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Passionate Love in Early Hollywood Romantic Dramas

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Passionate Love and Popular Cinema

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Abstract

One of the first moving images, a Thomas A. Edison Inc. short entitled, The May Irwin Kiss (Thomas A. Edison Inc. 1896),1 illustrates that right from its beginning, cinema had a fascination with romantic affection. At under a minute long, this brief but passionate display was soon adopted by narrative cinema. Early American filmmakers that chose to expand upon May Irwin and James Rice’s show of affection in order to present a passionate love story employed many visual and thematic conventions that would be amplified and adapted to become staples of the Hollywood romantic drama genre.

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Notes

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  1. Erica Todd
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© 2014 Erica Todd

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Todd, E. (2014). Passionate Love in Early Hollywood Romantic Dramas. In: Passionate Love and Popular Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295385_3

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