LET THERE BE LOVE (VALENTINE’S DAY MOVIES)
This Valentine's Day I think my wife might be giving me a spade.
How did I could come to that conclusion?
Well, she suggested I should write a special Valentine's piece on romantic movies for this website.
Well, she suggested I should write a special Valentine's piece on romantic movies for this website.
So, taking up the challenge, I have decided to dig myself an even bigger hole than I normally do with my recommendations for 10 classic romantic movies.
Some of the choices are pretty obvious. Others, hopefully, less so. Feel free to lambast my choice or come up with your own suggestions.
SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS (1927)
We start with FW Murnau's classic silent movie - not only one of the greatest romantic movies ever made but one of the greatest movies ever made.
It focusses on a love triangle. A down on his luck farmer, Man (George O'Brien) is having an affair with a Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). She urges him to leave his Wife (Janet Gaynor), sell his farm and forge a new life with her.
They hatch a plot to drown his Wife (Janet Gaynor) during a boat trip. Realising his murderous intentions, his wife escapes to the city but is rescued by him when her life is endangered. As the couple wander uncertanly through the city streets, master storyteller Murnau keeps us on the edge of our seats.
Will they reconcile and rekindle their romance? Or will he murder her? 'Sunrise' is visual narrative storytelling at its best and has influenced many directors from John Ford and Howard Hawks to Jim Jarmusch, Neil Jordan and Baz Luhrmann.
It focusses on a love triangle. A down on his luck farmer, Man (George O'Brien) is having an affair with a Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). She urges him to leave his Wife (Janet Gaynor), sell his farm and forge a new life with her.
They hatch a plot to drown his Wife (Janet Gaynor) during a boat trip. Realising his murderous intentions, his wife escapes to the city but is rescued by him when her life is endangered. As the couple wander uncertanly through the city streets, master storyteller Murnau keeps us on the edge of our seats.
Will they reconcile and rekindle their romance? Or will he murder her? 'Sunrise' is visual narrative storytelling at its best and has influenced many directors from John Ford and Howard Hawks to Jim Jarmusch, Neil Jordan and Baz Luhrmann.
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
How could anyone compile a list of romantic movies and not include Victor Fleming's Oscar garlanded epic 'Gone with the Wind'?
Set in America's Deep South against the backdrop of the Civil War, this David O Selznick production tells the story of Irish immigrant's daughter Scarlett O'Hara (Janet Leigh), her crush on her cousin's husband Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and her tumultuous marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).
Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's novel, this almost four hour long melodrama boasts sumptuous cinematography from Ernest Haller and Lee Garmes, gorgeous costume and set design, great stunts and a quotable script by Sidney Howard ("Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn").
Gable and Leigh fizz as romantic leads but there is a raft of strong supporting performances as well from Howard, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie, Butterfly McQueen as Prissy and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy. This is classic Hollywood at its best. and it blasts that so-called modern romantic blockbuster 'Titanic' out of the water.
Set in America's Deep South against the backdrop of the Civil War, this David O Selznick production tells the story of Irish immigrant's daughter Scarlett O'Hara (Janet Leigh), her crush on her cousin's husband Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and her tumultuous marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable).
Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's novel, this almost four hour long melodrama boasts sumptuous cinematography from Ernest Haller and Lee Garmes, gorgeous costume and set design, great stunts and a quotable script by Sidney Howard ("Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn").
Gable and Leigh fizz as romantic leads but there is a raft of strong supporting performances as well from Howard, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie, Butterfly McQueen as Prissy and Hattie McDaniel as Mammy. This is classic Hollywood at its best. and it blasts that so-called modern romantic blockbuster 'Titanic' out of the water.
CASABLANCA (1942)
Currently enjoying a re-release, audiences should really give themselves a Valentine's treat and head down to Belfast's QFT to see this on the big screen.
Like 'Gone with the Wind', you should be familiar with the story by now. American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) runs a nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca when in "all the gin joints in all the world" the great love of his life, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks in with her fugitive Czech Resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Does he betray Laszlo to the Nazis in order to claim the object of his desire or does he do the decent thing?
A smart screenplay penned by Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch and Casey Robinson is peppered with loads of memorable quotes ("Here's looking at you, kid") and packed with wonderful supporting characters - the underworld figures Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet) and Signor Ugarte (Peter Lorre), the Nazi Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) and, of course, the house pianist Sam (Dooley Wilson).
