2.Main Content
Do you believe in love...?
Bella and Edward - Twilght
Tue, 13 Dec 2011
The success of all cinematic love stories depends on the audience believing that the characters should be together. Our Diploma in Script Development, taught in partnership with the NFTS, is currently training the next generation of script developers. This year's students have been asked to explore the various ways to get audiences on-side, looking at a range of filmic love stories. Student Charlotte Biermann came up trumps.
The nature of cinematic love stories is that a romantic relationship takes centre stage and supports the universal notion that everyone has a soul mate and that love can be transforming. For an audience to be satisfied, most of us would agree that they must be convinced that the characters deserve each other and confirm these ideals. To see how different elements of a screenplay produce this belief in the audience I have chosen to examine Twilight, to see how a film aimed at teenagers, has managed to capture the hearts of women across the generations; Brokeback Mountain, to discover how homosexual love, an issue that can still be taboo in today’s world, was handled to critical acclaim and to uncover what made The Proposal such a box office hit.
All three writers have created protagonists that are credible and complex but also people we can relate to or sympathise with. On top of this, Billy Mernit suggests in ‘Writing the Romantic Comedy’ they cannot be in it for either the sex or the money.
Bella in Twilight resonates with a wide demographic. On one hand Bella is a misfit; clumsy, uninterested in fashion, liking solitude. She strikes a cord with angst ridden teenagers who feel like the odd ones out. She is also admirable in that she sticks to her guns and won’t be bullied from her beliefs. Her difference is a strength rather than a weakness. She is also a nurturer who appeals to older women. Mothers relate to her putting the happiness of others ahead of her own; she moves to Forks, whose wet climate she hates, to live with her estranged father giving her mother the freedom to follow her husband, around the country. Edward is “devastatingly beautiful”, and apart from the obvious, perfect boyfriend material – highly romantic and honourable in his behaviour. He lives with an exemplary moral vampire family. His ‘father’ having only ‘turned’ those who were dying and they only hunt animals. The first time we meet them, the Cullen family are cooking for Bella despite the fact they don’t eat themselves.
In The Proposal, Margaret is initially referred to by other characters as “dragon lady” and “Satan’s Mistress”, but her quick repartee, success in her job and the reasonable way she fires Bob, signals there is more to this character than this cartoonish monster. Margaret harks back to the earliest days of the genre when powerful, unconventional women dominated the men. As Billy Merit says: “we like ‘em feisty”. We soon sympathise with her when we learn both her parents died when she was only sixteen and through the course of the story the vulnerable, sensitive but fun aspects of her character are revealed. Indeed following her dismissal of Bob and his subsequent rage, we later learn she “went to the bathroom and cried”. Andrew, although perhaps a little two dimensional is commendable in his passion and commitment to his job, and the way he handles Margaret. It is also impressive that he manages to engineer his promotion to editor in return for marrying her.
Ennis and Jack in Brokeback Mountain are poor uneducated young men, who have been left to fend for themselves – Ennis being an orphan and Jack in conflict with a father he can never please. However, both become good fathers themselves, taking active roles in bringing up their children. While Ennis and Jack do have a strong sex life, sex is not their primary need rather the natural expression of their passion. All these characters are what Blake Snyder refers to as “audience stand-in’s that resonate for the target audience” (Save the Cat!) and we so care about what happens to them.
Larry McMurtry's Brokeback MountainThe plots in love stories are devoted to the progression of the couple towards one another. In order for the audience to feel the central characters should come together the opening sequences set up their individual worlds and what is wrong or missing in their life. In The Proposal we see both Margaret and Andrew are consumed with their work. Margaret is working even as she walks to work and Andrew is so dedicated he drinks the same coffee as his boss just in case her’s spills. We see that they both need to find life outside of work. In Brokeback Mountain both men, looking for work, are thrown together by their boss to illegally graze sheep. They are forced again to be isolated from others and live in secrecy. They are two very lonely young men. In Twilight, Bella is seen separate from everyone else and subordinating her needs to those of others. Edward is the first to notice Bella has swapped her happiness for her mother’s. The dramatic question is whether these characters will become a couple and the structure of the screenplay is based on the couple meeting, and then loosing each other before overcoming the obstacles, external and internal, to their union.
