Issue 19 Single LivingBlog | Film Club Romantics and other identities
Film Club Romantics and other identities
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 06.06.19
Become a culture vulture preacher and use the ideas here in your own preaching and ministry. See the suggestions for film club study too.
I t’s very hard to feel good about being single in our culture, and indeed in most churches. It’s very, very hard to feel good about being single at the movies.
Even the act of movie-going is prescribed as either a date or a group activity – never a solo one. Despite the fact that a darkened cinema screen is hardly a sociable place, there’s a stigma attached to going alone. Those who do brave it may find themselves confronted with one of the various unhelpful stories we tell about romantic relationships: that they’re the goal and endpoint of the whole story; that they’re the prize you win for overcoming adversity, or for finding yourself.
Hollywood didn’t invent the idea of romantic love as we know it today, but over the last century it’s certainly done it a whole lot of favours. Romance brings in audiences, and it’s not hard to see why. What could be better escapism than watching two extremely attractive people fall for each other onscreen, without any of the mundane complications that attend real-life relationships? Even if their romance ends in tragedy – think A Star is Born, Titanic or Casablanca – we don’t have to see the couple lose their looks, lose their patience, or argue over who’s taking the bins out.
The real tragedy, surely, would be having nobody to love at all. What’s any story without a love story?
