Screwball comedies at the American Center! Bringing Up Baby is a famous 1938 American screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film tells the story of a paleontologist in a number of predicaments involving a scatterbrained woman and a leopard named Baby.
The screenplay was adapted by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde from a short story by Wilde which originally appeared in Collier’s Weekly magazine on April 10, 1937. The script was written specifically for Hepburn, and was tailored to her personality.
The film will be introduced by film critic Iva Hejlíčková.
In English, with English subtitles, IMDB rating: 8.1, 102 mins.
Screwball comedies were launched in the U.S. in mid-1930s, and established their place after the advent of film sound and the social disturbances of the Great Depression. Many secondary characteristics of this genre are similar to the film noir, but it distinguishes itself for being characterized by a female that dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged. The two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes, which was a new theme for Hollywood and audiences at the time. Other elements are fast-pace repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage. Screwball comedies often depict social classes in conflict, as in It Happened One Night.
