Romance character = Antagonist ?

All 'romance' films have an antagonist...

A Classic, "His Girl Friday"(1940), has the male character, a newspaper editor, wanting to maintain the female character as his 'ace reporter'. But she wants to have hearth and home, and is exiting the business to marry another. Complications ensue, and she ends up not marrying, maintaining her 'ace reportage' status, but finds that the newpaper man is her 'true love'... well until the next big news scoop...

This is an interesting film, in that it was originally a stage play "The Front Page"(1929), involving two men, editor and reporter. The first film adaptation, "The Front Page"(1931) was pretty straight forward. In the second film adaptation, "His Girl Friday"(1940), it was changed for a male, female, lead characters, and has had two subsequent adaptations, again with male-male, "The Front Page"(1974), and "Switching Channels"(1988), with the last one having male-female leads, but also significant changes to 'TV reporters", and changes in dialog... so this one would be probably just 'story by' type credit.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
...A Classic, "His Girl Friday"(1940),....
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Looks like His Girl Friday also might have been one of the films that helped coin the term for the 'bellamy character', given that Ralph Bellamy is the boyfriend who is all wrong for the girl in His Girl Friday. I think he played that part in other films too. Going to have to rent His Girl Friday, saw it long ago.
 
I would class Harry and Sally as each others antagonist.

In lots of flicks, they tend to start off antagonistically and then gradually become less so.

Belloq in Raiders tries to seduce Marion.

That chick in ATeam is antagonistic, even though she's gotta thing for Face.

That's all that comes to mind right now.
 
Tracy said:
I would class Harry and Sally as each others antagonist. In lots of flicks, they tend to start off antagonistically and then gradually become less so.....
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A given that in many romcoms the two protagonists (even though one is usually a main protagonist) are at odds and eventually learn they are meant for each other. What I am wondering is are there examples where one protagonist serves a role as the Antagonist foiling some external goal (other than romance) of the other protagonist (the main Protagonist).
 
Examples of "Faux" Romance with Antagonist (various motivations):
-Notorious
-North by Northwest
-Sunset Blvd.
-Titanic
-many Bond films

Examples of Schtupping the Antagonist (love optional):
-The Maltese Falcon
-The Thomas Crown Affair
-Indecent Proposal
-many Bond films

Examples of Actual Romance with Antagonist?
Hmmmm,
that's a tough one...
-Various world myths (deities, etc.)
 
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While the english language usage of the word 'antagonist' is often in the sense of 'making trouble for someone'... in the dramatic sense, it is usually referring to the person (or persons) who hinder the Protagonist in their 'goal', possibly by action, but also could be by means of 'inaction'.

In its most simplistic form, the Protagonist has a goal, the Antagonist prevents or hinders the Protagonist in pursuit of that goal. As such, many romcoms have two leads that form into protagonist/antagonist roles. A guy wants to have a certain relationship with a gal, but she doesn't want the same type of relationship... puts up road blocks for 'the guy's desire', and eventually the character arc of the guy, bends to the gal's will...

An antagonist need not be 'nasty/evil/vicious', etc... just not inclined to 'go along' with the protagonist's original plan... for those who have plans...

On the other hand a recent RomCom positioned a love triangle, wherein a Caped Crusader has a goal of hanging up his cape, and marrying the love of his life... He is prevented by three 'antagonists'. 1) The Girl, she knows his identity and also 'knows' he will only reluctantly, and perhaps not unequivocally, give up his crime fighting. 2) A 'nice' young man who has nothing but a glorious future fighting crime in more traditional and acceptable ways, and although he does not directly prevent/hinder the Caped Crusader, his existence offers The Girl the option of not throwing herself at the Caped Crusader. 3) And finally Joker with no plan but to create chaos, and hinder everyone from having their dreams, by throwing so much s**t up in the air, that some of it is bound to fall on the Caped Crusader, his desired Girl, and Her Desired Lover.