A prime example of external conflict is illustrated in Twilight where quite literally the failure to overcome the conflict will result in life or death for Bella. Edward and Bella come together by the midpoint of the story but with Edward being a vampire the challenge develops into preventing Bella from becoming “a meal”. This is tested when Bella joins the Cullen Family, in a baseball game and James; a vampire from another tribe spots her as a human and hunts her. Then, the tension is heightened when Edward becomes the conflict himself. By the time Edward rescues her from James, she has been bitten and is fast turning into a vampire. Edward must suck her blood clean but will he be able to stop before killing her? In an altogether different context the same issue is also the problem for Ennis and Jack. Following the end of their time on Brokeback Mountain, Jack returns to Wyoming the next summer looking for work but mainly for Ennis. Their first obstacle is confirmed when Joe Aguirre informs Jack that he saw their antics and won’t employ Jack again. Their obstacle, too, is other people. Their love is viewed as a crime against society that must not speak its name. Ennis is deeply internally conflicted, from a troubled childhood that included his father showing him the mutilated body of a man who dared to live Jack’s dream. For the body of the screenplay his passion for Jack only creates further, tormenting tension. It isn’t until Jack’s death that he understands what he denied for himself with Jack and that perhaps the price for their love was not as high as its loss. Only then do we see the loosening of this emotionally cripplingly bondage. Similarly, Margaret has built up a wall around her since the death of her parents. She has forgotten “what it felt like to have people love you.” But with Andrew’s mother and grandmother functioning as a surrogate family and enveloping her into family life, the story progresses as her protective layers are striped back to reveal her vulnerability and enable her to realise her plan is not just a business deal. As well as making Andrew lie and risk prison, she confronts the potential emotional harm that could be caused if his family find out the truth, even the possible physical threat of Gammy having a heart attack. Ironically this is exactly what Gammy feigns in order to stop father and son fighting and reunite the lovers. The battling and ultimate resolution of internal conflict is what makes the case for the power of love in filmic love stories; the power of love to heal and transform. “Crisis provokes the protagonist into comprehending the value of love” (Billy Mernit). True love can only be found when the protagonists share an intrinsic chemistry.
Audiences believe that the central characters should be together because they have an innate chemistry that makes them uniquely compatible and appear to complete one another. Margaret and Andrew have the same work ethic and passion for books. Ennis and Jack are clearly at their best and most happy when together. They laugh constantly in each other’s presence, something we never see them do with others. Bella sees through Edwards’s mask of aloofness and accepts him for who is. When they get together Edward too finds a joy in life he didn’t have before. The fact that he can read everyone else’s mind but not her’s points to Bella being a good match for him. This is what is lacking in The Time Travelers Wife. The audience is not given a substantial reason why Clare stays with Henry. With Henry repeatedly vanishing, Clare manages to get on with her life. Their relationship seems to be a continuous cycle of short grasped moments that are unsatisfactory for both them and its audience. It raises the question could Clare find happiness elsewhere?
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in The ProposalThe supporting characters can also be used as a tool to back up a couple’s chemistry by showing how other romantic options do not fulfill the respective protagonists’ needs. In The Proposal, Gertrude, the girl Andrew left behind, can’t even fathom living anywhere but Alaska or relate to Andrew’s career in New York. Most crucially she won’t sacrifice Sitka to be with him: “That was always Andrew's dream, not mine.” So we know she’s not the one for him. This is further enhanced by Andrew’s parents’ relationship being a reflection of how it might have been if Andrew had compromised and stayed with Gertrude. When Grace Paxton argues with her husband Joe over his treatment of Andrew she paints the picture: “Just you and me alone … and everything that we are angry about”.
In Brokeback Mountain both Ennis and Jack disappoint their wives. Alma wants to live in town nearer other people and have a social life in stark contrast to her husband. Lureen also finds her husband lacking in a number of ways, especially in his forbearance of her father’s derogatory behaviour which is a repetition of his own father’s. The only person to value Jack is Ennis. The absence of serious ‘other’ suitors in Twilight only serves to promote that Bella and Edward are meant for each other. Although other boys at school fancy her and fight for her attention, it is clear that she is not interested. They are too boisterous and immature; a sharp contrast to Edward. Bella’s mother presents a positive picture of a women giving up her way of life to go on the road with her boyfriend; thus indicating that Bella’s sacrifice is not necessarily a bad thing.
Sacrifice is a major way a screenwriter can signal the depth of their characters' feelings for each other and how far they are willing to go for their love. Bella is prepared to sacrifice her life to be with Edward while he is internally battles with whether their relationship is the best thing for Bella. Having originally made several attempts to warn her off, such is his love for her that he is prepared to give her up so that she can live a normal life and remain with her family; selflessly he is prepared to sacrifice a chance of happiness that he hasn’t experienced in 100 years. The pain of such a loss is confirmed by another vampire, Jasper. “None of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you.”
