Agustina's AICE Media Blog: Genre Research

What Makes a Romance movie Romantic?

Introduction:

I've generally always been attracted to romance films because despite them being repetitive they're: cute, fun and typically light-hearted. So they're normally my go-to after watching movies with a lot of grief, action and heavy topics.

Romance, by definition, is a feeling of excitement, love, affection along with many other deeply emotional, or idealized, feelings. I believe that, although the genre expectations may change, the genre itself will never die. This is because a lot of people cling to this genre since it serves as an emotional escape that provides joy and hope. It's also an extremely versatile genre: it can be appealing to all ages, from adults to young pre-teens, which is what makes it such a popular category in media.

Content:

Every romance movie has a specific trope that the characters follow. Whether it be enemies to lovers, soulmates, fake relationships, or even holiday romances, directors lean into a specific archetypes to, not only meet the audience's expectations, but also help familiarize the audience with the movie. These tropes are generally easy to recognize and will be a clear indicator of a romance movie.

Conflict or emotional tension between characters in movies is another clear indicator of a romance movie. Directors use these struggles and tension to move the plot forward as the movie progresses. This tension, or conflict, could be initiated by either the love interests or a third party. This is typically seen in "forbidden love" movies, a prime example being "Romeo & Juliet", the tension/conflict between the characters was primarily initiated by their parents, not themselves.

A production having a central love story is another obvious indicator of it being a romance movie. In these movies, you'll typically find the love interests being the actual main characters. You'll also notice how the whole movie revolves around the main characters, their individual stories, and how their relationship developed. Overall, this central love story is the backbone of a romance movie.

Romance movies also tend to have a happy or emotionally satisfying ending. As mentioned before, romance movies are very cliche, light-hearted, and soft, which leads to them having a happy ending for the main characters. Also, since romance movies are supposed to be this cliche, idealized version of love, the ending might not always make sense but nonetheless the characters will end up happy. For instance, in holiday romances, in which the character goes on holiday for a few months and finds the "love of their life" on this luxurious island, one of the love interests will typically pack all their stuff up, leave their old life behind and then live with their lover forever, just to avoid getting separated. Doesn't make much sense, but it brings the audience joy, comfort, and further drives into that idea of true love and love being perfect.

Production Techniques:

Throughout a romance movie, the editing may appear to be slow paced. It might spend a few extra seconds on a scene where the characters are sharing an intimate moment to make the audience feel emotional. The editing could also be slow paced to further drive into that slow burn trope that romance movies tend to follow.

Romance movie soundtracks tend to include slow, intimate songs to further drive into that emotional tension mentioned prior. These types of songs go along with the slow paced editing that I mentioned prior. These songs are used during more intimate moments so that they feel less awkward. We also see movies do the opposite and cut intimate moments short by cutting off the music in the background. When movies do this, the audience can feel and see the, typically negative/awkward, change in atmosphere.

Marketing:

As mentioned before, romance movies could have an appeal to any type of audience, no matter how young or how old. Thus, marketing often highlights universal themes of love that appeal to multiple generations. This is because a romance movie may drive more into the theme of young love, high school sweethearts, or enemies to lovers, all themes that appeal to preteens, teens, and even kids who are going through many changes in their life and are likely to yearn for that type of love in their own life. Disney movies and coming of age movies typically tend to drive into that specific theme. On the other hand, romance movies may be more sarcastic, funny, or realistic in order to appeal to adults, who might've had their own experience with love and find the content relatable.

In marketing, romance movies might also make it a point to emphasize what romance trope the movie uses. This helps narrow down the audience from just different age groups to specific interests and likes. This also allows the audience differentiate the movie being advertised from your typical love story. What I mean by this is that when people look at romance movies, they typically think of them as dull, cliche, and embarrassing copies of one another. Thus, involving the specific trope helps differentiate the movie a little more and brings forth the target audience.

Samples:

The film 10 things I hate about you (1999) consists of two main characters, Kat (Julia Stiles) and Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), the movie drives into many different tropes such as, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and fake relationship. In this movie Kat is portrayed as this rebel, "not like other girls," character who is forced to get a boyfriend so that her younger sister, Bianca, could also start dating. Bianca's love interest pays the other main character, Patrick Verona (a "bad boy" cliche), to make Kat date and fall in love with him, all so that Bianca and her lover could date. Initially, Kat rejects this sudden affection she's receiving and Patrick becomes annoyed at the fact that she's making it hard to earn his money. However, as the movie progresses we see the pair start to get closer, bond more, and find comfort within each other. As the movie reaches its climax, Kat figures out that Patrick has been getting paid to go out with her, however by this point, Patrick has accidentally fallen in love with Kat. This of course creates new conflict between the characters. The conflict is resolved and the movie comes to a close with a happy ending after Patrick dedicates a heartfelt speech to Kat, they reconcile and both sisters get to date their lovers.

The film Flipped (2010) depicts the story of two kids, Juli Baker (Madeline Carroll) and Bryce Loski (Callan McAuliffe). The movie uses both the enemies to lovers and popular guy/outcast trope. In this movie, Juli and Bryce meet and immediately, Juli feels a spark that Bryce does not return. Not until they're older and now its Bryce who feels that spark and Juli who lost it. The movie often switches the narrative between Juli and Bryce to show both sides of the story. It starts off when the kids are in the second grade, the movie switches the narrative to emphasize the contrast of how positive Juli's first impression of Bryce was, versus how negative Bryce's first impression of Juli was. We also learn that Bryce's family views Juli's family negatively and they see them as filthy people. Following that, there's multiple montages of them throughout elementary school to emphasize how passionate Juli was about making Bryce her boyfriend and how hard Bryce is trying to avoid that. Later on in the movie, Bryce deeply hurts Juli's feelings and only realized he loved her after she's lost feelings for him. Throughout the rest of the movie we watch Bryce attempt to salvage their relationship and hopefully gain her love and trust back. The movie ends off with a happy ending as Bryce manages to rebuild that love and trust with Juli and the two end up dating.

Recommendations:

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)