+9
There is
THIS thread, but it was started over five years ago so we could probably stand to discuss it anew.
- Casablanca (1942 - Michael Curtiz)
"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life." There's much more to this great film than just a love story of course, but the Rick-Ilsa-Laszlo triangle is key, and the on-screen romantic history, past & present, between Bogart & Bergman has got to be the tops of the tops. If you don't absolutely love this movie, I suspect you aren't really human.
- Bringing Up Baby (1938 - Howard Hawks)
"It's not that I don't like you, Susan, because after all, in moments of quiet I'm strangely drawn toward you, but...well, there haven't been any quiet moments." One of the best Screwballers ever made has, at it's center, super-flighty Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) doing literally ANYthing to get the attention of uptight paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant). Elevates the sincere but misguided hair-pulling and name-calling we all know from the sandbox to a brontosaurus-bone-burying dog and a couple escaped leopards bent on seemingly ruining the good Doctor's career and bringing these two crazy kids together. Aaaah, love.
- Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991 - Anthony Minghella)
"Thank you for missing me." It's kinda like Ghost for grown-ups who have half a brain not reliant on Hollywood bullsh!t. A beautifully told if simple tale of losing the love of your life, collapsing in despair, being led back to life by that love, then set free to live again. Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, and Michael Maloney are all perfect, and the balance between very funny, quite sad, and ultimately hopeful is artfully achieved by Minghella. This one makes me cry every time I watch it, and I've probably seen it over twenty-five tmes.
- Amélie (2001 - Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
"No. I'm nobody's little weasle." Purely Romantic, purely comedic, uniquely and vibrantly told. A wonderfully wonderful film full of energy and wit and darkness and light and how can you not be madly in love with Audrey Tauotou after watching this (especially if like me you've watched it fifty or eighty times)?.
- Far From the Madding Crowd (1967 - John Schlesinger)
"If I can believe in any way that I could make you a good wife, I will indeed be willing to marry you...but I cannot promise yet, and I have not promised tonight." Thomas Hardy's novel brilliantly adapted by Frederick Raphael and lovingly brought to the screen by Schlesinger. A period piece love story that is actually as romantic and involving as the pastoral vistas are sweeping and beautiful. Alan Bates, Peter Finch and Terence Stamp are all excellent vying for the affections of Julie Christie (and who could blame them?). Too often overlooked.
- Notorious (1946 - Alfred Hitchcock)
"Say it again, it keeps me awake." Hitch's romantic spy thriller, with the driving love that Devlin (Cary Grant) and Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) won't allow themselves to surrender to and forgive all past sins putting her into the gravest of danger over wine bottles filled with radioactive sand. But can that love save her? The finale on the steps, with bluffs, pistols in pockets, and declarations of love as they make their escape is grade-A stuff.
- The Lady Eve (1941 - Preston Sturges)
"I need him like the ax needs the turkey." Another fantastic screwballer, this one with that special Sturges sensibilty. Barbara Stanwyk is a con artist who begins falling for a rich, bumbling zoologist (Henry Fonda) who professes love for snakes over people. The schemes and devices she uses to trap her man are often hilarious. A very sweet and very funny movie.
- Modern Romance (1981 - Albert Brooks)
"OK, let me ask you something: if a person's not home, and you start driving around their house, and you drive around, around, and around, and you start driving around the city, you're going ninety miles-an-hour, and you're calling them every four seconds, and you don't think of anything else, what is that? Is that not love?" For me, nobody does neurotic obsession and make me laugh about it like Albert Brooks. Here watching him talk and worry his way in and out of a relationship with Mary (Kathryn Harrold) reaffirms my faith in love and myself. After all, even I can't be that bad...I don't care what that Restraining Order says.
- When Harry Met Sally. . . (1989 - Rob Reiner)
"The fact that you're not answering leads me to believe that a) you're not home, b) you're home but you don't want to talk to me, or c) you're home, desperately want to talk to me, but you're trapped under something heavy. If it's either a) or c), please give me a call." OK, so what if it is just Reiner & Ephron doing Woody Allen, they did it so damn well. Crystal and Ryan are at their best, the supporting players are all perfect too, and it's chock full of about four dozen quoteable lines in examining the eternal question: can men & women just be friends?
- Say Anything. . . (1989 - Cameron Crowe)
"I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen." I think Crowe's first directorial effort is still his best. A perfect and odd script brought to life by John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, it moves beyond the familiar High School love story mini-genre and creates something special. It's just good and addictive. How can you not be pulling for Lloyd Dobbler?
- Roman Holiday (1953 - William Wyler)
"Mr. Bradley, if you don't mind my saying so, I think you are a ringer." Great modern fantasy with the incomparable Ms. Audrey Hepburn at her most adorable, and Gregory Peck in all his class and glory. Love can't hide behind duplicity, as Peck's reporter finds out supposedly trying to get a story but instead rescuing a fairy princess.
And on and on and on...
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 12-11-20 at 11:10 AM.