Topics that are handled in Rom-Coms

Many genres of film deal with different topics and have certain issues that help the audience tell what type of film they are watching. For example, a horror movie may deal with cults, murder, psychic possession or mental disorders, and an action movie may deal with super heroes, gangs, mythical creatures/characters or time travel. But I want to talk about Romantic comedies, or 'Rom-coms.' These films are usually overlooked as 'idealistic love' and are unrealistic to majority of people. But I believe there are more movies in the past 5 or 6 years that are starting to break down these barriers, and show realistic love, but make it still enjoyable for the audience.

Rom-coms usually follow two characters, a girl and a boy, who are either childhood friends, or meet and it is love at first sight. The film then follows the two characters as they constantly meet each other randomly, or finally come to the realisation that they love each other. Now most Rom-coms are quite simple in their plots, and just follow a simple Freytag's pyramid structure. But some films, like 'The fault in our stars' add a life threatening illness to both of the characters, to make the pressure of fining each other must more pressing, and the relief when they get together much more worth it. there are two movies that are classed as Rom-coms that I would like to talk about: 'Love, Simon,' which is a 'Rom-com' that doesn't follow traditional codes and conventions of a Rom-com, and 'Love, actually' which follows the traditional Rom-com formula. I thought these two films are brilliant to compare, not just because of their similar titles, but they are quite similar films, yet have just as many Contrasts.



The plot of 'Love, Actually' has nine different stories, some of them intertwined, all of them involving two people who have secret feelings for one another, but not all nine couples end up getting together, for various reasons. However, one of the most famous stories follows Mark, who is in love with Juliet, but to hide his feelings, he ignores her most of the time, leading Juliet, and her new husband Peter, to think that Mark despises Juliet, when in fact he is head over heels for her. When she sees a video of Mark confessing his love for Juliet, Mark takes this opportunity to tell Juliet how he really feels, in a scene that has been parodied many times. But despite Juliet being married, as Mark walks off, she runs after him and kisses him. This is they type of unrealistic love that makes people not really like Rom-coms, as this would usually never happen, because majority of those that are married are happily married and wouldn't cheat, even out of pity.

 

'Love, Simon' is a different type of story though. It follows Simon Spier, who is a closeted gay teenager, as he falls in love with someone online called Blue, but neither of them know who each other is. The film sees Simon try and guess who his secret pen pal is, whilst also trying to keep Blue, and his sexuality a secret. During the climax of the film, Simon is outed to the school, and so he has to deal with that, as well as Blue leaving him in fear of his secret being exposed as well. But by the end of the movie, Simon is able to convince Blue to reveal himself as Bram, one of Simon's friends. This film follows similar codes and conventions of a Rom-com, with two people falling in love, and finally getting together in the final few minutes of the film, but there are two key differences between 'Love, Simon' and majority of Rom-coms. For one, the film is between a male couple, which has never been done in the mainstream media before, and part way through the film, the couple end their relationship, as their relationship started early on in the film. Usually, the first two acts of the film build up to the two people getting together, but 'Love, Simon' has the couple get together at the beginning, so they have the opportunity to break up in the middle of the film.

Scene analysis of 'The secret of Marrowbone'

The scene I have chosen is from the 2018 horror film, 'The secret of Marrowbone.' The scene follows Billy, our protagonist for this scene, as he searches for a box of money in the attic of his farm house. But as he tries to escape, the rope he is climbing is pulled, which causes Billy's neck to be trapped in the rope while he is dangling in the air, as he starts to choke.

The setting for this scene features certain shots of the attic, following Billy's eyes as he looks around the attic, looking for the money box. As the camera is mostly at his eye level, it makes the audience feel as if they are spectating what is unfolding, but are unable to do anything, so emotions then kick in, as Billy is seen to nearly die. The camera also takes many shots either looking down the chimney into the attic, or up the chimney, looking at the night sky. The scene is mostly dark, except the match lit by Billy, or the moonlight shining through. This in turn creates a lot of shadows, which gives the audience the impression that something may be hiding in them, but we just can't see them. The misc-en-scene of the dark, narrowing spaces of the chimney all work together to make the audience see that Billy has very little chance of escape or help, which makes us fear for his life even more.

The scene also has a mix of digetic and non-digetic sound. There is a sombre melodic sound throughout the entire scene, which raises and falls in volume at points, to emphasise the importance or the tension of a certain point. For example, when the rope starts to be moved around, the tension rises so the music intensifies, to amplify the danger that Billy is in, as well as quickening the pace of the scene. However, when Billy is just walking around the attic, the music is barely noticeable, which draws the audience's attention more to what Billy is doing. 

There are two distance shots used in this scene and two types of camera movements: close up and medium shot, and crane and panning/tilt. The use of close up shots shows the fear in Billy's eyes. For example, when Billy drops down the chimney, with the rope tied around his neck, the use of multiple close up shots from different angles shows the fear in his eyes before his impending death, which makes the audience feel for Billy, as he was only trying to help his family out by getting more money. But at the same time, medium shots are helps the audience see Billy's surroundings, and makes the audience worry when they see the arm reach out to grab the rope, as the audience see this happen before Billy does, which give the audience the chance to realise what is about to happen, as they realise they can't do anything about it and will have to witness Billy's death. 

The scene uses mostly short duration shots, which keeps the scene alive and upbeat, and not dragged out. Some shots are repeated, such as Billy's eyes, which tells the audience that something is going to happen to Billy, and we need to watch out for him. As well as showing us that Billy is important to the scene, some shots include only Billy's face, blocking our view from anything else that could be hiding behind Billy in the scene, which could scare the audience and they could think that something is hidden behind him, but it is being shielded from us on purpose, and it is going to come out of the shadows and attack Billy. 

Adam Hill.

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