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!
Well, slap my ass and call me blonde, but it sure seems we get a whole lot more lathered up over movies than we do over books. Hmmm.
Any Last of the Mohicans redone (see Twain’s essay) is better than Cooper’s book—especially if it features Daniel Day-Lewis in his wild-eyed, long-haired prime. Frankly, I don’t give a shit about the rest of the movie.
I feel bad about forgetting 84 Charing Cross Road, though. So lovely and poignant…and so frustrating. (Hell, I wanted some little zing of thwarted passion.)
Much as I love Fred Astaire, I could never quite see him as a romantic hero. Kind of a classy Peewee Herman with happy feet.
Moonstruck is delightful but doesn’t carry me away.
And let’s not stretch too far. Karloff’s agony over Elsa Lanchester’s hissing “Fuck off” response to him in Bride of Frankenstein tugged at the old heartstrings for a moment…but I wouldn’t call that movie a romance.
sarahbot,
yes, yes, YES … Richard Armitage as JOHN THORNTON in NORTH & SOUTH is BETTER THAN DARCY (any version)!!! I’m definitely in that group of 99% …
Hmm
I would like to add to the recommendations:
As previously mentioned Love, Actually and Strictly Ballroom are romantic and wonderful.
There are also:
Ever After
Serendipity
Say Anything
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Romeo Must Die
50 First Dates
Nottinghill
Love Story
Somewhere in Time – Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour
Two Weeks Notice
Sleepless in Seattle
Only You – Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr.
10 Things I Hate About You
The Holiday
Music and Lyrics
The Lakehouse
The Notebook
A Walk to Remember
The Princess Bride
Bridget Jones 1 and 2
4 Weddings and a Funeral
The list could go on and on …
My straightup choices are Children of Paradise and The Red Shoes.
But going further afield, I think
The Terminator is a great choice…
…emboldening me to confess that I’ve always found the love story in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown delicately, tremulously romantic —and was anybody else besides me wiped out by David Carradine in Kill Bill II?
Such good lists—I’m making notes for my next trip to the video store.
A couple of my faves:
The Empire Strikes Back. Okay, so I was nine, and Han Solo was my movie romance awakening. “I’m nice men.” *swoons*
Brief Encounter. Makes me sob every time I see it.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. God, they touch hands and I MELT.
Moonstruck! Oh yes. And now thanks to Sela and Sarah I’ll be pulling it out of my collection for a rewatch soon.
Ladyhawke, you bet. And Casablanca, and . . . agree on so many.
Would add ConAir. Not only for the slurp-appeal of Cage and Cusack, but for the last scene with Cage, his wife and kid. And the bunny.
And now for something completely different … the previous entry on Barbara Cartland has reminded me that there were several movies made of her books. They definitely qualify as romantic movies, and I would certainly recommend them … though perhaps more for giggles than because they’ll melt your heart. Three that spring to mind are The Lady and the Highwayman, starring Hugh Grant in ringlets, A Ghost in Monte Carlo and the utterly fabulous The Flame is Love which has Timothy Dalton playing a satanist and – no lie – my very own aunt as a can can dancer.
Sarah, Candy, if you felt like turning movie-reviewer for a brief period, I feel these movies would be full of rich pickings for gifted snarkers like yourselves …
~You and I are the only women in the world, apparently, who didn’t like it.~ (Legends Of The Fall).
Add me. And also to the short list of women in the world who didn’t like Last Of The Mohigans.
But Chocolat—mmmmm. And Benny and Joon. And oh yes, Truly, Madly, Deeply. It kills me every time.
I love Notorious.
Tons mentioned here are in my bulging DVD collection. Must have a marathon movie weekend soon.
Chocolat was wonderful – Depp at his best.
I ditto the recommendations of North and South, and A Room with a View. I took my mother to see A Room with a View when it first came out, and tried afterwards to convince her that I needed a ‘finishing’ tour to Europe – I even had a middle-aged spinster cousin who could have been my chaperone! – but alas, none of my arguments worked on her.
Just putting away the last of the Christmas decorations (no comment needed) and thought of:
Miracle on 34th Street—the original, of course. Every year I swoon over John Payne and wish he’d done more than one decent film in his career. He has a certain John Cusack-like quality.
Speaking of Cusack, people always look at me weird when I say I loved Con Air. But now I can say, “Ha! Nora loves it, too!”
“Put…the bunny…back…in the…box.”
