Romance films are currently one of the most popular genres in the industry due to their reach to a wide audience of different ages and backgrounds, relatability, and the escapism it provides for viewers as they can fully immerse themselves in a story. Although this genre can reach many audiences, depending on the context of the film, it is true that most of these films are directed toward a younger, female audience, specifically teens.
Romance films follow love stories, generally between two protagonists, as they start unfolding, go through hardships, or end happily. The genre commonly focuses on themes of passion, emotion, affection, and heartbreak. Romantic films can take many shapes and forms, and some popular tropes include love at first sight, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, forbidden love, happily ever after, and misunderstandings/obstacles. There are also different sub-genres to romance like romantic comedies, historical romance and paranormal romance. Evidently, there is something for everybody within the romance genre, just like there is someone for everyone in real life.
Romance films can take place in fantastical scenarios like the very famous saga ‘Twilight’ (2008), which deals with the love story between a human and vampire, or they could resemble real life more closely like ‘The Notebook’ (2004), which follows the struggles of a couple to finally end up together. The themes and scenarios in romance films are largely based on the attitudes toward love and romance at the time. For instance, during the 1940s and 50s movies like ‘Gone With the Wind’ depicted love set in times of war, which was part of the conflict in the story and represented current times. In the present, movies focus more on the complexity of relationships in the modern world like ‘Love at First Sight’ (2023), which focuses on a couple that met on a flight to London for the first time and then had to find a way back to each other.
When producing Romance films, directors have to consider a range of different techniques they could use to successfully tell their story. The lighting in Romantic films is an extremely important aspect, as it directly affects the mood that the film is transmitting. Dimming the lighting and using warm tones can create a very romantic and intimate scene, which is seen in a lot of movies of this type. Some of the shots that are essential to this genre are close-ups, tight close-ups, over-the-shoulder shots, and two-person shots. All of these are usually used to transmit the relationship between people. Close-ups create emphasis on connection and intimacy, over-the-shoulder shots emphasize the conversations that characters might have with each other, and two-person shots are essentially made to display a relationship between two people.
Romance is highly successful in the market and here are some techniques that are usually used to achieve this. Some romance films include “branding” within their films to make viewers go back to these productions more often. For example, the movie ‘The Bodyguard’ (1992), which depicts the story of the famous singer Whitney Houston falling for her bodyguard after receiving threats from a stalker, uses the iconic song “I Will Always Love You” multiple times and the previous popularity of the singer to market the movie and gain a wider audience. Another really common marketing technique is to replicate more modern versions of classic love stories. For example, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1996) was a play on the original Shakespeare story by the same name, which was changed to fit modern times; this caused new audiences to gain interest in the movie as well as fans of the original story to be intrigued by the remake.
Pretty Woman is a film that follows the love story between Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) and Edward Lewis (Richard Gere). Vivian is a struggling young woman that makes ends meet by working as an escort. One night she meets millionaire Edward and arranges a week-long “business arrangement” in which she has to keep him company. As they spend more time together, they begin to fall for one another in a classic “rags-to-riches” love story and despite trying to deny their feelings for each other at the beginning, they work out the difficulties and end up together. The poster of the movie clearly depicts their relationship as they are leaning against one another and the choice of their wardrobe clearly represents their status differences. The film has many instances in which the two characters can be seen under very dim, warm lighting (mostly when the most important intimate moments take place between them. The warm lighting gives a sense of tranquility and relaxation that goes hand-in-hand with intimacy.
The Titanic is arguably the most famous romance film out there. It is a historical fiction that follows the love story of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt (Kate Winslet) at the time of the tragic sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic, at the time it set voyage, was the largest vessel ever built and its first voyage was a huge deal. In the movie, Rose was on the boat with her very wealthy family when she met a passenger from the 3rd class who was financially struggling, Jack. Jack and Rose start falling for one another as they spend more time together and face the difficulties of wanting to be together when they belonged to such different socioeconomic backgrounds. As their romance blooms, the vessel that historically sank in the Atlantic leaving little to no survivors, starts to do just that. The film deals with the tragic death of Jack and with an older Rose reminiscing on their story. Some of the most iconically romantic moments in this film are lit with warm, orange colors that once again, transmit intimacy, while the tragic and action packed scenes have more of a bluish tone which could represent the hopelessness of the situation they were in. The film’s use of close ups to emphasize interactions between the main two characters help develop their love story and show the character’s facial expressions throughout the story.
