Genre Analysis 3

Romance

Romance Conventions

• Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight, young with older love, unrequited love, obsessive love, spiritual love, forbidden love/romance, platonic love, sexual and passionate love.

• Romantic films serve as great escapes and fantasies for viewers, especially if the two people finally overcome their difficulties, declare their love, and experience life "happily ever after", implied by a reunion and final kiss.

• The films involve the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters and the journey that their genuinely strong, true and pure romantic love takes them through dating, courtship or marriage. Romance films make the romantic love story or the search for strong and pure love and romance the main plot focus.

• Occasionally, romance lovers face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, various forms of discrimination, psychological restraints or family that threaten to break their union of love.

“Chick Flicks”• Romance films are generally referred to as chick flicks due to the

general target audience being predominantly females.• Chick-flick is a slang term for a film genre mainly dealing with love

and romance and designed to appeal to a largely female target audience. Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, "chick-flick" is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based (although not necessarily romantic as many other themes may be present).

• Chick-flicks often are released en masse around Valentine's Day.• Some frequent elements of chick-flicks include having a female

protagonist, thematic use of the colour pink (along with metaphorical allusions of the colour), and romance and/or dating based storylines.

“Chick Flicks”• The concept of films designed to appeal specifically to women has

existed since the early days of cinema and has been known by other colloquial terms, including "women's pictures". Those were generally critically panned upon their release. However, women's films such as the 1950s melodramas directed by Douglas Sirk – Imitation of Life and Made of Honor, for example – are often thought by modern critics as significantly different in tone and content to modern chick-flicks. Specifically, critics cite what they see as the ironic and complex criticisms of American culture in those past films.

• The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, commonly known as one of the 'classic' films from the golden age of cinema, is sometimes considered as an early chick-flick due to common elements such as dealing with loneliness, obsessive materialism, and happy endings.

• While most films that are considered chick-flicks are light-hearted, some suspense films also fall under this category, e.g. What Lies Beneath.