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Lone Star with Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena, directed by John Sayles—might be a bit of a stretch but the last scene makes it clear

Maybe this one fits into Richard's category of "romantic thriller."

It certainly qualifies as a love story like its predecessor on the operatic stage, Die Walkure.

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I loved Grant and Kerr in "An Affair to Remember"...

Children of Paradise

Dark Victory

Bringing Up Baby (on the light side, but SO divine)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast"

Sense and Sensibility ( Emma Thompson and "Colonel Brandon" Alan Rickman)

Pride and Prejudice (The version made for television...wonderful!)

Fun topic! :D

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For some "darker" romances, I think Midnight Cowboy is in a way a most touching love story. I started crying when Joe closes Ratso's eyes for the last time ...

Another "dark" romance - Farewell My Concubine. Again, the bond between two men.

For a love story between children, try "Forbidden Games." I have a friend that calls that "tears on demand."

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Great topic! I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that's a sucker for romantic movies:P

I agree about many of the films previously mentioned, especially "Umbrellas of Cherbourg".

"Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" are two of my favourites. I prefer "Sunset" but it wouldn't be so poignant without "Sunrise". The characters and the dialogue are so authentic and natural.

I love "Strictly Ballroom" too. So cheesy but so good!

"Amelie" is lovely in all its quirks.

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Ok, confession here: I've never actually seen any of Greta Garbo's films. I know she was the queen of doomed romance -- which ones do you recommend? Ninotchka? Camille? Anna Karenina? Queen Christina? Grand Hotel?

All of 'em.

"Grand Hotel" may not be all that romantic (as Old Fashioned points out) but it's great fun.

Joan Crawford is almost unrecognizable as a sweet, young stenographrer .

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As it happens, Turner Classic Movies is having a Garbo festival this month and showing her films on Tuesdays. They’re also running a documentary that is an excellent introduction to the woman and her career.

I hesitate to recommend Camille to start with. Conventional wisdom has it that Camille is her best performance, and conventional wisdom is right on the money in this instance. So it would be nice to “build” to Camille. On the other hand, it is a classic love story and also her best picture.

(It should be noted that “Garbo’s best picture” isn’t saying much, as accolades go. Her classic movies are classics because she’s in them, for the most part. )

I’d start with Queen Christina or Anna Karenina, both of which are good movies in which she is very near her best. Then Camille, and after that Ninotchka.

Although GG has some fine scenes in Grand Hotel, it’s more of an ensemble picture, the supreme example of the MGM All Star Extravaganza, Including At Least Two Barrymores.

I’m partial to Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise” if only because Garbo and Clark Gable are such a very unexpected pairing.

If you’ve gotten that far, you’re probably a hopeless addict, and then it’s time to move on to the silent era........

klingsor, I just love Leave Her to Heaven.

I must dissent, respectfully, regarding Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The poor man’s Eric Rohmer, IMO.

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I must say that although I decry the man's politics, there are moments of great tenderness in Elia Kazan films, even though they arent "romances" per se. I love how Mitch and Blanche sit on the steps in "Streetcar Named Desire." Somehow the way they both convey such loneliness and sadness is really heart-tugging. I love when Julie Harris and James Dean kiss on the ferris wheel in East of Eden. And most of all, I LOVE the scene when Marlon Brando tries to get Eva Marie Saint to sip a beer.

Not Elia Kazan, but I also love when after Natalie Wood snubs James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause," he whispers "I love you too."

And have I mentioned how much I love the scene in Lost in Translation when Bob touches Charlotte's ankle? Sometimes I think he best romances are always the unconsummated ones (Casablanca, Roman Holiday, etc.)

Ah, this topic could go on forever, couldnt it?

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I agree with you, canbelto, although I also thought the most tender scene in Waterfront involved Brando and some dead pigeons. I can’t stand to watch that scene. And a recent mediocre entrant in the romance sweepstakes, "The Notebook," stole shamelessly from the "East of Eden" Ferris wheel scene.

(It’s off topic, but I think Kazan was essentially apolitical with liberal tendencies. He got involved with politics because in the Thirties everybody did, and then times change and twenty years later he’s warbling a happy tune to HUAC. But it was business, not personal, as the Corleones would say.)

I suppose I should note that my endorsement of Titanic is not unqualified. This thread reminded me of one particularly choice absurdity that occurs near the end. Kate and Leo are clinging to the stern of the ship, which is bobbling briefly in the water prior to plunging to the depths. As people all around them plummet screaming to their deaths, Kate notes for the record, “Jack, this is where we first met.” Girls.

