Dear List-members, I am to write about "unlikely couples" and I would appreciate it if I could exchange some ideas about this. With "unlikely couples" I refer to films such as "King Kong", where there is a relationship between a monkey and a girl or "pretty woman", where you have an affair between a businessman and a prostitute. Which films could be the most logic choices to represent this ? Could you say that "unlikely couples" can be considered as a "genre" ? Why or why not? Are there other references fdor this not so traditional "genre"? Doesn't it work too much which stereotypes ? Would you say that there is a link between "unlikely couples" and fundamental social, philosophic and political critiques? If you watch this type of films, would you feel the viewer tends to identify with the characters (as stated in Laura Mulvey's "Narrative Cinema and Visual Pleasure") or rather that this type of popular film leads to subject subordiantion (as stated by the Frankfurter Schule) ? (or are there other possible reactions as stated in other academic literature) ? Does this genre lead to destabilization in a society where realism is more valued than love ? Or does it simply confirm the fact that in a way there is always a connection to long-term relationships in which everybody is supposed to get involved? Thank you for all your help!!! Leona Geudens Ph.D. student social studies/ film Free University Brussels - Belgium e-mail: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu