The 50 Most Romantic Films

[Arakhor]

I was reading a fanfic recently, where the characters can't decide which the best romance films are, so they agree to pick five each from a list and see which come up most often. The idea is what since people often have wildly differing ideas about what constitutes romance, you simply compare responses and see which ones come up most often. (Story spoiler: Naturally, they all pick different films, but that's not really the point of the story.)

So, inspired by this story, why not tell us which five films you'd pick (and feel free to say why if you want). The only stipulation is to pick from the linked list only. (I won't be adding a poll, because having 50 options would be ridiculous.)

My five choices are: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Ten Things I Hate About You, Up, and Your Name, with an honourable mention to Titanic, because My Heart Will Go On always reminds me of my first crush.

The 50 Best Romantic Movies Ever

We do work that we love, assembling a list of the best movies that are also romantic or whatever. Our list of the Best Romantic Movies ever.

filmschoolrejects.com

Spoiler for film list :

The Empire Strikes Back -- The Big Sick -- An Affair to Remember
The Fly -- A Knight's Tale -- Moulin Rouge!
The Notebook -- The Apartment -- Four Weddings & A Funeral
About Time -- 3-Iron -- Crazy Rich Asians
Up -- The Handmaiden -- Only Lovers Left Alive
Secretary -- Notting Hill -- Your Name
Submarine -- Paris Texas -- 500 Days of Summer
Spring -- Punch-Drunk Love -- Brooklyn
The Shape of Water -- Her -- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
10 Things I Hate About You -- Moonstruck -- The Princess Bride
Before Sunrise -- True Romance -- Wild At Heart
The Philadelphia Story -- Y Tu Mamá También -- Love Actually
Amelie -- Call Me By Your Name - Roman Holiday
Titanic -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- Singin’ in the Rain
Casablanca -- Moonlight -- You've Got Mail
When Harry Met Sally -- Phantom Thread -- Brokeback Mountain
Before Sunset -- In The Mood For Love

 

[Narz]

Groundhog day and eternal sunshine of the spotless mind first that pop to mind

Edit : oops didn't read instructions, princess bride is cute

Can someone c&p movies so I don't have to click thru 5 pages of ads

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I was reading a fanfic recently, where the characters can't decide which the best romance films are, so they agree to pick five each from a list and see which come up most often. The idea is what since people often have wildly differing ideas about what constitutes romance, you simply compare responses and see which ones come up most often. (Story spoiler: Naturally, they all pick different films, but that's not really the point of the story.)

So, inspired by this story, why not tell us which five films you'd pick (and feel free to say why if you want). The only stipulation is to pick from the linked list only. (I won't be adding a poll, because having 50 options would be ridiculous.)

My five choices are: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Ten Things I Hate About You, Up, and Your Name, with an honourable mention to Titanic, because My Heart Will Go On always remains me of my first crush.

The 50 Best Romantic Movies Ever

We do work that we love, assembling a list of the best movies that are also romantic or whatever. Our list of the Best Romantic Movies ever.

filmschoolrejects.com

From the linked list, the only ones I've even seen are

The Empire Strikes Back
Titanic
The Princess Bride
Roman Holiday (the later one, not this one)

Of those, I'd pick Titanic, and the specific scene in The Empire Strikes Back.

If I could pick others... Ghost would be on the list. I can't make it through that movie without crying.

First Knight. It's Arthurian, but does not include Morgan la Fay, Mordred, or Merlin. There's a love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot (of course). Lancelot is more honorable in this movie than he is in some other versions of this story.

Much Ado About Nothing. We're told from the get-go that Claudio and Hero are in love, and they get permission to marry. Benedic and Beatrice, on the other hand, fight, scrap, argue, and trade sarcastic banter throughout most of the movie. In the end, though, they discover that they really do love each other.

I've probably seen other romances, but I don't watch a movie specifically for the romance, at least most of the time.

That's what fanfiction is for, or at least if it's written well and doesn't solely consist of bedroom scenes and smut. I never really appreciated the character of Adam Cartwright in Bonanza until I found a couple of fanfic authors who could really do justice to his character. Then I rewatched the seasons he was in (most of the episodes are available on YT), and he's now my favorite character.

