Analysis of intertextuality and binary opposites in a film and film trailer: The Holiday (2006)

My three case study films are Bridesmaids, The Holiday, and Vicky Christina Barcelona. They are all contrasting. For this analysis, I will study The Holiday.

Romantic comedies are not renowned for their intricate story telling, and often don't feature homage or references to other films or media products. However, we do sometimes find well known pieces of music featuring in films as oppose to original music pieces.

The Holiday, however, does have a sequence of intertextual references. It occurs in a scene perhaps three quarters of the way through the film, when two of the main characters (Iris played by Kate Winslet, and Miles played by Jack Black) visit a movie store. Jack Black's character holds up a variety of different films to show his friend, and either quotes them or sings the theme tune. An example of this is he sings the theme tune of "Jaws". This is a perfect example of intertextualtiy.

I will now go on to analyse binary opposites in the film. In order to do this, I have used my own knowledge of what happens after watching it, and I have watched the trailer.
The film is based around romance, and two couples falling in love. Therefore, the most obvious binary opposite is male and female. The film is structured around the binary opposite. The audience, through making assumptions, stereotypes males and females. The characters in this film are architypical, and fit into the stereotype or expectation that the audience have. For example, Cameron Diaz plays one of the two leading ladies. She is a stereotypical beautiful woman because she is interlligent (she runs her own film trailer company in the film), she is blonde, slim, and she has blue eyes. She is architypical and is the binary opposite to Jude Law who is perhaps a stereotypical man.

Contrasting nationalities is also a strong binary oppositie featured in this film. Half of the film is set in Los Angeles, USA. The other half is set in Surrey, UK. The characters portray strong stereotypical characteristics of what you would expect people from these areas to be like. The life styles represented are also competely contrasting. (In UK there is a small cottage and the weather is snowy. In LA there is a mansion with a pool, palm trees, and its sunny all the time). These backgrounds are binary opposites.