" `Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl'... organises, indeed
constitutes, the classical American cinema as a whole."
-Raymond Bellour (Bellour, 1974, 16)
"You don't want to be in love - you want to be in love in a movie."
-Becky, Sleepless in Seattle
"Reality and love are almost contradictory to me."
-Céline, Before Sunset
This essay is primarily concerned with the concept of the Hollywood romance happy ending. On a broader scale, it is also concerned with addressing the relationship of these endings to something which (I think it is fair to say) most believe Hollywood seldom attempts to do: depict romantic love `realistically'. Ask most if they consider, for example, Hollywood's current romantic comedies to be `realistic' representations of love and even those who enjoy the genre will be forced to answer - perhaps regretfully - in the negative. We all know that the typical `Dream Factory' image of love is, at least in this genre, idealistic wish-fulfilment. It is what has become popularly known as `movie love'.
What is it that makes the love in romantic comedies `movie love' and not `real love'? Essentially, all that separates the romantic comedy's depiction of romantic relationships from that of other genres is its guaranteed happy ending. As with the relationship between comedy and tragedy in general, the central plots of romantic melodrama and romantic comedy in fact often have very few dissimilarities other than tone (for example, the tropes of the undesirable existing / intended partner and the unfortunate miscommunication are absolute staples of both genres); their endings, however, remain polar opposites. I would argue that it is, in fact, only the happy ending (and the certainty on...
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...ed to be more associated with art than with real life. This stretches back to any number of naturalist novels or plays whose protagonists spend their days immersed in tales of romance only to find that real life does not live up to their ideals (Madame Bovary being an obvious example). It in fact goes back even further, at least to Shakespeare and his use of existing literary and classical romances as starting points for - and as references within - his own love stories (A Midsummer Night's Dream springs immediately to mind). I would go so far as to say that, perhaps more than any other narrative trope, a couple falling in love is universally evocative of the world of art and fiction, whether it be Shakespeare or Barbara Cartland.
And yet, of course, it does happen in the real world. How then does one represent this real love `realistically' in art, particularly in
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a play commonly viewed and known as a true love story; however, after analyzing several hints portrayed by the protagonists, it is evident that Shakespeare did not intend to make Romeo and Juliet seem like a true love story but a criticism of how superficial society’s view on love is.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Every day it’s possible to find something related to romance. There are so many “epic” stories that have gone down in history but a lot of them were infatuation mistaken for true love. Infatuation is a lot like love so it’s difficult to pick the two apart. They both are strong intense feelings and make you feel the same emotions but infatuation typically takes off very fast and is short lived. It’s more of an obsession based off of physical attraction and leads to absurd, impulsive decisions. A lot of the qualities of this fixation describe Romeo and Juliet’s marriage. “Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, I drink to thee!” (IV.iv.58) in this scene Juliet drank poison so she could fake her death to be with her lover which is an insane choice. When in love crazy things can be done but with infatuation a person will do anything to feel the euphoria again without even giving the consequences much thought. This is alike what Juliet did because she didn’t have any second thoughts until the very last minute before drinking the poison. “The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand / And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. / Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” (I.V.50-53) this was when he first saw her. As previously stated infatuation can be based off of physical attraction and this was when Romeo first saw her; he hadn’t even talked to
True love is a bond shared by few and dreamed of by everyone. The appearance of a relationship may not accurately depict the true reality of the situation. The bond between Claudio and Hero appears far stronger than that of Beatrice and Benedict, yet events of the play provide evidence for the converse. In Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, the masked emotions of two couples are evoked through subterfuge.
Love caused his logic and sensibility to fail him, and provoked him to commit monstrous acts that destroyed many lives. Through analysis of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, it can be concluded that one of her many intended lessons was to show the value and the powerful effects of love. Atwood successfully proved this lesson by using powerful examples of both successful and disastrous relationships to illustrate the positive and negative effects of love. Atwood truly demonstrated what it is like to follow your heart.
Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is an Author’s telling of societal beliefs that encompass the stereotypical gender roles and the pursuit of love in the middle class with dreams of romance and marriage. Atwood writes about the predictable ways in which many life stories are concluded for the middle class; talking about the typical everyday existence of the average, ordinary person and how they live their lives. Atwood provides the framework for several possibilities regarding her characters’ lives and how each character eventually completes their life with their respective “happy ending”.
Perhaps an even stronger testament to the deepness of cinema is Darren Aronofsky’s stark, somber Requiem for a Dream. Centering on the drug-induced debasement of four individuals searching for the abstract concept known as happiness, Requiem for a Dream brims with verisimilitude and intensity. The picture’s harrowing depiction of the characters’ precipitous fall into the abyss has, in turn, fascinated and appalled, yet its frank, uncompromising approach leaves an indelible imprint in the minds of young and old alike.
... influential on a person’s life may be the reason why it is so widely used as that subject or theme of every kind of art. Romance, which is the emotional attachment between to people who love each other, is a common way that artist can visually demonstrate love in their artwork. Although the materials and colors have a lot to do with the visual aspect of demonstrating love in art work, the aspect of love that art work shows as well as the history behind the piece its self can cause the artwork to not only be about love, but also about the romance in love. Many would agree that LOVE and The Kiss both demonstrate love, however, The Kiss is more romantic out of the two.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different kinds of marriages and relationships that ultimately result in the same ending. The “Happy Endings” shows that it’s difficult to have complete control over day-to-day events. No matter how hard society tries to achieve the perfect life, it does not always go as planned. It doesn’t matter if the characters are bored and depressed, confused and guilty, or virtuous and lucky; the gradual path of version A is not always in reach.
Love is such a small word that holds such a strong meaning. Many people in their lives, at some point, contemplate about love, dream about it, and even lose sleep over it. Why is it that so many people imagine what love is? This one word, with many meanings, is so problematic to explain and yet it is impossible to live without. The movies in the romance section of this course, each depict a type of love many of us might go through. The first two films, Water for Elephants and How Do You Know, explore the concept of finding love. Whereas, the film Groundhog Day emphasizes the notion one has to become a loving person before one can love. Lastly, The Painted Veil and Stuck Between Stations explores the idea of creating love and seeing goodness in one another. Therefore, all of these films have a specific structure leading us to the notion that love seems to be the center of all things, both in giving and receiving, and can ultimately have many different meanings.
“Love is not just a verb” Kendrick Lamar. This verse in the song Poetic Justice was his way to say what love is and what is not. Love could be confused for lust. Lust for the appearance attraction. Many films and stories portray this type of love. In high school I was assigned to read the story of Romeo and Juliet. This story is a great example of the types of love. Were Romeo and Juliet driven by true love or lust? To start we would have to figure out which type of love if any in the story. Some may say that they lusted over each other, and didn’t love each other. The sexual desire was not the case, it is merely inexperience and immature. There are many instances of love in the story.
In this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was.
...tionships in a appositive or negative way, all depending how we choose to compare the Hollywood romance to our real-life romance.
Romance movies have this weird love that goes on in them. Some characteristics include; sex scenes, lovey dovey affection, hate (sometimes) that ends up in love, marriages, divorces, new found love, and really anything that can happen between a man and female, female and female, man and man, whichever someone prefers. Romance movies are often seen as “chick flicks” while some may agree, others disagree. The ONLY reason they are considered “chick flicks” is because it’s a romance and theirs sappy love. There is no real evidence of it being labeled as a “chicks only flick”, men actually prefer to watch some of those movies. It doesn’t make them weak, homosexual acting, a pansy, or anything else men might call other men. Romance movies and novels are highly bought in stores. Who knows? It may be bought by your future husband or wife. And, since this paper is describing the differences, parents might look at this and decide whether or not to show the kids these types of