Starting today, for a month, I will be blogging primarily (but not exclusively) about romantic comedies.
Why? Because I enjoy them! Especially in the lead up to the holidays when you need them a little bit more. The rom-com is unique in that it is one of the most loved and watched genres, yet it is also the most dismissed. Women who love a good romantic comedy are seen as sappy losers who just watch 'chick-flicks', and men are seen as less-than-men if they admit to enjoying a Meg Ryan movie.
What will I be writing about? I'm not entirely sure. Of course, there will be times when I write about movies I love, like I did previously with '
Serendipity'. But I will also be looking at the rom-com in different ways. For pretty much everyone, love and romance is a big part of life -- and also, most people have seen
You've Got Mail and Sleepless In Seattle, yet people tend to disregard these films as meaningless or pointless. Indeed, I often find that I am wanting to watch one of these films myself, yet a part of me demands I watch something more useful and profound. It's often been the case that I want to watch
Notting Hill, but instead make myself watch a political thriller or something. Can anyone relate to that? We cut off a part of ourselves and attempt to watch something else because we deem it more 'useful'.
I will definitely be looking at the role of gender in the rom-com. Not necessarily in the films themselves, but in audiences. I was on a film set recently and mentioned that '
You've Got Mail' is one of my favorite films, and everyone looked at me like I had severe mental issues. Why does that happen? Why do people feel marginalized and like an 'outsider' when they admit to liking a romantic movie?
I am also interested in how rom-com's influence us -- how they make us see life and love in a more positive way, when in reality life is usually the opposite. Films like 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'One Fine Day' make relationships seem more meaningful, and driven by fate -- and in society we often see our relationships in the same way -- but the drop out between reality and fiction can often make navigating through real world love painful. I call this
Dawson's Creek Syndrome.
Over the next month I will be focusing on rom-com's. No doubt I will be labelled as female, gay, not a real film fan, pointless, etc -- but I will tackle rom-com prejudice and judgement head on, and see if we can come out the other side with a new perspective on the genre.
One final thing that fascinates me -- is how people need the romantic element and in fact enjoy it when watching movies, but they often find it easier when it's shoved into a movie that isn't specifically about the relationship. For example, us men have no trouble saying we love '
Forrest Gump', even though the key relationship is the love of Forrest and Jenny, but we'd have a much harder time saying our favorite film is '
The Notebook'.
November 19th-December 19th 2011 - A month on Kid In The Front Row dedicated to those middle of the road, 6-out-of-10-rated-on-IMDB rom-coms that some but not all of us really love.
