The remote control was finally adrift, unattached to any hand. Him and the kids had gone to bed and were happily snoring. I slumped onto the couch for some me-time and scrolled through the menus in search of a film only I would like. No animations, no violence, no tweens.
My craving was for a French film as i had been feeling nostalgic for the language. I had tried unsuccessfully to watch a film francais several times recently. It is crucial to keep listening to fluent French speech flowing around the house if we want to stay at a level where we could go back and live there passably. This time i would not be thwarted.
There are a number of French films available on Netflix, although they are hard to find. [Tip: Search French-language films, don’t go through the International Category as it has hundreds of films and they don’t display what country they are from on the summary].
I tried to escape into a light-hearted romantic comedy, truly I did. The film I chose was called Wedding Unplanned (Jour J in French). The blurb states that it is about a man that got stuck planning a wedding with his fiance and his lover. The premise is a little old but not uninteresting. I expected awkwardness, double entendre and an arrogant man who was then reformed in some way throughout the story.
Apart from some spectacular settings in Provence inside old mas (farmhouses), I couldn’t find a lot to like. The lover pressured the male into cheating in the first scene. The dialogue was blunt and boring. The male character was a cowardly wet blanket who went along with whatever the two women said, as if he had no mind of his own. My lack of sympathy for him meant I couldn’t celebrate the happy ending.
All of which led me to ponder whether feminists can in fact be romantics. I do believe love wins in the end, which is the ultimate hopeful message of the romance genre. I adore Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice. Although, I don’t think love can conquer everything. For example, the man in the film marries his lover and then remains faithful forever? They may be in love but would he then crave the excitement, the danger of cheating again? Should you really be getting into a relationship with someone who ignores you for the whole movie until you emerge wearing a dress? What would a feminist romantic do?
The evolutionary perspective would suggest we are programmed to mate, thereby continuing our genetic lines. It makes the search for romantic partners the single most important task in our lives, after survival. Romance, then, is an important genre of art, telling stories central to humankind. However, there has traditionally been a lack of control for women in relationships and therefore a lack of female-centric romance stories. Perhaps, feminism is not incompatible with romance. Perhaps it is a new and exciting perspective on romance.
My husband was recently asked what sort of book I’m writing.
“She’s writing a feminist historical romance.” He said, with a laugh. As if it were a logical impossibility. An absurdity.
Well, that remains to be seen. I can only write the words that scream in my soul, that burn the back of my eyelids, that keep me awake at night.
