ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters I argue that Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, 1990), while mobilizing a sentimentalized version of the neo-feminist paradigm, offered a narrative format that would prove influential in the subsequent decades in which a striver heroine, as well as romance, female friendship and consumer culture, are important elements. As Marshall remarked in 2000, reflecting on the film’s release, “Back then the general opinion was that no romantic comedy could make it internationally because they only wanted action.”1 Pretty Woman proved the economic viability of the woman’s film within an international arena; however, as the previous chapter argued, the subsequent success of films like Bridget Jones’s Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001) suggested the desirability of producing films with a “want-to-see factor” or “some form of pre-established awareness”2-films that I have called the female-oriented event film. The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, 2006) illustrates this trend: based on a successful novel, it also exploits the tendency exhibited in films like Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (David Mirkin, 1997) and Legally Blonde (Robert Luketic, 2001) to highlight contemporary fashion as “another character in the movie,”3 giving rise to the term “the fashion film,” or “fashion flicks.”4
