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From Issue 7, November 2002: Madly In Love David Russell on Romantic Comedy and Neurosis ‘Character
is from the point of view of the psychoanalyst a sort of abnormality, a kind of
mechanization of a particular way of reaction, rather similar to an obsessional
symptom… Character traits are secret psychoses…’ The romantic comedy depicts the hilarious-perilous adventure of chancing upon a soul mate, eventually recognising him or her as the right partner for life (usually after a series of initial misunderstandings and occasionally even mutual dislike) and finally succeeding, despite mishaps, miscarriages and misadventures, in becoming a couple. As such the romantic comedy is a love story with a happy ending, usually marriage or a similar symbolic pledge of mutually committed devotion. Comedy, however, always introduces levels of madness. The comedic element of romantic comedy derives from the genre's roots in screwball, where there is a warring between the sexes and a general ambience of insanity. Mad things happen, get performed and said. Characters are full of quirks and obsessions and exist in an environment which is almost animistic in its capacity to generate situations full of frustration, meaningful coincidence and accident at levels commensurate with an attack of advanced paranoia or psychosis (e.g. Groundhog Day). In the romantic comedy the true source of this insanity, as it is in the screwball comedies of Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, Monkey Business and His Girl Friday), is the anarchic potential of sexual desire, suppressed (out of necessity, or a concern for propriety, as in the screwball) or, in its modern form, inescapably 'out there' (as Harry or Sally might say), like the genie released from the bottle. We are dealing, in short, with love, sexual desire and courtship as a kind of madness, with the characters who are engaged in its rituals and pursuits touched by forms of madness. Borrowing Sandor Ferenczi's psychoanalytical insight in the quotation above therefore, we might say that each main character in romantic comedy is potentially definable in terms of an obsessional symptom, and exhibits behaviour which could be termed psychotic, or at the very least neurotic. The use of a term such as 'psychotic' is not meant in a strictly clinical sense, where such an illness would, of course, render the character entirely dysfunctional and incoherent to an audience. In its milder, fictional manifestation, psychosis in the romantic comedy translates as a form of 'zaniness', a madcap quality which produces eccentricity, but is socially and culturally acceptable, does not disable the character's ability to exist in the everyday world and, more importantly, like the affective madness produced by the magical potion applied to the lovers' eyes in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, is temporary and 'curable' (even though in that play the contrived happy ending is only made possible by not curing one of the young Athenian lovers, Demetrius). Despite this caveat, however, it is striking how frequently clinical forms of psychological disorder feature in the modern romantic comedy: Melvin's obsessive compulsive disorder in As Good as it Gets, Alvy's anhedonia (a medico-psychological term for the inability to feel pleasure) in Annie Hall, Juliet Stevenson's character's depression in Truly, Madly Deeply. Moreover clinical psychosis itself does appear in the genre (the psychopathic serial killer in There's Something About Mary), whilst in the romantic comedy/crime caper hybrid, A Fish Called Wanda, Otto may or may not be stupid; but he is certainly psychotic – and, as such, the film's key source of narrative energy. The gradations of madness in plot, character and style in the romantic comedy vary considerably from example to example. In Annie Hall (originally entitled 'Anhedonia' by Allen, making explicit the link with psychological disorder), Alvy is entirely neurotic while Annie is distinctly oddball, albeit, in contrast to Alvy, in a 'curable' form - in a reversal of the evolution of psychoanalysis, it is not mad women, but mad men who dominate as 'analysands'; mad women are comparatively scarce in romantic comedy, unlike their screwball counterparts). In addition the plot of Annie Hall, with its jazz-like forwards and backwards movements, its improvisations, sudden digressions and unpredictable slippages in and out of reality (via cartoons, split-screens and addresses to-camera) could be termed structurally (and aesthetically) psychotic. (This tendency towards psychotic plot structure is especially common in modern romantic comedies, which show a marked preference for surrealism: e.g. Splash, There's Something About Mary and Bridget Jones's Diary. A key influence here is probably the contemporary TV sitcom, with its tendency towards storyline absurdities and a multiplicity of striking visual gags at the expense of realistically derived plots and deep character motivation and development. However Woody Allen's contribution as a master-producer of modern psychotic plots (especially in the early 'zany', gag-driven comedies of Take the Money and Run, Bananas and Sleeper) must also be considered as seminal). Frequently the source of the psychosis in modern romantic comedies (and TV sitcoms) is ostensibly locatable in the exterior world (i.e 'it's a crazy world out there'), with the central character being relatively normal and sane, and merely forced into mad behaviour by the absurd things the world throws at them (There's Something About Mary, Frasier (a psychoanalytically inspired sitcom)). But this is simply projection: the world is actually merely a stage upon which the character's psychotic potential enacts itself. In Groundhog Day Punxsutawney is a relatively 'normal' town; however Bill Murray's Phil Connors (a prima donna who also sees himself as primum mobile) defines