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Sometimes I think he best romances are always the unconsummated ones (Casablanca, Roman Holiday, etc.)

Ah, this topic could go on forever, couldnt it?

Rick and Ilsa are unbelievably noble in renouncing their former status as lovers in "Casablanca", but the movie is so wonderful that the audience believes it.

You kind of know in advance that Joe Bradley and the Princess will not become lovers, if for no other reason than Joe is played by Gregory Peck who seems always to do the right (or at least proper) thing--he was at his best as a restrained and noble man.

I am repeating one of the movies that I mentioned in my initial post on this thread, but anyone who likes an intense but unconsumated romance may love In the Mood for Love. "May" because many think, not without reason, that watching a movie by Hong Kong based auteur Wong Kar Wai is less exciting than a) watching paint dry; b) watching grass grow c) watching six hours of the Weather Channel that you accidentlally taped when you thought you were getting "Live from Lincoln Center". Wong takes a long time to finish his movies--he was still editing In the Mood for Love several hours before its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won a Silver Bear for best foreign language film. It won a stack of other European and Asian awards that year also.

Someone once described the opera Pelleas and Melisande as "Nothing happens, then Melisande dies". A lot happens in In the Mood for Love but more doesn't happen (if that makes sense) and it doesn't happen very slowly.

The cast (essentially Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai--the other characters could have been played by anyone) is perfect. The cinematography is breathtaking--shot and lit by Australian Patrick Doyle who has been behind the camera in many of the most lush Hong Kong films and who has a boatload of awards from Hong Kong, Berlin, BAFTA and Cannes. Even the costuming is superb. Wong's script explores betrayal, hope and fear. His grasp of the telling detail is quite astonishing although some of them aren't apparent on the first viewing--I am no longer sure how may times I have watched at least large chunks of this movie.

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Ed, I love "In the Mood for Love." I love it mostly because it really seems to be like one's memories of a romance -- faded yet vivid reminisces, moments of quiet pain and unspoken rapture. I also love the way the camera lingers lovingly on every movement of Maggie Cheung. It makes her carrying a basket of noodles a moment of great beauty.

Another unconsummated romance is Brief Encounter. I love, just love, the final caress on the shoulder between the Alec and Laura at the train station. "Unfaithful" also shamelessly borrows from Brief Encounter.

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I am repeating one of the movies that I mentioned in my initial post on this thread, but anyone who likes an intense but unconsumated romance may love In the Mood for Love. "May" because many think, not without reason, that watching a movie by Hong Kong based auteur Wong Kar Wai is less exciting than a) watching paint dry; b) watching grass grow c) watching six hours of the Weather Channel that you accidentlally taped when you thought you were getting "Live from Lincoln Center".

Well, I don't know how successful it was in the US, but in France it was really successful, with more than 1 million viewers, which is a very good total for a foreign movie whose actors were not well known in France previously. Even the CD of the score was a big success...

By the way, do you like "Chungking Express" ? It is quite different from "In the Mood for Love" but I find the second part so moving and lovely, with a special sense of humor.

About Lone Star: well, I did find it very interesting and moving, but there were some elements in the love story which did make me feel quite ill at ease !

Another movie I forgot to mention was Marco Tullio Giordana's La meglio gioventu (was it released in the US ? In France, it was an unexpected success in summer- especially as it is six hours long). The movie does not primarily deal with romance (it is about the life of an Italian family, and especially two brothers, between 1966 and 2000) but it includes some beautiful romances, and especially Matteo's last appearance always make me cry.

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Ed Waffle writes:

You kind of know in advance that Joe Bradley and the Princess will not become lovers, if for no other reason than Joe is played by Gregory Peck who seems always to do the right (or at least proper) thing--he was at his best as a restrained and noble man. 

It’s off topic, but it’s very true that Peck tended to play men of restraint (sometimes to the point of dullness). Restraint isn’t really called for among today’s big male stars. A Peck character isn’t beyond violence or incapable of it, but he doesn’t use it unless it’s necessary – and these days it’s almost always necessary, somehow. :) In The Big Country, to give only one example, Peck refuses, over and over, various opportunities to show gratuitously what a tough guy he is, and only until pushed to the limit does he do what a man’s gotta do and rescue Jean Simmons from the clutches of Burl Ives, et al. (If the movie were remade today, Peck would find her raped and beaten body and then go on a bloody and graphic rampage.)

In re: Casablanca. I always had the impression that Rick and Ilsa do in fact resume their affair, although it is nowhere stated.

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