However under the assured direction of Michael Curtiz, this is very much Bergman and Bogart's film. A further note to 'Titantic's' di Caprio, Winslet and Cameron by the way - 'Casablanca' proves that a strong plot matters.
Like 'Gone with the Wind', you should be familiar with the story by now. American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) runs a nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca when in "all the gin joints in all the world" the great love of his life, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) walks in with her fugitive Czech Resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Does he betray Laszlo to the Nazis in order to claim the object of his desire or does he do the decent thing?
A smart screenplay penned by Julius and Philip Epstein, Howard Koch and Casey Robinson is peppered with loads of memorable quotes ("Here's looking at you, kid") and packed with wonderful supporting characters - the underworld figures Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet) and Signor Ugarte (Peter Lorre), the Nazi Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt), Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) and, of course, the house pianist Sam (Dooley Wilson).
However under the assured direction of Michael Curtiz, this is very much Bergman and Bogart's film. A further note to 'Titantic's' di Caprio, Winslet and Cameron by the way - 'Casablanca' proves that a strong plot matters.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)
David Lean made many romantic movies - 'Doctor Zhivago' and 'Ryan's Daughter' anyone? - but without a doubt his best was a more modest, terribly English affair.
Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is caught in a dull marriage to her husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) which is enlivened by regular train trips to matinee cinema screenings and for shopping. One day while waiting at the train station she gets grit in her eye and is helped by a kind doctor, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard).
They instantly strike up a rapport and agree to meet again but they soon find their innocent relationship is developing into a love affair. Based on a play by Noel Coward, this tense tale of buttoned up, forbidden love is beautifully shot in black and white and skillfully written. Howard and Johnson perfectly capture lovers wrestling with their morality - Alec too is married.
A British cinema classic, Lean's atmospheric film has been hugely influential - leaving its mark on three modern movies where the characters succumb to extra marital temptation: Anthony Minghella's 'The English Patient', Neil Jordan's 'The End of the Affair' and Terrence Davies's recent 'The Deep Blue Sea' (all of which narrowly missed out on making this list).
Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is caught in a dull marriage to her husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) which is enlivened by regular train trips to matinee cinema screenings and for shopping. One day while waiting at the train station she gets grit in her eye and is helped by a kind doctor, Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard).
They instantly strike up a rapport and agree to meet again but they soon find their innocent relationship is developing into a love affair. Based on a play by Noel Coward, this tense tale of buttoned up, forbidden love is beautifully shot in black and white and skillfully written. Howard and Johnson perfectly capture lovers wrestling with their morality - Alec too is married.
A British cinema classic, Lean's atmospheric film has been hugely influential - leaving its mark on three modern movies where the characters succumb to extra marital temptation: Anthony Minghella's 'The English Patient', Neil Jordan's 'The End of the Affair' and Terrence Davies's recent 'The Deep Blue Sea' (all of which narrowly missed out on making this list).
THE APARTMENT (1960)
CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon), a used and abused office worker for a New York insurance company, allows senior executives to use his bachelor pad to conduct extra marital affairs in the hope that he will be recommended for promotion.
When personnel director Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) summons him into the office after suspecting something is not quite right about the glowing reports he has been receiving about CC, he agrees to let the promtion go if he is also allowed to use his colleague's apartment as well for marital infidelity.
However things take a complicated twist when CC discovers that Sheldrake's mistress is Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the elevator operator he has fallen for. Can he win her away from Sheldrake without losing his job?
Lemmon and MacLaine's performances are among the finest of their career in a movie which benefits from writer-director Billy Wilder's acerbic wit. Controversial at the time because of the way it depicted adultery in the workplace, it remains a classic even in this era of 'Mad Men'.
When personnel director Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) summons him into the office after suspecting something is not quite right about the glowing reports he has been receiving about CC, he agrees to let the promtion go if he is also allowed to use his colleague's apartment as well for marital infidelity.
However things take a complicated twist when CC discovers that Sheldrake's mistress is Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the elevator operator he has fallen for. Can he win her away from Sheldrake without losing his job?
Lemmon and MacLaine's performances are among the finest of their career in a movie which benefits from writer-director Billy Wilder's acerbic wit. Controversial at the time because of the way it depicted adultery in the workplace, it remains a classic even in this era of 'Mad Men'.
JULES ET JIM (1962)
One of two French movies on this list, Francois Truffaut's love triangle was the New Wave's biggest box office hit. Austrian writer Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) are good friends who love their bohemian lifestyle.
