ABSTRACT
Chapter 5, ‘Love in the movies’, examines how love and intimacy has been represented in films. The chapter looks at the socio-historical and socio-cultural context of love and intimacy and the way romance has been represented historically. The chapter considers the different filmic genres, including romance and film noir, romantic comedies and bromances (’homme-coms’). The chapter explores the way in which the ‘#MeToo Movement’ has impacted women, and the way the research of Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker has undermined powerful individuals in the film and media industries, including Harvey Weinstein and Les Moonves. This situation continues today as I complete this book. The chapter also looks at heteronormative perspectives on love in the movies, and examines movies where challenges are made to the heteronormative dominance of movies. The chapter also examines the psychosocial context of masculinity and jealousy in film, as outlined in the work of Candida Yates. Stearns, Mullen and Yates also analyse how male jealousy is linked to a sense of entitlement. The chapter more broadly examines cinematic theories which examine a psychosocial and feminist approach captured in the work of Laura Mulvey in her iconic work on the ‘male gaze’.
