essay on romantic movies

The 50 Greatest Romantic Movies of All Time

It’s the closest thing there is to a universal genre. That’s because, with rare exceptions, everyone falls in love, or at least wants to. And when you think about it, almost every movie is a love story. Thrillers, comedies, sci-fi — no matter what the form, the spectacle of two people falling in love in the middle of it has always been what makes the world of movies go round. That’s why choosing the greatest movie love stories presents a special challenge. Because really, what isn’t a contender? In a way, though, we kept our criteria simple. We were looking for grand passion, for chemistry and heat and all that good stuff. Yet there’s an ineffable quality that elevates a truly great movie romance. Let’s call it the Swoon Factor. It’s about the swoon that happens onscreen; it’s about the swoon that happens between the audience and the screen. What follows are the 50 films that, more than any others, got our hearts racing.     

Dirty Dancing (1987)

Set in 1963 but oh-so-’80s in its idea of hairstyles and heartthrobs, this sexy summer-camp romance defied its critics to become a classic. Nicknaming Jennifer Grey’s character “Baby” went a long way to illustrate what’s really going on here: The teenage daughter of conservative Jewish parents is forever being infantilized by her folks, until she meets a slightly older — but undeniably adult — dance teacher (Patrick Swayze) who shows her the time of her life. Corrupted by rock ’n’ roll, Baby grows up fast, getting over her initial shyness (“I carried a watermelon”) while rehearsing with her seductive instructor, who practices a racy new style of close-contact, ultra-suggestive moves that can only be read as carnal. Like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Grease” before it, the movie plays on the fantasy of an off-limits attraction between Baby and the bad boy. — Peter Debruge

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

In this gold-standard screwball caper comedy, a gentleman thief, a lady pickpocket and a Parisian heiress form an elegant triangle, the preferred shape of Ernst Lubitsch — that sublime architect of romantic instability — who loved to test how seemingly solid couples might respond to a good romantic upset. Here, the temptation isn’t merely sentimental, as there’s a potential fortune on the line. What’s more, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) make clear from the moment they meet that each is perfectly capable of robbing the other blind. She boosts his wallet, he knicks her garter (we needn’t see the deed to be scandalized). The movie came out before the Production Code, and it sparkles with the kind of naughty innuendo that was soon prohibited in Hollywood, but which Lubitsch was sophisticated enough to suggest even behind closed doors. — PD

Splash (1984)

A man falls in love with a mermaid: What could be simpler, or sweeter, than that? Yet Tom Hanks, in the movie that made him a movie star, does not go lightly into his communion with a woman who’s half-fish. Ron Howard’s landmark comedy was one of the first films to demonstrate that a high-concept premise could be executed in a way that was artful and classic: a throwback to the Hollywood that used fantasy to put us in touch with reality. Daryl Hannah, as Madison the red-tailed mermaid, acts with a dazed curiosity and eagerness that’s irresistible, and Hanks turns his disgruntlement into a profound expression of love’s challenge – namely, that we can’t choose who we love, but we can choose to embrace the love that chose us. — Owen Gleiberman

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)

Amid a career of macho performances, Clint Eastwood tapped into his sensitive side to deliver one of his most indelible characters in Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer on assignment in Iowa, who stops by a farmhouse to ask for directions. He’s greeted by Francesca, a lonely war bride who offers to show him around (an Italian-accented Meryl Streep, who says so much in her silent gestures, like the way she absentmindedly touches herself in the places she wants to be caressed). It’s no big surprise that this dissatisfied housewife develops feelings for this stranger. More touching is Kincaid’s admission that he’s fallen for Francesca, too, but knows she has no intention of leaving her family. Still, that doesn’t stop him from trying. “This kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime,” he tells her. The sight of Kincaid looking desperate in the rain, the downpour likely masking tears, is so radically counter-Eastwood, you’ve gotta believe it. — PD

The Notebook (2004)

In the two decades since “The Notebook,” Ryan Gosling has cultivated his image as a chiseled heartthrob to such a degree that he seemed the perfect choice to play a live-action Ken doll in the “Barbie” movie. But back when director Nick Cassavetes was casting the role of Noah Calhoun, he saw the actor (and former Mouseketeer) differently — as someone both relatable and reckless enough to chase his dream girl (Rachel McAdams’ Allie) up a Ferris wheel. No matter what Allie does, he keeps on loving her in the best possible version Hollywood can make of a Nicholas Sparks novel. The secret formula here comes in catching up with Noah and Allie half a century later, as played by screen legends James Garner and Gena Rowlands, coupled with the tear-jerky reason we’ve been reliving all their most romantic memories. — PD

