Olimpia Zagnoli This week in The New York Times Book Review, Jdith Newman reviews “I Do and I Don’t,†Jeanine Basinger’s new book about the history of marriage in the movies. Ms. Newman writes:
Romance movies may demand chemistry, but movies about marriage demand something more difficult to create â€" a sense that a couple are simpatico, that however much they may bicker and snipe, their deep understanding and feeling for each other will ultimately keep them together. Beloved movie couples like Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, for example, generate more light than heat: in films like “That Forsyte Woman†and “Madame Curie,†they convince us that whatever their problems or station in life, they have each other’s backs. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy worked so well as a married couple not just because they were known to be an off-screen pair, but because, as Basinger explains, they “generated a sense of incompatibility, ! competition, class difference and underlying tension.†Beyond attraction, there was respect: each saw the other as the most interesting person in the room.
On this week’s podcast, Ms. Basinger discusses marriage in the movies; Leslie Kaufman has notes from the field; Charles McGrath talks about the letters of P. G. Wodehouse; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
