Screening Journal of The Philadelphia Story
There is a great garden with some trees and colorful neat flowers in the Lord family mansion. When holding a party or the wedding, the courtyard is so big that can contain many people with tables and chairs. This turf must be cut regularly which represents how wealthy the family is. The mansion contains many big rooms and which room has a lot of fancy furniture, carpets, curtains, lamps, fireplaces, beautiful white windows and rare decorations like sculptures, ceramics, books and very attractive wall decoration paintings on the cabinet ornament that also represents wealth.
Introduced by dialogues and different appearances of characters. The screen time on each main character is also important.
We quickly learn about them visually by:
①Carey Grant: He's likable, flawless and well- handled. He as the rich, charming bachelor trying to get his ex-wife back. He has tremendous silent strength when he appears on the screen.
②Katherine Hepbum: Very good, beautiful, charming, and completely hilarious. She as the upper-class debutant who plays all of the men in her life as if she has no soul. She plays Tracy Lord with elegance and gives her character a sarcastic touch that makes her the more lovable. Tracy Lord is adamant but undergoes a change of heart, beautifully portrayed by her. She set the bar high as she plays the role with elegance, smarts and humor. Tracy is a fiercely independent woman with her own opinion and she embodies her from the length of her perfect posture to the confident stride of her walk. She is also cold, arrogant divorced heiress but deliciously shrewd. She is perfectly cast, and the actress comes off to the audience exactly as her character does to the other characters: brassy at first, but eventually charming and irresistible.
③James Stewart: He has fun playing slightly naive and hopelessly romantic with a seemingly effortless charm, and nobody has ever played drunk better than him. He is a quick-witted and down-to-earth reporter who becomes smitten with Tracy.
④Ruth Hussey is the perfect sidekick for James Stewart, and does something similar but a little more dry, yet with deep emotion underpinning it. She makes something of her role as Stewart's photographer friend. She plays a photographer who also happens to be Connor's love interest. Her simplistic wittiness blends well. She prattled sarcastically to C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) about their previous acquaintance ending up disposing her camera off the ocean.
In order to show the difference of the actors’ characters. Enrich the connotation of the film.
①Carey Grant: Always wears a windbreak with a shirt to stand out his appearance.
②Katherine Hepburn: Sometimes wears a formal dress, but wears an informal dress in private occasion, including checked dress and shinning dress. And a swimming suit and wedding dress for one time depends on the development of the plot. It can reveal how wealthy she is.
③Jimmy Stewart: Always wears a suit, but wears a pajama one time in private occasion. It can reveal his career.
The main themes in my opinion are:
①It is a wonderful film, highly entertaining. It deals with themes rarely seen in films of the time, such as female emancipation – divorce and re-marriage. It also exposes the industry of gossip, something that has grown to unfathomed levels since the film was released.
②What makes relationships work or fail? / Why do people who are right for each other separate?
③The changing modern world (the ease of divorce, woman's independence) and its effect on relationships and family.
④How people need to understand weakness if they are to relate to others.
⑤Not judging a book by its cover – or a person by their job or social standing.
Full of fast-talking highbrow humor, the material is unquestionably aimed at an upper-class audience, but not only in terms of taste, but also thematically. Created during the latter half of the Great Depression, "Philadelphia Story" makes the statement that class is insignificant, that it's a non-existent social framework that purports itself as an indication of character. We obsess over class, something that couldn't have been more true during the depression, and it's a theme all the more impressive considering the film's popularity and story of celebrity gossip and intrigue.
I'd agree with what Stewart once said: that the statuette was "deferred payment" for losing out in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," an undeniably superior role. Hepburn should have seen the glory for this film for her magnetizing and moving performance. Whether her distinct and powerful voice or her variety of facial expressions, she's got us tied on a string and she just plays with us throughout the ups and downs of her character. Tracy is not unlike Hepburn herself as a major public figure that feels worshipped more than truly loved or appreciated.
Stewart and Grant, however, deserve their due. Stewart pilots the best scene of the film when he pays a drunken visit to C.K.'s place late at night. Grant works his charms in a more subdued way as C.K. is more the subtle mastermind than the flashy performer of his schemes. Also worthy of mention is the dry and snide humor of Hussey's character. She adds a really nice touch to the cast and keeps it balanced.
Although a bit sharper, more sophisticated and dialogue-heavy than most romantic comedies, "Philadelphia Story" is still a classic and it makes its class argument through those weaknesses in ways, making it a terrific film.