 

[Arakhor]

I hear you with Ghost. I was surprised that A Brief Encounter was not on their list either!

Edit : oops didn't read instructions, princess bride is cute

Can someone c&p movies so I don't have to click thru 5 pages of ads

I've edited in a list of the films, but if you want their summaries, you'll still need to visit their article.

 

[EgonSpengler]

It's been a long time since I've seen any of these, but...

My 5 from the list, in alphabetical order, 'cause I can't rank them right now:

Casablanca
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
In the Mood For Love
Punk-Drunk Love
When Harry Met Sally

It most pained me to cut from my list: Amelie and Secretary.

Not on the list, bad list: Palm Springs (2020 rom-com w/Andy Samberg & Cristin Milioti) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982 Peter Weir drama, set in Jakarta during the overthrow of Sukarno, starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver & Linda Hunt)
Also not on the list, I need to see it again, but I can't find it streaming anywhere: The Boxer (1997 Jim Sheridan drama, set during The Troubles, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson & Brian Cox).

 

[AmazonQueen]

Not seen many of them including Titanic and 4 Weddings so that made the choice easier.

True Romance
Wild at Heart
Paris Texas
Amelie
The Shape of Water

Should've been on the list Truly, Madly, Deeply.

edit: I also liked A Very Long Engagement which also starred Audrey Tautou.

 

[Gori the Grey]

On the whole, I'm on guard against saying I like a romantic movie, probably even against letting myself like a romantic movie. Toxic masculinity.

But for all that, one movie does come to mind: Fifty First Dates. I don't even remember the details of the movie particularly well. But the premise is that Drew Barrymore forgets everything that has happened in each previous day. Adam Sandler falls in love with her, but because of her condition, it means that he has to start over with her every single day. But, although that is frustrating, he does. That struck me as true to how relationships are: you have to be ready to start over every single day. So I allowed myself to like that conceit.

I do like Much Ado About Nothing, for the same reason as Valka says. It's a film adaptation of a play, so if those count, I can add that to my list. I would add to what she said that, although Claudio and Hero are clearly in love from the start, their relationship story has quite an arc of its own.

Given time, I can probably think of three others.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In no particular order:

• The Shape of Water
• Secretary
• Notting Hill
• Y Tu Mamá También
• Before Sunrise
• You've Got Mail

The fact that "Shakespeare in Love" is not on the list is disappointing.

 

[emzie]

This list has very little LGBT representation and not a single sapphic story!

Edit: the Handmaiden is apparently sapphic, I haven't seen it before and I missed it!

 

[Synobun]

Of that list:

1. Your Name
2. Notting Hill
3. About Time
4. Love Actually
5. Amelie

I haven't seen anything else on that list, or I didn't like it. I don't consider The Empire Strikes Back a romance movie in any shape or form.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding deserves a spot here.

 

[Arakhor]

This list has very little LGBT representation and not a single sapphic story!

As we've established, it's not a perfect list by any means, but it was the one linked in the fanfic.

I guess that Blue is the Warmest Colour would be the obvious example of a sapphic romance film.

 

[Gorbles]

Well, now I need to see Only Lovers Left Alive.

I'm not really into romance in a pure romance movie sense, and they're often heartbreaking on some level (the Notebook being one I have seen that fits the description).

10 Things I Hate About You would probably be my top recommendation as a 30-something millenial.

I'm with Syn on Empire, too. Otherwise I'd suggest stuff like Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock movies (for the excellent chemistry and scenes he has with Rachel McAdams).

 

[AmazonQueen]

This list has very little LGBT representation and not a single sapphic story!

Which reminds me. My Beautiful Laundrette should be on the list. So ahead of its time. Stephen Frears is an excellent director. He did Prick Up Your Ears and Dirty Pretty Things too.

 

[EgonSpengler]

This list has very little LGBT representation and not a single sapphic story!

I haven't seen a ton of romances that feature women, but if you're in the mood for one about teenagers, The Fallout was one of my favorite films of 2021. It didn't get a lot of attention when it came out. Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler (who are both 20 now, so they must have actually been in high school when this was filmed). That was director Megan Park's first feature, I see. A couple of older ones I remember liking were High Art (1998, Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, Patricia Clarkson, dir. Lisa Cholodenko) and Saving Face (2004, Michelle Krusiec, Lynn Chen, Joan Chen, dir. Alice Wu). I haven't seen it yet, but Ammonite (2020 - Kate Winslet & Saoirse Ronan, dir. Francis Lee) has been in my watchlist for a while, mainly 'cause of Winslet. 69% Rotten Tomatoes critics score; 85% audience score.