They fall for the same woman, the free spirited Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) but before the outbreak of war, she choose Jules over Jim and moves to Austria with him. Both men are on opposing sides in the war and fear they might come across each other on the battlefield.
Reunited after the war, Jim discovers that while Catherine and Jules have a daughter, their marriage has gone stale and with Jules' approval, he begins a relationship with her. Truffaut's love triangle movie is a typically classy affair - quick to challenge cinematic and social convention and not afraid to explore the dark side of intense romances.
Werner and Serre are engaging leads - although it is Moreau's performance which ultimately stands out. This is love in all its aspects - all the pain and all the joy - and it is filmed with real panache.
They fall for the same woman, the free spirited Catherine (Jeanne Moreau) but before the outbreak of war, she choose Jules over Jim and moves to Austria with him. Both men are on opposing sides in the war and fear they might come across each other on the battlefield.
Reunited after the war, Jim discovers that while Catherine and Jules have a daughter, their marriage has gone stale and with Jules' approval, he begins a relationship with her. Truffaut's love triangle movie is a typically classy affair - quick to challenge cinematic and social convention and not afraid to explore the dark side of intense romances.
Werner and Serre are engaging leads - although it is Moreau's performance which ultimately stands out. This is love in all its aspects - all the pain and all the joy - and it is filmed with real panache.
ANNIE HALL (1977)
Let's face it, Woody Allen is an unlikely romantic lead but somehow he has consistently managed to win us over with a spate of movies dealing with the arc of a love affair (to quote fellow New Yorker Paul Simon).
Nowhere does he pull this off with greater aplomb than in 'Annie Hall' as neurotic comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) who gets into an unlikely relationship with the ditsy Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), only to lose her to Tony Lacey (played, funny enough, by Paul Simon).
Winner of four Academy Awards in 1978, including Best Picture, this is Allen's signature movie with its great New York street scenes, its mixutre of self-depricating and pointed humour and its strong strains of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.
It is daring stylistically - the cartoon sequence, the scene where Alvy breaks off from a cinema queue to address the audience directly before producing the real life Marshall McLuhan to prove a pedant wrong, the terrific use of subtitles in one sequence to highlight Annie and Alvy's inability to express their true feelings. The humour of 'Annie Hall' never wears thin after repeated viewings and it features a brief but fanstastic cameo by Christopher Walken.
Nowhere does he pull this off with greater aplomb than in 'Annie Hall' as neurotic comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) who gets into an unlikely relationship with the ditsy Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), only to lose her to Tony Lacey (played, funny enough, by Paul Simon).
Winner of four Academy Awards in 1978, including Best Picture, this is Allen's signature movie with its great New York street scenes, its mixutre of self-depricating and pointed humour and its strong strains of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.
It is daring stylistically - the cartoon sequence, the scene where Alvy breaks off from a cinema queue to address the audience directly before producing the real life Marshall McLuhan to prove a pedant wrong, the terrific use of subtitles in one sequence to highlight Annie and Alvy's inability to express their true feelings. The humour of 'Annie Hall' never wears thin after repeated viewings and it features a brief but fanstastic cameo by Christopher Walken.
LES AMANTS DU PONT NEUF (1991)
Leos Carax's exhilarating movie is about the love affair between two homeless Parisiennes, Michele (Juliette Binoche) and Alex (Denis Lavant) who hang around the city's oldest bridge, Pont Neuf.
The film begins with Alex being knocked down and taken to a homeless shelter to recover. When he returns to his favourite haunt, he finds Michele, a young artist from a middle class background with an eye patch, living rough on the bridge.
Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, she and Alex are drawn to each other while they survive on the streets with another vagrant Hans (Klaus-Michael Gruber). They become lovers on the run, stealing from tourists and drinking cheap wine. However their relationship is put to the test when Michele discovers her condition can be cured.
'Les Amants Du Pont Neuf' has everything you would wish for in a French romantic movie - an unconventional love story, engaging leads, a wonderful setting and great visual flair. There is some breathtaking cinematography from Jean-Yves Escoffier and thrilling film editing by Nelly Quettier. Watch out for the Bastille Night fireworks sequence, in particular. There may be moments of heartbreaking, gritty realism in Carax's dazzling movie but it is also a real celebration of love.
The film begins with Alex being knocked down and taken to a homeless shelter to recover. When he returns to his favourite haunt, he finds Michele, a young artist from a middle class background with an eye patch, living rough on the bridge.
Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, she and Alex are drawn to each other while they survive on the streets with another vagrant Hans (Klaus-Michael Gruber). They become lovers on the run, stealing from tourists and drinking cheap wine. However their relationship is put to the test when Michele discovers her condition can be cured.
'Les Amants Du Pont Neuf' has everything you would wish for in a French romantic movie - an unconventional love story, engaging leads, a wonderful setting and great visual flair. There is some breathtaking cinematography from Jean-Yves Escoffier and thrilling film editing by Nelly Quettier. Watch out for the Bastille Night fireworks sequence, in particular. There may be moments of heartbreaking, gritty realism in Carax's dazzling movie but it is also a real celebration of love.
BEFORE SUNRISE (1995)
The premise of Richard Linklater's movie is simple. Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young American backpacker heading home after travelling through Europe, encounters on a train a young French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy) also in her twenties, who is heading back to university in Paris after visiting her grandmother.
They strike up a conversation and soon find themselves drawn to each other, disembarking the train at Vienna. With neither able to afford a room, they wander the streets of the Austrian capital at night talking the way prospective lovers do in the infancy of a relationship.
As the night wears on, Jesse and Celine are flushed with the possibilites that a relationship might bring but are they prepared to take a chance on romance? Linklater's movie is a cult classic because it seems so realistic.
At its heart are two believable performances from Hawke and Delpy which hinge on a compelling 'Will they? Won't they get together?' plot. Linklater, Hawke and Delpy revisited these characters in the 2004 sequel 'Before Sunset' which is also well worth a look and there is talk of a third film.
They strike up a conversation and soon find themselves drawn to each other, disembarking the train at Vienna. With neither able to afford a room, they wander the streets of the Austrian capital at night talking the way prospective lovers do in the infancy of a relationship.
As the night wears on, Jesse and Celine are flushed with the possibilites that a relationship might bring but are they prepared to take a chance on romance? Linklater's movie is a cult classic because it seems so realistic.
At its heart are two believable performances from Hawke and Delpy which hinge on a compelling 'Will they? Won't they get together?' plot. Linklater, Hawke and Delpy revisited these characters in the 2004 sequel 'Before Sunset' which is also well worth a look and there is talk of a third film.
LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)
Sofia Coppola's second feature film is about a connection between two lost souls in a foreign land. Movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is in Tokyo to film a whisky advert - isolated from his family back in the US and mired in a jaded marriage.
Recent Yale graduate Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is cooped up in the same hotel as her photographer husband John (Giovanni Riblisi) works on an assignment. She feels just as isolated from her husband who she seems to be more interested in the models he is photographing. Bob and Charlotte meet in the hotel bar while she is with friends and soon these kindred spirits develop a strong bond, meeting each night and travelling around the city.
Like Linklater's movie, Coppola keeps us guessing whether the relationship between the older man and younger woman will develop into a full blown romance and along the way she packs in some stunning visual imagery and memorable scenes.
Sweet and sad in tone, this intelligent film boasts impressive cinematography from Lance Acord and strong performances all round. Bill Murray, in particular, was unlucky not to land the Best Actor Oscar, losing out to Sean Penn for 'Mystic River'. Coppola probably should have won but ultimately lost out in the Best Director category to Peter Jackson for the last film in his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The movie also gave us a memorable karaoke rendition by Murray of Roxy Music's 'More Than This'.
Recent Yale graduate Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is cooped up in the same hotel as her photographer husband John (Giovanni Riblisi) works on an assignment. She feels just as isolated from her husband who she seems to be more interested in the models he is photographing. Bob and Charlotte meet in the hotel bar while she is with friends and soon these kindred spirits develop a strong bond, meeting each night and travelling around the city.
Like Linklater's movie, Coppola keeps us guessing whether the relationship between the older man and younger woman will develop into a full blown romance and along the way she packs in some stunning visual imagery and memorable scenes.
Sweet and sad in tone, this intelligent film boasts impressive cinematography from Lance Acord and strong performances all round. Bill Murray, in particular, was unlucky not to land the Best Actor Oscar, losing out to Sean Penn for 'Mystic River'. Coppola probably should have won but ultimately lost out in the Best Director category to Peter Jackson for the last film in his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The movie also gave us a memorable karaoke rendition by Murray of Roxy Music's 'More Than This'.
(This article originally appeared on the Eamonnmallie.com website on February 14, 2012)
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