Nora: Put the Bunny. Back. In the Box.
Con Air: About a year, it came on again—and I can never resist it. Had my granddaughter who was three at the time. So I said, let me teach you a little lesson. Hot guy—and I showed her Cage. Cute guy, then Cusack.
Both are very good, but it pays to know the subtle differences.
I told you to put the bunny back.
This is much more my kind of movie than say, The Piano, where I sat the entire time irritated with Holly Hunter’s character and thinking: Oh, just open your mouth and SAY something, goddamn it. (Even though I knew that was the point.)
For those of you who’ve been wanting to watch “Harold and Maude” and have access to Turner Classic Movies, it’s the featured presentation tonight. Check your local listings for time and channel.
Someone finally mentioned Truly, Madly, Deeply!!! This was not my first introduction to Alan Rickman, but it’s what made me fall in love with him.
Disney’s Mulan: she saves China and gets the guy – what’s not to like about that movie?
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: he gives her the library!!!!!!
Center Stage: a ballet movie with some romance in it – plus a kick ass soundtrack (Jamiroquai, ‘nuff said).
Though 300 doesn’t really count since it was about battle, but Leonidas and Gorgo were smoking hot together.
I echo:
Persuasion
Say Anthing
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (or basically anything that has Howard Keel in it. The man is gorgeous and can sing!)
Possession (especially the Victorian Era couple)
30 Going on 13
Desk Set (best librarian ever)
Ever After (I rewind the scene where the shoe gets pulled out over and over)
Stage Beauty
Lady Chatterly with Sean Bean and Joely Richardson
Hot guy—and I showed her Cage. Cute guy, then Cusack. Both are very good, but it pays to know the subtle differences.
And I love that they are both the heroes of the story (along with, one could argue, Colm Meaney). It had multiple villains, too (Ving Rhames, John Malkovich, and Steve Buscemi). The protags occasionally acted as antagonists to each other, and the villains did their own dance as well. I thought it was a bonanza of male goodness and badness, but lots of people think the proliferation of characters was its biggest fault. That and too many explosions.
Nothing to do with romance, but it’s an interesting example of complex character dynamics and storytelling, wrapped up in a kickass popcorn film.
SBSarah/Selah: “I don’t wanna talk about it!â€
Adding to the list:
The Goodbye Girl
The Love Letter (the made for tv version)
Meet Joe Black (then again, there’s Anthony Hopkins there, so…)
Como Agua Para Chocolate—best book adaptation ever, as far as I’m concerned
Time After Time (Malcolm McDowell as HGWells… and he gets Mary Steenburgen to go back in time with him)
The Abyss (Ed Harris’ character text messaging “I love you… WIFE”)
I second the majority of the titles mentioned before, by the way.
Interesting to see the movies that have made such an impression on people that others can’t tolerate. For me, I found Serendipity, Last of the Mohicans, Legends of the Fall very blah and not enjoyable. I found the Notebook, Two Weeks Notice, The Lakehouse, to be just lowest common denominator crapola. That is not to say I am disgusted that anyone would enjoy these movies, just that we all have such different buttons that get pushed in the romance world. Two Weeks was just incredibly boring to me, and Serendipity was a study in frustration, but I know some people really get off on that just missing each other stuff – to me there is no tension if all they are doing is missing each other, not building up any kind of relationship. Meet Joe Black I actually fell asleep in the theatre – endless pauses in that movie, in my memory there is more pause than dialogue, worse than a BC book. At least in those I can edit them out in my head. My husband liked it though. I think he thinks Claire Forlani is hot.
Oh and Star Wars, I was laying in bed last night thinking of Han Solo, ‘you like me because I’m a scoundrel!’ Oh so true and so swoonworthy. God that cocky look. Someone earlier mentioned Regarding Henry, what a wonderful movie that is. I can’t wait to see North & South after all the glowing recs for it. I watched Murphy’s Romance for the first time last night and it was very sweet, just one of those quiet movies that ends happily with everyone doing the right thing, with the main characters not being perfect or even trying to be, just being themselves. BTW, if you hate horror movies, as I do, look away for the scene where they go to the movies, I got blindsided by that.
Thanks for all these recommendations, I am going to have to rejoin netflix I think. 😛
I shouldn’t have said LCD crap in my description, that is too harsh, I just didn’t dig them.
How about Valley Girl? The reference to Nicholas Cage reminded me of that one.
