Robert Zemeckis has risen to the forefront of American filmmaking with a string of successes: Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future I, II, & III, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forrest Gump, and Castaway. Herein, Norman Kagan unlocks the mind behind the making of these diverse and groundbreaking hits appraising each work s public and critical appeal while placing the films in the context of Zemeckis s career."

Romance Film is a critical history of significant romance films from Hollywood and abroad. Kagan discusses, among others, Marlene Dietrich in Blue Angel, Rita Hayworth in Gilda, Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and Woody Allen in Annie Hall. Each chapter analyzes a type of lover, including the siren, rake, intriguer, dandy, innocent, coquette, charmer, charismatic, comic, and the self-destructive lover." The book discusses each type's continuities and the social forces...