Nolegirl raises interesting points, with most all of which I concur.
I'm going to pin the decline of civilization as we know it, which is reflected in the quality of romantic comedies and nearly all other aspects of culture, on the "cultural revolution" of the 60s. We threw out everything "conservative," "establishment," "old-school," or classic and instead went for a let-it-all-hang-out aesthetic of rock-n-roll, free love, long hair, etc. that turned its back on anything prior.
That revolution set a number of needed things in motion and freed people in many ways, but I fear that we threw out a lot of baby with the bathwater and to such an extent that there's little hope of ever regaining any of it. Among the things lost, are a general popular interest in music which is not pop or rock-n-roll music; any formality of dress; any decorum and politesse in favor of everything being casual and informal and all of these things are widely reflected in contemporary films.
I'm a child of this revolution and have appreciated all of the good things that have come by way of the sweeping changes to society during that era but I've also become interested in all the various aesthetic aspects of culture such as we find in the "Golden Era" of Hollywood films and I find that I like what I see very much. So much so, that I wish we hadn't discarded everything to the extent we have.
So, yes, now, by the natural progression of things, we have cinema which reflects a society which is so casual as to be more of a slob culture and a relaxing of decorum to the point that it is beyond the common person's abilities to actually have a polite conversation which employs more or less correct usage of the English language. If the language isn't dumbed-down to the extent as used in current practice, then it sounds "funny" or "stilted" or even "phony and pretentious" to today's average movie-goer, which is most unfortunate. The collective taste, driven by this relaxing of morals and decorum as brought about by the progressive liberalization of culture has brought us to where our current state seems to dictate that comedy in films be a reflection of our current state: casual in all manner, poorly spoken, badly dressed and in need of over-stimulation to maintain our interest. We now crave a diet of shocking humor, shocking violence and shocking sexual content intertwined with flimsily constructed stories calculated to provide an ample return on investment for the balance sheet but which leave me cold and empty. If there aren't enough explosions, naked bodies or shamelessly offensive jokes hurled at us with quick cutting edits, apparently the modern day audience's attention will drift and they won't be sufficiently amused or satisfied. At least not enough of the audience that will make these films profitable and the producers of these products feel great competition from a number of different directions for the movie goer's time, attention and money. Some of these contemporary entertainment products I've enjoyed but the overwhelming majority of them have left me very unsatisfied and ruing our present state as a society and our state as practitioners and consumers of art and culture.
If The Philadelphia Story were released for the first time today, it would receive yawns from the general movie-going public. Sad to say, but I fear this is true. Personally, I can't get enough of film from this era and in many ways wish I could go back and experience life of this era, even if only for a short while.
Since most people will have grown up under these present day conditions, even suggesting that the broad spectrum of civilization might have been better in, say, 1940, is to suggest something incredibly unacceptable and unbelievable. The fact that we have these films, which give a more or less life-like aspect - - we see the characters move, we hear them speak - - we are lucky to have them as artifacts we can revisit again and again. They won't change even though the world continues to progressively change. The great majority of people will not only prefer but demand that consumable products, including films, reflect whom they are today. Those of us who have discovered the magic of "Golden Era" films, such as The Philadelphia Story, will probably find ourselves increasingly marginalized and part of a very small segment of cinephiles. Thankfully, we have easy access to so much of that great legacy of films and we can continue to enjoy them.
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