The Perfect Man

Pride and Prejudice film opening

Narrative Structures/Genre research

Brokeback Mountain

The Notebook

Sleepless In Seattle

Genre Analysis - Brokeback Mountain, Sleepless in Seattle, The Notebook

Films very rarely adhere to just the romance genre; more common now are the ‘romcoms’ where romance is lightened by the appearance of Comedy. The romance genre is more intense with the love in the film, as opposed to the humour in ‘The Chase.’ In this essay, three films that conform almost solely to the romance genre will be compared in how they follow the conventions of the romance genre or maybe how they have altered the conventions.

Sleepless in Seattle is based in 90’s America and is a good example of a film that does follow a majority of the conventions but alters the convention in some way. According to Valerie Williamson, the romance genre begins by showing the heroine, representing her as vulnerable in some way however in this film, it is the opposite. We are introduced to the main male character, Samuel, who is seen as very vulnerable. They do this by introducing him standing in a graveyard. Beside him stands his son and a distance away is the rest of the congregation that attended this funeral. From this shot, we could infer that Sam and his son are very isolated from everyone else in their grief. We could infer that the coffin belongs to Sam’s wife, as he is stood with a child but not a partner of some sort. This is confirmed by the voiceover by Sam ‘Mommy got sick. It happened just like that. There was nothing anybody could do.’ This emphasises his vulnerability as it sounds like he feels somewhat to blame as he could be convincing himself that nothing could be done. He also says ‘it happened just like that’, which suggests he was not prepared to be a single father or considered a life after her. 

In another setting, we see that he is seen as a stereotypical male as a woman tells him about heating food up in a microwave, which could show his vulnerability of not being able to take care of him and his son properly. From this introduction, we would have expectations that the plot is about Sam falling in love again. The plot of the story is that, showing the themes of ‘love at first sight’, ‘older love’ and in the case of the woman, ‘obsessive love.’ Romantic plots explore the relationship between two people and it stereotypically begins with a clash between the lovers. In Sleepless in Seattle, there is no real clash between the lovers, but Sam does not want to meet Annie because of the distance between them. Like most romance films, it is based in the time it was filmed. This allows the audience to believe the plot as it is in a time they know well. Sleepless in Seattle was released in 1993 and conforms to that period. It is set in a modern home of the time, the work place and the graveyard. This is not always the case, as we can see in Brokeback Mountain.

Brokeback Mountain was released in 2005 but the film is set in 1963 however, this was to highlight the homophobic nature of America in that time. The romantic genre is stereotypically based on a loving relationship between a man and woman, as heterosexuality has always been considered ‘the norm’ in the film industry. Brokeback Mountain is famous for being based on the relationship between two men, showing the theme of ‘forbidden love,’ especially at that period where even African Americans were still treated publically as second-class citizens. There is no speech in the opening two minutes of the film however; we see the two main characters. The first character, Ennis, we see more of, he could still be seen as vulnerable although not as obviously so as Sam in Sleepless in Seattle. We see him in a lorry heading down the hill and fields of Wyoming (this is emphasised as a rough area through the extreme long shot) before he climbs out, the driver continuing. We can infer that he had to hitch a lift, which shows him as vulnerable as we assume he is too poor to own his own car. Through this sequence, a graphic match helps emphasise the passage of time as the mise-en-scѐne changes from a misty night to a morning. This helps to create some vulnerability, as he had to travel so far to get work. He then walks to a tatty caravan and stands outside. It doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to the man who would hire him and the other main character to work up at Brokeback Mountain; this confirms the inference that he’s poor because he has to resort to work from a boss in poor conditions shown by the long shot and the mise-en-scѐne. 



