Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies) [Paperback]

Stanley Cavell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 067473906X | ISBN-13: 978-0674739062 | Publication Date: January 15, 1984 | Edition: Seventh Printing

During the 30's and 40's, Hollywood produced a genre of madcap comedies that emphasized reuniting the central couple after divorce or separation. And the female protagonists were strong, independent, and sophisticated. Here, Stanley Cavell examines seven of those classic movies for their cinematic techniques, and for such varies themes as feminism, liberty and interdependence. Included are "Adam's Rib," "Bringing Up Baby," and "The Philadelphia Story."

Editorial Reviews

Review

No book about the art of Hollywood I have ever read can make its readers stop and think more effectively than this one.
--S. S. Prawer (Times Literary Supplement )

This is a voice like no other in philosophy, today or ever.
--Arthur C. Danto (October )

The great achievement of...Pursuits of Happiness is that it finally provides a solid framework for the serious discussion of the great dialogue comedies of the thirties and forties, perhaps the most revived and loved movies of Hollywood's golden period.
--Al LaValley (American Film )

This just must be, in its close readings and its stunning associations, one of the most compelling accounts of its kind. The fact is, it just is its kind.
--Geoffrey Hawthorn (London Review of Books )

Stanley Cavell's book succeeds brilliantly...The individual 'readings' of the films and the general conceptual plan in which they are embedded are both so rich and rewarding that...'brilliant'...seems an understatement.
--Gerald Mast (Journal of Aesthetic Education )

About the Author

Stanley Cavell is Walter M. Cabot Professor, Emeritus, of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value, Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; Seventh Printing edition (January 15, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067473906X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674739062
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A critical appreciation of film's greatest romantic comedies, May 17, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies) (Paperback)

Cavell identifies the "comedies of remarriage," those romantic comedies and comic romances that lit the screens and the hearts of the audiences of the 1930's and 40's. With the mind of a philosopher and scholar and the passionate appreciation of a true fan, he examines classic romantic comedies (and comic romances), including "The Lady Eve," "The Awful Truth," and "The Philadelphia Story." In a classical context (he compares the role of the woods in Shakespeare to the role of Connecticut in "Bringing Up Baby") he manages to illuminate the films without disturbing the gossamer that holds them together. The best that can be said is that he does justice to these lovely films, and makes us understand how smart we were to adore them

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for lovers of classical American movies., December 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies) (Paperback)

The goal of this book is to show that the classic American film comedies of the 30's and 40's are worthy of the best criticism. The author succeeds. If you love movies, and want to think about them seriously, this is your book. The films in it star Hepburn, Grant, Tracy, Gable, Stanwyck. This is a sophisticated book for a sophisticated film audience. The author is one of America's leading philosophers. Cavell brings his knowledge of concepts of friendship, conversation, gender, parenting, sexuality, fun, and adventure to bear on each of the romantic comedies he discusses. The genre explored here continues in GROUNDHOG DAY, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, ALL OF ME, JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO. This book is serious, and well worth it. It explores everything important to every romantic relationship. I highly recommend it to everyone.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joyous, brilliant, unique work of film criticism, May 6, 2010

By 

George Sullivan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage (Harvard Film Studies) (Paperback)

This is an extraordinary book, with an extraordinary personality. Its subject is the Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, and it is first and foremost a serious work of film criticism, full of literary insight and philosophical speculation (the author is a well-known Harvard philosophy professor, now retired). But it is also full of fun. Laughter lurks everywhere, bubbling continually beneath the surface of the discourse, and Cavell's love of the films (and, not incidentally, his love of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy and Rosalind Russell and Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert) is all but palpable. The result is a marriage of the serious and the playful that is, in my opinion, unique -- I know of no other work of literary or film criticism that so joyously celebrates its subject. In the years since the book was originally published in 1981, Cavell's phrase "comedy of remarriage" -- signifying a romance in which a made-for-each-other couple becomes estranged and then finds their way back to a deeper understanding of both themselves and their relationship -- has become standard filmcrit terminology. That's as it should be, because Cavell makes a brilliant case for his thesis, all the time (in a phrase from Emerson that serves as the book's epigraph) carrying the holiday in his eye. Bravo.