Ioana Pankova

The practice of the remake in cinema precedes the notion. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, a plot often migrated from one film studio to another, and with that it was subjected to different produc- tion practices, style, and ideological bias. The defining criteria, according to which a story was chosen to be remade, was its relevance to current social issues. The romantic encounter / clash between representatives of different classes provides the drive of the plot in the screwball comedy. The discourse is organised so as to reach social reconciliation. I will focus on two films, belonging to the genre – “Vivacious Lady” (1938), directed by George Stevens and “Ball of Fire” (1941) authored by Howard Hawks. The current text will study the ideological differences in the way the two films balance their internal contradictions on the route to social consensus. By means of close analysis, I will outline the key differences, which define the ideological paths that they take, and how these transform the discourse of the Hollywood film within the screwball genre.