Today I will be exploring how the genre of romance is used differently in Five Feet Apart and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I am going to be looking at how this has been shown in each film and what effect they have on the audience. I will also be looking at the similarities in each film even though they are very different types of romance movies. I wanted to compare these two films as they have an opposite take on love in films and how they portray it through storyline, character types and even the conclusion on the film and how this makes the audience feel.
I will first be looking into the film Five Feet Apart directed by Justin Baldoni and was released in 2019. It follows the story of two teenager’s hospital bound as they are suffering from cystic fibrosis, which is a type of lung disease that makes it very hard to breathe because of the build-up of thick sticky mucus that collects in the lungs, digestive system and other organs. One main problem with this disease is cross contamination between two patients with CF and can cause each of them to pass over bacteria to each other that would be harmless who don’t have cystic fibrosis but can severally harm people with the disease and will potentially cause death.
This is where the six feet apart rule comes in which is used in the film between the two teenagers to be able to spend time with each other without making each other’s illness worse. The film Five Feet Apart shows how these two teenagers, Stella and Will, fight through this illness together and begin to fall in love with each and trying to make it work without endangering one another. This film battles with lose and the deadliness of cystic fibrosis. It is definitely a movie which pulls on your heart strings as an audience and roots for their love story.
The other film I will be looking at and comparing to Five Feet Apart is Scott Pilgrim vs the World directed by Edgar Wright, made in 2010, based on the comic books written my Bryan Lee O’Malley called the Scott Pilgrim series. The movie is about Scott Pilgrim who is a 23-year-old bass guitarist who starts of by dating a 17-year-old high school girl called Knives Chau but ends up falling in love with Ramona Flowers. Ramona moved to Toronto from New York to escape her past which Scott will later encounter upon.
To make Ramona his new girlfriend, Scott has to prove himself by fighting and defeating the league of her seven evil exes who control who enters her love life before becoming her official boyfriend before the game is over. Each ex becomes much harder to defeat the further down the list. During this journey he is also faced with the heart break and return of his ex-girlfriend but ends up killing her new boyfriend who is one of the seven exes. The whole film is based in a video game to win Ramona. You can see this in the pop-up graphics and second chances he gets to complete levels. Scott is even faced with his ex Knives Chau trying to kill Ramona Flowers for “stealing” her boyfriend.
Like I mentioned before, both films involve the storyline of love and romance, but each film has a very different way of showing it. Five Feet Apart is a very typical film using a similar story line to what nearly all romances use. It normally begins with a steady start of not knowing each other very well or even having little bickers to where they fall deep in love with each other and are inseparable. In this part of the storyline the scenes are occasionally a montage or just showing the two characters extremely happy with one another. This begins to make the audience fall for their romance as well. While the audience is hooked, the storyline normally brings in a tragedy that tests their love and even gives the idea of them not being able to work through it. However, the ending is hard to judge where it might go. Sometimes a romance storyline ends very happy with the couple staying together and living happily ever after with the audience feeling fulfilled or the story ends with a sad tone of one of the characters passing away or just going their separate ways.
Although, even with this sad ending in a romance, it still makes the audience feel for them as it ends giving the impression that they will both still live a happy life. this is exactly the storyline that Five Feet Apart portrays. The audience got to follow the ups and downs of their love to later have them separate in the end but still feel as if they were both going to do great things. This is a very strong way in which romance films entice their audience and get them emotionally involved.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World used their theme of romance very differently. For this film romance wasn’t the main genre as they focused the film being more an action-comedy. Even though romance is a part of the genre, they have very cleverly taken away the soppy side of it by making it comedic with a lot of action in it which is what makes the audience root for the main character of Scott Pilgrim. The storyline has a continuous up and down feel where some scenes the characters of Scott and Ramona are getting along very well or are arguing. Even some scenes where they have broken up. However, the action of Scott having to fight her exes continues throughout the movie to win her over.
This keeps the audience on their toes about if the two characters will get through it all and even the game together. As each fight with the exes give off a bigger impression that Scott may not win the game, it made it hard to tell how the film will end. As we can see that Scott Pilgrim vs the World has a very different style of storytelling it still includes the key theme in romance films of a giant struggle which will conclude their future. The scene that presents this is when Ramona takes back Gideon instead of staying with Scott and Scott debates whether to keep fighting for Ramona or to except her decision. Even the ending of the film is similar to how a romance would finish with them ending up together after all of the struggles they got through.