The second character, Jack, pulls up in a dirty pick-up that keeps backfiring, telling us that he is richer than the first character however still considerably poor. There is an insert here to create cause and effect as we see Ennis’s reaction, showing the idea of a clash as he did not seem to care too much about the new man. He does not come out of the car within the first two minutes but through the window, we see that he wears denim, which is more expensive than the clothes the original character is wearing. The clash in this film is because Jack is more accepting of his sexuality than Ennis when they find it out. Obstacles in the film are the connotations with being homosexual at that time; Ennis later tells a story where his father leads him to a quarry where they find two corpses of men who were killed for being gay. They both live in different parts of the country and both marry after they first meet, though they continue seeing each other in secret. It ultimately ends in ‘tragic love’ as Jack is killed for being gay just when Ennis is ready to embrace his sexuality as his wife remarries. The music begins as non-diegetic guitar sound creates a sorrowful mood though it has little content to it, suggesting the coldness of the wilderness and of Ennis. This mood is also created by the diegetic sound of a wind that is not ‘scary’ but it is not a gentle breeze.

Like Brokeback Mountain, the first two minutes of The Notebook includes no speech, allowing the mood determine the story. It opens to a sunset, the colour red is emphasised which could be associated with the heart, showing it is of a romance genre. The sunset in itself is stereotypically a romantic convention and setting. It has a soft song underneath, it conveys a blissful happiness which is a mood showed by the romantic genre. We are introduced to the two main characters, who are seen to be an elderly pair. There are a flock of birds that the male character seems to follow. This is a link to later on in the story where the female character, Allie, asks whether she was a bird in a former life. This could be seen as a romantic convention as it symbolizes he still follows her and it’s a symbol of the freedom and happiness he gives her. The film is a story in itself of how the two characters fell in love and how their relationship grows. It follows the convention as the characters clash to begin with because of their social classes, which soon becomes an obstacle as Allie’s parents disapprove of the male, Noah. Another obstacle is Allie’s dementia when she is older, which also follows the convention of a vulnerable heroine. They split because of Allie’s parents moving her away and she becomes engaged to another man before they meet again.  The film ends with her remembering and they die holding each other. The plot follows the theme of ‘forbidden love’, ‘tragic love’ and ‘sentimental love’.

These three films show the different ways of following the romance conventions, some of which are not stereotypical of the romance genre. 

Genre Research. part 2

The plot of the Romance genre usually follows a certain narrative.

The story is said to begin with a clash between lovers, owing to misunderstanding, rumours they heard about each other, meeting under bad circumstances and prejudice assumptions made by each character. It is not necessary to have the background of the characters, you could just begin with them meeting, perhaps, under bad circumstances. The idea of the film would be to explore the relationship between the two lovers.

The films usually explore several themes of love: Love at first sight, unrequited love, obsessive love, younger/older love, tragic love etc. They usually have to get over obstacles in their relationship;
Finances, physical illness, racial/social class, occupation, psychological restraints or family that threatens to break their union.

If we use the example of The Notebook. 
-The clash between the lovers is Social Class. (which you can see here because of the difference in clothing)

-The obstacles were firstly finances and family that breaks their union, but there is also Allie's physical illness. (Allie gets Dementia, the story of the Notebook is that Noah reads it to her to remind her)

Genre research. part 1

The genre I've decided to create a film about is Romance. 


Wikipedia told me that Romance films are based on the chilvary of Knights in Medieval times, who show faithfulness in adversity. This is very easy to see in the charming heroes we see frequently in Romance films. 

This charm isn't always evident at the beginning, however, as many romance films start with a misunderstanding/clash between the two main characters. This could be due to rumours, a wrong first impression. An obvious example of this is from Pride and Prejudice. 

This video shows a clash between infamous lovers when they first meet. 


Elizabeth Bennett also follows the convention of a vulnerable, isolated, defenceless whose 'Social standing' demands that she weds a wealthy man whether she loves him or not. The clash with Mr Darcey and the men she is 'set up with' allows her to show her strength and independence (another convention of the romance genre.) 

The convention of romance genre is that the protagonist is the woman and we see the occurrences from her point of view. Pride and Prejudice follow all these conventions. 

Narrative Codes - The Silence Of The Lambs.

The first narrative code introduced in the clip was an enigma code, we are told where the setting is and we query why it is set there. It is almost directly followed by an action code in the form of the main character climbing up the rope which is combined with the enigma code of who the person is and why she is there. There is then a triplet of action codes as she is running through the wood and climbing over the net. This helps to answer the question why she is there as the audience can see that she is going through an obstacle course and from this we can infer that she is in training. All these codes get us interested into the character and into the plot. Later in the clip, we get answers to her name, first her surname, then her first name; Clarice Starling.

