100 Most Romantic Scenes in Movie History

[Nichol_storm]

Let's face it: inside of all of us is the soul of a hopeless romantic. And sometimes movies can touch that soul with tender words, longing looks, or special moments between characters. This thread is a celebration of those wonderful scenes that are part of what make movies truly magic. To kick it off, here's my pick:

#100: In 1986's "Parting Glances", Steve Buscemi's character, Nick, asks his friend if he's ever been in love. "Once," his friend admits.

"And then he died, right?" Nick asks cynically. "No," says his friend, "he's right here." And then he points at Nick.

Ah, l'amour.

[Baker]

#99

Rhett Butler grabbing Scarlett and carrying her up that grand stairway, into the darkness. Then, next morning, she's stretching in bed and singing to herself.

[rjk]

Really a pair of scenes: "Play it, Sam."

[quiltguy154]

#97, I guess. The parting of the two lovers in "Brief Encounter". It's difficult not to be moved since you know they will never see each other again. The couple realizes too that their lives will be all the poorer for it.

[RealityChuck]

#96 Most scenes in Shakespeare in Love. If forced to pick one, I'd pick the one in the boat.

[flight]

rjk, don't you mean #1 and #2?

[Kalhoun]

I know all you purists are going to jump my shit about this, but the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofersen version of "A Star Is Born" is one of my cry-from-beginning-to-end movies. In particular, when he goes racing off in his car, listening to her tape...and then when she goes running into the next room, thinking he's playing -- and it turns out to be a tape. But the whole thing is romantic. (sniff!)

[Zebra]

I like this scene from Sense and Sensibility


Marianne (Kate Winslet) is recovering from her illness after her horrible end with Willoughby and she is sitting out on her lawn and Col. Brandon (Alan Rickman) is reading poetry to her.

I don't know, that scene gets me everytime.

[flight]

#93 From Roman Holiday

Reporter: And what, in the opinion of Your Highness, is the outlook for friendship among nations?
Princess Ann: I have every faith in it... as I have faith in relations between people.
Joe Bradley: May I say, speaking for my own... press service: we believe Your Highness's faith will not be unjustified.
Princess Ann: I am so glad to hear you say it.
Another reporter: Which of the cities visited did Your Highness enjoy the most?
prompting
Princess Ann: Each, in its own way, was unforgettable. It would be difficult to-- Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live.

[Leechboy]

#92 Defending Your Life


Albert Brooks decides to run after the light rail cars to the afterlife

[Glory]

#72 Frankie and Johnny

The scene where Frankie and Johnny kiss in front of a truck. The movie has been very grey and miserable, these two sad people. They kiss and kiss and the back of the truck flies up and they are kissing in front of vibrant flowers.

I love that scene.

[Loach]

John Cusak. Peter Gabreil. Boom box.

[SeGate]

It may seem a bit corny, but the scene from Singin' In the Rain where Gene Kelly takes Debbie Reynolds to the empty soundstage because he can't tell her how much he loves her without "the proper setting." And then he sings, "You Were Meant for Me."

*sigh*

The best part of the whole thing is how he looks at her so intently.

[cactus waltz]

#100: In 1986's "Parting Glances", Steve Buscemi's character, Nick, asks his friend if he's ever been in love. "Once," his friend admits.

"And then he died, right?" Nick asks cynically. "No," says his friend, "he's right here." And then he points at Nick.

Ah, l'amour.


I want to see that movie. Now.

[DeVena]

When Harry Met Sally...

The first New Year Eve scene, in the middle of the movie, where they are just friends. Harry has just shaved off his beard. They are dancing and Sally says it's so nice to dance cheek to cheek with him now and rubs her cheek against his. Billy Crystal's expression just makes my toes curl each and every time I see this. So full of unexpected longing, that he has to close his eyes.

[gigi]

The best part of the whole thing is how he looks at her so intently.
Pretty much any scene from "Moulin Rouge" where Ewan McGregor is looking at Nicole Kidman, just for the wonderful look on his face.

Rhett Butler grabbing Scarlett and carrying her up that grand stairway, into the darkness. Then, next morning, she's stretching in bed and singing to herself.
Eeep, I always thought of this as a marital rape scene--all she needed was a good lay and she's happy again. No offense, but not my idea of romantic.

