Amelia from the Film in Revolt team spoke with Elizabeth Sankey – director of Romantic Comedy, which screened at the 2019 Sydney Underground Film Festival.
I have always been a sucker for a romantic comedy, and as a hopeless romantic sixteen year old female I am the epitome of a rom-com’s target audience. It’s for this reason I found Elizabeth Sankey’s Romantic Comedy an educational, fascinating and intelligent dive into the complicated world of rom-coms that I thought I was so familiar with. Sankey questions clichés and investigates the status quo and the history of the rom-com as well as women’s roles within them.
You mentioned in the film that you loved romantic comedies, so what pushed you to create the film and why did you think it was necessary?
I grew up watching them from a pretty young age because they’re quite vanilla in terms of sexual content, so I was able to watch them, as many as I wanted, as much as I wanted. It was also something my parents and sister all loved so we all watched them together. I guess I just realised as an adult how much they had formed the way I had viewed romantic relationships and how women should behave in relationships, and my idea of what a romantic man was. What I wanted, what I thought was romantic behaviour from men. I found that a little bit disturbing as I was older but yet I still loved them, and I was still very moved by them. The reason I made the film the way that I made it, as a film essay, was because my husband and I had worked in a band together and done the soundtrack for a film called Beyond Clueless by Charlie Lyne. It’s quite different, it’s also a film essay but it goes into the world of teen movies. It was a medium and way of telling a story and engaging with something that I felt quite comfortable with, so that was why I decided to do it like that.
How did the commentary and interviews in Romantic Comedy shape the direction of the film?
Hugely. I was originally just going to talk about my experience with romantic comedies, but then realised that I obviously have a bias and also because of the fact that I am a white, straight woman and that I come from a middle class background I find it very easy to find myself in these films. That’s partly why I didn’t realise that they were a fantasy, that’s why I treated them as reality and a toolkit or roadmap of how love should be. I really wanted to talk to other people who were from different backgrounds to find out what it was like. What was really interesting was that so many people I interviewed who didn’t have the same background as me still connected with them in a very deep way, and still found them very romantic and very helpful. They still had a very positive effect on those people. At the same time, they still said that some of it was terrible and awful but were still moved by them and loved them despite those flaws. That was really interesting because I originally was just going to say these films are terrible, and here are the reasons why they’re terrible. But I kind of fell back in love with the movies, and I realised that they have this incredible power because they’re the only genre that really just deals with human connection. So that was actually quite a journey that I went on.
Were there things about romantic comedies that you realised throughout the process that you hadn’t considered before?
There were definitely things that they would bring up that I hadn’t thought of before. It was really interesting because everyone I interviewed, without me bringing it up, talked about ‘The Cool Girl’ trope. Everyone mentioned ‘oh, she’s just a cool girl’ and that’s the discourse that’s been around forever. It’s definitely something that most of the women that I know have ascribed to. I’d be really interested to know if your generation has similar things. The version of yourself that will be most appealing to what you think men want, and I was doing this at a time when I didn’t know a thing about boys. I was just like ‘I assume they like beer, so I’ll drink lots of beer!’. It’s was interesting to realise that this isn’t a throwaway thing in a film, like a declaration of love or whatever that some people may have experienced. This was something that very single woman and man was aware of or if they were women may have done themselves, and that was shocking. It’s really affected the way we behave.
I think the ‘Cool Girl’ definitely still exists today. Those stereotypes are now being highlighted as problematic, even though they’re in a lot of films that are considered as classics. Do you think the way they’re regarded or the way we watch them needs to change?
No, I really don’t. I’m so against re-categorisation or any sort of censorship. I don’t think we all need to re-address these types of films and if they’re good or bad in the light of new information. I think when I watch the films that do have elements that I now find uncomfortable or a but problematic I still really love them for the reasons I love them originally. I wasn’t really ever watching like Last Kiss, which has a guy camped out on a woman’s porch, I was never watching that thinking that was so romantic. But I also maybe never articulated that I didn’t find it romantic. That’s more the case. I think we need to be having conversations about these things. Most viewers are intelligent and have the ability to watch something and go ‘ha’. That’s what’s important. I would never want to take When Harry Met Sally and be like ‘Yeah, but everyone’s white and straight. Nobody can ever watch this ever again.’
What do you want young people, specifically teenage girls, to take from Romantic Comedy?
