When spring arrives, theaters are filled with romantic comedies, and audiences experience love amidst the humor and conflict of the genre. Through different approaches, such as screwball comedy, romantic comedies balance love and social conflict with a middle-of-the-road aesthetic.

Introduction

As spring slowly makes its way into the colors of the season, theaters are beginning to be decorated with a splash of color. The ashen melodies take a backseat, and the colorless horrors are still far away. Instead, it’s the time of year when the smiles of lovely actresses make you feel good just by looking at them. This is the season of romantic comedies. Romantic comedies are the genre that audiences are most familiar with and can enjoy casually, and while we’ve been watching romantic comedies with this attitude for a while now, it’s difficult and unfamiliar to approach them seriously and methodically. In particular, genre films should be evaluated from the perspective of the genre with a clear understanding of the characteristics of the genre, and be careful not to fall into the error of devaluing different genres by evaluating them with the same criteria. This is one of the reasons why romantic comedies don’t get the recognition they deserve. With this in mind, our discussion has been carefully crafted. Movies, like any other culture, are open to interpretation.

Understanding screwball comedies

Before we dive into the discussion, let’s briefly summarize the characteristics of screwball comedies to give you an overview of the genre as a whole. Screwball comedies essentially involve plots and themes centered around lovers who are torn apart by sexual, social, or economic differences. In order to overcome the illogic of the narrative and come up with an ending that doesn’t seem cynical or overly naive, screwball comedies must deal with the conflicting couples and their different values in a sophisticated way. Part of the appeal of screwball comedies is their ability to create conflicting endings that seem to eliminate the contradictions inherent in the culture, while at the same time celebrating those contradictions. There’s a fundamental ambiguity inherent in the characters and attitudes of the genre, which is a hallmark of screwball comedy. Rather than having the couple resolve a huge social conflict, Capra has them immerse themselves in the conflict itself, eventually coming to the conclusion that it is impossible to resolve. In screwball comedy, sexual contact is rarely the main focus, but rather provides a good context for visual gags and puns. In screwball comedies that do feature sexual contact, the sexual union is preceded by a union of emotions and attitudes, and the lovers must align their hearts and minds before their bodies. While classic screwball comedies attribute the protagonist’s eccentric behavior to his or her individuality, in later screwball comedies, the protagonist’s behavior and attitudes are influenced by the social environment or domestic problems.

‘Pretty Woman’, that tightrope walk!

Romantic comedies feature obstacles that prevent the fulfillment of love. These obstacles include differences in gender, class, age, and ideology. These obstacles are expressed in conflicts, which cause the protagonists to shed tears, fight, and sometimes resort to alcohol. The protagonists sometimes express their anguish by locking themselves in their homes, watching TV with glazed eyes, or taking a shower. These scenes may not seem like anything special, but when you combine the identity of a romantic comedy with its comedic nature, these conflict scenes are nuanced and different from other genres. These scenes, which contain humor in the midst of melancholy, are like the S-shaped white foam on the surface of coffee. The audience is immersed in these scenes and tears are shed, but there is an expectation that the tears will soon be replaced with laughter. Romantic comedies are a genre with a middle-of-the-road aesthetic. This is based on the premise that the comedic nuances vary depending on how you approach the conflict in the movie. Take Pretty Woman, considered a classic of the 1990s romantic comedy, which won Julia Roberts a Golden Globe for Best Actress and was a box office hit that made her an international star. Its success is not unrelated to how we view romantic comedies. In Pretty Woman, there is a social class difference between Edward and Vivian. In the movie, this class distinction is shown when Edward’s lawyer harasses Vivian and the two are at odds. However, the movie does not explore this conflict in depth. Instead, it focuses more on the inevitability of Vivian becoming a prostitute. Hierarchical conflicts are inherent in the movie: the judgment of others, Edward’s conflict, Vivian’s sense of entitlement, and the presence of men from her past. However, the movie doesn’t directly address these issues. By getting close to the conflict and making us feel the friction, romantic comedies risk losing their appeal as a genre. If the film shows the characters succumbing to external pressures and despairing, it will take on a melodramatic color. However, if it delivers heartwarming laughs despite the friction, it becomes more of a drama. If Pretty Woman had removed these social conflicts, would the upbeat music and Julia Roberts’ cute performance have been able to shine through? Melodrama and romantic comedy are both genres based on love, but love in these two genres has a different relationship to conflict in movies. In a melo, love intensifies the conflict and leads to a tragic ending, while in a romantic comedy, it acts as a lubricant or catalyst to resolve the conflict. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the right distance from the conflict in order to convince the audience, and a middle-of-the-road view will help the audience to fantasize about the protagonist’s love. This is why romantic comedies are a popular genre. The public watches the news and feels disconnected from the world they live in, but rarely feels obligated to solve its problems or analyze them from multiple perspectives. The same goes for romantic comedies. Audiences don’t want love stories to be completely detached from reality, but they also don’t want them to be fiercely overcoming that reality. This is probably related to the public’s identity of wanting to be disconnected from social conflicts, but at the same time not wanting to participate in them. The better romantic comedies can walk this tightrope, the better they’ll be able to capitalize on their identity as a genre.