[plnnr]

Either:

1. The scene at the end of Casablanca where Humphrey Bogart gives his "I'm not good at being noble..." speech, or;

2. The scene in "Dr. Zhivago" where Omar Scharif and Julie Christie are in the frozen summer house, or;

3. The scene in "Holmes' Hammer" where John Holmes goes balls deep in Seka's ass.

It really is a toss up.

[Treviathan]

I'll second John Cusack holding the boombox in Say Anything (which would have been my first choice) and add a scene from Punch-Drunk Love. Adam Sandler is leaving Emily Watson's apartment, and Watson calls down to the main lobby to tell him something to the effect of how much she wanted to kiss him while he stood in her doorway. The two characters are just so socially awkward that it's wonderful when they finally break through to each other.

[Draelin]

DeVena, I'll go you one better--the speech at the second New Years' party in When Harry Met Sally, when he tells her all the things he loves about her. Makes me weep every time.

[RitzyRae]

I like this scene from Sense and Sensibility

Marianne (Kate Winslet) is recovering from her illness after her horrible end with Willoughby and she is sitting out on her lawn and Col. Brandon (Alan Rickman) is reading poetry to her.

I don't know, that scene gets me everytime.

Thank you. That scene gets me everytime as well.

#?? The Scarlet Pimpernel - At Lord Grenville's ball, Marguerite St. Juste (Jane Seymour) risks everything to warn The Scarlet Pimpernel (Anthony Andrews) that Chauvelin (Ian McKellen) knows he will be in the library at midnight; all the while not knowing that The Scarlet Pimpernel is her husband, Sir Percy Blakeney. In a whispered conversation, with her back to him as not to reveal his identity, Percy learns the truth about his wife's past actions, and loves her once again with a moving intensity. Reaching for her shoulder he touches her, and she him, solidifying their bond and leading to Marguerite's realization about her husband.

The whispering, the costumes, the firelight... romance!

[rjk]

rjk, don't you mean #1 and #2?

I suppose they could be #1 and #2, although they're really inseparable. It never occurred to me to number them. That last scene mentioned by plnnr is great too ("We'll always have Paris." is a tear-jerker for sure.), but it doesn't quite make it.

[Walloon]

1. Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman) are reconciled in their bedroom at the end of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
2. Any of the romantic interludes between Norman Shearer and Roman Novarro in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). When I watched it, I thought, yes, this is how it feels to fall in love.
3. Debra Winger and Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman.
4. Judy Garland and Robert Walker take a walk through Central Park at night in The Clock (1944), back when that was romantic not scary.
5. Ditto what flight said about Roman Holiday.
6. Joel McCrea makes love to Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier (1943) as she tries to maintain her composure, but slowly melts at his kisses.
7. Anything romantic with Juliette Binoche.

[Walloon]

8. Rudolf Nureyev "plays" Nastassja Kinski's body by seductively caressing her all over with a cello bow in Exposed (1983).
9. Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis slow dancing to the car radio in Witness (1985).
10. It's not a movie, but . . . that Volkswagen Cabrio commercial (http://media.eurotuned.com/vwcommercials_nolinking/Cabrio-pink-moon-night-drive.mov) with the two young couples riding with the top down on a country road at night, under the silver-blue light of the moon and stars, with Nick Drake singing Pink Moon. One of the loveliest, most romantic things I ever saw.

[Walloon]

#2: I meant Norma Shearer. :smack:

[Baker]

Quote: by gigi

Originally Posted by Baker
Rhett Butler grabbing Scarlett and carrying her up that grand stairway, into the darkness. Then, next morning, she's stretching in bed and singing to herself.

Eeep, I always thought of this as a marital rape scene--all she needed was a good lay and she's happy again. No offense, but not my idea of romantic.

Well, gee gigi, I'm sorry if my ideas of romanticism aren't the same as yours. I thought this was a thread where we could post the scenes we thought were romantic, not one to run down the choice of another.

[Miller]

It's from a TV show, not a movie, but it's still the single most romantic thing I've ever seen. From Buffy: The Vampire Slayer:

Willow: (after a pause) Do you wanna make out with me?

Oz: What?

Willow: (looks away) Forget it. I'm sorry. (decides she wants to know)
Well, do you?

Oz: Sometimes when I'm sitting in class... You know, I'm not thinking
about class, 'cause that would never happen. I think about kissing you.
And it's like everything stops. It's like, it's like freeze frame.
Willow kissage.

He nods his head and smiles to himself. Willow smiles over at him. He
looks up at her.

Oz: Oh, I'm not gonna kiss you.

