Analysis Of The Success Of Richard Curtis’s Romantic Comedy Films

Among the most representative sub-genres of British comedy film,British romantic comedy that developed and thrived in the 1990s constitutes an important strand.Richard Curtis,contemporary Britain’s renowned comedy screenwriter and director,helps define a new style of British middle-class romantic comedies.As the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award winner,Curtis has enchanted audiences from all over the world with feature rom-com films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral(1994),Love Actually(2003),and About Time(2013).Previous scholars mainly probe into Richard Curtis’s works from different but single-aspect perspectives without a systematic and updated analysis supported by much film theory.Considering Curtis’s remarkable achievement and the widespread impact of his works,the thesis sets out to employ the genre and auteur theories to investigate the reasons behind the worldwide success of Curtis’s romantic comedies,thereby providing valuable references for Chinese filmmakers in this era.Through textual and contextual analysis,and industrial study,this dissertation argues that Richard Curtis’s films combine artistic excellence and commercial appeal,British elements and global factors.At an artistic level,Curtis inherits and innovates the romantic comedy genre traditionally dominated by Hollywood,endowing his films with both British and global appeal.For film themes,his films’ exploration of true love from different layers,challenge to gender stereotypes and prejudice,discussion on the US-UK Special Relationship,depiction of British cultural heritage nostalgia and the urban fairy-tale world help construct and promote a both "old and modern" British national image.For film styles,the vivid depiction of protagonists as British new gentlemen,varying narrative structures,ubiquitous British humor in actors’ lines,romantic but realistic visual style have also contributed to Curtis’s films’artistic uniqueness.At a business level,along with British government’s industrial support,Curtis’s films’ mature business operation,including international production,exhibition and promotion and employment of stardom,helps establish Curtis’s and even British rom-com as a distinctive film genre favoured by audiences both at home and abroad.