- 10 hours ago
Bu video Dailymotion Python SDK ile yüklendi.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00She's beautiful, smart, just Hollywood enough to feel aspirational, but also just regular
00:06enough to feel relatable. She's the 90s rom-com heroine. She's got the job, the apartment,
00:11and the group of friends that support her through the good and the bad. During the rom-com heyday
00:16of the 1990s, the rom-com heroine became the everywoman that audiences couldn't help but love,
00:21even if they could be a little much sometimes.
00:23But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side,
00:27and I'd like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it. If not, then no ice cream,
00:31just whipped cream, but only if it's real. If it's out of a can, then nothing.
00:33But honestly, it was the fact that these women were flawed and didn't always say or do the right
00:39thing that made them so easy to connect with. And the defining actresses of the genre during that
00:44decade possessed an inherent likability that made these characters people we just had to root for,
00:49no matter how ridiculous their behavior. But where did this rom-com heroine archetype come from?
01:04And why did the genre have such a major boom in the 90s? Let's take a deeper look at the birth of
01:09this lovable character trope. And how, as relatable as they might have been, they also gave audiences
01:15some pretty unrealistic expectations about love and how to get it. First, let's turn back the clock
01:21for just a second to get a better idea of the leading ladies that paved the way for our 90s faves.
01:26From William Shakespeare to the earliest days of cinema, romantic comedies have been around forever.
01:31And thus, so has the rom-com heroine. In the 1930s and 40s, she was headstrong and usually more
01:37intelligent than her male love interest. In these screwball comedies, actresses like Katharine
01:42Hepburn exemplified endless wit in their protagonists, who often weren't concerned with likability.
01:47I'm such an unholy mess of a girl. This era's heroines didn't care about pleasing anyone,
01:53let alone a man. Though they did still always manage to get their guy in the end.
01:57Moving into the 50s and 60s, the heroines of the radical romantic comedy were glamorous but still
02:02feisty, often having to compete against men in some capacity while still retaining a feminine charm.
02:08Leading ladies were generally split into archetypes, like the blonde and bubbly Marilyn Monroe and the
02:14sophisticated and demure Audrey Hepburn. Do I detect a look of disapproval in your eye?
02:21Tough beans, buddy. Because that's the way it's gonna be.
02:24But their looks weren't the only attractive thing about them. They kept up with and surpassed the
02:29male protagonists when it came to the battle of the sexes, witty banter and frank discussions about
02:33love and sex. This continued into the cynical 70s with classics like Annie Hall,
02:38which questioned the very existence of true love and the dynamics of male-female relationships,
02:43particularly when it came to sexual freedom. And unlike films of eras past, the couple didn't
02:48always end up together. Throughout the 1980s, we saw more comedy than romance, but still had
02:53recognizable heroines at the helm. Molly Ringwald, known for quintessential teen rom-coms Sixteen
02:58Candles and Pretty in Pink, played insecure heroines that young women could really relate to,
03:03and who endured various hardships but still got their happy ending.
03:07You told me you couldn't believe in somebody who didn't believe in you. I believed in you.
03:12Always believed in you. Just didn't believe in me.
03:16They were compelling because they were authentic, beautiful in their own unique ways.
03:20And then came the 90s. Thanks to the societal advances of the previous decades, women in the 90s were
03:27doing it all. Or, at least, trying to. High-powered jobs, nice apartments, dating,
03:32making their own way in the world. The world was their oyster, and also pretty stressful.
03:37This real-life shift ushered in a new kind of rom-com heroine. She had quirks and agency,
03:43but also deep down was still holding on to some more old-fashioned ideas about love. She melded the
03:49newfound financial freedom of the 80s heroines with the I-do-what-I-want attitude of the 40s heroines,
03:54but still wanted to be swept off her feet like a 60s heroine. She also got to have new multitudes
04:00of complexity in her character. She had way more going on in her life than just hunting for a
04:05boyfriend. They were quirky, self-assured, and sometimes even straight-up skeptical of love.
04:10And importantly, never afraid to speak their mind. Rom-coms have long been written off as
04:24unserious, sappy love stories. But when done right, they're really explorations of human connection,
04:30loneliness, and self-discovery. One of the biggest game-changers for getting people to
04:34begin to appreciate how deep and important rom-coms could be was writer and journalist
04:39Nora Ephron. In the 80s, she started bringing her vulnerable, intelligent female leads, who always
04:45managed to feel deeply relatable to the big screen. In her 1989 groundbreaking classic When Harry Met Sally,
04:52arguably the most beloved romantic comedy in cinematic history, and which set the stage for
04:57the 90s boom, Meg Ryan stars as ambitious New York journalist Sally Albright. The film famously
05:02questioned whether or not men and women could have platonic friendships.