Willow: (confused) What? But freeze frame!

Oz: Well, to the casual observer, it would appear that you're trying to
make your friend Xander jealous or even the score or something. And
that's on the empty side. (looks off into space) See, in my fantasy when
I'm kissing *you*, you're kissing *me*.

I'm straight, but after that, I want him to kiss me.

[BubbaDog]

The "phone call" scene with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life

[Ilsa_Lund]

Well, Punch Drunk Love has been mentioned.


Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain - At the end when she opens the door and Nino is standing there.

After The Thin Man - Jimmy Stewart and the girl he's lost to another are talking about their past romance. "You can't just keep loving someone if they don't love you back." Stewart softly says "It's been done."

Sunrise - After they get off the boat in the city, and The Man is trying to convince The Wife that he loves her. Especially in the cafe.

The final scene from Notorious.

[seriousart]

Modern classic: The wordless ending of Lost in Translation

[beckwall]

Out of Africa - Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep's hair outdoors. Sigh.

[medstar]

My submission to this thread is the scene in The English Patient, when Ralph Fiennes flies back to the cave where Kristin Scott Thomas has died, carries her body out, and flies off. Sure, she's dead, but he went to a lot of trouble to get back to her and not just abandon her, even though that would be easy to do. Every time I watch that scene, I miss what happens next, because I'm off on a crying jag, upset at the waste of their lives.

[Don Draper]

Well I'm a sucker for a happy ending, so SPOILERS -

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" : Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard and "Cat" huddling together in the rain as "Moon River" plays.

"Love in the Afternoon": Audrey Hepburn (again) confessing she loves Gary Cooper as his train his pulling out of the station, and him snatching her up and pulling her into the car.

"Beautiful Thing": the two guys slow dancing together, and the 'gals' following suit. (a bit hokey, but cute.)

"Rear Window": 1. Grace Kelly swooping in to kiss Jimmy Stewart, and 2. the ending; the camera swoops around the courtyard to show all the little dramas in all the windows have ended, and Jimmy Stewart (now with TWO broken legs) sleeps in his chair. Grace flips through a wildlife photography magazine until she knows Stewart's fast asleep, then pulls out Vogue. (Guess you have to see the whole movie to get it, but it's very, very sweet.)

[gigi]

Well, gee gigi, I'm sorry if my ideas of romanticism aren't the same as yours. I thought this was a thread where we could post the scenes we thought were romantic, not one to run down the choice of another.

Well, I knew I was running a risk in offering a different interpretation, and I am sorry I offended you. I guess it's like someone saying "I think 'Every Breath You Take' is really romantic", and someone responding with "You do know that's about a stalker, right?"

[PunditLisa]

When Daniel Day-Lewis (as Hawkeye) shouts to Madeleine Stowe under the waterfall in "Last of the Mohicans: "Stay alive, no matter what. Stay alive and I'll find you."

::swoon::

[PunditLisa]

Re GWTW: No matter what your personal interpretation is, you should know that in the book Margaret Mitchell is very sympathetic to Rhett. Scarlett is giddy with pleasure after the incident because she was finally able to banish Ashley out of her mind and enjoy Rhett's physicality. Rhett, for his part, was wrecked with guilt and very remorseful.

FWIW.

[teela brown]

John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, drenched with rain, kissing in the cemetery in The Quiet Man.

::sigh::

[DesertDog]

Somewhere in Time
Pretty sappy movie overall, but there's this one scene where Elise (Jane Seymour) is on stage and spots Richard (Christopher Reeves) in the audience distracting her from her lines. The actress playing the maid, trying to get her back on track, asks what her perfect lover would be like and looking Richard in the eye, she extemporizes for about a minute about him, enthralling the audience. Shaking that off, she gets back in character and the spell is broken.

DD

[CrazyCatLady]

Actually, Gigi, it's more like saying "Well, it's about a stalker, and I don't find stalkers romantic at all, but whatever. No offense, though."

When I think romantic movie scenes, the first thing that springs to mind is the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp, followed closely by the boombox scene from Say Anything.

[RitzyRae]

My submission to this thread is the scene in The English Patient, when Ralph Fiennes flies back to the cave where Kristin Scott Thomas has died, carries her body out, and flies off. Sure, she's dead, but he went to a lot of trouble to get back to her and not just abandon her, even though that would be easy to do. Every time I watch that scene, I miss what happens next, because I'm off on a crying jag, upset at the waste of their lives.