Raising Arizona, too—has that been mentioned?
I wonder if Daniel Day Lewis hadn’t been in Last of the Mohicans what its popularity index would be? When I saw that movie the fist time (and only time all the way through), it struck me as a conservative paean to Bush Sr.‘s “family values” and as even more reactionary than the book—if that’s possible. Reminded me of Dances with Wolves, too, another film that relied on strategic distortions of American history and Native American cultural issues. Kind of killed the romance for me in both cases.
And if we’re going to include Arnold Schwarzenegger movies (which is probably easier for those who aren’t California democrats), I’d pick Total Recall.
That is not to say I am disgusted that anyone would enjoy these movies, just that we all have such different buttons that get pushed in the romance world.
I think this goes back to Candy’s point about not necessarily liking what’s technically “good.” For example, there are a ton of movies on this list I love that I *know* aren’t going to win any awards. Like Valley Girl—oh so cheesy and dated, but I’ll watch it any time it’s on, and it always puts me in the mood for some Plimsouls. Then there are other films, like Truly, Madly, Deeply, that I can appreciate but that just don’t warm me in all those important cockles. The ‘movies I love’ list is definitely much different than the ‘movies I appreciate as skilled’ list.
I have a deep fondness for Mrs. Winterbourne. I haven’t seen it mentioned yet. It’s got mistaken identities and a rather sweet comic romance.
Of course, it’s been years since I saw it last, and I’m fairly sure that I was in *exactly* the right mood for it when I did.
I’m going to scavenge this list for things to put in my Netflix queue and to suggest to my female friends when we have a movie night.
Yes Robin, that is true. I am sure there are plenty of movies on my list that other people weren’t into at all. Being in the right mood at the right time, with all the baggage we bring to the experience, makes all the difference.
Oh and yes yes on Valley Girl, I adore that movie. Nick Cage is like 18 or something in that! So cute, so intense. Love her parents too. I am right there with you on Truly, Madly, Deeply. Good movie, didn’t really ‘do it’ for me. Love Alan Rickman though, give me Die Hard any day. Truly an inspired choice to keep all the ladies coming back to Harry Potter.
I looove me some Total Recall. When I was in HS we had a taped copy my dad attempted a little home editing on. He was trying to get rid of the 3 boobed lady but instead he screwed it up so badly that she just kept showing up and flashing us at assorted times. I think she showed up like 5 times.
OMG The Abyss!
The extended sequence with Ed Harris having to watch MEM drown in front of him in order to hopefully save both their lives is jaw-dropping for me, every time. As a Sci-Fi, it’s ok, but the relationship between those two makes it a must-watch for me.
It’s funny, because this also falls in with The Terminator for me—Fantasy or Sci-Fi movies with a super-strong romantic subplot that elevates the movie from OMG Cool! to OMG Have to See This Again and Again. Might explain why I write what I do….
I didn’t read all of these, but I’m going to list my favorites, so forgive me if I share somebody else’s taste:
Moonstruck
Return to Me
Clueless
While You Were Sleeping
When Harry Met Sally
Groundhog Day
10 Things I Hate About You
Say Anything
Casablanca
Grosse Point Blank
Coming out of lurkage here for this, but I’m surprised no one’s mentioned Kissing Jessica Stein That’s one of my all-time favorties.
Wow. Quite a list. I enthusiastically agree with a lot of those named, and just as strongly disagree with about the same number. But then, as Jane Bennett tells Lizzie, “…not everyone is the SAME.”
I’ll just add a few not yet mentioned that have struck a romantic chord with me:
The More the Merrier
Dogfight
Yanks
An Officer & a Gentleman
The Mirror Has Two Faces
On the Waterfront
The hero of the BBC North & South miniseries is definitely a romantic icon. If only he had a heroine worthy of him.
It was killing me how long it took before Ladyhawke showed up on the list. Love, love, love that movie.
To whomever listed Conan the Barbarian—I agree 100%!!
I would also add Labyrinth, which is so not a kids’ movie… Bowie’s turn as the goblin king is so affecting when Jennifer Connelly refuses him in the end. “You have no power over me” and the world disintegrates. Oh!
My ultimate romantic tear-jerker moment in a movie is at the end of Braveheart when he’s dying and he looks up and sees Murren in the crowd. BAWL CITY. Every. Single. Time.
THE PAINTED VEIL
It has one of the best-realized love stories I’ve ever seen.