05:06Men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
05:10That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
05:15No you don't.
05:15Sally's neurotic yet optimistic outlook clashed with the cynical personality of Billy Crystal's Harry,
05:21a curmudgeonly divorcee who criticizes her high maintenance ways, which we're supposed to see
05:25as her biggest flaw. But Ryan's undeniable charm made Sally not only someone we wanted to be friends
05:32with, but someone we wanted to be. Harry was funny and down to earth, but wasn't exactly a knight in
05:37shining armor. And because of her outspoken nature, she didn't hesitate to call him out when he crossed a
05:43line. Their story of blossoming romance built on a solid foundation of friendship, and not just some
05:48instant movie attraction was pretty radical, and also deeply desirable.
05:53When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody,
05:56you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
05:59Sally was the type A workaholic married to her career who seemingly had everything in life figured
06:04out except love. A trope we still see in romcoms today. Being career oriented was a desirable trait
06:10generally, and made sense narratively since it allowed the characters to work in creative,
06:15rewarding fields, often a writer of some sort. She was authentic because Efron, a former journalist,
06:21modeled Sally after herself, infusing the character with some of her own traits.
06:25We see this again years later in Sleepless in Seattle, another Meg Ryan-led hit, which follows
06:30Annie Reed, an endearing Baltimore-based reporter, who falls in love with a widower after he lovingly
06:35talks about his wife on the radio. Meanwhile, she's still in a relationship with a man she settled for,
06:40but still longing for something magical, a classically cinematic fairy tale.
06:45You don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie.
06:48Another iconic Efron-written Ryan role is Kathleen Kelly, independent bookstore owner of The Shop
06:53Around the Corner, in the 1998 hit You've Got Mail. It's a classic enemies-to-lovers story,
06:58written for the then-new age of the internet, living a quaint yet whimsical life bookish audiences could
07:04only dream of. Like her previous characters, she's genuinely kind and strong-minded, a tribute to the
07:09actress always fully embodied and made familiar. And even though the ending, where chain store owner
07:15Joe Fox puts Kathleen out of business before finally revealing himself to be her AOL pen pal,
07:20isn't all that romantic in hindsight, it's still a tear-jerker of an ending starring two rom-com
07:26legends.
07:27I wanted it to be you.
07:30I wanted it to be you so badly.
07:32In contrast to the cute, grounded heroines of Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts played women who were a
07:37little less relatable and more aspirational, and a lot of fun to watch. She starred as Vivian Ward,
07:43a free-spirited working girl who finds herself stepping into a Cinderella fantasy.
07:48Even though she wasn't ashamed of her profession, others, including Richard Gere's Edward Lewis,
07:53clearly looked down on her.
07:54You work on commission, right?
07:56Uh, yes.
07:58Big mistake.
07:59Big.
08:00Huge.
08:01But even as Edward tried to change and mold her to fit into his world,
08:05she remained herself, albeit with more refined clothing and makeup.
08:09Importantly, she wasn't a damsel in distress. The two rescued each other,
08:13and Vivian wasn't going to settle.
08:15I want the fairy tale.
08:16Roberts regularly led these wish-fulfillment types of movies, playing a cool girl who was
08:21irresistible, even at her worst. In 1997's My Best Friend's Wedding, the whole plot is driven by
08:27Julianne's anxiety about being, gasp, 28 without a significant other. Because this was the 90s,
08:33not being married by 30 seemed like basically worse than death.
08:36So, when they were younger, Julianne and her best friend Michael had made a pact that,
08:40if they weren't married by 28, they'd marry each other.
08:43But while Julianne is single, Michael isn't. He's engaged to the much younger Kimmy.
08:48This movie actually subverted many long-standing rom-com tropes.
08:51The heroine wasn't always right. The rival love interest was a nice person.
08:56And Julianne didn't get the guy in the end.
08:59But this wasn't a downer, because she found personal growth instead.
09:03Teaming up again with Richard Gere, Roberts starred as Maggie Carpenter in 1999's Runaway Bride,
09:08the titular commitment-phobe who is so beautiful and alluring that she has no trouble finding a
09:13man to marry. But it's her who can't manage actually going through with marriage herself.
09:18That is, until columnist Ike Graham helps her break the cycle by looking inside herself to
09:24confront the source of her cold feet.
