Narrative Codes and Conventions of Romantic Comedy

Narrative Codes and Conventions of Romantic Comedy

Currently Romantic comedy is one of the most popular film genres there are. In 2008 comedy topped all other genres including action and thriller. Of course there are certain expectations you would expect to see in a Rom Com and they started in some of the very earliest Romantic Comedies such as The Apartment. The Apartment was made in 1960 and has which was a typical story line of “boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl back”. This is a very basic story line however even to this day big Hollywood movies use this same method such as 500 Hundred Days of Summer, which is a more recent Rom Com being made in the year 2000 however it has the exact narrative of a film made in the early 60’s. However even those two separate films share the same narrative the substance of the film is very different, making each Romantic comedy different from the other.

Another film which was made in the early 80’s called Sixteen Candles, also contains roughly the same sort of story line however this time, instead of the boy winning the girl back the girl gets the boy back. This is slightly different to the “typical” romantic comedy however it still shares the same concept of two lovers meeting, having trouble and splitting up. This romantic comedy was aimed at teenagers so it includes things teenagers would be interested in such as adolescent love, young parties, school, cheating and other things that a stereo typical in a young persons life. Another more recent teen Rom Com called John Tucker Must Die, made in 2006 share similarities between the story line because the main characters are three young girls, in a school, who like to go to parties and things a “typical” young teenager would do, who find out their boyfriend has been cheating on them and swears revenge.

No matter what age the Rom Com’s target audience is the film will normally include an attractive male or female as the main actor because this will appeal to all ages and all sexes. The male is normally slightly dorky, however loveable and the female is usually quite sexy and independent (someone woman can resemble themselves in). I also found out in my question air that attractive characters are one of the main reasons why people watch Romantic Comedies so it is crucial the film includes them.