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"
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
7.2/10
Director: Peter Weir
Starring: Bill Kerr, Linda Hunt, Mel Gibson, Michael Murphy, Sigourney Weaver
Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver begin an impassioned love affair intensified by the uncertainties of life in Indonesia on the eve of revolution. Linda... Read more
One From the Heart (1982)
6.8/10
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Nastassja Kinski, Harry Dean Stanton
An extraordinarily visual film examining the bittersweet romance between Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest, with support from Nastassia Kinski and Harry... Read more
Quartet (1981)
6.4/10
Director: James Ivory
Starring: Anthony Higgins, Alan Bates, Isabelle Adjani, Maggie Smith
Marya Zelli finds herself penniless after her art dealer husband, Stephan, is convicted of theft. Marya accepts the hospitality of a strange couple, H... Read more
The Return of the Soldier (1981)
6.9/10
Director: Alan Bridges
Starring: Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson, Ann-Margret , Ian Holm, Frank Finlay...
A riveting psychological drama about a soldier who experiences shell shock and amnesia during W.W. I and returns to his country estate without the mem... Read more
The David Hannay Collection: Alison's Birthday / Solo (1981)
Director: Ian Coughlan, Tony Williams
Starring: Joanne Samuel, Vincent Gil, Lisa Peers
A double feature from Australian producer David Hannay. 'Alison's Birthday' (1981) - When Alison is invited back to her childhood home to celebrate h... Read more
Green Ice (1981)
5.6/10
Director: Ernest Day
Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, Omar Sharif
A skilled team of professionals plot to steal an enormous cache of emeralds, but their daring get-rich-quick scheme lands them in the middle of the co... Read more
Hard Country (1981)
6.2/10
Director: David Greene
Starring: Kim Basinger, Jan-Michael Vincent, Tanya Tucker, Daryl Hannah, Michael Parks
Kim Basinger's film debut sees her stuck in a one-horse Texas town with beau Jan-Michael Vincent who seems happy to stay right where he is so long as... Read more
Arthur (1981)
6.9/10
Director: Steve Gordon
Starring: Dudley Moore, John Gielgud, Liza Minnelli
Spoiled millionaire Dudley Moore must choose between continued wealth (in a planned marriage) and true love (with working-class waitress Liza Minnelli... 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
Gregory's Girl (1981)
7.1/10
Director: Bill Forsyth
Starring: Gordon John Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Chic Murray
A very funny film from the director of 'Local Hero' and 'Comfort and Joy', centred on the lives of Glasgow teenagers, specifically Gregory and his gir... Read more