all normality in relation to himself (a typical psychotic act), placing himself in conflict with the town, its citizens and the local weather conditions, which he seeks to defy, and, in so doing, unconsciously 'demonizes' his immediate environment, thereby creating the conditions for his potential for madness to unleash itself. The film strongly suggests that Phil's psyche has manufactured the time-blip in Punxsutawney in order to be able to 'work through' his identity problems and psychotic delusions (in one version of his existence he imagines himself as God, something which has already been foreshadowed by his earlier belief that he can dictate to the weather and turn back the snowstorm which envelops the town and its vicinity). (It is perhaps interesting to note that in Harold Ramis's original screenplay the cause for Phil's sufferings in Punxsutawney is depicted as external: i.e. a magical curse laid upon him by a disaffected ex-girlfriend (Stephanie Decastro (!) – described as 'not quite Fatal Attraction but still a little scary'). In removing the castrating witch-bitch Stephanie, the final filmed version of Groundhog Day ensures that the responsibility for the bizarre sequence of events in which Phil becomes entrapped now lies internally within Phil himself.) Something similar occurs in Truly, Madly, Deeply, in which Juliet Stevenson's character becomes lost in psychosis whenever she is in her house, imagining it to be filled with the spirit of her dead husband. Again this is clearly a fantasy projection (similar to that of Lucy Muir in The Ghost and Mrs Muir) which her unconscious has designed in order to enable her to work through the psychological trauma, diagnosed by her psychiatrist as a depression, which followed her husband's death. As in Groundhog Day the main character's projected psychosis contains its own cure; it is madness at the service of love therapy (as intimated by the film's title, Truly, Madly, Deeply). In Pretty Woman, on the other hand, in box-office terms the most successful romantic comedy of all-time (taking inflation into account), there is a relative absence of character anxiety. The plot, whilst foolish, contains no madness (and consequently few comic moments). Pretty Woman may be considered as a straight romance, albeit of fairytale design; the film's style and tone tends to the serious (paradoxically returning to the intention of the original screenwriter, who designed the tale as a seedy thriller featuring a black hooker) and its emphasis is firmly on repeatedly representing the couple's compatibility rather than on the comedy of their gender-based fallacies and the sexual and temperamental misconnections and misunderstandings involved in their relationship to each other. In Hannah and her Sisters, while Woody Allen's Mickey is, predictably, hyper-obsessional, his double, Michael Caine's Elliot, is touched only by a temporary love madness which exhibits its symptoms purely internally (the voices in his head expressed in his voice-over) and not in any demonstrably bizarre behaviour (although he is noticeably nervy and given to clumsiness and stuttering before Hannah's sister, Lee). As noted previously the women in the romantic comedy genre are generally less 'crazy' than the men (even in the surreal Splash Darryl Hannah's mermaid is innocent of any compulsive disorders, while Tom Hanks's fruit- seller, his brother and the mermaid-hunter constantly obsess and worry over their lives and actions; in There's Something About Mary, Mary stands out as the only character without any psychological problems; in Groundhog Day Andy MacDowell's character remains in a state of blithe and, for the most part, aloof tranquillity, whilst Bill Murray's character endures an episode of total psychosis which includes several attempted suicides). In Hannah and Her Sisters as well there is little evidence of psychotic or neurotic female behaviour or character-traits. One can only speculate on the reasons for this: the most compelling of which is perhaps that a zany female is today culturally perceived as unsexy. In the contemporary film industry the desirability (and bankability) of a screen actress is generally directly related to glamorous physical attributes, and a tendency to zaniness seriously detracts from appreciation of these. There are no female performances in the contemporary romantic comedy to equate to that of Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth or Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (although even this film was not a box-office success in its day). Today it is Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Meg Ryan who tend to be the choices for main female leads in the genre, and, although Ryan's characters have their idiosyncrasies, none of these actresses can be said to have a screen persona which contains a significant admixture of craziness (unlike, say, early Barbra Streisand or Goldie Hawn). Where contemporary actresses do include zaniness in their performances (Uma Thurman in The Truth About Cats and Dogs), they exude little sex appeal, and their role in the film tends more towards screwball than romance. Zaniness is arguably considered to be an unfeminine quality (equivalent perhaps to Katherine's 'cursed' nature in Shakespeare's Taming of The Shrew). In a man, on the other hand, zaniness is often perceived as interesting; a good sense of humour, a ready line in wit and sarcasm and the courage to act out impulses and fantasies often enhances a man's desirability by suggesting sensitivity, boldness, strength of will and intelligence, and, in the cases of Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Ben Stiller and Bill Murray, compensates more than adequately for a lack of suaveness or dominating physical presence. A possible exception in Hannah and Her Sisters is Holly, who is quirky and slightly trapped in her 'little-sisterly' relationship to Hannah. Initially under-confident, Holly