Romantic Films (History)

Romantic films have been around since the late 19^th century and although first silent black and white movies have always involved passion, emotion and the affectionate involvement of two main characters and their journey, they often involve the theme and idea of ‘love at first sight, as well as other themes that romantic films could choose to take on these include; unrequited love, obsessive love, sentimental love, forbidden love, sexual and passionate love and tragic love.

Romantic films have evolved over time yet still often include similar plots and cross-over, most plots involved overcoming obstacles such as physical illness, psychological restraints or family that threaten to break the couples love.

Brief Encounter is one of the earliest romance films and is a 1945 film and one of the first landmark British Film about the conventions of British Suburban Life at the period, it centred a house wife who found real love, instead of the polite arrangement between her and her husband and how it can bring unexpected emotions when taken away. It is a film told in first person where the main character ‘Laura’ has a ‘brief encounter’ with another passenger at a train station and decides to meet each other once more. They carry on meeting until their fondness for each other is turning into undeniable love. In the final scene Laura’s bland but kind husband Fred suddenly shows how he has noticed her distress and holds her in his arms,

Dirty Dancing is another very iconic movie and is from 1987 although based in the summer of 1963 it is about the development of a crush that the main female role ‘Baby’ has on the dance instructor ‘Johnny’ at her summer holiday resort. She becomes a substitute dance partner and a romance begins to develop although both ‘Baby’s family and the resort threaten to separate the two from being together. In the end of the film and after being fired Johnny returns to the resort to perform the iconic ‘I’ve had the time of my life’ and the problems are resolved.

Titanic is a 1997 America Romance and disaster movie based on the idea of romance on the ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS titanic. In this film social class plays the obstacle of their romance as well as the disaster. With the leading female character Rose being a first-class passenger boarding the ship with her fiancé Cal, the male role is a simple artist named Jack who won his ticket for the voyage. After developing a clear fondness for one another Cal forbids Rose to see Jack, although Rose now realises she much prefers Jacks Company over Cal’s even with his third-class manner. She meets up with him and makes love in some of the final moments before the wreckage, when they see the boat hit the iceberg they run off to worn Rose’s mother and Cal. Cal’s jealous character threatens the couple with a gun and after riding the broken ship into the ocean Rose is saved and Jack is left dying from hypothermia.

Dear John is a 2010 American romantic film, and is an adaptation of Nicholas Spark’s novel, it follows the life of a soldier who falls in love with a simple young woman within the two weeks he is granted home stay, they decided to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to war for a year. The year suddenly turns into longer and longer and the two drift apart, the girl marries but her husband gets ill and John (the soldier) returns wounded and helps her raise the funds to make him healthier this doesn’t work and he dies, and in the last scene they see each other outside a coffee shop make eye-contact and they both hug each other.