Yeah, uh... have you read the book? They really romanticized the heck out of this part. In the books it's uh... well read it, if you want it to shred this scene for you.

Cheers! :D

[Miss Purl McKnittington]

In Dream for an Insomniac (this is going to be a spoiler), after Frankie has moved to LA, David suddenly disappears, and she spends hours calling every single Schrader family in Michigan, just to find his parents, so she can find out where he is. He, meanwhile, is rushing to her apartment in LA. He arrives and they make love and Frankie is finally able to sleep for the first time since she was six, because David has filled in a missing place in her life. *sigh* Not grand and moving or anything, but *sigh*.

Of course, there's that scene in FoTR where Arwen gives Aragorn the Evenstar, and she says "It is mine to give to whom I will . . . like my heart," when he protests.

[ColonelDax]

Cary Grant this time, in North by Northwest - one of my very favorite shots ever is from the scene where he and Eva Marie Saint are in the dining car on the 20th Century Limited, when he lights her cigarette and after exhaling she takes his hands and blows out the match. The whole scene is quite good, but that particular shot is magic, IMHO.

[Patr100]

Osgood: I called Mama. She was so happy she cried. She wants you to have her wedding gown. It's white lace.
Jerry-Daphne: Yeah, Osgood. I can't get married in your mother's dress. Ha ha. That-she and I, we are not built the same way.
Osgood: We can have it altered.
Jerry-Daphne: Aw no you don't! Osgood, I'm gonna level with you. We can't get married at all.
Osgood: Why not?
Jerry: Well, in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde.
Osgood: Doesn't matter.
Jerry-Daphne: I smoke. I smoke all the time.
Osgood: I don't care.
Jerry-Daphne: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player.
Osgood: I forgive you.
Jerry-Daphne: I can never have children.
Osgood (unperturbed): We can adopt some.
Jerry-Daphne (whipping off his wig, exasperated): You don't understand, Osgood. (Changing to manly voice.) I'm a man.
Osgood (unruffled and still in love): Well, nobody's perfect

From Some Like it Hot. Joe E Brown and Tony Curtis.



Seriously , I would say Brief Encounter. It's a very poignant and realistic portrayal of the way love can transform people's otherwise mundane lives but is an often unpredictable and powerful impulse, told in an understated typically British stiff Upper lip way but all the more telling because of that.

[Tangent]

The final scene in The Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack and Sally finally admit their feelings for each other and at the end of their song they embrace and kiss, silhouetted by the giant moon.

[Don Draper]

Oh, I forgot to mention "Moonstruck" - specifically the night of the full moon, in which (almost) every one gets randy.

[DarRRva]

Well I just saw this the other day, and it really stuck in my mind. It's not a classic film, as most of these seem to be, but I think the scene in Big Fish where Albert Finney and Jessica Lange are in the bath together. Also the bit in the same movie when Ewan McGregor has the whole field of daffodils for Alison Lohman is cute, but the bath scene really choked me up.

[Nvme77]

Two for the honey...

Jerry Maguire. Now before you start to gag, it meant a lot to me and my husband because I was a young single mom when we met and we identified so much with the two characters. Its the part where Jerry bursts in on the womens support group meeting at the house and he announces,
"I'm looking for my wife. Alright. If this is where it has to happen, then this is where it has to happen. I'm not letting you get rid of me. How about that?...... (blah blah blah more stuff) I couldn't hear you voice, or laugh about it with you. I missed my wife"

Man I feel for Tom at this point, tears in his eyes and all. :)

And... Age of Innocence After Daniel Day-Lewis' character has aged and he is sitting at a bench looking up at the window of Michelle Pfeiffers Paris apartment and you can see the wistful longing and quiet sadness in his eyes. That is so beautiful.

[furthur]

My favorite romantic set of scenes is probably from Persuasion. Yes, all very repressed and restrained, I know, very Austen.

But when Frederick gives Anne the note, and she reads it, and then they meet and kiss in the street... aaaaaahhhh.

Okay, and another Austen: I loooooooove the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle BBC Price and Prejudice. Interestingly enough, it's not so much when they get together, but when she refuses him point-blank -- oooh! "You could not have offered your hand in any way that would have induced me to accept it." Oooh.

I loved the Sense & Sensibility adaptation too. The way Brandon looks at Marianne, mmm.

