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“Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show through.”
ž“Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce.”
When I saw these two quotes I thought about chick flicks and most typical romance movies. They all follow practically the same story line. Boy meets girls, they fall in love, sometimes inconvenient things happen in the middle, they still fall in love and live happily ever after together.
Especially Nicholas Sparks' books and movies. I found this on the internet and I thought it applied nicely.
One chick flick that doesn't follow the same story line is 500 Days of Summer. For those of you that aren't familiar with the film, it goes something like this:
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt meet and fall in love, then she breaks up with him and marries some other guy. And then female viewers everywhere feel bad for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
And everyone is kind of mad at Zooey Deschanel for breaking up with him.
I personally think that 500 Days of Summer is more of a realistic romance story, because in real life more relationships end awkwardly than go on forever and everyone is eternally in love.
I think people, specifically females, watch chick flicks as kind of an escape from their sad, single lives. Even though we all know exactly what is going to happen in almost every chick flick before we even see it, we keep watching them.
What do ya'll think? Can you think of any other romance novels/movies that don't agree with Adornos' theory?
I couldn't agree with you more about Nick Sparks books/movies, I can't stand them. My husband likes them, though, go figure!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the question in this post, I thought of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". As I recall, it focuses more on the struggles of a relationship and not wanting to deal with the hardships that come with it. Even though at the end, if I recall correctly, they still end up together but it's a bit uncertain. I believe originally in the script that the movie was supposed to end with Clem getting her memory erased (again). Not the "typical" happy ending you tend to see in the repetitive romance titles.
ReplyDeleteOther titles I thought of were "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "P.S. I Love You". Both are labeled as "chick flicks" yet have rather disheartening story lines that aren't quite "happily ever after". Another title come to mind that don't exactly fall into the category of "romance", but it does have some heavy romance attached to the drama that doesn't result in "happily ever after" -- "Seven Pounds". I'm sure someone will argue that doesn't really count. My point generally is that not all "romance" in popular movies is the same, however I can see how those labeled in the genre of "romance" will generally have the same mundane recipe of "happily ever after" attached. (If we were going into something more along the lines of Japanese, Korean, and other eastern animation, I could give quite a few more examples).
Truth be told though, who really wants to go watch a romance fail? Wouldn't it put many viewers in an uncomfortable position? I certainly don't want to be reminded of the relationships I have had that failed, some of those fell through rather drastically. Nobody would seek out such "romance" titles if they knew it was going to be a depressing ending. People really do suck up all these romance titles to fulfill a wishful dream for the ideal relationship. What woman doesn't want her "knight in shining armor"?
Personally, I don't mind a good romance story. I'll just as equally seek out something depressing for a tug on the heartstrings though, even just to whine at the screen, "It's not fair! They deserve to be together!"
After consulting a "chick flick expert", I was informed of these titles as "breaking the romance formula": "The Break-Up", "The Spectacular Now", "The Way We Were", "Sex in the City", "Valentine's Day", "He's Just Not That Into You", "New Year's Eve" ... Any thoughts?
DeleteP.S. I enjoyed one Nicholas Sparks, then I tried to read another. I felt like I was reading the same story. I was a bit disgruntled and tossed it aside. I didn't want to ruin the one I had read. So I say "A Walk to Remember" is still a good story, without knowing any of his other books.
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