I don’t understand romantic comedies.
They’re perennial favorites at the box office, and they all seem to be cut from the same basic cloth. The most interesting thing about Hollywood romantic comedies is the peculiar mythology about love they all share in common.
And a mythology it is. When real people behave like the characters in romantic comedies, they get hit with restraining orders. At some level, we all know that the ideas about love that you find in romantic comedies–love at first sight, love conquers all, love persevers over all obstacles, soulmates always find each other in the end–are as mythical as the Tooth Fairy. Yet for some reason, there is a demand for stories that reinforce this myth nonetheless.
I find the whole thing fascinating.
What is the need in modern society for this myth? Why does it seem that we, as a culture, so desperately want to believe things about love which we know are not true?
I personally find the reality of love much more satisfying and empowering than the myth; a relationship, to me, has more value if I choose to make it work, and it succeeds on the merit of the effort that I and my lover pour into it, than if it succeeds because it was fated. I find the idea that I build my relationships more empowering than the idea that they exist because for some cosmological reason they were “meant to be.”
But it’s obvious to me that mine is a minority opinion. It seems that many of the people around me want to believe that love happens because of forces outside their control, and that happiness is a state of being granted by right to anyone who has found their One True Love.
I don’t get it. This idea must be comforting to people, and people seem to see value in it, but I just don’t get it.
I think a lot of people are lazy and don’t want to do the work. They want a perfect partner/job/life to fall into their lap. Which is why “love at first sight” and the other myths you mentioned are more attractive than reality to some.
Also, entertainment is escapism, but it gives people an unrealistic outlook on life. And that fucks it up for the rest of us.
Personally, I’m with you. 😉
“I think a lot of people are lazy and don’t want to do the work.”
That may very well be true, but it’s kind of a disturbing thought if it is…after all, if you don’t work to make your life what you want it to be, how can you feel that you have control over your life?
I think a lot of people are lazy and don’t want to do the work. They want a perfect partner/job/life to fall into their lap. Which is why “love at first sight” and the other myths you mentioned are more attractive than reality to some.
Also, entertainment is escapism, but it gives people an unrealistic outlook on life. And that fucks it up for the rest of us.
Personally, I’m with you. 😉
well…
It’s both the fantasy of wanting to be loved from afar, or loved obsessively, while not having to deal with the inconvenient reality…and it’s the reassurance, “Somebody else’s life is more of a mess than mine.”
Re: well…
Hmm. The idea of being loved obsessively or from afar strikes me as being more creepy than romantic…
well…
It’s both the fantasy of wanting to be loved from afar, or loved obsessively, while not having to deal with the inconvenient reality…and it’s the reassurance, “Somebody else’s life is more of a mess than mine.”
I think all modern romantic comedies are attempts to remake Annie Hall by people who don’t seem to have actually seen it. Modern attempts usually manage to steal timing, the look, the slightly-too-clever dialogue, the neurotic characters finding true love. Except that in the original, the characters don’t find true love, because it understood that its premise wasn’t a recipe for “happily ever after” but a recipe for a slow slide into a breakup.
Of course, I’m one of the minority filmgoers who thinks that giving the 1977 Best Picture award to Annie Hall instead of Star Wars was probably the right decision.
I think all modern romantic comedies are attempts to remake Annie Hall by people who don’t seem to have actually seen it. Modern attempts usually manage to steal timing, the look, the slightly-too-clever dialogue, the neurotic characters finding true love. Except that in the original, the characters don’t find true love, because it understood that its premise wasn’t a recipe for “happily ever after” but a recipe for a slow slide into a breakup.
Of course, I’m one of the minority filmgoers who thinks that giving the 1977 Best Picture award to Annie Hall instead of Star Wars was probably the right decision.
Oh boy! Just don’t get me started on my rants about “true love”. Arghhh! India makes roughly 1000 movies per year and a large majority are the syrupy, cliched, girl-meets-boy-true-love-happens stories.
I would rather eat shit than watch them.
– Vijay
Oh boy! Just don’t get me started on my rants about “true love”. Arghhh! India makes roughly 1000 movies per year and a large majority are the syrupy, cliched, girl-meets-boy-true-love-happens stories.
I would rather eat shit than watch them.
– Vijay
“I think a lot of people are lazy and don’t want to do the work.”
That may very well be true, but it’s kind of a disturbing thought if it is…after all, if you don’t work to make your life what you want it to be, how can you feel that you have control over your life?
Re: well…
Hmm. The idea of being loved obsessively or from afar strikes me as being more creepy than romantic…