And Mansfield Park -- I was just on the edge of my seat when Fanny and Edmund finally got together. Yes, I knew they were going to, but when the brother is in the bed, presumably dying, and he finally goes to kiss her -- and then later when they get together, oh boy.

What can I say? Die-hard Austen fan. And they're making great adaptations these days. :D

Mrs. Furthur

[blowero]

O.K., people will probably think these are corny, but I liked "Groundhog Day", especially the scene where Bill Murray tells the sleeping Andie Macdowell how he feels about her.

Also "The Goodbye Girl" where he surprises her by decorating the roof of the apartment building.

And "Goodwill Hunting", hmmm...guess it should have a spoiler box:


Matt Damon bails on his new job to go after Minnie Driver

[don't ask]

John Cusak. Peter Gabreil. Boom box.

Right movie but I prefer the last scene before the fade out. He comforts her on the plane, ironically now, waiting for the smoking sign to calm her fears.

[DoctorJ]

One of my favorites that I don't think anyone has mentioned:

American Beauty, the scene where Creepy Next Door Guy (also known as The Guy Who Looks Like Tobey McGuire, But Isn't) is filming the girls through their window from next door. Thora Birch gives him attitude about it, and he says something about how beautiful she is (can't remember what he says--really didn't matter). Then, while Mena Suvari is getting all slutty in the window for him, he zooms in on the mirror behind her where we see Thora's face, as she breaks out into a smile that she thinks no one can see.

10. It's not a movie, but . . . that Volkswagen Cabrio commercial with the two young couples riding with the top down on a country road at night, under the silver-blue light of the moon and stars, with Nick Drake singing Pink Moon. One of the loveliest, most romantic things I ever saw.
Sad though it is to say, that commercial is probably one of the biggest reasons I bought a Cabrio. (OK, it was also just the right car for me, but remembering that commercial sealed the deal.)

Dr. J

[Typo Negative]

I like this scene from Sense and Sensibility


Marianne (Kate Winslet) is recovering from her illness after her horrible end with Willoughby and she is sitting out on her lawn and Col. Brandon (Alan Rickman) is reading poetry to her.

I don't know, that scene gets me everytime.
It's the 2nd to last scene that gets me. Where Edward comes over, and the family all thinks he's married, and he's there to announce he's NOT married, and ......

[plnnr]

"From Some Like it Hot. Joe E Brown and Tony Curtis."

Close, but that's Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon. Tony Curtis got Marilyn Monroe.

[Jurph]

The scene in Secretary where he holds her hands, looks into her eyes, and tells her, "You will never, ever cut yourself again. You're over that now; it's in the past." And then tells her to take the rest of the day off, and that from now on, whenever she wants to, she may walk home instead of getting a ride with her mother.

The look in her eyes, and the connection between them in that scene -- his absolute devotion to her, her trepidation at entering into such a personal, binding agreement... it gets me weepy every time.

[Annie-Xmas]

The scene from Reds where Diane Keaton is going to meet a very ill Warren Beatty at the train station. When the train gets there, she can't find him and sees a body being carried off the train in a stretcher. She turns and closes her eyes with such a look of pain of her face. Then she opens them and sees Beatty standing there just looking at her. She walks over to him very slowly and they hug.

It is one helluva good acted scene.

[medstar]

Yeah, uh... have you read the book? They really romanticized the heck out of this part. In the books it's uh... well read it, if you want it to shred this scene for you.

Cheers! :D

No, I never read the book. In the context of the film, I thought that scene was a grand, doomed gesture that really underscores the connection between the two lovers. There's a couple of messages above our two that deal with two different interpretations as well. I readily admit that that scene could be viewed in different ways.

[look!ninjas]

#39(ish) - The scene in Benny and Joon (yes, that one) where Joon is in the hospital, and Sam swings past on the window washer's... swinging thingie. Love Johnny Depp.

[finette6]

"I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived for a few weeks while she loved me"

In a Lonely Place, Bogart says this to Gloria Grahame and I choke up every time.

[Delly]

PunditLisa robbed my movie! Lol, just kidding but I love that whole scene from The Last of the Mohicans: "No matter how long, no matter how far I will find you"

Or... maybe I should put this in a spoiler box
After the other mohican (dont remember his name)* is killed and falls down the side of the cliff, Jodhi May throws herself down after him, because, imo, she wants to be with him in death rather then with the other indian* in life

*clearly I need to watch this movie again because I cant remember half the names, sorry!

