LadyHawke
When Harry Met Sally
The Big Easy.
Punch Drunk Love has the best pillow talk. “I want to carve out your eyeballs and eat them.” “I want to smash your face with a sledgehammer, you’re so fucking pretty.”
L.A. Story
Around here we’re kind of fond of Same Time Next Year. Not bad, an old married couple and one of our favorite romantic movies is about a long affair. :dubious:
Kissing Jessica Stein. Just saw it today. The ending (and the last major plot points that build up to it) pissed me off, but overall it’s the only chick-flick–excuse me, “rom-com”–I’ve seen that I haven’t found myself rolling my eyes at. Not to mention that the chemistry between the two major protagonists (should I say protagonistas?) is incredible. All in all, it’s definitely my Valentine’s Day choice if I have to make one.
Moonstruck.
The Wedding Singer is one of our favorite movies ever. “Linda…you a bitch!”
When A Man Loves A Woman with Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan. Really touching and realistic story of how alcoholism and subsequent recovery can affect a marriage and family. It was sold as a stereotypical love story but the themes in it are much deeper.
The Princess Bride
High Fidelity
The Notebook
I’m a sucker for all the big Ephron romcoms. . .“Harry & Sally”, “Sleepless”, yes, even “You’ve Got Mail”.
But, Love, Actually and Before Sunset are both a cut above these.
Lots of great ones mentioned.
I’ll add
A Very Long Engagement
Amelie
Roman Holiday
Father Goose
Rear Window
and I’ll second Sense and Sensability.
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Princess Bride (thanks again Woman of Scorn!)
Secretary
I don’t watch many romantic movies but sometimes I can’t help myself…
Shakespeare in Love
The Princess Bride
Secretary
Ten Things I Hate About You
How To Lose a Guy In Ten Days
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
and my real guilty pleasure… The Lake House.
People Will Talk
I Was a Male War Bride
When Harry Met Sally
Pretty Woman
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Sweet Home Alabama
Love Actually
I don’t, as a general rule, watch movies that often. But I do have some that I really liked.
One is a little-known gem called Big Eden, starring Arye Gross. It’s a really cute little gay rom-com.
Another is a film that doesn’t LOOK like a romantic comedy at first glance, but it really is: Trick.
And of course, the not-quite-romantic-comedy classic musical, My Fair Lady.
Get out of head! :0). I just came in here to recommend “Big Eden” and “My Fair Lady”, especially for the gay men on the Dope. I also really like “Four Weddings and a Funeral” too.
Heh…Big Eden was the absolute first thing that jumped into my mind when I read the thread title…
Ronin:
Sam: Hmm?
Vincent: l’m sorry?
Sam: You said something.
Vincent: l said she would not be coming back here.
Sam: Yeah. She would not be coming back here, would she?
Or [:
Mr. Helpmann: Jill? Yes… Sam I think I ought to tell you. I’m afraid she’s upped stumps and retired to the pavillion. Thrown in the towel.
Okay, seriously, [url=Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - IMDb]Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind](]Brazil[/url):
Joel: I can’t see anything that I don’t like about you.
Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.
Joel: Okay.
Clementine: [pauses] Okay.
The idea of being able to go back and erase all of the bad memories and annoyances that accumulate during a relationship (“Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it’s on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you’ll miss.”) is really desireable.
All of you citing Before Sunset (which is a great movie) as your favorite romance are clearly missing what happens after the last scene fades to black, i.e. Jesse stays with Celine and has an affair lasting a few days after which he realizes that she’s actually emotionally unbalanced. He then goes back to his wife and kid, only to find himself persued by not only Celine but her activist friends who have been told that Jesse is a major oil baron or executive with the World Bank or some such. They kidnap his child to force him to pay a ransom, and he has to go on a globe-hopping hunt to find his son and kill those responsible. Then he writes a book about it under the pseudonym Richard Ludlun, and they make a loose film adaptation starring Josh Hartnett and whoever has replaced Haley Joel Osment, only they change Celine to being a rogue Hungarian government assassin.
Personally, I think The Third Man is far more romantic than Casablanca. In the former, the main character is still dopishly hopeful about the prospects of a relationship with the girl despite having killed the avaricious but charismatic Harry Lime, while in the later the protagonist just turns out to be a complete dupe, manipulated by Ilsa into giving her everything she wants (protection, a quick bang, the coveted albeit useless “letters of transit” so that she and her husband can escape to the United States and enjoy a comforable domestic lifestyle) and losing everything he owns in the process. And those Nora Ephram “romantic comedies” in which the characters do “cute” things that would get them arrested in real life strike me as nothing but completely creepy.
Stranger
Some already mentioned, some not…
Groundhog Day - Bill Murray simply rules; Andie McDowell is charming and yummy. It’s hilarious and romantic and touching and enlightening without being at all - at all! - cloying.
Heaven Can Wait - One of the great but now-unappreciated movies of the Seventies, IMHO. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie just click. A wonderful tale of love lost and found again, with an ending that will leave you happy but with tears in your eyes.
Shakespeare in Love - A perfect melding of cast, script, atmosphere and history. Endlessly watchable.
Roxanne - Steve Martin’s retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac, with a luscious Darryl Hannah. Funny and sweet.
Splash - Love that’s all wrong but just has to happen, starring Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah. More than a little silly, but well worth a look.
Moonstruck - Perfect cast, perfect story. Thank you, Bridget Burke, for the quotation. My favorite exchange:
Nicholas Cage (dumbly): But... I love you!
Cher (slaps him): Snap out of it!
Amelie - All about the wondrous, inexorable power of love and kindness; Audrey Tatou is scrumptious. A favorite movie of ours.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody!