ABSTRACT
Before 1960, the main plot of 85 percent of all Hollywood films was romance. Today, romance maintains a second class status as subplot – unless La La Land represents a breakthrough and not just a moment of nostalgic glory. Film, television, cable and internet producers, writers, and directors have an obligation to become master alchemists of love. Film, television, and the internet are the "vernacular" media of this time: college students spend more time at their computers and television sets than reading books, which may help explain why The Tale of Genji has lived on in so many adaptations including movies, anime, and "twenty-odd manga versions". In Moonlight, the charged silence that Barry Jenkins uses conveys even more passion and longing than stated words of dialogue. A screenwriter must be careful not to be seduced by the power of language.