By the climax of The Proposal, Margaret is prepared to be deported and hence lose her job rather than make Andrew go through with the sham marriage. However, Andrew is willing to sacrifice single life to marry Margaret to keep her in the country so he can “date” her for real. In Brokeback Mountain Jack wants to divorce his wife and run his parents ranch with Ennis regardless of the reactions from the community around him. Ennis resists this suggestion, all too aware of the possible consequences. But, Ennis has paid a price through his love of Jack: “It’s because of you, Jack, that I’m like this. I’m nothing. I’m nowhere”. Prior to meeting Jack, Ennis planned on marrying Alma and get his own ranch. However, their marriage disintegrates once Alma witnesses him kissing Jack and realises the truth of their relationship. His dreams of owning a ranch are dashed as he becomes constrained by geography and meeting child support payments in order to see his daughters.
Intimacy rather than sex endears an audience to a couple. Intimate moments touch on the tender bonds that echo the unconditional love of mother and child. Prime examples are when Andrew rescues Margaret from the sea following her falling overboard their boat and he then wraps her in a blanket and hugs her close to him, comforting her for the first time. During their time on Brokeback Mountain, both standing by the fire, Ennis rocks Jack in his arms and sings to him the same way his mother used to do. Twilight is redolent in affectionate, romantic moments as sexual denial is a must given the physical threat it potentially poses for Bella.
Dialogue can be use to overtly and obliquely express the couples love. In Twilight the viewers are never in doubt of Edward and Bella’s feelings. They consistently assert: “I'm only afraid of losing you” and “you're my life now”. Metaphorically the picture is also painted when Edward states: “the lion fell for the lamb”. In The Proposal, at times the dialogue acts as an explanation for what will and has happened: When lying to the immigration officer Andrew improvises “two people who weren’t suppose to fall in love but did.” Then during the wedding service Ramone says: “For it is their family and friends who taught Andrew and Margaret to love.” In Brokeback Mountain, where much is left unsaid, it’s all the poignant when they do reveal their pain: “sometimes I miss you so bad, I can hardly stand it.” In a moment of bitter frustration, Jack says it all: “I wish I knew how to quit you.” If they could “quit” each other, they would but they can’t and suffer for it. This is why we believe they should be together.
Imagery is another tool at the screenwriter’s disposal to indirectly underline their case for their protagonists to be united. Twilight uses images in various ways. Bella is described as having a “pale naturalness” compared to the “tanned…blonde girls”. Physically she is similar looking to the vampires. The nature of their relationship is encapsulated when Edward gives Bella an apple in the school canteen – the symbolic fruit of knowledge, temptation, and immortality. In The Proposal, water is a theme. At the beginning of Margaret’s visit to Sitka Andrew, irritated, deliberately throws her bag in the water. By the end of the trip he is rescuing her from the water. His feelings by this point have reversed. Similarly the opening and final images are both set in the office but while Margaret was dictating what to do to Andrew in the beginning, the roles are reversed at the end. For Ennis, Jack and the audience the enduring image is Brokeback Mountain itself. As Jack articulates, it’s all they had. It is a time and place they try but never manage to get back to. Their love is gut-wrenchingly evoked when we see at the end of the script Ennis has tacked a postcard of the Mountain next to the shirts he had taken from Jack’s closet; only now, recognising his love, he has reversed them so that his shirt envelopes Jack's.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Zooey Deschanel - 500 Days Of SummerThe success of cinematic love stories lies in the belief that the characters ‘should’ be together as illustrated in The Proposal and Twilight. However that ending maybe more metaphorical than traditional, in that they may not necessarily be physically together as witnessed in Brokeback Mountain. This is also supported by the fact that seven of the top 10 love stories on the American Film Institute 100 Greatest Love Films list feature films where couples don't end up together. Interestingly a recent successful love film 500 days of Summer does seem to question ‘the one’ ideology and more realistically narrates the full length of a relationship. Although, it could be argued that while Summer was not the one, Autumn might be. Certainly, all the lead characters in these stories are transformed by the love they experience and are better people for it.
© Charlotte Biermann/The Script Factory 2010
Prior to joining our Diploma In Script Development, Charlotte Biermann studied acting at drama school, before going behind the scenes to work at the BBC, Virgin Media TV, and Talkback Thames in a variety of roles. She subsequently worked at two talent agencies, PFD and Independent, before embarking on her studies in Script Development.