OK, I’m a girl. Empire Strikes Back was my favorite because of Han and Leia kissing. We women have a reputation for liking romantic movies.
But come on, romance takes two…most of the great romantic poems were written by men.
So give me some insight into the male romantic imagination. What is you favorite romantic scene in a movie?
I have a couple of favorites:
Morant (Edward Woodward) sings to a roomful of Edwardian gentlemen and ladies in Breaker Morant, but his eyes are on the beautiful younger sister of his superior officer, Capt. Hunt. And her eyes are only on him.
Devlin (Cary Grant) coolly escorts Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) down the stairs, into a waiting car and away from the watchful Nazis at the end of Notorious.
Superman takes Lois Lane for a flying lesson in Superman.
Any of about a half dozen scenes in Sense and Sensibility.
The boat scene in Shakespeare in Love, and the 20 minutes that follow.
The first kiss in Dogfight (so tentative, so innocent).
When Forrest Gump names his shrimpin’ boat.
At the end of L.A. Story, when all of the impossibly grand things that Harris promised to keep Sara from leaving, actually happen.
It’s partly for the scene itself, it’s just beautifully filmed. But more important is the movie leading up to it. Most romantic movies try to make the leads as generically attractive as possible. I guess the idea is to lure in a big audience by getting them to fall for the characters a little bit themselves. In L.A. Story, both Harris and Sara are misfits, they’re both smart in a world (inside and outside of the movie) that doesn’t reward it. But they’re right for each other, so the payoff works.
[sub]And I did fall for Victoria Tennant a little the first time I saw it.[/sub]
John Cusack and Ione Skye’s date in Say Anything, where he kicks the broken glass out of her way, and they end up having nice, tender sex in his car, holding each other because of the cold.
When Chen Chang kidnapped Zhang Ziyi to the desert mountains in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
In BRAVEHEART, when Mel Gibson and his bride-to-be took off for a ride in the rain. The bit with the pressed flower was nice, too.
Kenneth Branagh woos Emma Thompson in Henry V.
The final scene in A Letter to Three Wives when Paul Douglas tells Linda Darnell she now has grounds to divorce him.
The Flying Elvises, Vegas Chapter in Honeymoon in Vegas.
Albert Brooks chasing Meryl Streep in the final scene of Defending Your Life.
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Yeah, that was hot!
Notting Hill: “I have an announcement–I’m getting married! He’s a really great man!” (aside) “By the way–it’s you.”
Lave, Actually: Pretty much the whole movie. But the scene with the two people that don’t speak the same language:
“I love driving you home. It’s the best part of my day.”
“I hate when you drive me home. Leaving you is the worst part of my day.”
Rick gives up Ilsa in Casablanca.
Go ahead, tell me that isn’t romantic!
After this thread hits about 40 posts it would be interesting to see if the wimminfolks agree with us.
I’ll second the airplane scene in Casablanca. No one has ever been more romantic in fiction or life. But the Paris scenes were horrible.
(Just to add an off-topic Bogey moment – one of the sexiest scenes I’ve ever scene was the “put your lips together and blow” from To Have and Have Not.; one of the creepiest scenes I’ve ever scene was Bogey’s “seduction” Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon; one of the most blatant rape scenes (fully clothed) I’ve ever seen was Ricardo Montalban as Khan in Star Trek commanding to Madlyn Rhue “open your heart” in “Space Seed.”)
I’ll also second Say Anything – “You’re shaking.” It’s the only realistic depiction of teen sex I’ve ever seen.
Maybe a scene or two in Love, Actually, but I’d have to double-check. It’s been a while since I’ve scene it.
In Four Weddings and a Funeral when Kristin Scott Thomas admits offhand that she was in love with Hugh Grant. (Any scene with Andie MacDowell was a clunker, but I otherwise loved that movie.) Several other scenes, including John Hannah’s recitation of Auden at the funeral (yes, that was romantic) and James Fleet’s “Thunderbolt City”!
The only other example I can think of right now is from television – several scenes regarding Tim and Dawn in The Office. I found them devastating.
I’d object to many of the scenes mentioned in this thread. The Braveheart scene was barf-worthy in my book.
Henry V - I found the seduction nearly incomprehensible and stilted. It was all politics anyway.
I’m only a couple episodes into Season 2, so I haven’t seen the Christmas special or anything, but “devastating” is a good word for their relationship and interactions. And as the audience, I feel just as horrible as the characters, in that rare instance.
Sounds like man who’s never kept a momento from young love for a long time. Man, just from a playa perspective that’s a killer romantic move. You kidding?
Of course, if you’re talking about the horseback ride in the rain leading up to that revelation… well… maybe.
So do I. I guess it’s a personal thing. I’m a little surprised that Love, Actually and Shakespeare in Love are so underrepresented in this thread, as I find them to be the two most romantic movies ever, no questions asked, shut uppa you face if you think different.
But I am heartened to see not even one reference to Harold and Maude.
Not true.
Well, to me, anything that is so obviously a “move” by definition is coloured by a layer of insincerity. I just don’t believe in such gestures as an indication of true romance. It always makes me think of Highlander in which he got laid (in the present) by stabbing himself. “Hmm … so that’s what women want. A live disembowelment.”
How can they? We’re not even agreeing with each other.
**ascenray. ** That’s just messed up, dawg, thinking that’s insincere. There’s waaaay easier ways of faking sincerity than keeping a genuine momento of an old flame for a couple of decades, that you later return to the old flame. Have you never heard of alcohol?
Beauty and the Beast, when the Beast shows Belle the library.
Titanic - “I’m flying, Jack”, the portrait.
Casablanca - hell, the whole thing (well, most of it) was romantic.
I’ve got to disagree. I once kept a flower given to me by a young lady for years, with no expectation at all of “using” it to cash in on her heart strings when she returned to me. In fact I fully expected never to see her again. And I haven’t.
Aw, crap. Now I’m thinking about her again. 
Two that stand out for me:“Bull Durham”–the whole montage between Costner and Sarandon after Nuke leaves for the majors. “Sideways”–Virginia Madsen’s wine monologue that ends with “plus, it tastes so f****** good!”