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.
- Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman) are reconciled in their bedroom at the end of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
- 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.
- Debra Winger and Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman.
- Judy Garland and Robert Walker take a walk through Central Park at night in The Clock (1944), back when that was romantic not scary.
- Ditto what flight said about Roman Holiday.
- 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.
- Anything romantic with Juliette Binoche.
- Rudolf Nureyev “plays” Nastassja Kinski’s body by seductively caressing her all over with a cello bow in Exposed (1983).
- Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis slow dancing to the car radio in Witness (1985).
- 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.
#2: I meant Norma Shearer. :smack:
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.
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:
I’m straight, but after that, I want him to kiss me.
The “phone call” scene with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in It’s a Wonderful Life
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.
Modern classic: The wordless ending of Lost in Translation
Out of Africa - Robert Redford washes Meryl Streep’s hair outdoors. Sigh.
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.
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.)
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?”
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::
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.
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, drenched with rain, kissing in the cemetery in The Quiet Man.
::sigh::
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
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.
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! 
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.