As far as a complete scene is concerned, this is one of the greatest.
Another favorite of mine is the scene in LOTR where Aragorn is sleeping and dreaming in Rivendell and is woken by a kiss from Arwen (played by the severely fetching Liv Tyler). When I saw this in the theatre, I said to a friend next to me," That is how a man should be woken every day of his life." Apparently I said it a bit louder than I thought because I heard another guy a few rows behind me say,“Amen.”
This woman agrees with the men on Ladyhawke and When Harry Met Sally… Would you believe I have a copy of Sense and Sensibility that I’ve still not watched? Wonder if I can dig it up.
Pride and Prejudice (the A&E miniseries) - When Lizzie admits to Mr. Darcy that she’s in love with him. That scene turns this big, lumbering grizzly bear into a simpering pile of mush every time.
Nothing from movies really jumps out at me, other than I tend to recall badly done romances affecting a movie detrimentally (Star Wars prequels, Spiderman movies, and many more) more often than I recall a romance that is extremely well done (Shakespeare in Love jumps out in that regard).
There is one little set of dialogue from television that is borderline-romance, but I think is really good. It’s in one of the second season episodes of The West Wing… I think 17 People, but I’m not sure. Josh and Donna are talking about some things that happened when Donna was first starting to work for Josh. Donna had gotten into an accident, and her boyfriend had stopped to tell his friends he wasn’t going to be able to go out with them on the way to the hospital… and while at the bar, he ended up having a beer with them and getting a little sidetracked. Josh says something like, “If you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for a beer.” Donna’s response, as she walks out of the room, is, “If you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for red lights.”
Thanks - good to see another Breaker Morant fan out there!
Another scene that just occurred to me: in The Incredibles, there’s a montage with Mr. Incredible getting back into shape and getting his mojo back. He and his wife (the former Elastigirl) pass in the hallway, and she uses her stretching ability to goose him from several yards away. She also drags him back into the house for some lovin’ just as he’s about to leave for work.
Ladyhawke is a very good pick for this thread, I think.
Also, I want to rave about a South Korean movie called 3-Iron I just saw at the Seattle film festival. It’s extremely unconventional, and I strongly recommend you know as little about it as possible when you see it (it’s getting a repertory release in the U.S.), but I will say that it’s easily one of the best romantic movies I’ve seen in the last ten years. Completely original, and totally satisfying emotionally. Utterly beguiling from beginning to end, and the last two minutes are just breathtaking. If I see another movie during the festival that’s anywhere near as good as this, I’ll be a happy filmgoer indeed. Strongly, strongly recommended.
I always liked the scene in Love Actually where the kid is running through the airport trying to find the girl he likes. Then the girl comes back and kisses him. I also like the part where Colin Firth proposes in the restaurant.
I think the bathtub scene in Big Fish between Ed and Sandra Bloom is one of my favorites as well. Very good acting in this scene as well.
I also like the scene in Garden State when Andrew and Sam are sitting by the fireplace and they have their talk.
I like the scene in When Harry Met Sally… where Harry finds her at the New Year’s Eve party and tells her all the stuff he loves about her.
My favorite is still the one in The English Patient, when Naveen Andrews’ character straps Juliette Binoche’s character into the parachute/bungie cord thing, hands her a flare, and sends her flying all around the temple to look at the paintings on the wall. The rest of the movie I could pretty much take or leave; I had the same “would you just die already?” reaction as Elaine Benes. But that scene was astounding.