Looking at the characters themselves have a few similarities and differences. In the film Five Feet Apart, the character of Stella is very confident and out spoken. You can see this in her energy in the way she speaks and walks around the hospital. You can also see her this in the way she is in her YouTube videos that she posts while being very open about her treatments and her illness which is normally a private thing but does it to help other people around the world with the same disease.
As well as this, when it comes to meeting new people, like the character of Will, Stella found it very easy to speak to him and confront her concerns about him managing his own treatments. Looking at Ramona in Scott Pilgrim vs the World had the similar trait of having a quite confident stance and spoke very clearly when being spoken to. However, Ramona is quite a quiet person even though she makes others feel intimidated to speak to her. When Ramona is spoken to, she finds it very easy to reply and know what to say like how Stella is in Five Feet Apart. I would say Stella is more sociably confident while Ramona keeps to herself but isn’t afraid to say what is on her mind.
Now looking at the male main characters in each film. Starting with Will from Five Feet Apart, he begins quite confident by running after Stella and by trying to talk to her as much as possible even though they aren’t allowed. Will still seems quite a sad and angry character at the beginning while he seems to not care about his treats him. It is only when Stella starts to motivate him to focus on getting better is when he begins to become happier. Looking at Scott compared to Will they are very different characters when it comes to the way they act and their personalities. Scott is a very socially awkward individual who finds it very hard to speak to girls and to hold a casual conversation which is completely opposite to Will in Five Feet Apart and most romance films as it is usually the male character to be confident in romance films.
In Five Feet Apart they do a very clever thing where they slightly change the temperature and colour palettes of scenes depending on the mood of the story in that scene. Whereas in Scott vs the World the colour palette mostly doesn’t change as it is representing a video game which doesn’t change in emotion if you fail or lose a life. The colouring in Five Feet Apart really shows the realism in the film whilst the other uses bright neon colours to represent how video games was back in the 90’s when the film was set.
In Scott Pilgrim vs the World, like I mentioned before, doesn’t having a change in colour palette but has a large use of graphics and bright neon colours to represent a video games and these are to show the sound effects and health of player. They use a large range of these in every scene of the film like you can see her.
However, they used a lot of low lighting throughout the film. I think this was used to show how mysterious the character of Ramona is but also to build up the impact of the fights by starting dark before the fight scenes broke out with bright graphics.
Five Feet Apart used a very common and popular theme which has been used for many years the forbidden love formed with someone terminally sick. An old popular film that used this was Love Story made in 1970 and directed by Arthur Hiller. It’s about two characters who come from different backgrounds. Where Oliver Barrett is a Harvard student whereas Jenny Cavilleri is a middle-class girl studying music and they fall in love, they battle with the controversy from Oliver’s Parents and Jenny’s terminal illness while they fight for their love. This film was seen as one of the greatest films with this genre. However, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a genre that is newly recognised in the film industry. Even though I did an in-depth search into existing films which use the same style and found near to nothing the same. This really shows how much of an individual idea it was and how it is starting a new type of popular genre.
After looking all the difference in Five Feet Apart and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, it has become very clear that even though both films involve the genre of romance, even in different amounts, have given some similarities. This is through the use of character development and even a small bit of the story line is similar to a typical romance film. However, Scott Pilgrim vs the World will not cause the audience to tear up but rather cheer along with the fight scenes.
References:
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Imdb, [undated]. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) [online]. Available from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/plotsummary [Accessed 14 January 2020].
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Cystic Fibrosis Trust, [undated]. Cross-infection [online]. Available from: https://www.cysticfibrosis.org.uk/life-with-cystic-fibrosis/cross-infection [Accessed 14 January 2020].
Smith, E., 2019. Five Feet Apart: All The Controversies, Explained [online]. Available from: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/03/227066/five-feet-apart-controversy-cystic-fibrosis-patients-backlash [Accessed 14 January 2020].
McCahill, M., 2019. Five Feet Apart review – sickly teen romance mopes to morbid conclusion [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/22/five-feet-apart-review [Accessed 14 January 2020].
Minow, N., 2019. Five Feet Apart [online]. Available from: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/five-feet-apart-2019 [Accessed 14 January 2020].
Chakravartula, A., 2017. 17 Best Terminal Illness Movies of All Time [online]. Available from: https://www.thecinemaholic.com/terminal-illness-movies/ [Accessed 14 January 2020].
Filmsite, [undated]. Love Story (1970) [online]. Available from: https://www.filmsite.org/love.html [Accessed 14 January 2020].
Photos:
https://www.filmcomment.com/article/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-review/
https://www.themoviescene.co.uk/reviews/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world.html
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Five-Feet-Apart-Blu-ray/241313/
Emily August s5205804 