The History of Romantic Comedies

The History of Romantic Comedies

By Louis Piper

A Romantic Comedy style

The Romantic Encounter/ "The meet cute"

Another factor that adds to the entertainment of a romantic comedy is the encounter, or "The meet cute situation" which is often in an unusual or comic circumstance.

In a typical romantic comedy the two lovers tend to be young, likeable and meant to be for each other yet they are kept apart by a complicating circumstance (e.g. previous boyfriend/girlfriend, opposite ends of the map, or being from two different worlds

During a "meet cute", the two main characters, and soon to be couple, meet in a humorous sense of awkwardness after an embarrassing situation or comical misunderstanding and has caused the two to come together.

Despite this situation being awkward and comical, it is often seen as a "boy meets girl" moment and is seen as a cute situation as well as a entertaining, awkward one.

The politics of a meet cute

However throughout the film they fight to be together and undergo obstacles until they finally prevail and end the film living happily ever after

An Introduction to Romantic Comedies

The "meet cute" was first used in 1930 during the Great Depression and the screwball comedy combined with the romantic genre and "meet cutes" were created to transport their audiences into tantalizing fantasies of true-love and love at first sight.

Romantic comedy films, a.k.a romedies or romcoms are films with light-hearted, humorous events and tones with a plot centered around romance or a romantic theme; such as true love

Of course the plot also includes comedic events and/or comedic characters that keep the audience hooked and the plot not too intense on love.

History on RomComs

Effects

Conventions of a Rom Com

Iconography in a rom com is often that of romantic gestures such as kissing, physical love, gifts, roses, dates as well as tears both in happy and sad circumstances. The romantic elements combine with the comedic elements where the iconography may also include slap-stick humor, a comedic rejection, hilarious punch lines as well as a funny character which is often represented as the "gay bestfriend".

The most common music in a rom com is often pop songs from the movie's soundtrack and is played as non-diegetic over the film during impact scenes. In some examples the music is diegtic scenes such as parties, concerts and music players on phones. The pop songs are most commonly about happy relationships, first dates, party tracks, break-ups and heartbreak. And then the "feel good" song to end the film and precede the credits.

Locations

Locations in a rom com tend to vary and revolve around the plot of the narrative. Common locations are parks, streets or closed spaces where the two characters and bound to bump into each other and initiate the meet-cute and start the relationship.

The narrative then often leads to one of the characters houses/apartments, dates then follow varying locations, a trip away somewhere often to another state or country can sometimes give the couple their dilemma and they take a break. The main character then goes back to her place or her mum's adding another location until the couple finally meet again and solve their problems at a place that's either where they first met or some place referenced throughout the film and is therefore significant. A plethora of locations that vary depending on the movie's plot.

A romcom almost always has a happy ending and keeps its viewers entertained with hilarious characters and events along side an engaging love story of whether the two characters will end up being together

With the increase of romantic comedies, researchers are asking whether the romance in romcoms is effecting romance in real life. Romantic comedies are very popular. They depict relationships where the couples place each other at the center of their universes.

Shots and Edits

Over the shoulder shots are commonly used in romcoms as it conveys the characters expressions to each other as well conveying an idea of their relationship together. Equally a two-shot is also often commonly used for the same purpose as an over the shoulder shot and shows the characters interactions together.

Close-up shots additionally emphasize the characters emotions over one another and convey emotions and themes within a rom com; i.e. love, passion, heartbreak

Long shots are often used to show the characters together in a particular setting or moment. Also allowing the audience to view how close the characters are to each other and thus how strong their relationship is. Following on from this, an extreme shot is used for when the scenery/location the characters are in is pivotal to the plot. This usually is followed by an extreme close up to show the characters expressions suggesting how special and important the location and particular moment is to them

Evolution of RomComs

Certain movies are entirely driven by the meet-cute situation, and these meets bring the couple together and strengthen them helping the romance blossom through the film. However, movies in which the meet is the main feature and not the romance are not considered to have a "meet-cute" as the event is to big.

Romantic comedy is the subgenre of the comedy and romance genres where an equal balance of humour and romance is combined so that a wider audience can be reached

It is accepted and believed that the earliest RomCom came from Shakespeare in his plays such as "Much Ado About Nothing" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Because of this Shakespearen comedy became an influence for the genre.

Today, love is over-emphasized through these films and tells viewers that love conquers all and will ultimately bring a never-ending happiness that is rarely affected by any conflict. When people do not experience the romance portrayed in these movies, they often wonder what they're doing wrong; although people should be able to tell between an overly romanticized love and realistic love, they are often caught up in trying to echo the stories they see on the screen.

RomComs have started to evolve and adapt to suit and attract wider audiences with the new twin subgenre of a “bromance”. A bromance is typically a romcom film for the ‘men’ where the films plot uses sexual elements to bring the characters together; i.e. American Pie 2, Wedding Crashers, Friends with Benefits. Bromances still follow the traditional elements and plots of a romcom film with light humorous storylines based around romance with a more sexual and matured content.

Plots from the History

Whilst most know whilst most know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some perceptions of love are heavily influenced by media portrayals.

A study was conducted at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh showed a correlation that people's expectations of love have become influenced through romantic comedies.

Romance and Romantic love was introduced in adventures on screen in the Western Europe Medieval period, these adventures often included action and knights, dungeons, dragons and kingdoms however they in fact revolved around romance such as a knight's feat on behalf of a lady, an example being Chrétien de Troyes' "Lancelot, the knight of the Cart".

The economic social strata in the Gilded Age combined with the openness about sex after the Victorian era along with Sigmund Freud's theories gave birth to an early form of RomCom during the birth of the film industry in the early twentieth century.

However this style faded in the 1960s and the genre lay dormant until the more sexually stimulated "When Harry Met Sally" had a successful box office run in 1989 and gave a rebirth for Hollywood romantic comedy by the 1990s