Research-Tropes

  In any romance, there's usually a trope that is followed that creates a bit of familiarity and expectations for viewers that are either followed or broken. Tropes create a "categories'' for viewers, on how they like their romance films and also drives the overall plot. I wanted to really understand what tropes are practiced are used to capture the romantic atmosphere. Popular, and common tropes that take place in most films are  friends to lovers, opposites attract, forbidden love, second chance, misunderstandings and obstacles, enemies to lovers, love triangles and happily ever after.  Out of these, three spoke to me because one, I enjoy these tropes myself and two I can relate in some type of way. By doing and exploring tropes that have more persona meaning to me, I feel I can go about my project more passionately.

Friends to Lovers

  In this trope, two best friends who have known each other usually for a long time start to fall in love in love with one another. This trope is a slow burn as the couples relationship shifts from platonic to romantic, but this shift involves common challenges or fears that the main characters must overcome. In the friends to lovers trope, a common fear both characters have is jeopardizing or losing their friendship if feelings are not the same or if the relationship doesn't work out. This trope involves deep emotions from both sides of characters as they both deeply care for one another. An example of a film that uses this trope is, "Past Lives". 
 

Forbidden Love

  The trope of forbidden love, I feel can be a powerful and deep trope. Here both characters, may "live two different worlds", as they are separated by, societal, cultural expectations that might have been placed on them from family due to class or upbringing. This trope brings two different lifestyles together through main characters romance and may involve many challenges whether it's external or internal. In this trope the relationship can only come to life if both characters come together and rebel against others' opinions and judgements. This need to fight can cause trouble in the relationship if someone isn't willing to, bringing up questions. A movie where two characters were divided by class was the "Titanic".

Second Chance

  Unlike other tropes, this trope spins back a relationship from the past. In this trope characters come back together from a past relationship they had with each other which could have not worked due to many scenarios such as being too young, school, starting a career moving away and more. Emotions like regret, guilt and yearning are all overcame through this trope as characters are willing to, forgive. understand one another and work on past mistakes that could have hurt the relationship. A popular and well known example of this, is "The Notebook" where Allie and Noah rekindle their relationship after parting ways when they were younger.

Reflection

  After taking a closer look into each of these tropes, I think I really like the idea of ''forbidden love" as it resonates with me personally. It's a trope that can be relatable to many people of strong cultural identity and upbringing, especially while also trying to fit in society. I find this trope moving as it shows the real pressures and struggles that are not always touched upon in romances.

Sources: 

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-romance-trope-definition/

https://nofilmschool.com/romance-movie-genre