A man is introduced early in the clip, giving the enigma code of ‘Who is he?’ but also an important action code as he says, “Starling, Crawford wants to see you in his office,” This is important in the film as it’s what leads her to investigate the murderer and it reveals her last name. It also exposes an enigma code in the form of ‘Who is Crawford?’ and makes us interested in ‘why does he need to see her?’ The messenger then turns, revealing an action code in the form of a hat with the name ‘FBI’ written on it, showing his job and how the main character may be linked to him. We then see her running past people into the building, which gives more of a hint to her job as they are all in uniform. This poses the question ‘Why is she not in uniform?’ but this question is not answered till later in the film (not in the clip.)

When she is in the building, she is high-fived by another woman. This is an action code which is combined with an enigma code. The woman introduces the main character’s first name but we also question who this woman is. It is very important that we are introduced to the character as we need to build a relationship with her, as she is the main character or the ‘Protagonist’- the person who the story revolves around. She continues and walks into a lift, an action code that reveals that she may face sexism (which is also an enigma code) as she stands small in different clothing and of different gender to the tall men who share a uniform who surround her. One even looks down to her as though she’s dirt which makes us question whether she faces discrimination.

There is a close up of the sign ‘Behavioural Science’ and this is an action code as the audience then expect some psychology to be involved in the plot and it is an important part of the story that needs to be known. This is followed by an action code of a man saying ‘Crawford isn’t here right now, why don’t you just wait in his office?’ this is an important action code as it creates slight tension as we wonder what will happen while she is alone in the room. This is combined with the Enigma code ‘Where is Crawford?’ and then followed by another as she stops suddenly; her face is towards the camera so we can’t see what she is looking at. We are especially curious over what she sees because of her reaction to whatever she saw. This is also an action code because she is looking at pictures of dead bodies and she has to investigate the psychology of the killer and thus creates the plot of the story. 

Narrative Codes.

There are two narrative codes:

Action Codes : An event or moment in a film's narrative that then motivates the action in a certain direction e.g. A Phone call. 


Enigma Codes: A question that is posed by actions/events/character which is then answered in the narrative. 

Action codes could be as obvious as 'Crawford wants to meet you in his office' - as that obviously determines the plot of the story as Clarice finds out about Hannibal Lector and thus creates the plot of the story. It could be as subtle as a hat worn:

This hat helps establish that they are part of the FBI and that's why she's involved with Hanibal Lector. 

These examples are from the Silence of the Lambs film opening. This film opening also includes Enigma codes. Enigma codes, I feel, are vitally important at the beginning of the film as it entices people to watch the film to get those questions answered. 

This bit of the film, we are questioning Who is she? Why is she there? which makes us continue watching the film to find out more. My next entry will be my analysis of the opening of Silence of the Lambs looking at the narrative codes. 

Narrative structure explained

Although for coursework, I will be creating just an opening sequence, you can't decide how to do your opening sequence until you know the path in which your film will follow.

It is common knowledge that any form of media has a beginning, middle and end. This can be elaborated through the idea of Equilibrium. 


Equilibrium is the idea of normality. Using the scientific definition, everything is balanced. You can use this to describe Equilibrium in terms of plot. Instead of Beginning, Middle and End, we have:

Equilibrium -> Disequilibrium ->Equilibrium

The Disequilibrium is when the normality is ruined by something i.e. Harry opening the letter and finding out he's going to Hogwarts. The second Equilibrium doesn't have to be the same as the first, Harry lives at Hogwarts and after the fiasco with Voldemort, his normality is returning to Hogwarts. Looking at this, you can't really get a lot out of the plot and there is another way of showing this structure.

*Protagonist = Could be the Hero/Heroine, but it means the character who the story revolves around.  

From this, we see the 'Equilibrium' is the Protagonist's normality and it's turned into 'Disequilibrium' when the Protagonist meets the Agent of Change which creates the problem which ultimately is resolved. 

If we use the well-known story of Red Riding Hood: