Sheena asks:
Out of curiosity, are there romantic films that you would unhesitatingly recommend, besides Sense and Sensibility? Is that a post for another day? Two of my favourite films are The Scarlet Pimpernel (the Jane Seymour, Anthony Andrews version) and Moulin Rouge.
We discussed this back in 2005 when I revealed in a multitude of ways how uncool I am in my love of movies and television shows. But I will say that for Hanukkah this past year, Hubby got me a set of the entire season of Cupid PLUS unaired episodes from some bootleg DVD vendor overseas. *le sigh* Jeremy Piven. What a lovely Hanukkah gift.
But it’s never a problem to come back to a topic – particularly almost two years later, when we have more readers with certainly more opinions – many many more opinions!
The 40 Year Old Virgin – Very romantic, and very very funny. I’m sure most everyone on here has already seen it though.
Love, Actually – I just watched this for the first time a few weeks ago. Oh my god! Is there any Colin Firth character I won’t fall in love with?
That’s it for now. I just want to be the first poster on this thread.
*covets your illicit Cupid set*
Movies I think are romaaaaaantic *swoony eyes*:
Strictly Ballroom: Baz Luhrmann’s first film, it’s sort of the proto-Moulin Rouge; same hyper-stylized art direction, same belief in the power of love, same sense of light campiness. And OMG, the costumes.
The Thin Man: Okay, so Nick and Nora are already married, but they are such a fabulous couple, it doesn’t matter.
All Over the Guy: Okay, so it’s about two guys, but it has all the hallmarks of romance—including the obstacles and the HEA.
The Philadelphia Story: Well, duh.
Pride and Prejudice: The 1995 BBC adaptation that’s five hours long. Yes, it was made for TV so I’m not sure it qualifies, but Colin Firth.
Clerks 2: Sometimes, it’s all about the bromance. I teared up a little bit when Randal admitted his love for his hetero lifemate Dante.
Oddly enough, one of the most romantic movies I’ve seen was 50 First Dates, which was totally unexpected. I figured it would be just another silly Adam Sandler movie, and with Drew Barrymore to boot, but as a romance it just worked me on every level.
Also have to recommend a movie I saw recently, The Outsider, with Naomi Watts and Tim Daly. It’s actually based on a romance novel by Penelope Williamson (which I’m reading right now and enjoying a lot), and it captured a lot of the emotional intensity you can find in a romance novel but is usually lacking in a movie. Oh, and Tim Daly is just unbelievably hot in it. 😉
I’m flipping through my DVD collection here…which is almost entirely historical films because I’ve entitled it “The Poofy Skirt Collection” because…they all involve poofy skirts.
Possession: not so much the modern side of the story, but the parts set in the past—whoodamn, those Victorians had some KINK hidden under their repression. And that kink is hot and angsty and so sweet it makes me cry in the end.
Anne of Green Gables, parts one and two. “The Continuing Story” can suck it, aright? Great scenery and it’s good for kids, too.
Mansfield Park; Emma; all Austen, ever, etc.
Little Women is a favourite.
Twelfth Night (dir. Trevor Nunn. Gorgeous and cross-dressing whee!)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Oh Rupert Everett.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – so I know this one is like Branagh’s love letter to his hairy self, but…I don’t know. This one always seemed fairly romantic, to me. At least until people’s hearts start getting ripped out. Literally.
I caught The Inheritance on cable a year or two back and managed to love it even as it employed every 19th century cliche disaster, but it’s Alcott, again, so we’ll let it slide. It was new back then, I guess.
I’ve got some random Bollywood DVDs that are romantic to the Nth degree, but it’s definitely an acquired taste and even I who love them know that they verge on and deke into the ridiculous at times. Some moreso than others. V. campy. My personal favourite is the angst-filled Mujhse Dosti Karoge with a Secret (not a baby), a Smart-but-Allegedly-Less-Pretty Girl, and the Two Hot People Who Deserve Each Other, Or So They Think. Less-Pretty Girl still manages to knock out “Hot” Girl, who just happens to be taller and twenty pounds lighter.
…and my Scarlet Pimpernel (Seymour/Andrews) DVD is staring at me right now, thanks. So I second that one. And Love, Actually. That one gets my vote as well.
Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken was my favourite in years gone by.
Only You … I just…Robert Downey Jr. Italy. Shoes. Ehehehe. 🙂
Legends of the Fall – Just do it for the music.
Days of Heaven …well *I* think it’s romantic.
For the gayer side of romance, there’s Mambo italiano and Imagine Me & You.
And I’ve come to realize just now that my DVD collection is an English nerd’s wet dream and I will sob like a baby over ANYTHING.
And I think if you’re not afraid of sap you could get anything with teenage Molly Ringwald or non-teenaged-but-not-middle-aged Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.
And then there’s the classics. Gone With the Wind. The Ten Commandments(?). Singin’ in the Rain. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Ivanhoe. His Girl Friday. Anything with Elizabeth Taylor, etc..
I suck with tags, and I forgot to mention Love Story.
Bringing Up Baby – one of the classic screwball comedies with Hepburn and Grant.
True Romance. I just kept hearing her voice saying, You are so cool. You are so cool…. Phone booth sex and a blood bath at the end. swoon.
I also really liked Enemy at the Gates. The triangle between Rachel Weis and Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes…so tragic, so melodramatic!
What is it about death and mayhem that makes a girl all squishy inside? Never could stand romcoms. And anything with Merrill Streep (with the notable exception of She-devil) just makes me want to self-administer a lobotomy.
Never seen Harold and Maude.
Kind of liked Tristan and Isolde, though. Death, mayhem and true luuuuurrve. sweet.
[I have to say I was *gutted* when Cupid just STOPPED with no ending, and then again when I watched eps 1-14 which a friend recently downloaded for me. I loved that series.]
Strictly Ballroom is a movie that I can, and have, watched over and over again. So sweet.
His Girl Friday- machine-gun paced dialogue, Cary Grant, *and* fantastic hats? How can this not be on everyone’s top ten?
Love, Actually
French Kiss
The Philadelphia Story
To Have and Have Not
The Terminator
Bringing Up Baby
The Big Easy
Singing In The Rain
Notting Hill
Strictly Ballroom
Zorro
Pride and Prejudice (Colin Furth)
Disney’s The Little Mermaid
Bunches more, but not bad for top of the head at about six a.m.
I second French Kiss. Perfect Movie. I adore Wimbledon: it’s got Paul Bettany, what more could you want? Love Actually. But French Kiss is my comfort watch. I’m also slowly working through Seasons 1-5 of Queer as Folk: gay soap opera! Gale Harold! Lots of hot naked boys having sex with each other! Love it!
The Last of the Mohicans. Incredible chemistry between Stowe and Day Lewis (yeah, baby—that’s his own hair), and they’ve got the acting chops to pull off lines like “They don’t live their lives by your leave—they hack it out of the wilderness with their bare hands, burying their children along the way!”
Best. Kiss. Ever.
I can’t believe I forgot Shrek!
Or Dead Again
Then I thought of Silverado ( a favorite), and while not romantic particularly in the boy-girl sense (though there was sparkage between Kevin Kline and Linda Hunt), it’s hard to beat a movie with Kline, Danny Glover, Scott Glenn and a very young, charmingly goofy Kevin Coster. Hawt. Very hawt.
Plus many of the sweeping, swashing movies from Errol Flynn.
The Princess Bride
My very favourite here would be How to steal a million with Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn. I am melting in a pooddle of goo watching them being so adorable and snarky. The double bonus – HUgh Griffith as a criminal father…
Another classical for me: The Shop Around the Corner with young James Stewart.
among the more recent favourites:
Addams Family (both) – Morticia/Gomez=4ever!
Mr. and Mrs. Smith – it has to sense plot-wise but so hot and metaphorically true, that I love it.
Eternal Sunshine for the spotless mind – I never expected to love something with Jim Carry in it, but here it goes
Fun to scroll through all your picks! I so agree that Last of the Mohicans has the best.kiss.ever (the rest of the movie I can skip, but damn that scene at the waterfall makes me hot!)And good call on Bringing Up Baby!!! Grant & Hepburn at their clumsily falling in love best!
Amazed at how many of you like the short-lived Cupid – I’m a Chicago girl, and my voice&diction teacher in college was the vocal coach for the actors on the set (I was a theatre/english double major). Yes, she had to coach people on how to have the right “Chicago” dialect – she was doing this at the same time I was in her classes (so that tells you when I was in college, huh?) and she would to tell us stories about her work, she mainly worked with the lead girl on the show – I think Piven is from Chicago himself and didn’t need the training.
ANYWAYS – My vote would have to be for:
Somewhere in Time (Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour)
Romeo & Juliet (the 1968 Zefferelli version)
Both have incredible soundtracks…but the lovers die at the end, so what does that say about me???
My first thought was Love, Actually and Tristan and Isolde and I see some others agree with me.
Gone with the Wind for a sweeping epic and I just saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s which is a weird kind of romance.
Conan the Barbarian. Seriously. The Conan/Valeria relationship is very romantic.
Lord of the Rings
Gone With the Wind
A Room With A View
The Princess Bride
Singles (anybody else remember that one?
And I have Tristan and Isolde but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, darnit!
Persuasion I’m a sucker for this Austen book, and Ciaran Hinds’ voice over of The Letter? Slays me.
Roman Holiday I’m pretty sure I’d love this one even if Gregory Peck wasn’t playing Joe Bradley.
