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"
I Capture the Castle (2002)
7.1/10
Director: Tim Fywell
Starring: Marc Blucas, Rose Byrne, Sinead Cusack, Tara Fitzgerald, Romola Garai, Bill Nigh...
A fun-filled romantic comedy about 17-year-old Cassandra and the fortunes of her eccentric family, struggling to survive in a decaying English castle... Read more
Chungking Express (1994)
8.1/10
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung (Chiu Wai), Faye Wong, Brigitte Lin, Valerie Chow
This intoxicating slice of Hong Kong romance noir is split into two stories: A cop gets dumped by his Girlfriend and tries to fall in love with the ne... Read more
Ghost (1990)
7/10
Director: Jerry Zucker
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg
The highest-grossing film at the box office in 1990 is about a young artist who is killed in an apparent mugging. His ghost, left stranded on Earth, s... Read more
Serendipity (2001)
6.9/10
Director: Peter Chelsom
Starring: John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven, John Corbett, Molly Shannon
After a chance meeting and a spontaneous date, Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale) exchange phone numbers, sort of. He scrawls on a five... Read more
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
5.9/10
Director: John Madden
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, John Hurt, Irene Papas, Christian Bale, David Morri...
This sweeping melodrama with a historical backdrop stars Penelope Cruz as the daughter of a doctor living on a Greek island in 1940. When war breaks o... Read more
The Last Picture Show (1971)
8.1/10
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Cybi...
Peter Bogdanovich's masterfully rendered, critically acclaimed drama follows the loves, dreams and fates of the denizens of a small Texas town in the... Read more
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2004)
7.3/10
Director: Miranda July
Starring: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Carlie Westerman
Successfully cross-pollinating quirky rom-com with ensemble drama, performance artist Miranda July's debut feature navigates the tricky waters of inti... Read more
The Age of Innocence (1993)
7.2/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder
Martin Scorsese revels in ravishing romantic grandeur with a tale of love and denial in 19th Century New York. Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and... Read more
The New World (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Christian Bale, Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Ben Mendelsohn, Christopher Pl...
Terrence Malick's epic dramatization of the mythical story of Pocahantas and John Smith (Colin Farrell) is just his fourth feature, coming more than 3... Read more
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
7/10
Director: Karel Reisz
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Leo McKern, Hilton McRae
Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay adapted from John Fowles' novel. A hauntingly beautiful film starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, about a woman... Read more