Romantic Comedy Opening Sequence - 'Groundhog Day'

The fourth romantic comedy/farce I will be looking at is, Groundhog Day.

When the Groundhog Day credits start, the title of the film comes up and is in a serif font. which is a typical font style for a romantic comedy. This font is usually associated with femininity and romance, rather than action, which is in keeping with the tone or aesthetic of films from the genre.

The first scene introduces the main protagonist, Phil Connors, as a weather man. Introducing character is a common convention for opening sequences, particularly romantic comedies, where we begin to understand character traits and start to position ourselves with the protagonists. The titles continue, with different actors names appearing throughout the opening sequence, all in a serif font.

We are then introduced to Phil's co-worker/anchorwoman and we see tension and friction between them both. This could highlight how Phil may be strong-willed, possibly hard to work with, and ultimately can lead to him being arrogant; as we see later in the film, he's hard to change. The tension between the two, marks them out as oppositional characters, a typical narrative convention of the genre. this creates the expectation that one of the characters will have to radically change if they are to be together by the film's resolution.

We see that Phil has an assistant who puts on his coat, which may indicate he is an important figure with a lot of experience in the news field, but also that he has a sense of his own self-importance.

We also get introduced to the future love interest of Phil, Rita, who is seen to be more fun and less serious than Phil. The two main love interests in a romantic comedy, usually don't get along at first, and this narrative device is used in Groundhog Day. As Phil says "She's fun, but not my kind of fun", which shows a clear obstacle in the way of Phil and Rita getting together.