Thursday, September 18, 2008

Romatic Comedy or The Sad Reality

Romantic Comedy
McDonald Chapter 1

Romantic Comedy is a concept that most of us are familiar with, one way or another. However so some it’s simply a chick flick. McDonald covers and defines the key elements of romantic comedy very well in chapter one. By breaking it down to three essential parts, McDonald sums up the structure and the essential system of romantic comedy.

“A romantic comedy is a film which has as its central narrative motor a quest for love, which portrays this quest in a light-hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion”-McDonald, Romantic Comedy p.9.

The three generic elements of romantic comedy are:
Visual characteristics
Narrative patterns
Ideology

McDonald constantly makes comparison to gangster films and their structure. She breaks it down so well, that after reading this text; I could visualize and even name several movies made using the same structure she was talking about. What I loved about this text was the fact that most movies she mentioned are very familiar to a contemporary reader, which makes it very easy to relate.

I’m sure that most people watching romantic comedies know, for the most part, what will happen in the end. But once you read this text you will know exactly why certain things happen, and the reason behind the “Plot”. I could even say that this knowledge can ruin the viewer’s interest towards romantic comedy genre, and make it so predictable, that it will eliminate the element of surprise.

1 comment:

Jhangora said...

Thanx for the lovely post.I like reading a lot but am very irregular.