I’m bouncing between this window and my Netflix queue. I’m set for like, the next twenty-five years.
And I second/third/trillionth Jeffrey.
Reds (epic!)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(hot hot hot)
Roxanne (Steve Martin as Cyrano)
And I echo:
Notorious
Say Anything
My Favorite Wife
The Sure Thing
The English Patient
A Room with a View
Jeffrey
Kissing Jessica Stein
Bull Durham
Sommersby
Like Water for Chocolate
The Last of the Mohicans
OMG…Some Kind of Wonderful. How did I forget that??? When he tells her at the end, after she puts the diamond earrings on that she helped pick out, “my future looks good on you” I just melt. I love that movie.
And Han Solo will always be my first true love.
Just had another one pop into my brain: Speechless with Michael Keaton, Geena Davis and Christopher Reeve.
It’s one of the few romantic comedies where I liked both the romance and the comedy which is harder to find than you would imagine given the sheer number of the things.
Dude! Nobody’s mentioned Tootsie yet. Dustin Hoffman quite possibly makes for the ugliest woman in existence.
No, wait, I take that back, Willem Dafoe does. But Hoffman’s a close second.
A really fun romantic movie, though.
Gotta say, Michael York makes the ugliest woman in existence. Saw a picture of that once, eyeballs never really recovered.
I cast my vote for:
Brazil
Strictly Ballroom
Moonstruck
The Philadelphia Story
Pleasantville
French Kiss
I nominate…
Blade Runner:
why hasn’t this come up yet? Robot love… what is not hot about that?
Tom Jones:
both the Albert Finney and BBC versions
Quills:
disturbing, but I love it when love completely unhinges the hero
State of Grace
romantic, tragic, almost difficult to watch but so gooood. Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris.
Russian Doll:
obscure but totally worth finding Australian RomCom starring a surprisingly adorable Hugo Weaving (a.k.a. Agent Smith in the Matrix, that not very nice elf dad in LOTR, and V in V for Vendetta)
Last Night:
obscure, Canadian, about the end of the world and how everyone is desperately looking for love. One of the most heart-stopping kisses ever. Stars Sandrah Oh.
OOh! I thought of another one – “Switching Channels,” with Kathleen Turner, Burt Reynolds, and Christopher Reeve. It’s delicious and oh, so goofy. And a great send-up of network news.
Some of my favorites:
Age of Innocence, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Michell Pfeiffer. Oh, the excruciating longing.
Dangerous Liaisons, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. Sizzlingly erotic. For example, when she finally succumbs to his advances and he lays her down and his mouth moves down to hers, oh so slowly, and then he moves back. Ooooh!
And that scene in Reds with Diane Keaton and Warren Beatty embracing at the station.
Also, Brando in Streetcar Named Desire. Stella!!!!
Big yes to Tootsie (so much better than Soapdish on the satire, too!).
I’d also add Holy Smoke with Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel. They make a twisted pair, and the whole thing is kind of twisted, actually but at least there’s no threat of apocalypse at the end, so I think it qualifies. Plus is has one of my very favorite opening sequences—I dare anyone to watch that movie without hearing “Holly Holy” in your head for days afterward. Oh, shit.
Stupid word verification 🙁
Fave movies
Chocolat (Johnny Depp is so hot in this movie)
P&P both Colin and 2005 version. Matthew MacFadyen is hot, okay? 🙂
The Quiet Man
Vertigo
The Philadelphia Story…I’m a huge Jimmy Stewart fan. 🙂
13 Going on 30
Never Been Kissed
50 First Dates
The Wedding Singer (The only two Adam Sandler movies I like)
King Arthur (Not for the romance, but for the men. Clive Owen…need I say more? :))
The Bourne Supremacy…girlfriend killed and he goes to get the one who killed him. However, I just liked watching Karl Urban who was hot in the LotR as Eomer, but he was hot as the assassin. Yum!
My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Just because of John Corbett. I love him. 🙂
If I can list TV shows, it would be Alias, especially the kiss between Sydney & Vaughn just after they took down Section 1. Oh yeah! 🙂
I can’t believe there aren’t more mentions of Dangerous Liaisons – one of my three or so favoritist movies. So hot and so heartbreaking. Ahhhh.
But really, I MUST know how to get the season of Cupid with the unaired episodes. MUST. My husband I and STILL talk about that show. Sarah, help!! (Seriously, email me, please.)
Darcy
darcy @ fibersphere.net