Summer Romance – Married Angst

In looking at summer romance films, we’ve looked at the kind of teenage angst in a film like Titanic, as well as the adult angst we find in a film like When Harry Met Sally. Let’s move to the next step and talk about what I’m calling marriage angst. Specifically, I’m talking about that romance film where at least one—if not both—of the people are married, but find themselves falling for someone else. These films can be comedies or dramas, but the most successful ones are often a bit bittersweet.

When we’re talking about marriage angst, there’s such a variety of films we can discuss that I’m having a hard time coming up with just one ‘classic’ example, so I’ve narrowed it down to two. The first is Casablanca [1942] by Julius Epstein, Philip Epstein and Howard Koch.

Rick is a nightclub owner in Casablanca as WWII is heating up, and one night his former love, Ilsa, walks into his nightclub with her husband, Victor. Rick is knocked sideways by this because, as we will find out, he and Ilsa had an affair in Paris and she left him broken-hearted. As the film progresses we discover that Ilsa’s husband—whom she clearly doesn’t love as much as Rick—is an important Nazi-fighter who is being pursued, and if he’s caught the anti-Nazi movement will be adversely affected. And Rick is going to help them both escape Casablanca and get to safety, because he knows it’s the right thing to do, even though he’s desperately in love with her, so he convinces Ilsa to stay with Victor because of the important work Victor’s doing.

My second marriage angst pick is Brokeback Mountain [2005], screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. This is the story of two men, Jack, who is unmarried and married Ennis, who are thrown together in the middle of nowhere to look after some sheep. In the course of their time together, they fall for each other. We get the feeling that Jack is more OK with this than Ennis, who is totally thrown for a loop at his feelings for Jack. And over the course of the film we see them both try to conform to society, Jack getting married, both of them having children, and though they keep their relationship secret, they keep coming back together when they can. In the end, one of them dies—had to happen, right?

What do these films have in common? Three things:

1. The love between the characters is up against unsurmountable odds—for Rick and Ilsa it’s the Nazis and for Jack and Ennis it’s society’s inability to accept a gay relationship. Both couples are in wars they can’t win.
2. They’re both straight dramas. While each has a light-hearted moment or two, these romances are full of the drama that comes when they try and be together but ultimately fail.
3. One of them is alone at the end, but does have someone to share a moment with—for Rick it’s Captain Renault, and their ending’s a bit less dramatic than Ennis’s ending, with his daughter.

And for both films, we feel sad that the couple couldn’t be together. Do you see a pattern? Just like in the teen angst film, the example of which we looked at was Titanic, we have a bittersweet ending, the feeling of love lost that is so bittersweet.

Next week, it’s old people’s angst… now that should be fun!

Copyright © Diane Lake

22Jul18

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com