Love Across the Atlantic
Roehampton’s very own film lecturer Deborah Jermyn brings ‘Love Across the Atlantic’, a conference looking at conversations on transatlantic relationships, to Southlands campus.
In conjunction with Catherine Roach from the University of Alabama, the conference brought together intellects and cinema fanatics from Europe and America to look at the representations of colonial love in cinema, television and literature. The conference built upon a conversation discussing various ideologies that tie into transatlantic relationships; looking at gender, social class and politics and how these relationships are evident in modern society. A paparazzi picture of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Teresa May was projected onto the screen during the welcoming talk…
Numerous amounts of films, texts and relationships were mentioned throughout the day, so here are four that stood out and have made a difference:
Catastrophe — TV series (2015 — )
Sharon (Sharon Horgan), who is originally from Ireland hooks up with American lad Rob (Rob Delaney) in London on a business trip and finds herself pregnant. Rob decides to move to London from Boston to try and make this new relationship work. The attraction of this show is the chemistry between the two leads and the black comedy that bounces between them. Sharon and Rob depict a romance that is honest and raw as well as funny. The humour is strongly based on their cultural difference and the hilarious bickering that they continuously endure. London acts as its own character that can be seen as problematic at times. In one episode, Rob is wanting to move back to Boston with Sharon, she finds this funny and says: “once you graduate to London, you don’t progress to Boston, what’s even there?” completely dismissing Rob’s need to move back home. Dr. Frances Smith, lecturer at University College London and a keynote speaker at the conference said: “London is figured as a global city [in Catastrophe] that provides a requisite transformative space in which romance might flourish.” Sharon and Rob use London as a base to unravel their transatlantic romance. Their situation isn’t ideal but this is where the humour is placed so effectively which gives the show such a positive response from audiences.
Her — Movie (2013)
What does love look like in the ultimate digital age? Well, apparently like this…
Writer and introvert Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with a high-tech operating system which is designed to meet his every need; she sets him up on dates, comforts him and structures his day. Her doesn’t necessarily depict a relationship brought together by the Atlantic but definitely a very intimate bond between two souls from different ‘worlds’, one being the world that we know, another a conciseness inside a computer. Scarlett Johansson is the sexy voice of Samantha which comforts and entertains Theodore who is very much lost and unsure about the direction he wants to take with his life. He doesn’t seem to have developed any bonds as strong as the one with his computer and doesn’t have any drive to do so. Both of them yearn to be with each other in a human way and this is when the narrative shifts. Samantha suggests that they find a “surrogate” on the web, a woman willing to have sex with Theodore on behalf of her, who will have devices attached to her body so that Samantha can experience the love making as intimately as possible. Unsurprisingly, Theodore and Samantha’s relationship begins to head south, the distance between them is too far to overcome no matter the strength of their desires for each other.
Notting Hill — Movie (1999)
Transatlantic relationships often fall into the rom-com territory within cinema or television and Notting Hill is a classic example of this. Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) is a beautiful actress detached from the normality of human happiness because of her stardom, William Thacker (Hugh Grant) is the owner of a small book store in London, he’s had no luck with love so far…and then all of a sudden enters one of the most famous actresses in Hollywood. Similarly to Catastrophe and Her, the film is full of wit and clever dialogue, especially between the two protagonists and humour allows them to establish their differences as well as similarities. Being divided by the Atlantic ocean is difficult enough but Anna and Williams biggest challenge is the wedge between their social status. In one rememberable scene, Anna’s husband, played by Alec Baldwin, mistakes William as their hotel butler — it’s painfully embarrassing for both Anna and William, as well as the viewer.
Notting Hill is praised for its slick cinematography of London but we are never given a glimpse of the other side of the pond, however, we can assume what Anna’s home looks like and this is where the entertaining dynamics fester. When Anna unexpectedly turns up at Williams messy house, he frantically starts tidying, panicking and hiding all the rubbish that his grubby roommate Spike (Rhys Ifans) has made. In front of Anna, Spike says: “just going to the kitchen to get some food, then I’m going to tell you a story that will make your balls shrink to the size of raisins”. He’s grim and inappropriate but a great source for laughter when paralleled with a sweet American dame like Anna.
Burton and Taylor — BBC TV movie (2013)
“After all these years they’re still interested, you’d think they’d tire” says actor Dominic West as Richard Burton in Burton and Taylor. Both West and Helen Bonham Carter successfully depict a transatlantic hot mess of a Hollywood couple that the paps and public are eager to sink their teeth into over and over again. The BBC TV movie focuses on a period of the acting duo’s lives after their second divorce; the preparation for a theatrical production of the play “Private Lives”. There’s a clear magnetic and emotional pull between the violet-eyed American beauty and Britains charming man, even after all the years of drama; divorce, remarried and divorced again. The play ends up bringing a full house into the theatre but the audience doesn't seem to be interested in the show. They gawk at Burton and Taylor like they’re animals in a zoo curious to see how the pair work together, by no doubt drawing similarities or contrasts to their first on screen performance together for the iconic 1963 Cleopatra. Noel Coward’s play was just as turbulent as their relationship. Elizabeth Taylor had a drinking and drug issue during the production and failed to turn up to one of the shows. Although the couple never got back together, their obsession with each other continued and so did the publics; making the duo one of the most iconic Hollywood transatlantic romances to ever exist.
Plenty of other films, television programmes and books were discussed during ‘Love Across the Atlantic’. These were four which fascinated the conference as well as the audience because of the depth of the transatlantic relationships within the narrative. Roehampton’s Deborah Jermyn and Alabama’s Catherine Roach created a platform for some compelling discussions regarding those relationships that are made regardless of the deep blue sea between them. You can take a lot at Deborah’s brand new book here.