Much Ado About Nothing Branagh and Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice.
While You Were Sleeping. Bill Pullman just sucks me in as The Average Guy.
And I’ll second:
Dead Again
Singles
Queer as Folk
I have to admit to the first Indiana Jones films. I enjoyed Debra Allen’s hard drinking, tom-boyish take on the modern woman of the 30’s.
I’ll third Last of the Mohicans. Such fantastic chemistry between Stowe and Day-Lewis. And Day-Lewis was just beautiful to watch in that film. Yum.
And this may seem a little odd, but Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger as C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham is, in my opinion, the most romantic movie ever. Even it’s a hell of a tear-jerker.
Wow. Great lists! I’m going through my collection, and I’ll share my faves with you. Many will be repeats, and some you’ll shake your head at, but I’m not gonna defend my taste. I love these movies, some more than others, but all get me to the dreamy-sigh place, and I like that place.
The Philadelphia Story – #1 with a bullet
It Happened Last Night – Not in my collection, but an all time fave, how do I not have this yet? Must order now…
Pride and Prejudice – The Colin Firth version. Of course.
Bridget Jones’s Diary – See above, re: Colin Firth
The Princess Bride
French Kiss – a highly underestimated movie, totally rocks, I watch it at least twice a year.
When Harry Met Sally
Clueless
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Eyre – actually I don’t have one particular movie version in mind; that story always gets me
10 Things I Hate About You
Some Kind of Wonderful – I love best friend movies
While You Were Sleeping
Shop Around the Corner – Jimmy Stewart. Major yum.
The Taming of the Shrew – Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Sizzzzzzle!
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days – Love it, except the singing scene. That’s just painful.
Continental Divide – Schlubs can be romantic heroes, I swear.
The MatchMaker – terribly, terribly weak in some ways, but like The Ref, I’ll deal because the good is sooooooo gooood.
Groundhog Day
Never Been Kissed
50 First Dates
Shakespeare in Love
The Truth About Cats and Dogs
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
Can’t Hardly Wait
Chocolat
Mansfield Park
Where the Heart Is
His Gal Friday
Roman Holiday
Oh. I’m feeling all fuzzy now. Time to write!
Not to be greedy, but can I add A Midwinter’s Tale, The Music Man (that scene in the library is just irresistable, and then her eyes flashing when she defends him to the town just makes me melt), and Forget Paris.
Out of Africa . Hands down. I could watch it a million times and still cry when Denis dies. Hmmm, I have a free morning before class, maybe I’ll watch it again. (Oh, and I’ll second Anne of Green Gables, the first two movies. That scene on the bridge in Anne of Avonlea, “I don’t want diamond sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you.” *Melt*
For a gay romance, I have to recommend Jeffrey starring Steven Weber as a guy who decides sex is too much to deal with and becomes celibate – and then meets Hot Man of His Dreams, who is HIV-positive. H.M.of H.D. is played by Michael T. Weiss, the guy from “The Pretender.” Not only is it a lot of luscious to look at, it’s an adorably wrenching love story. And I won’t even get into Patrick Stewart’s character. Rent now, Bitches, rent now!
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Moonstruck…unless I missed it above in my pre-caffeinated state. In which case, I apologize and leave this quote as a parting gift:
“Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed!”
Le swoon…
Selah – SNAP OUT OF IT! *whack!*
Also, I’ll second True Romance, which I JUST bought on DVD yesterday.
The Princess Bride…
…Out of Sight…although that doesn’t end happily, unless you read between the lines…
and
Hope Floats…which is really more “chick lit” with romance on the side, but the romance itself is swoony, and Harry Connick, Jr.? Shocked the hell outta me with his charisma.
Oh, Sarah…
“You have such a head for knowing.”
I warn you. I can do this all day and not break a sweat.
“Old man, you give those dogs another piece of my food and I’m gonna kick you ‘til you’re dead!”
To Have and Have Not
“Anybody got a light?”
Sexiest. Movie. Ever. AND they keep their clothes on the whole time.
(Submission word: heart52)
Most of my standards have already been mentioned, but I’m just going to ditto them:
The Matchmaker
10 Things I Hate About You
French Kiss
When Harry Met Sally
The Thin Man (I hadn’t thought of it like that, but totally!)
Princess Bride
Sixteen Candles
Clueless
How to Steal a Million
I keep thinking there’s some movie from the 70’s…oh, no, that was Scavenger Hunt.
Oh, here are a few I haven’t seen mentioned:
All of Me
The Mummy (shaddup, I love me some Brendan Fraser and John Hannah)
And speaking of John Hannah, I could totally leave Gwenyth out of the equation, but mmmm…John: Sliding Doors
Four Weddings and a Funeral (everyone BUT Hugh and Andie’s romance/s)
Oh, wait, the 70’s one: What’s Up Doc?
