The Most Romantic Movie of All Time

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- Titanic
- The New World
- Pride & Prejudice
- The Notebook
- Tarzan
- Benny & Joon
- Girl With A Pearl Earring
- The Fountain
- The Phantom of the Opera (including the play)
- A Bronx Tale (even if it's not a romance film, there are just some of those scenes.)


For only a few....
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I thought the ending for Titanic was very romantic, but I can't say it was as romantic as the critics were making it out to be. Now, it may have been that the actors that played the lead roles needed to have better chemistry (the female lead did say, in a press interview, that Leonardo DiCaprio was a sloppy kisser. That should tell you something right there).



I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was romantic and had that off the wall quality that I enjoy in a movie.

Also, Say Anything. I think every female wants to meet a Lloyd Dobler. And I love the ending.



fbi
Registered User
pretty woman
sliding doors
titanic (cheesy but it works)



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I have two votes for most romantic movie of all time: Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, 1943)

-and-
A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Presburger, 1946)



Maybe there's something about wartime which brings people's hearts out into the open. Heaven Can Wait was filmed during WWII, but makes no reference to it whatsoever. It's the story of Ladies' Man Henry Van Cleeve (Don Ameche), who, upon his death, presents himself to His Excellency (Laird Cregar) at the Gateway to Hell. The Lord of the Underworld isn't quite ready to admit him when Henry tells him that his "life was one continual misdemeanor". At this point, Henry relates his life story, which mostly revolves around the women. Henry was always precocious, so his mother, grandmother, nannies and little girls all fought over him, ever since an early age. But it's only after he meets the lovely fiancee, Martha (Gene Tierney), of his cousin Albert (Allyn Joslyn), that Henry's heart feels something stronger within him for the fairer sex. With the help of his feisty Grandpa (Charles Coburn), he basically steals Martha and begins a lifetime love affair with her, even though he continues to have a weakness for the other ladies.

This film is definitely one of the funniest I've ever seen, and it obviously presents a totally believable loving relationship in the midst of a few which aren't quite so perfect. My point is that anything so honest and loving which can be so hilarious is a treasure to be cherished. It not only depicts passion but something more eternal.

A Matter of Life and Death is just as unique as Heaven Can Wait. Coincidentally, it begins in what seems to be the lead character's death. David Niven is a pilot named Peter of a WWII RAF bomber on fire, with all others on board dead; he has no parachute, and he comes in radio contact with American WAC June (Kim Hunter), stationed in England. As he contemplates and explains his death to June, Peter falls in love with her, and unsurprisingly, she falls for his poetry and bravery in the face of certain death. The thing is, that as his plane is coming down over the coast of England, Peter jumps out but seems to survive. Not only that, he lands very close to where June works and meets her within five minutes of being shocked to find that he's not in Heaven, but still on this Earth.

June has a good friend in Dr. Frank Reeves (Roger Livesey), a brain surgery specialist, who tries to help Peter in every medical way possible. Although there is no rational explanation for Peter being alive after jumping, Frank tries to cure him of his dementia, which involves the fact that a heavenly conductor (Marius Goring) missed Peter in the English fog but wants to collect him now and take him to the Afterlife. June and Frank do everything they can to try to keep Peter alive and away from the Afterlife, even though Peter is convinced that his case is going before a Heavenly Court. What happens next is unbelievably perfect, even if my wife is heartbroken about one detail.
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A Lot Like Love and Eternal Sunshine are the two most recent romances to impress me.
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The greatest nations have all acted like gangsters and the smallest like prostitutes.



Not to flame your favorite film or anything, but I'd like for someone to explain to me how a story about a prostitute can be romantic? That's always seemed to me to be the exact opposite of romantic.



I have two votes for most romantic movie of all time: Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch, 1943)

-and-
A Matter o Life nd Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Presburger, 1946)
I admire your taste, Mark! And thanks for reminding me about A Matter of Life and Death--I haven't seen that film in years and had totally forgotten it.

