Romance
"Alice's Festival Of Romance"
Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight, young (and older) love, unrequited love, obsessive love, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, sexual and passionate love, sacrificial love, explosive and destructive love, and tragic love. Romantic films serve as great escapes and fantasies for viewers, especially if the two people finally overcome their difficulties, declare their love, and experience life "happily ever after" - implied by a reunion and final kiss.
Here "Alice's Festival of Romance" has been assembled below as an aphabetical list. Should more precise scrolling be required, one should go to the specific genre, ie "Classic Romance", "Comedy Romance" , "Drama Romance" or even "Queer Cinema"
Right: Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid star in Todd Haynes'
"Far From Heaven"
Rebecca (1940)
8.1/10
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Hitchcock's first American film, based on a Du Maurier gothic romance. With Laurence Olivier and a fine performance by Joan Fontaine as a shy young wo... Read more
Annie Hall (1977)
8/10
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, Carol Kane, Shelley Duvall,...
One of Woody Allen's most well-loved and funniest films, with Diane Keaton as the ditsy sometime object of Woody's neurotic affections. Originally co... Read more
Roman Holiday (1953)
8.1/10
Director: William Wyler
Starring: Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, Audrey Hepburn
A delightful comedy about a newspaperman in Rome (Gregory Peck) who meets and falls for a lonely princess (Audrey Hepburn) travelling incognito. Featu... Read more
Persuasion (1995)
7.7/10
Director: Roger Michell
Starring: Amanda Root, Ciaran Hinds, Corin Redgrave
A young woman (Amanda Root) still loves the suitor she foolishly rejected years before (Ciaran Hinds); now she watches in agony as he courts her broth... Read more
Sliding Doors (1997)
6.8/10
Director: Peter Howitt
Starring: John Hannah, John Lynch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeanne Tripplehorn
A likeable romantic-comedy about a woman who is given a chance to live her life twice, each time, choosing a different man. Will she get it right eith... Read more
It Happened One Night (1934)
8.1/10
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly
Winner of five Academy Awards, this famous screwball comedy stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert as two mismatched lovers. Colbert escapes from her... Read more
Before Sunset (2004)
8.1/10
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Richard Linklater's warm and funny follow-up to "Before Sunrise" reunites former lovers Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke nine years after their whirlwind r... Read more
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
6.9/10
Director: Oliver Parker
Starring: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, Tom Wilkinson, Franc...
Sublime reworking of Oscar Wilde's timeless comedy from director Oliver Parker ('An Ideal Husband') features flashbacks and fantasy sequences to enhan... Read more
The Great Gatsby (1974)
6.4/10
Director: Jack Clayton
Starring: Karen Black, Bruce Dern, Mia Farrow, Robert Redford, Scott Wilson, Sam Waterston...
Robert Redford and Mia Farrow with a script by Francis Coppola, adapted from the book by F Scott Fitzgerald about a golden boy who crashes Long Island... Read more
The Way We Were (1973)
7.1/10
Director: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman
One of the finest screen romances ever teams Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand as two philosophically different types whose love affair stretches f... Read more