📚 LCLC 2024 Presentation: Thoughts

In February, I presented a paper called "Yes New Lenny, No Nuance: Remaking The Heartbreak Kid" at the Louisville Conference of Literature and Culture. Because this presentation is part of what will become a larger work, this paper will focus on Lenny and the changes made to his character. Below is the abstract for the paper:

     Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid (1972) was a success, even earning a handful of award nominations. Though the film was a success, and now cult hit, it certainly has its flaws. Audiences today might be appalled at the main character Lenny’s behavior as he takes his wife Lila on a honeymoon and abandons her in the hotel room to chase after another woman, Kelly, and eventually marry her instead. The initial film was telling a rather complicated story about Jewishness, one of rejecting and accepting a heritage (a Jewish lead chasing after a “shiksa,” a non-Jewish, WASPish woman), one of heartbreak and the failings of ceaselessly chasing after satisfaction; but Lenny was undoubtedly mean, sexist, and creepy. While the film does not ask the audience to side with Lenny, Bobby and Peter Farrelly feared this might be the case when remaking the film in 2007, 35 years later. In an effort to allow the audience to go with their instinct to side with Ben Stiller’s version of the character and make it a more traditional romantic comedy, they ripped the story of all of its nuance: they renamed him Eddie and removed the Jewish themes, eliminated all aspects of Lenny’s character that made him complex, and worse, they made his wife, Lila, instead of a kind, gentle, innocent victim of Lenny’s choices, into a violent maniac that pushes him to make those choices. These changes speak to shifting cultural values, and some values (particularly the film’s treatment of women) that had not shifted all that much. In this presentation, I will examine what each film brings to the table in hopes of understanding what the original film is trying to say and why altering it to this extent leaves the audience wondering, among other things: “isn’t that a little excessive?”

Date and Time: February 24th, 11:15-12:45

This panel was so fascinating; featuring such varied topics as vampires, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and books written in imaginary languages. I think among all of the panelists my favorite moment was examining gibberish language; I had not read the Codex before, but I believe that I want to track down a copy myself and investigate further. I'm thankful to everyone for a wonderful day and to accommodating my last-minute shift!