There are a couple of other films that deal with love at or after death--The Ghost and Mrs. Muhr, of course, and Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Also A Guy Called Joe and Angel on My Shoulder with Paul Muni. And Death Takes a Holiday. There's also a really offbeat film about a grandfather and his little grandson called On Borrowed Time-- not a romance, but still about love between two people near the end of a lifetime.



fbi
Registered User
Not to flame your favorite film or anything, but I'd like for someone to explain to me how a story about a prostitute can be romantic? That's always seemed to me to be the exact opposite of romantic.
Sometimes prostitutes are just trying to earn money cos they have no choice. Many are forced and therefore i refuse to judge them in a negative light.

That aside, i love the movie and thought it was very well made.



Not to flame your favorite film or anything, but I'd like for someone to explain to me how a story about a prostitute can be romantic? That's always seemed to me to be the exact opposite of romantic.
I'll assume you've seen the movie. We've all made mistakes. Then again, what fbi said is true as well. It still ended in love. What's not romantic about that?



Celluloid Temptation Facilitator
Sometimes prostitutes are just trying to earn money cos they have no choice. Many are forced and therefore i refuse to judge them in a negative light.

That aside, i love the movie and thought it was very well made.
Great answer!

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Casablanca and I also really loved Brokeback Mountain!



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A Matter o Life nd Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Presburger, 1946)




A Matter of Life and Death is just as unique as Heaven Can Wait. Coincidentally, it begins in what seems to be the lead character's death. David Niven is a pilot named Peter of a WWII RAF bomber on fire, with all others on board dead; he has no parachute, and he comes in radio contact with American WAC June (Kim Hunter), stationed in England. As he contemplates and explains his death to June, Peter falls in love with her, and unsurprisingly, she falls for his poetry and bravery in the face of certain death. The thing is, that as his plane is coming down over the coast of England, Peter jumps out but seems to survive. Not only that, he lands very close to where June works and meets her within five minutes of being shocked to find that he's not in Heaven, but still on this Earth.

June has a good friend in Dr. Frank Reeves (Roger Livesey), a brain surgery specialist, who tries to help Peter in every medical way possible. Although there is no rational explanation for Peter being alive after jumping, Frank tries to cure him of his dementia, which involves the fact that a heavenly conductor (Marius Goring) missed Peter in the English fog but wants to collect him now and take him to the Afterlife. June and Frank do everything they can to try to keep Peter alive and away from the Afterlife, even though Peter is convinced that his case is going before a Heavenly Court. What happens next is unbelievably perfect, even if my wife is heartbroken about one detail.
Love this movie!! Great choice.

My all-time favorite romantic film is Casablanca, but I also love Carol Reed's 1947 classic, Odd Man Out.



It's the story of a wounded Irish fugitive (an insanely attractive and intense James Mason) and the girl who loves him and is determined to find and save him (Kathleen Ryan). Mason spends most of the film wandering the streets of Belfast looking for a place to hide, and finding only betrayal - even from the people who were supposedly on his side, while Ryan searches for her lover. Their meeting at the end is romantic tragedy at its peak.
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My all-time favorite romantic film is Casablanca, but I also love Carol Reed's 1947 classic, Odd Man Out.


It's the story of a wounded Irish fugitive (an insanely attractive and intense James Mason) and the girl who loves him and is determined to find and save him (Kathleen Ryan). Mason spends most of the film wandering the streets of Belfast looking for a place to hide, and finding only betrayal - even from the people who were supposedly on his side, while Ryan searches for her lover. Their meeting at the end is romantic tragedy at its peak.

