Let’s talk about love …..
What constitutes a great romance? Is it boy gets girl or is
it more about the journey and discovering that they’re actually falling for
each other? I guess anyone’s
definition of love is simply that you choose him or her because of all the
other people in your life, you’d rather be with that person and no one else.
But to get to the point of wanting to be with that person is the journey that
makes a film (and the quality of that journey is what gives us a FINE ROMANCE).
In early cinematic history, romance consisted of the
passive, delicate female, all batting eyelids and sighing, waiting for her man
to come to her. The female adjunct metamorphosed through the decades into a
more in-control version and the supportive wallflower soon became empowered. As
cinema and audiences developed a changing code of morals and ethics, so too did
the newly confident heroine shed her inhibitions and become happy to strip off
and take off literally, in the sexual realm. This modern take on portraying sex
on screen probably killed off romance, which until then had been about subtlety
and innuendo.
Romance used to be portrayed as that look, that smile, that square inch
of bare neck barely visible under her polo neck sweater and that breast heaving under a taut silk blouse in
ANTICIPATION of him.
Better yet, the great romantic films were elevated to
legendary status by a sparkling script. Sadly these days, and like the fast
food society we live in, we seem to now care less for the words and more for
the gratuitous in your face action – as if recourse to a bit of IMAGINATION
might actually kill. Similarly, characters nowadays seem to say very little to
each other (or very little worth listening to) relegating the beauty of the
English language to oblivion.
A script that shines, with effervescence and poignancy in
equal measure, captures the human condition and the process of falling in love.
There have to be BIG themes too – loss, sacrifice - running in tandem with
rounded characters we can understand and empathise with.
Finally, without a great dose of chemistry between the
leads, even a memorable script will just sound like someone reading a shopping
list.
So here goes my choice of the TEN BEST ROMANCES – the real
thing, the big cheeses in the love department. The films that were memorable enough to replay like a melody
over and over again whenever our thoughts turned to LOVE:
10. BODY
HEAT (1981,Lawrence Kasdan) (William Hurt, Kathleen
Turner)
While some called this a tawdry
remake of Double indemnity, this sultry, overheated film explores the scheming
manipulator who uses sex to control her not-so-bright lover and ends up framing
him for murder. Passion, sex and more passion and sex. Made in 1981 when
audiences were just getting used to more risqué manoeuvres on screen, Kathleen
Turner and William Hurt get top marks for CHEMISTRY. The film left us with the
unforgettable scene where he breaks into her house as she watches because he is
so hot he can’t help himself. The line between love and lust completely erased
here but at least we get to feel something. And it’s all good.
9. THE
WAY WE WERE (1973, Sydney Pollack) (Barbra Streisand,
Robert Redford)
OK, OK, the chemistry between
Barbara and Robert was not great BUT these two gorgeous people did a terrific
job of pretending to enjoy themselves. Cast as mismatched lovers whose
relationship is doomed, audiences loved it because just as in real life, not
everyone wins all the time. POIGNANCY in bucket loads about two people wanting
different things but still capable of loving each other and at the end when
they meet again. …WAAAAH! It could have been so different but it wasn’t. What
they do have is memories…
8. BRIDGES
OF MADISON COUNTY (1995, Clint Eastwood) (Clint
Eastwood, Meryl Streep)
Audiences took some convincing to see Clint play the
sensitive type but boy, does he do a great job as actor and director in this
colossal weepie. Playing a stranger in town, he soon has Meryl lapping it up
and before you can say “Jack Rabbit”, she’s shed her inhibitions and forgot
she’s in deepest Iowa where there’s an awful lot of corn and shattered dreams.
Meryl and Clint have such amazing CHEMISTRY that gossip columnists were
whispering of a real-life affair. We’ll never know but golly, we wept when she
wept and almost passed out with grief when they went their separate ways.
Better to have loved and lost than never….
7. A
MAN AND A WOMAN (1966, Claude Lelouch) (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Anouk Aimée)
Bland and atmospheric with lots of glances, interminable
silences, incomprehensible flashbacks, singing (!!!), tragic, furtive, sad,
emotional, lots of cigarettes and real kisses…definitely a French film except
that luckily they DO NOT commit suicide or murder each other in the end. Some
would say that the film is too plodding and slow but as a genre it hits all the
right buttons and its sheer style is unique. We get regret, sadness, a beautiful
actress whose face casts shadows and rainbows and a memorable theme song. But
her inability to forget her dead husband and guilt at sleeping with another man
is universal enough to have everyone reaching for the tissues. In the end we
get to feel something, although we’re not sure what because they’re all
speaking French. And since this is a grown up film, we are left guessing what
will happen next. And that’s exactly what happens in real life- no one really
knows.