Well I’m 34, 35 next week, and I’ve had several monogamous relationships, long term relationships. My relationship with my husband is the first one where I’m completely myself and I’m very comfortable. I’m never anything other than myself. I would want the message to come across that it’s not about altering anything about yourself for someone else, because most men don’t actually want that. They don’t want to be with somebody who isn’t being completely themselves. It will just always come out, the real you will always come out and it will just get exhausting. I used to get so exhausted of pretending to be this version of myself that I really, really wasn’t. I’d get so angry. I guess all of these conversations were having now about consent and things like that, it’s so important that young women feel that they have the power to say what they want and say how they’re feeling, even if those feeling are uncomfortable or bad or you’re worried they might change things. That’s definitely not what romantic comedies encourage women to do. They encourage women to just be these perfect versions of themselves that never make a fuss and are always quite or just fun and easy going. That’s what I really wanted the film to communicate, that young women need to be encouraged to say what they’re feeling and really speak up and to be brave and courageous. I actually think that men respond really well to that.
Do you think the impact romantic comedies had on you when you were younger was positive or negative?
I think that it was positive in that it gave me quite a good understanding of romantic relationships and people and what drives us. It encouraged me to be brave and to love, which isn’t always the easiest thing. I think falling in love is actually terrifying. Sometimes seeing what you don’t want makes me realise what you do want. Also, it’s the only genre that’s made for women that’s focused on women that is that features very strong female stories. Not always perfect ones, but it’s where women actually get to say what they want. And obviously it would be wonderful if it wasn’t just always about romance and relationships that women were getting to say that in films. But it definitely made me feel articulate in that area of my life which is wonderful, and I think very important. They have definitely influenced me in a very positive way. It’s nice for women to have a space in cinema that is theirs that so many women that I know, we really love these films and we talk about them a lot. And that’s the other thing that I want the film to get across, that these aren’t films that anyone should be guilty about liking or watching or having had positive experiences with because I also think that sometimes film or tv that is for women or about women they can be quite dismissed by the mainstream or the critical side of film. That shouldn’t happen. These are really important films.
Do you think that there’s a culture shift happening at the moment?
I do, and I think it’s wonderful. And I’m really happy that romantic comedies are a really safe space for people to take risks because there is a very big audience for them. When there’s a good rom-com out, women go. It’s a really good place when you know it will probably make money, so we can make this an inter-racial couple. So yeah, I do feel like it’s happening. I think there’s still so much more that needs to be done, trans people still don’t get their stories represented, non-binary people don’t get their stories represented, people of colour still don’t get their stories represented, queer people, and I think that’s the next place that needs to be conquered. But I am very encouraged by it. I obviously want more romantic comedies to be made, so I think it’s great.
Is there a romantic comedy that impacted you when you were younger?
I remember seeing In & Out, it’s about an English and acting teacher who is about to get married. One of his old students is now a very famous Hollywood actor and wins an Oscar. In his acceptance speech he outs his old teacher as gay, who’s like ‘That’s crazy. I’m getting married to a woman.’ But then over the course of the film he gradually realises he is gay, and this is something he’s never addressed. It’s really not a perfect film, it has a lot of terrible stereotypes, but it was the first time I’d ever seen a queer story anywhere. I watched it when I was twelve and it made me open my eyes and understand a little bit more about that world that until then I had no experience with whatsoever. I really saw the humanity of those two men. If I hadn’t seen that film, I wouldn’t have had that experience about another sexuality that now I know a lot more about.
What about a film other than a rom-com? Was there one that had a significant impact on you?
Oh my gosh, tough question. The Craft! My sister would rent movies from Blockbuster and they would be fifteen and I was younger than her, so I could watch them in secret. I came home from Girl Guides, it was a Friday night and I was making cookies. She had rented this film called The Craft. I had always been obsessed with witches, I feel like there’s something really amazing and powerful about witches in culture. This film was scary and shocking but also these girls had so much power and I was obsessed with them. It was also the first time I’d ever understood the concept of rape. There’s a scene when one of the characters almost gets raped, that was just so horrifying to me. Especially since I was just such a rom-com fan, I had such an idealised version of love. To see something so aggressive and violent was really shocking and I can still remember it. But the film, I just loved it. Witches in culture, it’s like women aren’t allowed to have power so we can only have it as a magical force. I want to be as powerful as them!