50 Love Stories We Love

Witness (1985)

Tough city cop Harrison Ford and luminously sensible Amish widow Kelly McGillis--soulmates from opposite worlds--encounter each other when her son witnesses a murder. They end up doing what few lovers from opposite worlds ever do: making their ultimate act of love the decision to part before any of the transformative power of their experience gets destroyed.

Roman Holiday (1953)

Tough foreign correspondent Gregory Peck and luminously curious European princess Audrey Hepburn-soulmates from opposite worlds--encounter each other when she runs away from her royal keepers. They end up doing what few lovers from opposite worlds ever do: making their ultimate act of love the decision to leave each other before any of the transformative power of their experience gets destroyed.

Vertigo (1958)

Hitchcock's most twisted romance, which stars James Stewart and Kim Novak, is many things to many people-- a metaphysical love story, a ghost tale, the final cinematic word on male obsessive behavior--but it has essential words of wisdom for all: never try to do a makeover on your lover.

Gone With the Wind (1939)

An epic love story most commendable for its bottom line: nobody gets what they want.

Cousins (1989)

In Joel Schumacher's vastly underrated remake of the French hit Cousin, Cousine, the immensely likable Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini play distant relatives who spark and spark and spark after being thrown together when their respective spouses start an adulterous affair. Trust us about Ted Danson--here, anyway.

A Room with a View (1986)

You're a beautiful, well-bred girl with an appetite for life and a desire to become a woman with a secure place in the world. So, do you let a rash young man who sweeps you up in his arms and kisses you in a Tuscan field distract you from your intention to marry the staid, loyal fiancé who awaits your return in England? Helena Bonham Carter's Miss Honeychurch thinks decidedly not, which allows her to make a great fool out of herself for our amusement until she finally opts for passion.

Summertime (1955)

Katharine Hepburn is the aging, lonely spinster who, on vacation in Venice, finally finds love--with a married man (Rossano Brazzi). Filmmaker David Lean's intense infatuation with Italy puts a golden burnish on one of life's immutable lessons: nothing, especially not a gorgeous Italian lover, comes without a price.

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

Irresistible tosh about a vibrant ballerina (Vivien Leigh) who, devastated when her lover (Robert Taylor) is killed in battle, gets spurned by his family and winds up a tawdry hooker. When Leigh unexpectedly learns that Taylor's actually alive, she--sorry, we're not giving that away. Unquestionably Leigh's finest hour, and no, we haven't forgotten Gone With the Wind.

Holiday (1938)

When the elegant older daughter in a rich Manhattan bankers family brings home the unconventional, fun-loving self-made millionaire she intends to marry (Cary Grant), we all know it's her younger sister (a not-yet-quite-so-mannered Katharine Hepburn) who's the one he's meant to love. Fortunately it takes a while for everyone in the movie to sort things out, giving us time to learn just how miserable the lives of rich people really are and to savor the comedy of chemistry between two lovers-to-be who think they just like each other.

Pride and Prejudice (1940)

The overstuffed, luxe treatment MGM gave Jane Austen's comedy of manners made the important differences in class between her characters all but invisible, but as the lovers who share an equal intensity in their respective flaws (her pride, his prejudice), Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier are so deliciously reluctant to come to inevitable terms with each other that Austen's basic notion about love comes right through.

Cesar and Rosalie (1972)

Many exalt Jules and Jim as the last word on movie ménages à trois, but we prefer this somewhat happier variation on the timeworn theme of two men (Yves Montand, Sami Frey) in love with the same ravishing woman (Romy Schneider)-- if only because Schneiders Rosalie, unlike Jeanne Moreau's Catherine, is a warm, sexy life force, not a capricious, incomprehensible man-wrecker.

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)

If the precision and poetry of filmmaker Max Ophuls didn't take your eyes prisoner, it would probably be intolerable not to look away from this story of the ruinous, lifelong love a young girl (Joan Fontaine) develops for a handsome pianist (Louis Jourdan). Any woman who does not identify at least a little with the main character is perhaps not being entirely honest with herself.

sex, lies, & videotape (1989)

Though "love" is missing from the titles list of nouns, it's at the heart of this story of a prissy Southern belle (Andie MacDowell) whose husband is having an affair with her sister, and a strange guy (James Spader) who can only get himself off while watching tapes of women talking about sex. These are two unlikely prospects for the job of reaffirming modern romance, but they do it.

Withering Heights (1939)

Two enduring girl fantasy-beliefs found perfect expression in Emily Bronte's novel of obsessive love on the moors of England. One: the most exciting lover you can ever have is the ravishing bad boy who will ruin your life. Two: the most satisfying lover you can ever have is the guy who will never get over you and will spend the rest of his days making every other girl miserable because she can't compare with you. Young Laurence Olivier brought exquisite bitterness and desperation to his portrayal of Heathcliff, the double-fantasy fulfilled for beautiful Merle Oberon's wild and heartless Cathy.

Senso (1954)

In Luchino Visconti's swoony, melancholy riff on Anna Karenina, a married Venetian aristocrat (Alida Valli) risks all for the love of a callow officer in the invading Austrian army (Farley Granger). When the soldier betrays her, she, unlike Anna Karenina, learns that revenge is a dish best served cold.

Sounder (1972)

Sure, on the surface this is just another saga of a boy and his dog, but what sets this movie apart is its unusual subplot: how two married, dirt-poor, Depression-era sharecroppers (Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield) manage, through good times and bad, to keep alive passion for each other and love for their children.

My Man Godfrey (1936)

Most stories about rich people falling for their servants turn out badly. But screwball comedy was invented to beat the romantic odds. Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard), the good-hearted, wacky daughter of a rich, dysfunctional family, collects a hobo one night on a charity scavenger hunt, hires him to be the latest in a long line of short-lived family butlers, then falls for him. Godfrey (William Powell), a diamond-in-the-rough who's really a diamond-in-disguise, proves so droll and noble in handling his spoiled, alcoholic employers he manages to save them from themselves. In the end, of course, he fails to save himself from returning the adoration of space-case Irene.

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

Nobody wants to be believe their own parents could be passionate, let alone their grandparents, so it's little wonder this gem failed to find a big audience. Two senior citizens (Beulah Bondi, Victor Moore), happily married for 50 years, wish only to live out the remainder of their lives together. Money problems force them to be separated in different homes of their selfish, grown children. Sentimental, old-fashioned in the best sense of the word--and emotionally shattering.

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By Virginia Campbell & Edward Marguiles

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