Category Archives: Devi’s Discourse

By the late 1940s, romantic comedies began transitioning into a new subgenre, retaining a few of the signature screwball traits but with a definite shift of tenor. Instead of the playful sparring that brought females and males together, the contention between them grew less amicable and, in some cases, downright mean-spirited, gradually driving them further […]

As a filmmaker who has directed documentaries, and an academic who has taught theory classes about them, I watch programs that are labeled “non-fiction” with a wary and critical eye, aware of how audio-visual presentations can manipulate what we see, what we don’t see and how we see or don’t see events and claims presented […]

The term “screwball comedy” is rumored to come from the baseball term “screwball,” describing either an oddball player or any pitched ball that moved in an unusual way—an apt name for a genre that embraces the absurd with zany, free-spirited characters, broad physical comedy and ludicrous events all relayed in a highly farcical nature. Emerging […]