09:26That same year, Roberts dominated the screen again in Notting Hill.
09:30This time, she's not even close to a relatable everywoman.
09:33She's mega-famous actress Anna Scott, who wants to trade in her hectic paparazzi-laden life
09:39for a simpler one with Hugh Grant's William Thacker.
09:42I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.
09:50While Meg and Julia were major players in the rom-com game during the 90s,
09:53there were a whole slew of actresses that took on iconic rom-com heroine roles,
09:58as Hollywood started to realize how lucrative it could be.
10:01And while all of these films came together to build an enduring relatable movie archetype,
10:05they definitely weren't without their flaws.
10:07Every genre has its problems and blind spots. The things that, in hindsight, are actually not so great.
10:14And that's, of course, true for the 90s rom-com boom as well.
10:17One glaring thing is the lack of diversity among these heroines.
10:21It's no secret that Hollywood didn't, and to be honest, still doesn't,
10:24create nearly the same depth or breadth of films showcasing women of color or who aren't heterosexual.
10:30During this era, we saw the rise of the Black Best Friend trope,
10:33like Stacey Dash in Clueless and Gabrielle Union in She's All That and 10 Things I Hate About You,
10:38who weren't the main characters, but instead there to help the main characters along on their journeys.
10:43But there were actresses who began breaking free from this and moving to center stage,
10:48like Angela Bassett's turn as the titular Stella in the iconic How Stella Got Her Groove Back,
10:53Oh, please.
10:53Admit it.
10:54From the same guy who made a midnight run to the video store and came back with Booty Call and Lion King?
11:00and Nia Leung in Love Jones, along with Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, and Melissa DeSouza.
11:04Their characters helped sparked growth that opened up the genre to more diverse leading ladies in the 2000s.
11:10The genre also saw changes in its inclusion of different sexualities as the decade neared its end,
11:15with rom-coms like But I'm a Cheerleader and Better Than Chocolate showcasing women falling in love with women.
11:21And looking back, many of the men in those 90s rom-coms weren't actually the Prince Charmings we thought they were.
11:27They're kind of unhinged tactics in the name of love,
11:30normalized and romanticized toxic behaviors from tenacious guys,
11:34like stalking, love bombing, gaslighting, and the cliché of intentional deception,
11:39only wooing women because of a bet or a dare.
11:42I mean, if you just turn off the sappy music and turn on like a David Fincher score,
11:47romantic comedies are stalker movies.
11:48Romantic comedy behavior in real life is criminal.
11:51For young women, millennials in particular who were of impressionable age,
11:5590s rom-coms were essential to forming unrealistic expectations for love, relationships, and ourselves.
12:02Being a successful 20-something would be working a media-related job,
12:06usually in a big city like NYC, that affords you enough money to live in an unrealistically
12:11spacious and comfortable apartment, always hang out with friends, and constantly be shopping.
12:16According to the rom-coms, these are the women who find love.
12:19You don't want to be a difficult woman, but a cool, not-like-the-other-girls girl,
12:24who could always eat and drink without consequences, and never nagged or complained.
12:29We were expected to have a pizza with the guys, but also expected to punish ourselves
12:34endlessly if that pizza dared be visible on our body.
12:37Just like their iconic heroines, 90s rom-coms were certainly imperfect.
12:42But that was also part of their charm.
12:44While we might cringe at some aspects of the storylines now,
12:47the relatable core of the heroines leading these films is what has allowed them to continue to
12:51find their place in the hearts of generation after generation.
12:55And these 90s heroines also set up the archetype that the iconic rom-com heroines of the early
13:002000s and 2010s would both fall into and try to rebel against.
13:05The rom-coms of the 90s had the perfect mix of realism and schmaltz to stick in our hearts and
13:10minds. Even if we know they aren't realistic, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy disappearing into
13:15these over-the-top romantic worlds for a few hours. It's more than okay to love the heightened reality
13:21of romantic comedies. The epic declarations of love, kissing in the rain, last-minute airport
13:26or wedding confessions, pining for the wrong person until you find the right one, they were
13:31made to appeal to our innermost desire for something wholesome and formulaic, and to our belief that no
13:37matter how disconnected we might feel, one day we'll find someone that relights that fire in our hearts.
13:44That's the take! Click here to watch the video we think you'll love, or here to check out a whole
13:48playlist of awesome content. Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications.
13:53And make sure to subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive new videos.
Recommended
19:32
20:23
10:46
18:57
12:22
Be the first to comment