So, yeah, I'm having a tough, tough time naming the most romantic movie ever. Why? First of all, kids, "the best movie with a romance in it" and "the most romantic movie" are not the same thing at all. At all. In those lists that Mr Indemnity linked to in comment, there are movies that I love, that have a love story contained therein, but which are not at all romantic. See, for example, The Apartment. One of my favorite films, containing a very sweet love story between Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, very funny, very sad, bitingly satirical, but romantic? Nah.
Similarly, just having a great couple in it, does not a romantic movie make. I'm sure most of you know my favorite filmatic couple, my model for the perfect relationship. But as much as I would strive to emulate Mr and Mrs Charles (minus, y'know, the future cirrhosis of the liver) and the concept of a married couple actually liking, as well as loving, each other and having fun, their movies do not contain even the barest whiff of romance.
I guess it comes down to one's definition of romance and what pushes your particular buttons in this department. I find it much easier for me to illustrate my own with literary examples, not movies. And that makes it harder, because your (by which I mean "my") blog audience members have at least seen many of the same movies you have, but the chances of them having read the same books is doubtful. Nevertheless, I shall soldier on.
Perhaps the most romantic *anything* that's touched me is the "Dianora" subplot of Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. This is a fantasy novel (shut up) about a nation, Tigana, that's been wiped off the face of the earth by its conqueror. Dianora is a Tiganese woman who becomes a concubine to the ruler who destroyed her country, without him knowing her true identity. She's a mole, dedicated to getting revenge on him, wreaking havoc on him, hopefully at some point killing him, except...over time, and I mean years, as she comes to know him, she falls more and more in love with him, becomes more and more devoted. She is incredibly conflicted and in pain, torn between her feelings for him as a person and her feelings about the horrible things he did to her people, until she is finally forced to make a horrendous choice. I cried my friggin eyes out, lemme tell you. So romantic, so tragic.
Second up: Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. I read this book oh so many years ago, probably late 80s. It's a historical novel about Llewelyn of Wales and his wife Joanna, who is the illegitimate daughter of King John of England, so all real, historical personages and events. Joanna is tormented and torn between her great love for and her duty towards her husband (who she didn't really want to marry at all but has over time gained her devotion and loyalty) and her love for and gratitude towards her father (who was nothing but loving and kind towards her, even though, as a bastard he didn't even need to acknowledge she existed) when they become sworn enemies. I remembered that part of the plot, and remembered finding it extremely sad and extremely romantic when I read it, but what I didn't remember until I looked at the amazon reviews/summary of it last night was that the other part of the plot was that she commits adultery and her husband's love for her is so great that he ultimately forgives her (not, one would think, a common reaction amongst the nobility of the 13th century but apparently part of the historical record.) So I'm sure that impressed me as incredibly romantic too when I first read the book.
So! Let's psychoanalyze what Andrea thinks about romance and love, shall we. First of all, obviously? Love hurts! Secondly--and I think this is why I have a hard time finding movie examples--true love grows slowly, slowly over time, even when you might not really want it to. (Most of what is passed off as "love" in the movies is infatuation and/or great chemistry, neither of which are bad things, but which are not love and are therefore to me not true romance. It's easier to portray love growing over time in a 500 page book than it is a two hour movie.) Thirdly, real love has a devotional quality to it. Fourthly, it is terribly terribly romantic to love someone enough that you can forgive them anything and that you can love them despite the bad things that they may have done. Finally, a difficult choice, made for the benefit of your beloved, against all your personal needs and wants, is perhaps the most romantic thing of all. Love means sacrifice. (Yeah, I know, I'll go set up a paypal account right now, so's it'll be easy for you all to contribute to my therapy fund, kthxbye.)
I'm trying to think of a movie where all or even most of these conditions are met and I'm not doing too well. It's been years and years and years since I watched Casablanca, and I dimly think it might meet some of my tropes, but honestly I dunno. I do know, going by my list, the real romance in An Affair to Remember is between Ken and Terry, not Nicky and Terry.
xoxo
10 comments:
I prefer To Have and Have Not to Casablanca. ("What are you trying to do, guess her weight?" is one of the best romantic lines I think I've ever heard/seen, and that "You know how to whistle, Don't you, Steve?" bit is just a minor footnote amidst all the better others--check it out).
There's definitely a challenge to distinguish between "love story" and romance, and I absolutely agree about the distinction between infatuation and love. Movies tend to play on our easy voyeuristic tendencies with infatuation, and most often lose their way trying to portray a deeper, more abiding and possibly more conflicted love.
African Queen is a good one that combines a little of both, but the time compression does undermine the credibility of a "true love" angle. A mature Kate Hepburn alone is a gem, though.
Woman of the Year, speaking of Kate, is worth a watch for romance and a whole lot of other things. (Just try to ignore the final scene, because it's a complete non sequitur and should never have been allowed to stain the final cut). Philadelphia Story, too.
