Chaque année en France, les films adaptés des œuvres littéraires forment une partie importante des sorties cinématographiques, parmi lesquelles nous remarquons souvent les films adaptés des pièces de théâtre comiques. En effet, dès sa naissance, le cinéma est lié étroitement au théâtre, surtout aux pièces comiques. Les cinéastes ont puisé leurs inspirations aussi bien dans les pièces classiques (L’Avare, La Fausse Suivante, Cyrano de Bergerac, etc.) que les pièces modernes (La Cage aux folles, Le Dîner de cons, Le Prénom, etc.), en passant par les vaudevilles (Un Chapeau de paille d’Italie, Un Fil à la patte, etc.), les café-théâtre (les pièces du Splendid) et les pièces de Sacha Guitry et de Marcel Pagnol qui ont vécu la prospérité du théâtre filmé. Le théâtre et le cinéma, tous deux arts de spectacle, partagent énormément de points communs et gardent également de nombreuses différences. Ils se mélangent, s’influencent et se critiquent. Les spectateurs regardent la représentation théâtrale avec une vision « cinématisée » sans en avoir conscience. À l’inverse, nous déployons la théâtralité dans chaque séquence de film. Dans le cadre comique, quelle est donc la relation entre le cinéma et le théâtre ? Les ressorts du comique de théâtre sont-ils les mêmes au cinéma? Quels effets donnent-ils ? L’étude de l’adaptation des pièces comiques de théâtre au cinéma dans la période définie par notre corpus nous permet de voir les principes du travail de l’adaptation et de saisir le changement de la relation entre le théâtre et le cinéma au fil du temps. Ce changement nous laisse entrevoir la procédure de maturation d’un jeune art — le cinéma. Les valeurs esthétiques que nous avons dégagées dans ce travail nous aideront à comprendre d’une façon profonde les arts de spectacle, tandis que la valeur sociale du film adapté nous fera réaliser la nécessité de ce travail d’adaptation. / Every year in France, plenty of new movies are adapted from literary works, among them, we can often notice the films adapted from comic plays. Indeed, since its invention, the cinema is closely related to the theater, especially to the comic plays. The filmmakers try to find their inspiration in classic plays (The Miser, La Fausse suivante, Cyrano de Bergerac, etc.) as well as modern plays (La Cage aux Folles, Dinner of Fools, The First Name, etc.) but also in vaudeville (Un chapeau de paille d’Italie, Love on the Rack, etc.), in dinner theater (the plays of the Splendid) and in the plays of Sacha Guitry and Marcel Pagnol, who experienced the boom period of « théâtre filmé ». As two performing arts, theater and cinema share a lot of common points but have also many differences. They influence each other. The audience, unconsciously, watches the theatrical performance with a « cinématisée » vision. Conversely, we deploy theatricality in each sequence of the film. In the comic plays, what is the relationship between cinema and theater? Are the comic elements of theater the same as those in cinema? What effects do they give? The study of the adaptation of comic plays to the cinema in the period defined by our corpus lets us see the principles of adaptation and know the change in the relationship between theater and cinema. This change shows us the maturing process of a young art —the art of cinema. The aesthetic values that we have reveald in this work will help us understand the performing arts in a deep way, and the social value of an adapted film will let us realize the need of this adaptation.

This thesis will prove how the male domestic servant shows a conservative evolution of class freedom through early American films. As an individual thrust into a liminal sphere, these characters paradoxically become a character type for both keeping class-consciousness as well as breaking up notions of class, albeit in a slow process. In comedy, domestic male servants have always been on duty to help their masters while also becoming sources of mischief as tricksters. In early American films, these characters embody the anxiety of a classless body of men who become scapegoats, trickster-figures, and mask-wearing sages in order to survive—attracting as many functions as possible in order to help society question notions of class. Although butlers and valets have existed for several centuries, the Victorian era molded the butler into a marginal existence, trapping this servant into a liminal, and therefore unlikable, sphere. Comedic writers in the Victorian era played the anxiety up—presenting butlers and valets as pompous and unintelligent scapegoats placed in texts to make their masters look good while becoming invisible themselves. Yet, by the time the stereotype reached America through P. G. Wodehouse, the butler became a trickster figure—ready to use the Victorian code as a way to gain monetary compensation and control of the private domain. Jeeves does in fact receive his desires, but he resorts back to set codes—becoming a character that subverts and maintains class structure simultaneously. Charlie Chaplin's butler in City Lights does the same in film. As the overly serious foil, Chaplin's butler controls the class hierarchy by keeping Chaplin away from his master; yet, the butler does this by copying his master's actions, putting himself on the same level as his master. It is only through Sturges films that butlers become relatively free from subordination and even more multivalent as these films delve into class reality versus desire. These butlers and valets continue to play the part of the Victorian butler, but they also become the pivotal characters that move plots in their intended course—becoming fatherly and less anxiety-ridden—creating a freedom unknown to their predecessors.

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This thesis seeks to better understand the relationship of film genre to globalization through an examination of the use of the British romantic comedy and other related genres by the production company Working Title Films (WTF) from the 1900s through the 2000s. Because of the sudden and unexpected global success of British romantic comedies by Working Title Films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, the 1990s is a significant period for the study of the genre. In this examination the process of globalization is understood as one of complex connectivity postulated by John Tomlinson in Globalization and Culture as ‘the rapidly developing and ever-densening network of interconnections and interdependences that characterize modern social life’. This theory of globalization is used as a methodological framework to understand the complex network of global and local interconnections that has driven the development of Working Title Films over the past twenty five years to becoming one of the most important British production companies in the international film industry. Through a detailed analysis of the practices of development, production, distribution and exhibition by Working Title Films and the Hollywood dominated global film industry, this thesis seeks to understand the function of genre and genre films as cultural products, economic products and meaningful representations in the global market and to better understand Hollywood, mainstream film and cinema as social institution. The analysis in the following chapters serves as evidence to support the central argument of this thesis that the use of genre in the film industry’s production, distribution and exhibition processes of globalization was the critical area for Working Title Films to master in order to produce value as meaningful audience appeal and connectivity to global audiences for on-going economic success.