An academic term for the genre of film colloquially known as chick flicks. The genre has three main sub-categories:

1. Classic fairytale - often presented in the guise of romantic comedy. Various thin plot lines, but always culminating in the girl marrying the rich, handsome guy - the 'handsome prince' architype. e.g. Bridget Jones' Diary, Notting Hill, Pretty Woman, and many, many more. This is the most common form of cinema clitera.

2. Reconcilation - with a female friend, sister, mother or daughter, with whom there as been a long-standing feud or alienation. Often ends with one of the lead protagonists dying of a 'fashionable' disease, such as leukemia or a brain tumour, shortly after the reconcilation. e.g. Beaches, Terms of Endearment.

3. Girlies together against the world - various plots but all centre around shared emotional trials and tribulations, often a mix of light weight comedy and schmaltz e.g. Steel Magnolias, Sex in the City.

Interviewer: "Mr Grant, many of your films, perhaps with the exception of 'Maurice', are often dismissed by critics as cinema clitera. What is your response to this?"
Hugh Grant: "Erm, Erm, Erm ..."

cinema clitera by Maeve Bitchy May 27, 2008