I've never seen Odd Man Out but it sounds interesting so am putting it on my "to see list" ...
thanks... and it's nice to see you hanging out again...
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I've never seen Odd Man Out but it sounds interesting so am putting it on my "to see list" ...
thanks... and it's nice to see you hanging out again...
Thanks, Caitlyn! I was on vacation in Ireland for a few days, but I've missed the forums!



fbi
Registered User
I'll assume you've seen the movie. We've all made mistakes. Then again, what fbi said is true as well. It still ended in love. What's not romantic about that?
thanks Destiny



That's okay. Nobody's perfect!
Casablanca (1942) would be near the top of my list, but another film I have not seen mentioned yet is near the top also:

Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo And Juliet (1968)



But at the very top I think I would choose:

Fellini's La Strada (1954)







A power film in which Anthony Quinn finds out too late, that despite being a brutal, unthinking, even savage man, that he is in fact capable of love. This movie will break your heart.



Sometimes prostitutes are just trying to earn money cos they have no choice. Many are forced and therefore i refuse to judge them in a negative light.

That aside, i love the movie and thought it was very well made.
Lots of people loved the movie, and I'm not knocking Pretty Woman per se--lots of films have used the same stereotype of the prostitute with a heart of gold. Remember the one where the kid hires the prostitute that he introduces to his lonely widowed father (Lunch Money or something like that)?

My original question was aimed at the way that movies portray prostitutes as an acceptable romantic interest, rather than why real prostitutes adopt that lifestyle.

But consider the reason you advanced as applied to the prostitute played by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, did that character really seem like she couldn't earn money except by prostitution? Or was it she couldn't earn as much money as she wanted except as a prostitute?

Sure there really are cases of women who are forced into prostitution--like the illegal immigrants from China or Mexico who are forced into prostitution by the people who bring them into the country. Sometimes that has been a side issue in a couple of Westerns, Lonesome Dove and another made-for-TV film with Robert Duval and one with Jackie Chan, I think. But how often do you see a prostitute-in-love film in a modern setting where the prostitute is working the streets? Usually they are portrayed as mythical "high class" call girls with "high class clients" like the wealthy guy played by Richard Geer (what's "high class" about selling sex for money?). In Mona Lisa, the call girl dresses better and has classier manners and more money than her driver-guard Bob Hoskins.

It used to be that among the lower financial classes of this and other countries that the wife and mother would sometimes go on the streets as a prostitute temporarily to help support the family, especially if the husband was sick or injured or laid off or on strike. That wasn't that unusual in some strata of our society 70-100 years ago. But most of the prostitutes I saw in the years I worked the police beat were in the business to feed their drug habits. They were too strung out to hold jobs but they didn't mind selling their bodies to anyone (regardless of looks, weight, age or smell) to buy booze or drugs. Yet even then, there were some who were in it because a busy girl on the streets can make a bag of money. They once brought in a young prostitute who had a teaching degree. I asked her why she was out on the streets, risking her health and life, instead of teaching. Her reply? "It pays better." Even at $35 a pop, rack up 7-10 Johns a night and she's got $245-350 in a few hours and can score some dope and sleep it off the next day. But like I said, that's not the kind of prostitution we see in the movies.

But put it on a more personal basis, if a prostitute really was acceptable in our society as a love interest, the way they are in the movies, would you want your brother to marry one? Or your daddy?



Love this movie!! Great choice.

My all-time favorite romantic film is Casablanca, but I also love Carol Reed's 1947 classic, Odd Man Out.

It's the story of a wounded Irish fugitive (an insanely attractive and intense James Mason) and the girl who loves him and is determined to find and save him (Kathleen Ryan). Mason spends most of the film wandering the streets of Belfast looking for a place to hide, and finding only betrayal - even from the people who were supposedly on his side, while Ryan searches for her lover. Their meeting at the end is romantic tragedy at its peak.
Odd Man Out is a great film. Another fine film in which one Irishman betrays another for love--of a sort--is The Informer in which Victor McLaughlin sells out his best friend, an IRA gunman, to British authorities to get some money to impress the girl he loves--a prostitute!