My Issue With Romantic Movies

I am a huge cinephile. I love spending entire evenings watching TV shows and movies. In a previous post I mentioned a few of my favourite American movies. However, having checked my favourite films in more depth, there is a particular genre that seems to be missing…

Yesterday, I was reading what movies were on at the cinema and I just discarded, almost immediately, all ‘romantic’ movies. Now, I don’t think I am a hardcore ‘unromantic’ person. I enjoy an original and interesting love story as much as the next girl. However, after watching dozens of romantic movies (mostly in my teenage years), I came to feel that they are all the same.

Don’t take me wrong, every story has different characters and is recorded in different places, but most of them have too many similar points that make me feel like I have watched the movie many times before.

Usually, a romantic movie tells the story of a girl and a guy who like each other from the beginning. They meet a few times. They end up developing feelings and fall in love but something dramatic happens. In the middle of this huge drama, he/she realizes that they don’t really know the other person that well. You are supposed to feel moved by all this, and maybe you do, but deep inside you know they are going to end up together.

There is a compilation of movies that blew up on popularity in the past. And I have found a very annoying component that this genre has often times.

Death!

When I was a child, one of the movies that filled the theatres was “Sweet November” where a young girl from New York falls in love with an older man.

A few years later, a friend in my school was talking about “A walk to remember”. She insisted I had to watch it, so I did. We were still very, very young, but you know, it was really popular back in the day.

And just a few years later we were in class, talking about the best movies we had ever seen. Most girls in my class were talking about “The Notebook”. I had to watch it. And to be honest I don’t remember my exact reaction after watching it, but I remember feeling properly disappointed (probably due to my high expectations).

You may think that the most important part of these movies is 2 people falling in love. But the main point that makes them popular is basically the fact that the girl dies.

I admit it, I may have a slightly different idea of something that is “romantic” from most, but a girl dying or being terminally sick is NOT romantic from any perspective, and it shouldn’t be!

Soo many romantic movies that really get popular have someone dying or terminally ill. It’s annoying and sad. I honestly prefer a crazy vampire rather than this type of trauma. It is just very sad, but doesn’t need to be romantic

I have a theory. People are getting out of ideas, so they need to appeal to our feelings in order to make a difference. Death is one of the greatest fears in humanity. So, I can imagine a table with a few film producers arguing about the next romantic movie.

1. Producer/writer 1: “let’s mix some drama, 2 cute persons in love and…we need something else, something”.
2. Producer 2: “One of them dies 😊”.
3. All of the producers: “voilà!”

And now we have the perfect recipe for a romantic movie to go viral! I guess the logic makes sense. They mix one of the most beautiful and intense emotions of the word, LOVE and shake it like a Molotov cocktail with one of the most intense fears of the word: DEATH/TERMINAL ILLNESS.

And it seems to work! If you do some research, you can easily find that on the most popular romantic movies of our childhood/teenage years, there too many that end with one of the main characters dying.

Enough is enough!

As I mentioned, I do enjoy a good love story so I will list some of my favourite romantic movies and tv shows that relate a romantic story from a different perspective. I will avoid spoilers 🙂

“Something Must Break”: A love story between a self-abusive young guy from Stockholm and his new friend.

IMDB Link with trailer.

“Let Me In”: A lonely kid meets his new neighbour, a girl that only gets out during the night and seem to never feel cold.

This movie has 2 different versions. The original, a Swedish movie and a remake. I would recommend the original one as it is the only one that I have watched.

IMDB with trailer.

“The End of the Fucking World”: Based on a book also worth checking. Two weird teenagers, a guy who believes to be a psychopath and a girl who hates her surroundings escape together and get involved in some violent events.

IMDB with trailer.

“Love”: Two opposite personalities establish a romantic relationship. The show focuses plenty on their relationship and the real issues they face as a couple due to their own insecurities and sometimes incompatible behaviours.

IMDB with trailer.