hits you make.
The film is set in the ’60s and features Novak and her chainsmoking agent and best friend Vicky (Sarah Paulson) on “Sex and the City.” Oh the clothes are great. It’s a glamorous parade of kitten heels and quirky hats, fringed her dresses, and fur-trimmed silk robes. Barbara, Catcher, Vicky, and Catcher’s love-stricken editor Peter (David Hyde Pierce) give the women an edge through a series of switchers and naughty plot reversals in a speedy clip of the film itself. The film’s sexually innuendoed banter and frenzied color scheme seem to recall Austin Powers films, but well, this is more of a graceful and hilarious femininity than those crude parodies. I have.
“Down With Love” is Todd Haynes’s ode to Douglas Sirk’s Technicolor melodrama, following in the footsteps of “Far From Heaven” (2002), another old Hollywood-new fusion. Before “Mad Men” hit his 2007 TV run, “Down With Love” and “Far From Heaven” were both lush, questioning American culture’s sentimental relationship to the past. It adopted a nostalgic aesthetic. Haynes’ films were justifiably praised. As we know, “Down With Love” was not. Like another misunderstood and quickly derided rom-com of the year, Joel and Ethan Coen’s “unbearable cruelty” — a Hepburn Tracy-esque screwball revenge drama — whose style It fundamentally broke the mold of a genre loved for sex.
Reed’s tribute to Bubblegum is all snappy wordplay and tongue-in-cheek jabs, but there’s also an extravagant pretense to it all, calling attention to its imaginary trappings. Rear-projections of the Manhattan skyline, split-screen phones reflecting sex acts, and routine breaks in the fourth wall give this film the feel of a pop product that understands its own game and throws it into a state of surrealism. give.
Mischievously self-aware, this book points to a game of intrigue and flirtation that we all have so much fun playing with despite the gimmicks underpinning modern romance, the false and potentially regressive underpinnings. The film makes fun of retrograde ideas about sex and sexuality. Peter, for example, is repeatedly ridiculed for being essentially a softie who wants to be a stay-at-home mom and a closed-in gay man. He’s not, but the gag is that everyone around him can’t understand a guy who doesn’t fit the role he’s supposed to play.
“It would be really hard to make this now. Rom-coms are supposed to be cheap, but this one had a high production value — $35 million? Studios can no longer make these movies in that price range.” No,” Reed added.
Admittedly, the screwball spirit is in short supply these days. The lifeless “Ticket to Paradise” fails to revive the punchy him-her dynamic of her romantic comedy past, and at least her first half hour is Lindsay Lohan’s ride “Falling for Christmas” takes on a gaudy fake style. and the deliciously silly plot of a fizzy farce from the ’30s before it descends into boring morality.
No wonder “Down With Love” has become something of a cult item. Its meta-referential appeal may be more evident to a younger, queer generation who better understand the nature of sex and romantic courtship role-playing. I remember seeing this film played silently in a Washington, DC bar-turned-dance club.
The film derides, but is transported with eye-pleasing visuals and shy performances that require a pause of reason to play sex, get sucked into a rom-com, or fall in love. It reminds me that it is