I think I’ll stop there.
The Crow. Dude was so pissed at the guys who raped and murdered his girlfriend he came back from the DEAD to waste ‘em all. Now that’s love!
*Sigh* Some of us are sooooooo old:
Cluny Brown—Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer. Contains the immortal lines “Why throw nuts to the squirrels? I say, throw squirrels to the nuts!” and “If I were a plumber, it would be bang, bang, bang, all night long.”
The Scarlet Pimpernel—Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. Bitches, there can be only one definitive version. This is is.
The Quiet Man—John Wayne as the romantic lead? Works for me in this film.
Angel and the Badman Ditto.
Pride and PrejudiceLaurence Olivier and Greer Garson? Forget the departures from the novel, this is the thinking person’s version.
Pride and Prejudice Colin Firth. The lustworthy version.
The African Queen Possibly the best romance movie evah!
The Day The Earth Stood Still First Alien Sex movie! OK, maybe there wasn’t sex, but one can imagine.
Oooops—don’t forget Casablanca! And am I the only one who also thinks Claude Rains was hot? Squicky, I know, but I liked him a lot.
So many of my favorites are mentioned here. Thanks Nora for the mention of Terminator so noone thinks I am nuts. I find that movie drop dead romantic and noone ever believes me.
Amelie
Chocolat
Casablanca
His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
Down with Love – alot of people hated this movie, it got silly at the end (sillier may be more apt) but I loved it.
Bringing up Baby – my favorite of those two together.
Woman on Top – bonus of a fantastic soundtrack.
The Princess Bride of course
Pillow Talk if I want something super frothy.
Some Kind of Wonderful – (This is how my girlfriend would look without hair)
Overboard – sexist as hell, I love it anyway, it is tough to beat those two for chemistry.
A Room with a View – my favorite of all time, that movie was my first sexual experience – I remember rewinding it to be sure I saw him kiss her boobs, through her shirt! Totally hot.
Pride and Prejudice – spare me the Keira Knightley one, I liked the dude ok but she was imo horrific.
…and when it comes to hetero dude action, I actually cried when Dante and Randall expressed their love.
Secretary
I am a total sucker for Cary Grant and Bogart. Love the African Queen. Anything with him and Bacall. You could fry bacon on their chemistry.
Sabrina (Bogey version of course)
Strictly Ballroom
I’m a little worried that noone mentioned A Very Long Engagement, I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ve been saving the dvd for a Very Bad Day – but the idea is not to make that day worse.
Ok I cannibalized the shit out of other people’s lists, but how could I not? Yall have good taste.
Selah: mira la bella luna! la bella luna!
And the Terminator? TOTALLY romantic.
Oh! Oh!
Notorious with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Oh my GOD, how I love this movie. Mostly because she’s a very bad girl – not anything remotely like a virgin, and not particularly ashamed of it either.
The scene where Grant’s character – who swings from treating her well to treating her with contempt to realizing he’s desperately in love with her – defends her to the rest of his comrades in the CIA, who think she’s expendable because she’s a slut? Gah. And then…but I don’t want to spoil it. Who knew Hitchcock could do such effective romance?
Sarah:
“Rose: Do you love him, Loretta?
Loretta: Aw, ma, I love him awful.
Rose: Oh, God, that’s too bad.”
Mississippi Masala – One word: Denzel.
The Saint – A guilty pleasure, because it’s really dumb. Very romantic, though.
Say Anything – C’mon folks! Major omission! Possibly the most painfully romantic movie ever made.
Life is Beautiful – Unlikely hero, but such a bittersweet picture.
Jane Eyre – The William Hurt version.
Wuthering Heights – The Ralph Fiennes version. I like the Larry version less well, actually.
The Adventures of Robin Hood – I had a childhood crush on Errol Flynn.
The War Lord – Little-known pic with Charlton Heston, if you can tolerate him. I can. Great score.
Selah: “I just want you to know no matter what you do, you’re gonna die, just like everybody else.”
Oh, oh, oh!! I just remembered one: Charade with Audrey and Cary…*lurved* that movie. It was just before Cary started getting a little *too* old to be the lead romantic interest.
And speaking of Cary, Operation Petticoat. Yes, I’m addicted to comedies, so what.
And, I’m revealing my taste in “bad” movies here, but:
Blame it on the Bellboy – Bryan Brown and Penelope Wilton’s dark little romance
Year of the Comet – mmmm…Tim Daly…mmm
Kimber, I’m a fan of The Warlord also, though I thought Rosemary Forsyth was the weakest member of that cast. Everyone else was spot on.
Oh, and if we’re going to mention Chuck Heston in The Warlord, I also have to give a nod to El Cid. Heston and Sophia Loren doing that epic movie thang.