I'm sure some may not see the humor in this scenario, hence not place this film in the RomCom genre... but that would mean someone had a plan for genres...
 
I feel like a lot of Woody Allen films might have this, like Scarlett Johanson in Match Point.
 
Pretty much every film noir ever made has this dynamic. Also, some romantic comedies, such as 500 DAYS OF SUMMER.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
While the english language usage of the word 'antagonist' is often in the sense of 'making trouble for someone'... in the dramatic sense, it is usually referring to the person (or persons) who hinder the Protagonist in their 'goal', possibly by action, but also could be by means of 'inaction'.

In its most simplistic form, the Protagonist has a goal, the Antagonist prevents or hinders the Protagonist in pursuit of that goal. As such, many romcoms have two leads that form into protagonist/antagonist roles. A guy wants to have a certain relationship with a gal, but she doesn't want the same type of relationship... puts up road blocks for 'the guy's desire', and eventually the character arc of the guy, bends to the gal's will...

An antagonist need not be 'nasty/evil/vicious', etc... just not inclined to 'go along' with the protagonist's original plan... for those who have plans...

On the other hand a recent RomCom positioned a love triangle, wherein a Caped Crusader has a goal of hanging up his cape, and marrying the love of his life... He is prevented by three 'antagonists'. 1) The Girl, she knows his identity and also 'knows' he will only reluctantly, and perhaps not unequivocally, give up his crime fighting. 2) A 'nice' young man who has nothing but a glorious future fighting crime in more traditional and acceptable ways, and although he does not directly prevent/hinder the Caped Crusader, his existence offers The Girl the option of not throwing herself at the Caped Crusader. 3) And finally Joker with no plan but to create chaos, and hinder everyone from having their dreams, by throwing so much s**t up in the air, that some of it is bound to fall on the Caped Crusader, his desired Girl, and Her Desired Lover.

I'm sure some may not see the humor in this scenario, hence not place this film in the RomCom genre... but that would mean someone had a plan for genres...
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Randall mentioned "main protagonist". But If there is conversely a "main antagonist" in many (most?) RomCom's, it is not a character per se (but fate; timing; happenstance; star-crossing; or WhateverTF). I took him to mean literally, and would not include romantic comedies at large myself.
Batutta said:
Pretty much every film noir ever made has this dynamic...
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+1
 
CallaghanFilms said:
Randall mentioned "main protagonist". But If there is conversely a "main antagonist" in many (most?) RomCom's, it is not a character per se (but fate; timing; happenstance; star-crossing; or WhateverTF). I took him to mean literally, and would not include romantic comedies at large myself.
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Well, I don't know exactly where to place 'forces of Nature', but I tend to think of role classes such as protagonist and antagonists as some form of sentient being... You could say almost all films are dependent on 'fate/timing/happenstance(not too many 'happy happenstances' though...)'.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Well, I don't know exactly where to place 'forces of Nature', but I tend to think of role classes such as protagonist and antagonists as some form of sentient being... You could say almost all films are dependent on 'fate/timing/happenstance(not too many 'happy happenstances' though...)'.
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Fair enough, but that (they) would take a back seat to a more dominant antagonist in other genres. In romances, these elements IMO play a more prominent role. Hence the appeal (this is what helps puts the "c-h-i-c-k-s" in "chick flicks").:beer:



Edit:
*For the record, I hate the term chick flick. As many of you know, my favorite genre is "good".
 
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Randall_Oelerich said:
A given that in many romcoms the two protagonists (even though one is usually a main protagonist) are at odds and eventually learn they are meant for each other. What I am wondering is are there examples where one protagonist serves a role as the Antagonist foiling some external goal (other than romance) of the other protagonist (the main Protagonist).
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I know what you mean. Crazy I can't think of more examples. What seems to come to mind are femme fatale and dual archetype and film noir roles:
http://www.imdb.com/list/-6HV9iYLlvQ/

Also that movie Unknown http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401152/ where January Jones is really a bad dudette.
 
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