Chapter 9 of Film Art covers the concept of genre; authors Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith discuss the definition of genre, its conventions, history, social functions, significant genres over time, and more.
Particularly interesting to me are the cycles of rising and falling popularity that each genre experiences. No genre can ever really die as long as filmmakers keep on making films, and genres that seem to be waning in popularity can bounce back at any moment. In addition, if a short-term cycle lasts long enough, it can entrench itself well enough to become a subgenre. In the chapter, the authors discuss various cycles including gangster movies, disaster films, and sword-and-sandal epics, but as romantic comedy is my favorite genre, I was curious about the history of the cycle of rom coms. There is lots of data available online about the popularity of romantic comedies over the years, and Figure 1 gave me a look behind the curtain into the cyclical effects of some blockbuster romantic comedies.
As shown, the first rise in popularity of romantic comedies between 1980 and 2017 was in 1984. A quick look into this reveals that the catalyst of this cycle spike could be the 1984 film Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis), which was so popular that it made $115+ million in the box office with a budget of only $10 million (wow! – talk about margins).
But the figure also shows the era of the ‘2000s rom com’ in full clarity. I looked further into the period from 1998 to 2005 when rom coms were growing and growing as a percentage of all grossing films, and it was just an amazing time for the genre. Those years were characterized by How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Donald Petrie, 2003), Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), The Notebook (Nick Cassavettes, 2004), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Joel Zwick, 2002) – the list goes on. What’s concerning is the subsequent ‘death of the rom-com’ – a phenomenon coined by Stephen Follows. Starting in 2017, rom coms both as the percentage of all films made and percentage of all grossing films began falling so fast that the death of the cycle seems unavoidable. Looking forward, hopefuls like myself will be waiting for the release of another blockbuster romantic comedy to revive the cycle of the genre.
Cycles aside, the entirety of this chapter was quite interesting to read. I enjoyed learning about how a film can use formal techniques to bend the rules of a certain genre, and how the nature of certain elements belongs in certain genres and some do not. The chapter helped me realize that our expectations as viewers define so much of what makes a film fit the conventions of a genre, and what might make a film stray away from those conventions.