Romantic Movies

[Deleted]

I really like Casablanca but I, too, was left a little cold by the romance. I loved the politics and Peter Lorre's part at the beginning, but the romance was just sort of blah.

I always wonder if I wouldn't enjoy Casablanca more if I didn't know all of the best lines from the movie and the plot in general. There is something almost deflating to see the lines in context.

[Karrit]

Crossing Delancey is one of my all time favorites. Peter Riegert is beyond adorable, and Sylvia Miles as the matchmaker always makes me smile. Wonderful, wonderful film.

Room With A View--I saw this in the theater 5 times and lost count how many times since. Daniel Day Lewis and Julian Sands and Rupert Graves. Sigh. What is not to love about this lush film?

The Quiet Man. I watch this at least two or three times a year...a beautiful story, lovingly filmed. Maureen O'Hara is wonderful and her chemistry with John Wayne is fabulous.

[sleepy]

Speaking of Daniel Day Lewis, I thought My Beautiful Laundrette was a pretty good romance.

I also really liked Crossing Delancey.

[Deleted]

Thanks for remembering Room with a View
Lush is a perfect way to describe this film. I love the unexpected kiss in the fields (with the beautiful music playing) and the sexy but fully clothed kisses in the last scene. Julian Sands was perfect as the young, moody, but passionate guy restrained by English manners. Rowr.
And I've decided Daniel Day Lewis is a freakin' genius. How could he be so asexual in this film and so hot in almost everything else?

[Karrit]

Sleepy- "My Beautiful Launderette" will always have a special place in my heart. It is where I first saw Daniel Day Lewis.

Such a wonderful actor and the added bonus is that I get a perverse pleasure in knowing that his performance in "My Left Foot" kept Crazy Tom Cruise from getting an Oscar. The little things...they make me very happy!

[huntergrayson]

I blame Humphrey Bogart. To me, he just seems like he's so that ridiculous outdated stoic masculine ideal - be strong!, be wooden! - that you know that any time he did something romantic or confessed his feelings, he'd have to down an entire bottle of scotch and get into a bar fight before coming back and having angry, sloppy drunken sex with you (and not in the good way).

In contrast, I look at the great chemistry between Bergman and Cary Grant in Notorious (though he plays a cold, stoic character) and yeah, Casablanca doesn't look so hot in comparison.

This thread really, really reminds me that I need to start renting more movies made within my lifetime. Who are these "Julia Roberts" and "Meg Ryan" you kids keep talking about? Now get off my lawn! (I do agree with whoever said Out of Sight - it's one of those movies I can watch anytime, like Bringing Up Baby. And George Clooney really does wear that suit).

Charade - so very good and charming - when Audrey Hepburn says "How do you shave in there?" and "Do you know what's wrong with you - nothing," I just melt. Oh, when they're on the boat and the beautiful score...sigh.

The Lady Eve - quite possibly, the best romantic comedy from the 40s hardly anyone has seen. Preston Sturges, so it's hysterically funny, but Barbara Stanwyck makes it so very sexy and romantic as well. "Why Hopsie, you ought to be kept in a cage."

Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Okay, yes, it's in french and entirely sung. And it works, okay? The first part captures the joy of young love so well...and has one of the most perfect endings in film I've seen. Sad, but perfect.

[kafka]

Huntergrayson, I completely agree with your assessment of Bogart. I never understood the huge love for him as a romantic figure. I also agree about Charade. My favorite Audrey Hepburn movies are Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady. The latter isn't obviously romantic but the way gruff Rex Harrison starts to soften, melt and fall for her always touches my heart. As a child, I thought that was the ultimate in romantic Cinderella stories. After that, then the original Sabrina.

Unpopular Opinion: I never thought Breakfast at Tiffany's was all that romantic. It actually irritates me a lot as a film. And I was never a huge fan of Dr. Zhivago either. While I'm at it in listing things which --- IMO --- are over-rated romantic movies: Great Expectations and Amelie. I'd like to add Titanic to the list but it's a movie I've vowed never to see, no matter what, ever, to the day I die. I know it's illogical to hate a movie you've never seen but I. Simply. Can't. Not ever. And it's not just because of Celine Dion or Cameron's obnoxious "I'm King of the World" arrogance. It's just a mental block as big as the Great Wall of China.

[huntergrayson]

I was going to mention Breakfast at Tiffany's, actually. It's a movie that a lot of people think is romantic, due to the 14-year old girl in them being all "I wanna be Holly Golightly! Oh, yay, Tiffany's!" But try watching it late at night, alone, after having a fight with your S.O. or being dumped. Hey, what do you know, the movie is depressing as hell. Two sad, lonely broken people manage to fall for each other when they aren't selling themselves for money or running away from their issues/traumatic childhood. Hurrah.

But the new Great Expectations is romantic as all get-out. The scene where he walks in from the rain and asks her to dance? Gorgeous. Cuaron is such a wonderfully visual director without being overly "showy". (it probably helps that I never read the book so I can't be all devastated at the changes...)

Very Long Engagement was better and more romantic than Amelie.

[foxfair]

I blame Humphrey Bogart. To me, he just seems like he's so that ridiculous outdated stoic masculine ideal - be strong!, be wooden! - that you know that any time he did something romantic or confessed his feelings, he'd have to down an entire bottle of scotch and get into a bar fight before coming back and having angry, sloppy drunken sex with you (and not in the good way).

Damn. You nailed it there, huntergrayson. A career in psychology beckons?

Also concur on Out of Sight. Like them or not, George and J.Lo had sparky, tangible chemistry.

[plush]

Right after you guys. After I saw Casablanca, and Breakfast at Tiffany's, I couldn't get all the *romantic* reference that I'd heard so much about. I thought Casablanca was a good movie, and if I didn't expect to see a great love story I would have liked it better, and Breakfast was just too overrated.

I thought the scene on the boat in Tequila Sunrise where she tells him that she loves him and he slaps her because he doesn't want to hear it, was very romantic,albeit a bit violent. That's another on-screen couple that I could totally drool over, especially in that movie