.seo-fallback{max-width:46rem;margin:0 auto;padding:2.5rem 1.25rem 4rem; font:16px/1.6 Inter,system-ui,sans-serif;color:#EDE9F5;background:#0E0A1B} .seo-fallback a{color:#FFCA3A} .seo-fallback h1{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1.2;margin:.5rem 0 1rem} .seo-fallback h2{font-size:1.05rem;margin:2rem 0 .5rem;color:#9C93B8; text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.08em} .seo-fallback ul{padding-left:1.1rem;margin:.5rem 0} .seo-fallback li{margin:.3rem 0} .seo-fallback .seo-meta{color:#9C93B8;font-size:.9rem} .seo-fallback .seo-note{margin-top:2.5rem;color:#9C93B8;font-size:.85rem; border-top:1px solid #2A2340;padding-top:1rem}

FilmSkool — a free film school

When Harry Met Sally — Breaking Genre Conventions

A close reading of how When Harry Met Sally uses the conventions of the romantic comedy and then inverts them, and why the inversion is what makes the film feel unlike the genre it belongs to. Lessons from the Screenplay's method at its most legible.

Lessons from the Screenplay · 9 min · Intermediate · THY · Film Theory · 2017

What you take away

You cannot subvert a convention the audience has not been made to expect — the setup of the cliché is what pays for breaking it.

Watch it

Filed under

More Film Theory

Joel & Ethan Coen - Shot | Reverse Shot — Every Frame a Painting · 5m · Intermediate
How Does an Editor Think and Feel? — Every Frame a Painting · 6m · Intermediate
The Invisible Horror of The Shining — kaptainkristian · 18m · Advanced
The Marvel Symphonic Universe — Every Frame a Painting · 8m · Intermediate
How Studio Ghibli Makes Animation Feel Alive — kaptainkristian · 20m · Intermediate
Guillermo del Toro - Monsters and Magic — kaptainkristian · 19m · Intermediate
Lee Unkrich on the Two Versions of THE SHINING | THE COMPLETE KUBRICK — CRITERION · 11m · Advanced
The Sustained Two-Shot — Every Frame a Painting · 5m · Intermediate
In the Mood For Love: Crash Course Film Criticism #5 — CrashCourse · 11m · Intermediate
What Would Billy Wilder Do? — Every Frame a Painting · 6m · Beginner
Why Do Wes Anderson Movies Look Like That? — Thomas Flight · 15m · Beginner
Citizen Kane: Crash Course Film Criticism #1 — CrashCourse · 11m · Beginner

This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.