has similarities to Annie in Annie Hall, who also gains in confidence as the film progresses, although Holly is depicted as stronger-willed than Annie, and less oddball. There is also the mother of the three sisters, who is an alcoholic and evidently suffers from mood swings; but these are depicted realistically rather than comically, as are Hannah's anxieties about the burden of her 'big-sisterly' responsibilities, her husband's coolness towards her and the unpleasant statements made about her in Holly's novel. In other words Hannah and Her Sisters represents an unusual synthesis of the comedic and the dramatically realistic; indeed if Mickey were to be removed from the storyline it is questionable whether the film would still qualify as a romantic comedy. In 'grown-up' romantic comedies (such as When Harry Met Sally, As Good As it Gets and, to a lesser extent, Four Weddings and A Funeral) the comedic obsessionality is toned down once it has been established in order to allow the romantic to emerge as the film's dominant key. Thus Harry's stated obsession with death (clearly a direct borrowing from Annie Hall's Alvy) is never again alluded to after his first scene with Sally, and Sally's obsessional 'perfectionism', whilst it may continue after the two early restaurant scenes to be inferable from her smartness of appearance and the tidiness of her apartment, plays a minor role in her characterization and in no wise affects her desirability, or capacity for action. Melvin's obsessive compulsive disorder, so evident in the first ten to fifteen minutes of As Good As it Gets, fades into the background thereafter, periodically resurfacing to establish plot points and effect act transitions and, perhaps, to generate an easy gag when one is required. Certainly it becomes an irrelevant question as to whether he still suffers from the illness at the end of the film (presumably he does; which raises questions about how Carol will cope with the additional serious mothering challenge Melvin will represent on a full-time basis, though his wealth and ability with words will doubtless lighten the burden). In Four Weddings, whilst Hugh Grant's character maintains throughout his quirks of hesitancy and vagueness, as well as (crucially) the psychotic's tendency to 'come out with things' in inappropriate situations (a trait shared by several other characters in the film, notably Rowan Atkinson's trainee priest), he is significantly a great deal more assured and less given to embarrassingly inappropriate statements or actions when he is in the company of Andy MacDowell's character (with whom he spends a night and performs, we are to infer, with considerable expertise and without the slightest hint of hesitancy or ineffectiveness). In these more adult examples (which would also include Hannah and Her Sisters and Manhattan) the plots are not psychotic (though there is a compulsion towards situational repetition in Four Weddings), nor given to lapses into overt surrealism. They tend instead to be carefully crafted, realistic and photographed in a studied, artfully composed and visually lush (i.e. romantic) style. The romantic comedy is a form in which symptoms of obsession and love- madness, 'act out'. As such it is a genre highly suited to the American cinema, which is a cinema of action rather than thought, as well as to American audiences, whose culture is direct, extravert, vociferous and expressive of character and feelings (and which has highly developed medical and recreational psychotherapeutic industries). One is tempted to say, following Normal Mailer (who should know), that American culture is essentially psychotic in character. Richard Curtis's Anglo-American work aside, it seems less easy for European cinema to develop successful romantic comedic traditions, and this must partly be explained by differences between American and European culture. French culture, for example, tends to be significantly more intellectual than American culture, and as a consequence characters and their actions tend to be governed more by thought and logic than by the energy of quirks and obsessions (Amélie may mark a new departure (indeed with films such as Grégoire le Moulin contre l'Humanité (2001) it appears that it already has; but Amélie Poulain does not herself act out; she is shy and her behaviour manifests itself in introspection and a precise, often (painfully) tortuous logic, rather than emotional outburst. It is the film's style which 'acts out' in her stead; its visual exuberance, characterized by unexpected, wonderfully creative, spontaneous and freewheeling comic surrealist sequences, uninhibitedly expresses what Amélie herself cannot, but what her silence is longing to give utterance to. Freud and the surrealists were, of course, the first to draw attention to visual and verbal comedy's key role in enabling the unconscious to speak.) Plots in French comedy relationship films (such as la Lectrice) also tend to be complex, sophisticated and frequently arch, rather than direct or 'psychotic'. In British comedy relationship films (such as Shirley Valentine or Educating Rita) characters are generally still principally defined by class type and community and socio-economic grouping, rather than by the impulses of individual neurosis. (And as a consequence there is a tendency, especially in some C4-funded and BFI subsidized examples, to demonstrate a greater concern with (politically correct) representations of socio, racial and gender-based issues, rather than with explorations of highly personalized and individuated energies.) 'Acting out' in British cinema is often malevolently outer-directed (in, for example, the gangster genre) or crude, silly or intensely embarrassing (in the broad comedy style of, say, The Tall Guy), rather than therapeutic, which is the narrative trajectory of American romantic comedy. CONT. in Issue 7.
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