I always enjoyed Jean Arthur playing Cary Grant off against Ronald Coleman in Talk of the Town, too, though that's got a bit of extra social commentary muddying up the combination of sexual politics and romance.
I guess I dream in black and white...
Did it ever occur to you that Nick and Nora are well on their way to alcohol induced dementia because they can't stand each other when they're sober?
Not so romantic then, huh? Just sayin'
I was just thinking that the relationship of Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon pretty much fits, especially after he sends her up the river. But they didn't know each other long enough to meet your growing slowly criteria.
However, the relationship between Spade & Archer might work, given the speech that Sam gives Brigid when he tells her he's sending her up the river...
However, given your remarkably deviant view of "romance" I think Casablanca is one of the few films that does meet all your primary criteria. And no, I'm not talking about the relationship between Rick Blaine and Captain Renault (although many have).
The big stumbling block is, I think, your insistence that the film has to show love growing slowly over time. That is awfully hard in a two hour movie--it's just not very cinematic. Plus, I disagree with you, as I think infatuation and chemistry can develop into the long-term love you're insisting upon, and there isn't an obvious chronological dividing line between the two, one just flows into the other... so if there isn't an obvious temporal division, why insist on that distinction?
However, a few others that I think would work for you and are also good movies: Reds made the AFI list, and I think that fits and is quite romantic in many different senses, and, though I've never seen it, doesn't Dr. Zhivago work too? Also Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. And what about Gone With the Wind? Don't Rhett and/or Scarlett at one time or another embody together all of your basic requirements?
It's hard for me to think of comedies (especially good comedies) as truly romantic. But I'm thinking that The Shop Around the Corner, The Awful Truth, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (the 1941 Hitchcock, not the unrelated 2005 Angelina Jolie movie) and His Girl Friday all might work.
Hmmm... I think City Lights does fit too, and it's probably much less of a laff riot, and much more sentimental, so can probably feel more romantic than the above comedies.
And what about Double Indemnity? Not the burn fast and hot relationship between Walter Neff and Phyllis Dietrichson, but, as in Casablanca, the longstanding relationship between Neff and Barton Keyes?
In the 40's-50's there were a number of films that depicted longterm devoted relationships between the main characters. There were several of those made during WWII, for instance. But most of the ones I've seen are so saccharine and sentimental as to not meet the basic requirement of being good movies!
Forgot to add: I think both the 1937 Janet Gaynor/Frederic March and the 1954 Judy Garland/James Mason versions of A Star is Born fit as well--I can't comment on the 1976 Barbra Streisand vehicle, not having seen it.
Yeah, I know the Judy Garland is a musical, in a sense, but IIRC most of the music scenes are diegetic, so perhaps less objectionable to you (and it is really good singing).
I wonder if the unfulfilled relationship of Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa would work?
The time thing works in Casablanca because she's his ex, right?, so it's not as if they just meet and four days later it's luuurrrrvvvve.
Rhett and Scarlett are just a couple of dysfunctional people obsessed with each other :-) if I remember correctly, but I haven't seen that movie since I was a young teenager, so I could be wrong.
And as far as there not being a clear dividing line when chemistry and infatuation turns to love, I disagree, and I can tell you exactly when it happened for me the times it did. So there! :-P
Anyway, you guys are giving me way too many movies to have to go back and watch.
Exactly right on Casablanca. Rick and Ilsa were together for some time in Paris before she disappeared on him when the Germans invaded, then there was an intervening period of a couple of years before she suddenly pops up alive in Casablanca. And his interactions with Sam show that he's been thinking about her a whole lot for a very long time (and she tells him the same). So the love has definitely grown over several years. It's not some four day infatuation even if started as an infatuation years before in Paris.
It's your requirement for love growing slowly over time that cuts out so many other films. I think it's just hard to show that in a two hour movie in a way that makes much narrative sense, while still leaving you with a story in some sort of motion. I mean, you can do it in a mini-series, but in just two hours???
Casablanca probably did that the only way, in flashbacks. And even then it's hard to use them well without grinding the narrative to a screeching halt, thus no longer leaving a good movie.
I'd analogize between Victor Lazlo (Paul Henried) and Kenneth Bradley (Richard Denning) and cry great steaming piles of hypocrisy on this particular comment thread... ;-)
Luckily Mr Indemnity loaned me Casablanca today so I can watch it decide for myself :-) :-)
(I guess this means I really do need to watch it, not just leave it in its case until I guiltily give it back 8 months from now when I'm cleaning and realize that *yet again* I've got 10 metric craploads of other people's belongings in my house.)
"watch it *and* decide for myself"
Honest to god, I only had one mimosa and one really gross pumpkin martini today. I should be able to form an actual coherent written sentence.
My favorite romance in Casablanca is between Sascha (Leonid Kinskey) and Yvonne (Madeleine LeBeau). My favorite line, delivered by Sascha explaining why he's going to follow Rick's orders and not going to pour her another drink like she's asked: "Yvonne, I love you, but he pays me".
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