September 2004 President's Note:
At this year's RITA awards, the presentation was interspersed with a movie montage, starting with "Boy Meets Girl…" and showing the opening scenes from The Princess Bride and several other movies. Women around me (and all right, me too, I admit) were all murmuring along with several of the quotes. The moment when Rhett meets Scarlett in Gone With The Wind. The tearful last scene in An Affair to Remember. The Black Moment in Jerry Maguire when Renee Zellweger explains why she has to leave the marriage. I don't know about everybody else, but it made me want to rush right out to a Hollywood Video or sign up for Netflix.
Movies can be a tremendous source of inspiration for novel writers. Especially the movies that make you laugh, cry, sigh, and fall in love. Here are some of my favorite recommendations for movies, separated by what genre you write:
If you write romantic comedy: there are several teen romantic comedies that are worth a glance, most notably Ten Things I Hate About You, a great update of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. For an ugly duckling story, and for those who love dance, there's always Strictly Ballroom, an Australian romantic comedy set in the world of competitive ballroom dancing. And for those with a broader sense of humor, Adam Sandler's The Wedding Singer and Fifty First Dates both have a very sweet quality… especially the later, which despite a few gross-out comedic moments, has a deeply romantic vein. I could go on and on in this category… French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts, the list is endless.
If you write romantic suspense: depending on the level of suspense you write, there are a ton of movies out there that could help give your writing a little lift of inspiration. One of my favorites is The Bone Collector, with Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington. It's very unconventional from a romantic standpoint (Denzel Washington is a paraplegic, for starters) but the subtle interchange between the two of them is countered by the growing danger and intellectual challenge. (Be warned… that one's sort of graphic.) Similarly, there's L.A. Confidential, showing a smoldering passion between Russell Crowe and Kim Bassinger. And it's a darned good yarn, too.
If you write action adventure: There's always the fun and silly interchanges of The Mask of Zorro or the attraction of opposites of The Mummy. And of course, there's the Spiderman movies, which start by saying "this story, like all good stories, is about a girl." And in fact, they're just as much coming of age movies as action.
If you write paranormal: there's an absolutely yummy Hugh Jackman in Kate & Leopold, a time travel set in contemporary New York. For futuristic fans, it doesn't get much better than The Matrix (the original, not the sequels… and more for the world building than the romance, such as it is.) And for a feminist bent with a little witchcraft thrown in, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic is a blast. 
First published in the September 2004 issue of the Heart of the Bay newsletter for the San Francisco Area chapter of the RWA. Check out their website at www.sfarwa.com for more information.
(posted 5.02.05)
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