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"
To the Wonder (2012)
5.9/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, "To the Wonder" is a romantic drama about men and women grappling with love and its many phases and seasons -... Read more
Notting Hill (1999)
7.1/10
Director: Roger Michell
Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, James Dre...
Hugh Grant is the divorced owner of a travel bookstore who lives in London's Notting Hill suburb who chances to meet a world-famous movie star (Julia... Read more
The Blue Lagoon / Return to the Blue Lagoon (1980)
Director: Randal Kleiser, William A Graham
Starring: Brooke Shields, Christopher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Daniels, Milla Jovovich,...
A dvd double feature of survival, discovery and natural love. "The Blue Lagoon" (1980, 100 mins) stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins as the sh... Read more
Amour (2012)
7.9/10
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Emmanuele Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant
Examining the close bond shared by an elderly couple when one of them begins to suffer from an illness, "Amour" tells a heart-rending story of sacrifi... Read more
Dirty Dancing (1987)
6.9/10
Director: Emile Ardolino
Starring: Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach, Patrick Swayze, Cynthia Rhodes
At a Catskill Mountain resort in 1963 a young woman discovers her hidden talents for moving to the music. Her inspiration is her instructor, the poor... Read more
Fast Food, Fast Women (2001)
6.5/10
Director: Amos Kollek
Starring: Jamie Harris, Louise Lasser, Anna Thomson, Austin Pendleton
This quirky romantic comedy serves up the story of a group of disparate New York diner patrons whose lives become intertwined by their shared loneline... Read more
Shopgirl (2005)
6.4/10
Director: Anand Tucker
Starring: Steve Martin, Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, Bridgette Wilson, Sam Bottoms, Fr...
Steve Martin stars in and adapted the screenplay from his own novella about shopgirl Mirabelle (Claire Danes); she's depressed, underpaid, in debt and... Read more
Impromptu (1991)
7/10
Director: James Lapine
Starring: Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin
A spirited 'they do make them as well as they used to' comedy/drama about the 19th century romance between George Sand (Judy Davis) and Frederic Chopi... Read more
Reality Bites (1994)
6.6/10
Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller
One for the Generation X'ers who now have their own cinematic statement ala 'Easy Rider' and 'The Big Chill'. This love triangle has Winona Ryder tryi... Read more
The Lunchbox (2013)
7.8/10
Director: Ritesh Batra
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur
A good old-fashioned romance that has charmed cinema audiences worldwide, "The Lunchbox" sees a mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunch... Read more