George Cukor's "It Should Happen to You" (1954) bears a resemblance to a film he made four years earlier, "Born Yesterday" (1950) which also stars Judy Holiday and is based on written material by Garson Kanin. Both films are on fire in the sense that they are comic splendor, leaving no one cold after the fun's over. The difference is that "It Should Happen to You" is even wilder, funnier, and crazier. After all, the story is out of its mind: a young woman wants to be famous and therefore rents an expensive billboard in New York City. This eccentric set-up is wrapped in the conventional form of romantic comedy that Cukor knows best.
It's not difficult to guess based on this that "It Should Happen to You" is a media satire. While this is true, I should emphasize how unpretentiously and lightheartedly the film does this. Unlike one might deduce, the film isn't a story about an individual seeking for immortality; rather, it's a story about an individual seeking for fame -- maybe just for a while, but after that while, for another as well. To Francois Truffaut, a profound appreciator of the film, "It Should Happen to You" was a film about the absurdity of the mechanism of celebrity, showing how much easier it is to acquire the position than justifying it; revealing also the insignificance of fame altogether. Although this might be the moral of the film, it's not that black-and-white (let alone the fact that the film doesn't seem to care much about this) as the protagonist is still keen on taking a peek at a billboard for rent.
As a media satire, "It Should Happen to You" is about image. It's about simulation, as followers of Baudrillard would put it: signs that signify nothing, lacking substance and reference to something real. It's about names that mean nothing. This is what fears the woman who wants to be something instead of nothing. She is "Miss Nobody of 1953," as Truffaut put it.
Somehow, however, this seems to be irrelevant. What is most important is how well the film holds up. Truffaut admired the film's ability to keep its rhythm and keep the audience smiling despite an utterly absurd topic. In this sense, Truffaut thought of comedy as a veritably difficult genre to tackle. After all, it's not that hard to make up a good war story which will satisfy the standard critic who admires "Citizen Kane" (1941) but despises "The Lady from Shanghai" (1947). It's harder to make something truly cinematic (not to imply, of course, that "Citizen Kane" would not represent this). To Truffaut, "It Should Happen to You" is a masterpiece. Even if one had trouble accepting this judgment, it would be easy for one to accept that Cukor is a master of his art (in the word's widest sense, meaning also work and craftsmanship). "It Should Happen to You" is simply a very well made film.
It's not difficult to guess based on this that "It Should Happen to You" is a media satire. While this is true, I should emphasize how unpretentiously and lightheartedly the film does this. Unlike one might deduce, the film isn't a story about an individual seeking for immortality; rather, it's a story about an individual seeking for fame -- maybe just for a while, but after that while, for another as well. To Francois Truffaut, a profound appreciator of the film, "It Should Happen to You" was a film about the absurdity of the mechanism of celebrity, showing how much easier it is to acquire the position than justifying it; revealing also the insignificance of fame altogether. Although this might be the moral of the film, it's not that black-and-white (let alone the fact that the film doesn't seem to care much about this) as the protagonist is still keen on taking a peek at a billboard for rent.
As a media satire, "It Should Happen to You" is about image. It's about simulation, as followers of Baudrillard would put it: signs that signify nothing, lacking substance and reference to something real. It's about names that mean nothing. This is what fears the woman who wants to be something instead of nothing. She is "Miss Nobody of 1953," as Truffaut put it.
Somehow, however, this seems to be irrelevant. What is most important is how well the film holds up. Truffaut admired the film's ability to keep its rhythm and keep the audience smiling despite an utterly absurd topic. In this sense, Truffaut thought of comedy as a veritably difficult genre to tackle. After all, it's not that hard to make up a good war story which will satisfy the standard critic who admires "Citizen Kane" (1941) but despises "The Lady from Shanghai" (1947). It's harder to make something truly cinematic (not to imply, of course, that "Citizen Kane" would not represent this). To Truffaut, "It Should Happen to You" is a masterpiece. Even if one had trouble accepting this judgment, it would be easy for one to accept that Cukor is a master of his art (in the word's widest sense, meaning also work and craftsmanship). "It Should Happen to You" is simply a very well made film.