6. AS
GOOD AS IT GETS (1997, James L. Brooks) (Jack
Nicholson, Helen Hunt)
SPARKLING SCRIPT with
irrepressible Jack in his naughty-but-nice element. Impossible to outperform,
there is no actor who could get away with such devilish insouciance concealing
a heart of soft, vulnerable sensitivity. Helen Hunt is magnificent as the
feisty waitress who puts him in his place. Both are missing that certain
someone in their lives, and both end up needing each other – this is the
ultimate feel good love story with a silly sub plot. But don’t let that detract
from marvelling at how good an actor Jack really is. A romance for adults
(preferably middle aged and looking for love).
5. NOW
VOYAGER (1942, Irving Rapper) (Bette Davis, Paul
Henreid)
Ugly duckling learns to relax, pluck her eyebrows and get
over her horrid mother and in the process falls madly in love with married man
(who naturally she can’t have). Good old-fashioned morals with superb acting
from Bette Davis who despite her unconventional beauty manages to carry off her
role with elegance and aplomb. Another fine example of a PERFECT SCRIPT that is memorable and
touches all the big themes: maternal love, self love, forbidden love and
romantic love. They don’t write scripts about women who forsake a-once–in-a-lifetime-love
for the sake of a child anymore, yet despite its outdated theme it feels real
and raw. And we are all delighted that Bette finds happiness of sorts that has
eluded her for so long.
4. BREAKFAST
AT TIFFANY’S (1961, Blake Edwards) (Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard)
It is probably no exaggeration that without Audrey Hepburn
there would have been no point to his film. Besides playing a stir crazy
prostitute, she brings pathos by the truckload to her wounded character with
enough innocence to charm a cynic. The result is an irresistible, beautiful
nymph to soften even the hardest heart. Hepburn possessed just the right
balance of cheeky gamine and haughty detachment to carry it off. In the end,
the film is a story about healing and redemption through love– all while
standing in the rain with a sodden cat. If anything, the film started the trend
of declarations of love under water. A touching piece that warms the heart.
3. CASABLANCA
Few would argue that Bogart and Bergman look good together
and they are helped by probably the BEST SCRIPT ever written. There are so many
lines from Casablanca that we even recite in our sleep and this more than sixty
years later! The combination of war, danger, espionage, the Germans, marriage,
infidelity, intrigue, a series of perfectly slotted sub plots which also serve
to gel the whole story neatly together and a blast from the past who comes to
wreck Rick’s hard earned sanity, makes for the most seamless example of a
script. It is impossible to imagine how the film or script could be improved.
As a love story it deals with the HUGE themes of love lost and sacrifice (the
biggest one being about sacrifice and that immortal line about a ‘hill of
beans’).
2. DR.
ZHIVAGO (1965, David Lean) (Omar Sharif, Julie
Christie)
The Russian epic to out do all other epics, we get to ogle
Omar Sharif and the absolute beauty of Julie Christie. David Lean gives us a
fine example of the director creating expanse and atmosphere with snow and red
paint and daffodils and falling leaves in the same season. No matter, we swallow
the abridged version of Russian history with relish but the real story is about
a man who believes in his country and is forced to choose between his saintly
wife and his mistress who just happens to be married to a murderer. The
CHEMISTRY between Sharif and Christie is electric – she, all stoic tight lips
and he of the soulful eyes. The film is worth watching just to hear her say “Oh
Yuri, Yuri, Yuri…” A classic that should be watched on rainy Sunday afternoons
again and again….
1. BRIEF
ENCOUNTER (1945, David Lean) (Celia Johnson, Trevor
Howard)
Celia Johnson carries this film as the housewife who finds
love in the railway tearoom (of all places – imagine this happening with
today’s surly commuters). Trevor Howard falls madly in love with her over milk
and two sugars.. The simplicity of the setting and these two restrained, stiff
upper lip characters, who have to try very very hard not to rip each other’s
clothes off, makes for a delightfully chaste, yet poignant love story. A great
example of ANTICIPATION that motors through the film keeping us wanting more
and for them to finally please, just do it! As the philosopher Nietzsche
famously said, thinking it is worse than doing it! A lesson on how to make a
film on a shoestring and with a script pared down to a minimum but nonetheless
with something unforgettable to say... And we are left clutching the tissues
because she can never have him. How sad is that!!!!
This article first appeared on shadowlocked.com- a really excellent movie website: TOP TEN ROMANCE MOVIES
This article first appeared on shadowlocked.com- a really excellent movie website: TOP TEN ROMANCE MOVIES
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