 

[Narz]

On the whole, I'm on guard against saying I like a romantic movie, probably even against letting myself like a romantic movie. Toxic masculinity

Most romance (especially Hollywood) is sappy and annoying. Nothing toxic about not having it as a top genre.

That's like saying a woman not liking porn is toxic femininity.

Romance is often written lazily, or added to pander to more female viewers.

When I found out one of my favorite books (power of one) was adapted to film I checked it out but as soon as I saw they threw a love interest in there I turned it off (the protagonist was not someone I envisioned getting distracted by some random chick). All his noble aspirations reduced to "durr she's pretty"

In literature romance is synonymous w trashy, movies are usually no better. Romanticism is usually our base instincts of lust and insecurity masquerading as something grand.

Being on guard against corny sentimentality isn't toxic, it's something to be proud of.

Obviously good romance is possible but it's hard to do well and easy to do badly.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Being on guard against corny sentimentality isn't toxic, it's something to be proud of.

Well, there might be something to what you say. It really is schmaltz about which my guard is up.

One thing that's funny about this tread coming when it does is that I've just had an inspiration for the script of a stage play. And it's a romantic comedy!

So, let's say 1) I get it written, and 2) it's successful and 3) it gets turned into a movie. In some later incarnation of this thread, I'll be able to vote for my own work.

Don't anybody hold your breath. (But it is a killer idea for a stage play, that I will say.)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Romance in movies and TV shows is only convincing if the actors can make it so despite the script.

The director of the Showtime version of The Borgias (starring Jeremy Irons, Francois Arnaud, and Holliday Granger) scolded Arnaud and Granger for the increasingly intimate way they were portraying Cesare and Lucrezia. Arnaud told him, "We're not doing anything you didn't write."

Those two had incredible chemistry that completely sold the 'forbidden love' angle of the Borgias. And in Season 3 they finally did consummate it - on Lucrezia's wedding night to Alfonso (since Alfonso wasn't interested).


Contrast this with the supposed love story between Arthur and Guinevere in Merlin.

I don't buy it. The actors have "friend" vibes. There is no way they could ever convince me that Gwen is the love of Arthur's life, and vice-versa. Gwen in this show is definitely in love with Lancelot to a much greater degree than Arthur (some fanfic authors pair her with Leon after Arthur's death, so that there will be an heir to follow her, though of course it won't be of the Pendragon lineage). Lancelot was killed off years earlier in in-story time, so he's not an option for Gwen.

The female guest characters are either friends or villains - never convincing love interests. Gwaine flirted with Gwen when he first came to Camelot, but stopped when she made it clear she wasn't interested, and especially when he realized she loved Arthur (Lancelot had left her twice by this point).

So who does that leave in the romance department at Camelot? Merlin's first love, Freya, was killed. Uther married a troll disguised as a human. Gaius' old love, Alice, was a traitor. Both Mordred's and Gwaine's female lovers were executed for working for Morgana.

It's no wonder that most of the fanfic for this series focuses on various same-sex pairings, and there are quite a few that have no intimate scenes at all, but the romance is still believable.


As for those horrid romance movies (especially the Hallmark Christmas ones)... it's like an even more insipid version of a Harlequin Romance. I used to read those when there was nothing else around. I kept one of them because it's set in Banff National Park (very unusual for any book in that collection to be set in Canada, never mind somewhere I've been often).

They're so formulaic that I could write one (I don't write much romance); one of my male English profs in college said he'd written one; all it takes is following the formula and using a feminine pseudonym.

 

[Takhisis]

Terminator
The Empire Strikes Back

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Manhattan
Paris Texas
Romancing the Stone
Coppola's Dracula (in a weird exaggerated melodramatic bloody way)


BTW How is The Empire Strikes Back romantic?

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

The Empire Strikes Back
Your Name
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Amelie
In the Mood For Love

No Audrey Hepburn kills me.