I’ve already told you about my idea of what a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner is like so shall we talk about romantic movies? For me a romantic movie is a love story but it’s not a sex farce or a torrid sex drama. And it’s not just a “chick flick”. I’m a pretty sentimental kind of guy so the pictures I find romantic are pretty sentimental, too. And, no, I don’t find Gone With the Wind or Wuthering Heights romantic.
Some of these aren’t the greatest pictures ever made but these are some of the pictures I find really romantic:
Holiday (1938) Dark Victory (1939) I’m not generally a Bette Davis fan
but somehow in this picture the brittle quality I find nerve-wracking becomes gallant.Love Affair (1939) Much better than the 1950’s An Affair to Remember or the 1990’s remake.
The Philadelphia Story (1940) Casablanca (1942) One of the most romantic pictures ever made.
Random Harvest (1942) When I was a counselor in the student dorms at college I dragged a bunch of surly 19-year-old men to see this picture. There
wasn’t a dry eye in the house.The Enchanted Cottage (1945) I told you I was sentimental.
Love Letters (1945) I’m a sucker for these Jennifer Jones-Joseph Cotten pictures.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. Sigh.
Portrait of Jennie (1948) Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten, again. See what I mean.
The Quiet Man (1952) Not only a great romance but one of my favorite pictures.
Roman Holiday (1953) To Catch A Thief (1955) Bells Are Ringing (1960) Charade (1963) The Way We Were (1973) What is it about this picture? It’s the only film I can stomach Barbara Streisand in.
Romancing the Stone (1984) Murphy’s Romance (1985) What do you get when you put two of the most likeable actors in Hollywood into a picture? A really likeable picture.
Crossing Delancey (1988) Ghost (1990) Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Love this picture.
Don Juan Demarco (1995) While You Were Sleeping (1995) Return To Me (2000)
Got any favorites of your own?
Here’s a link to the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Most Romantic Films and the 400 nominees from which they drew their final selection. Needless to say there are quite a few pictures in this list that I don’t find romantic at all.
Garden State is pretty sweet, and I swear I’m not normally infatuated with Natalie Portman either. As was Cinema Paradiso, though I don’t recommend the extended version, which kind of ruins it by going on for longer than it should’ve.
Cinema Paradiso is just a lovely picture. Can’t say I’ve seen the extended version.
Out of Africa – but you had to have been there! It was the love between Farraj (?)(her man servant) and Isak Dinesen that is the true love story for me – and, of course, the love of Africa. “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of th Ngong Hills …”
I know what you mean about Out of Africa, tamar, and I agree with you that the real love story was love of Africa. But I’m prejudiced against Out of Africa. I can’t forgive it for winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards that year. The Oscar clearly should have gone to The Color Purple. Like Roger Ebert I believe that in 50 years only hardcore film buffs will be watching Out of Africa but The Color Purple will be seen as a classic.
I’ve gone over the list and I found that I haven’t actually seen most of the movies listed there. Have I been missing? Or I just happen to have my own choices of movies? Anyway, I’ve found the movies Casablanca, Ghost and Sleepless in Seattle. I love those movies. Movies that talk about romance and falling in love always have a magic to the viewers right? Have you tried Cinema Paradiso? You must try it. It’s an Italian movie but it’s great.
Well, arriane, I strongly recommend that you see the first half-dozen or so pictures in my list (if you haven’t seen them already). They’re all really, really great pictures. And I agree with you about Ghost. I should have had it on my list.
And, yes, I loved Cinema Paradiso, too. But it’s got a slightly different slant. It’s mostly about the romance of the movies themselves. Il Postino is also, in its way, a great romance—both the falling in love part and the romance of poetry.
Watching romantic movies is nice especially when you’re with your partner. Lately, I have watched the movie Serendipity. It’s a good movie suited especially to those who believe in fate and soulmates. Both the main characters in the movie had their own partners when they met by chance at a department store shopping for gloves. Although they were already committed to their partners, they felt a certain connection between them and they believed that their meeting was a coincidence with a purpose. So they gave a chance to the possibility that they were meant for each other.
Even if we don’t admit it, we’re all in for a romantic movie. I even know a guy who only watches romance flicks like the ones you mentioned. Sleepless in Seattle and The Way We Were top his list.