Kelly Grzybowski & Rebecca Singer - Final Project

Romance: Past, Present, and Future

“Romance films, love stories, or affairs of the heart center on passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of the main characters, and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage.” (Quote) They can be classified as anything from a romantic comedy to a romantic drama film, based on the storyline of the title. The time period 1967 to 1980 brought in many changes to the film industry and directors took several chances and risks to make memorable films with room to be topped by others. As we go through films from the 1930’s to today, we will see what this means and the stretches that are taken to make some of the best romance films of all time.

Before 1967, romance in films was seen very minimal through hand-holding, short kisses, and long, drawn-out conversations. Gone With The Wind, written in 1939, was the most beloved, enduring, and popular film of all time. Set during the Civil War era, Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh) falls for Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). When he tells her he is leaving for the war, she begs him to stay. At that time they share their first and only kiss. One of the film’s most famous lines was “You should be kissed-and often, and by someone who knows how.” Almost twenty years later, An Affair to Remember was released in 1957, a remake of a less-popular film Love Affair. Nicky (Cary Grant) is a playboy and Terry (Deborah Kerr) is a former nightclub singer who, even though are both engaged, fall for each other. On the boat he asks her to reconsider her engagement for him through a very long and deep conversation. He kisses her on the hand only and that is the extent of affection that is shown. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were famous for pairing in many movies together in the pre-1967 time period. Starting with their first film Woman of the Year in 1942 they went on to make a total of nine romantic, “battle of the sexes” films together. Their last appearance was in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner written in 1967, where they play the parents a woman involved in a mixed engagement. On the way to her parents’ house, Joanna(Katharine Houghton) and John(Sidney Poitier) share a “make out’’ scene in the back of a taxi cab. However, the scene is not directly aimed at the two lovers, but is seen in the taxi driver’s rear-view mirror. It shows an almost forbidden display because of its quickness and absence of clarity.

From 1967 to 1980 viewers were introduced to an era that brought romance films to a new level. Films like Bonnie and Clyde, Straw Dogs, along with A Clockwork Orange fit into this male dominance ideal that was being brought about it the 1960’s-1970’s (Haskell). Bonnie and Clyde started off this era in 1967 with a film that had many complexities to it. Besides being about robbing banks and hiding from the police this film is very sexually and romantically tense. In the opening scene Bonnie (Faye Dunaway) is completely unclothed when she comes to the window and gives Clyde (Warren Beatty) a sneak peak of what he could have. Also, when he shows her his gun, he is symbolizing his manhood to her. Even though Clyde is very attracted to Bonnie, he does not want to have sex with her. This drives her crazy and creates sexual frustration between them. When they finally do, he is unable to perform and she is left unsatisfied and disappointed in herself and Clyde. A year later, the classic love story, written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, was released. Romeo (Leonard Whiting) and Juliet (Olivia Hussey) made Shakespeare’s original play come to life with a deep and passionate love scene like no other seen before it. After killing her cousin he is banished the same day of their wedding and their wedding night is the last they ever share together. We don’t see them making love, but it is very obvious and apparent as to what happens. They take a chance by showing an almost-sex scene because even though we all know what happens, things are more believable when they are actually seen. By creating a scene like this there is much room left for more dramatic and detailed ones to come. Released in1970 was Love Story, starring Ali McGraw as Jennifer and Ryan O’Neal as Oliver. Everyone to this day would be able to recognize the familiar song from the movie and the famous quote “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” also came from this movie. The romance scene that the two share in this movie is similar to in Romeo and Juliet, with them being naked, but not being able to see much of anything. The following year, Straw Dogs was released. Even though the film was a drama with much suspense and male dominance over female, there was a romance shared by Amy (Susan George) and David (Dustin Hoffman). A bit untraditional from most of these love stories, this is between a husband and wife, already in bed. There isn’t much surprise because it is almost expected to happen and you can see the control that David has over Amy when he pushes her head under the covers. Their clothes are still on, but we still know what is happening even though we cannot actually see it.

Ending the era and beginning the next one was Somewhere in Time. The film is about travelling back in time to the year 1912 and finding your true love. There is a small sex scene but it is very quick and there is not much that can be seen. At this time the true romance in movies was hard to come by for many years. Sleepless in Seattle was filmed in 1993, which appeared to be very similar to the storyline of An Affair to Remember. However, all conversing and communication was done by letters and the two lovers (Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) do not meet until the very end. A modernized Romeo and Juliet was remade and released in 1996 starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and Claire Danes and Juliet some were able to more understand the story. Instead of using knives as weapons they used guns. All of the script, however, was exactly the same as the one in the play written by Shakespeare. Just like in the first version, the two share a passionate first and last night of making love to each other. However, there is much more to be seen now that wouldn’t have been at an earlier time. Films were becoming more “sexually acceptable” and ratings were beginning to change. The first Romeo and Juliet was rated PG, while this new release was given a PG13 rating. Collecting eleven Academy Awards and the hearts of many was Titanic in 1997. James Cameron took a great historical tragedy and created a love story out of it. Casted again was Leonardo DiCaprio as a poor American boy named Jack, who got lucky in a poker game and won himself a ticket on the Titanic. Kate Winslet plays Rose, an English woman engaged to a rich man not by choice. He is an artist and she asks him to draw a picture of her. The intense sexual awkwardness and desire is brought out and leads to them sharing a hot love scene the night that the ship sinks. Throughout the entire movie they both save each other several times, all the way up until the last scene when he dies and she lives. “I’ll never let go” was what she said to him and she never did. Taking the last spot is the movie based off of Nicholas Nicholas Sparks’ novel The Notebook. Three years ago Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling) touched our hearts with an emotional story of how love progresses through the years. One of the best kisses of all times was from the love scene in this movie when Allie jumps into Ryan’s arms and he carries her to the bedroom. Anyone who watches this film can feel the connection, passion, and extreme intimacy that are shared between them as you can see almost what they see. It’s a Love Story of today and no matter how hard you try this movie will always be a tear-jerker.

From Gone with the Wind to The Notebook many romantic films have been made and will continue to be made. Of course, there are many others that we may have not included, but we chose the movies that we thought fit the best. Without films like Love Story and Bonnie and Clyde from 1967-1980, there would never have been advancements for Titanic, The Notebook, and future films. In the 1930’s, lines such as, “How come we never made love?’’ were forbidden to be said. However, in the movie Semi-Tough written in 1972, the line “How come we never fucked?” was said, primarily because they could say it. Movies have gone to many extremes today that would never even be thought of before the 1960’s. Directors are not afraid to take risks because by doing that allows so many more possibilities to come. We see romance films as a great escape and fantasy and always expect that “happily ever after” ending. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, we will always have the films that we do in the future because of the films that were created in the past.

Bibliography

Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1974.

Romance Films. Tim Dirks. Created in 1996-2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007. http://www.filmsite.org/romancefilms.html

Henderson, Brian. “Romantic Comedy Today: Semi-Tough or Impossible?” Film Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Summer, 1978): pp. 11-23


Movie List


Gone with the Wind (Fleming, 1939)

An Affair to Remember (McCarey, 1957)

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Kramer, 1967)

Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli, 1968)

Love Story (Hiller, 1970)

Somewhere in Time (Szwarc, 1980)

Romeo and Juliet (Luhrmann, 1996)

Titanic (Cameron, 1997)

The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004)