Also, for a pure popcorn movie, I think the scene, the Animal Cracker one,between Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck in Armageddon is very romantic.

[Walloon]

The Last of the Mohicans:

The novel. (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/23/50/frameset.html)
The 1992 movie. (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0104691/combined)

The good Mohican was Unca, the bad Mohican was Magua.

[SolGrundy]

In The English Patient, the scene where the soldier uses the parachute harness and flare to show Juliette Binoche's character the inside of that temple/church/whateveritwas.

In Annie Hall, when Annie and Alvy are trying to cook lobsters together.

The end of Manhattan Murder Mystery, when Woody Allen's character is talking to Diane Keaton's character about their marriage and says something to the effect of: "You got a six and I got a ten."

In Rear Window, when Jimmy Stewart's character is watching Lisa (Grace Kelly's character) break into Thorwald's apartment, and you can see him getting more and more impressed with her. At the end of that scene, she puts her hand behind her back and shows him that she managed to get the wedding ring from the apartment. It cuts back to a close-up of Stewart and you can tell instantly from his expression that he's completely smitten with her.

And I second the scene mentioned earlier from When Harry Met Sally, when he catches up with her on New Year's and tells her all the things he loves about her.

[The Scrivener]

Dang, SolGrundy, I was thinking of the Annie Hall lobster scene, too! But I also love the scene where they're sitting on a park bench and people-watching, just because they're so perfectly relaxed and happy together.

The fancy-dress ball in The Sound of Music, when Baron Von Trapp cuts in on his son in order to dance with Maria.

In the original The Scarlet Pimpernel, when Leslie Howard is gently interrogating his unknowing wife (Merle Oberon) and leans in very closely, gazing in her eyes very intently, and almost too late regains his cool composure, resuming his "dandy" act. (Their chemistry was very real; IRL those two actors became involved in a passionate extramarital affair.)

The "leaning" scene from While You Were Sleeping. That, and when Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman are slipping on ice. A great, uh, "icebreaker," there.

Superman and Lois Lane getting to know each other on her splendid rooftop deck... although I'm not sure if I envy her character more for Christopher Reeve or for her improbably impressive Manhattan apartment! (Superman, definitely.)

The teary reunion between Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman in Truly, Madly, Deeply[/] when he first comes back from the dead. (Bonus romance points: later on, you get a bit of David Lean's [b]Brief Encounter tossed in for free!)

The long, interrupted kissing scene between Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in Notorious. In order to comply with decency codes, Hitchcock interrupted their kiss with dialogue and movement, and it comes off even more convincingly for it.

When Princess Leia calls Han Solo a "rascal" in SW: TESB and he seizes on it, teases her, and starts to lean in... :D

[threeorange]

One great line from the cute but unspectacular mid-nineties indie film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love:

"Then unshelter me."

[wolf_meister]

I think I have done a thorough thread search and I can't believe this scene isn't here:
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr "From Here To Eternity" when they are on the beach with the waves coming in. (Parodied decades later in the movie "Airplane")

I thought this would be #1 or #2 on the list.

[raindog]

This may be kind of a stretch but I thought it was too cool......

The scene in Phenomenon when Kyra Sedgewick cuts John Travolta's hair and gives him a shave. Perfect use of natural light, and a kinda cool rendition of a Van Morrison song. They are very close and the electricity between them is palpable but total restraint is shown.

Does anyone agree with this or am I crazy?

[Roadwalker]

Hot Shots! The scene with the food.. and the grape.
Breathless The end scene with Richard Gere singing to his girlfriend rather that run from the police, basicly laying down his life.

[Roadwalker]

doh! that wasn't a spoiler box!

[Sampiro]

Two effed-up but nevertheless romantic scenes featuring Anthony Hopkins:


-the scene in Silence of the Lambs when Hannibal touches Clarice's finger for half a second

-the scene in Lion in Winter when Phillippe Auguste (Timothy Dalton) seduces Richard (Hopkins).

A non effed-up romantic scene with Anthony Hopkins:

His weekend getaway with new bride Joy (Debra Winger) to see the title valley in Shadowlands. (Historically inaccurate as the real C.S. Lewis was not that repressed or virginal, but a good scene nonetheless.)

[rose]

... but I have to second SeGate and Gigi about everything Moulin Rouge, especially that one scene at the very end, with all the rose petals falling... behind the curtain... that reeeeally gets to me.

Also agree with seriousart... the end of Lost in Translation is very powerful.