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

The colors gush in Douglas Sirk’s lush 1950s melodrama, about a New England widow, Cary (Jane Wyman), who falls for the studly but respectful hunk (Rock Hudson) who tends the trees at her house. It may be love, but her two grown children — and nearly the entire community — are disapproving of Cary’s feelings, pressuring her to break off the relationship. Seen today, neither the age difference nor the class divide seem like deal-breakers, which makes Cary’s sacrifice seem all the more futile. (Years later, Todd Haynes updated the dynamic with a Black gardener and a still-living gay husband in “Far from Heaven.”) During the 1950s, Hudson carved out a niche as a sensitive leading man, to the point that he’s almost pathetic here (consider the state of him in the final scene). Others may try to meddle, but in the end, it’s her decision alone whom she loves. — PD

The Sound of Music (1965)

You might ask: How romantic could a musical this notoriously G-rated and squeaky-clean really be? But if “The Sound of Music” has incandescent songs, as well as a singular true-life story about the Von Trapp Family Singers (seven motherless Austrian children returned to vitality through the life force of Julie Andrews’ nun-turned-governess Maria), the movie’s secret weapon is its love story. Andrews, while she’s certainly playing the soul of goodness, invests her slow-blooming affection for Christopher Plummer’s Capt. Von Trapp with an almost forbidden sense of broken decorum. And Plummer, who looks like he belongs in a far darker movie, plays the captain as a lost man literally coming back to existence. When these two dance and realize, at the very same moment, that they’ve fallen in love, it’s one of the most electrifying scenes in movie history. — OG

Once (2007)

It’s not unusual to see a musical scale the heights of romantic passion. What’s different about John Carney’s film is that it’s a small-scale, non-stylized, kitchen-sink indie drama, yet in its lo-fi and platonic way it uses songs to create the majesty and devotion of a musical daydream. On the sidewalks of Dublin, a 30ish busker (Glenn Hansard) strums a guitar with a worn-out hole where the pick board should be. Most folks pass him by, but a girl (Markéte Irglová) lingers. They’re drawn into each other’s orbit, and though we never learn their names, a romance — or is it? — begins to play out in the songs they sing together. They both have other relationships, yet ”Once” tells the delicate tale of how, through song, these two save each other. As they give themselves over to numbers like “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” the movie swoons, and you will too. — OG

Pretty Woman (1990)

Some think of it as the ultimate guilty-pleasure rom-com. Others say that its story of a wealthy businessman (Richard Gere) who hires an escort (Julia Roberts) for a week to be his public romantic partner represents Hollywood at it most reprehensibly sexist. The truth, however, falls right in between. “Pretty Woman” only got tagged with the guilty-pleasure label because it came out at the dawn of the modern rom-com era (it sparkles like Tracy and Hepburn next to a lot of the films that came afterward). And as far as morality goes, it’s not the movie that’s sexist. It’s the world of high-gloss commodification that Vivian, played by Roberts not just with the boldest smile of her era but with the vivacity that turned her into a singular movie star, must navigate. Look closely at the dance of chemistry and arbitration between Roberts and Gere, and you’ll see that “Pretty Woman,” in its slickly-packaged-by-director-Garry Marshall way, is nothing less than a screwball celebration of the politics of love. — OG

Mississippi Masala (1991)

Mira Nair took a pioneering risk in depicting the romance between Demetrius (Denzel Washington), a blue-collar Black carpet cleaner, and Mina (Sarita Choudhury), a young Indian woman whose family fled Uganda to the American South. Set in Greenwood, Miss., where locals helped the creative team finesse the authenticity of the movie’s dialogue and detail, Nair’s contemporary interracial romance confronts the pushback of both the African American and South Asian communities to Demetrius and Mina’s relationship. But unlike Sidney Poitier social drama “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” her parents’ reaction makes up just a fraction of the script, which gives complex backstories to each side of the couple. It’s also incredibly sexy, whether they’re chatting by phone in separate beds or sharing the same one in the movie’s scorching love scene. The movie argues for colorblindness while celebrating both cultures, modeling a relationship never before seen on screen. — PD

Say Anything (1989)

“Optimism is a revolutionary act,” writer-director Cameron Crowe quips in the commentary for his late-’80s teenage touchstone. That kind of radical confidence drives high school senior Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), who musters the nerve to ask out valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye), even though all his peers think she’s out of his league. At first, Lloyd may seem like a nobody when compared to his most-likely-to-succeed sweetheart, but over time, he proves to be loyal, decent and unflappably sincere — qualities that made him the model boyfriend for kids of the ’80s. The clincher: Even when dumped, he shows up with a boombox, blasting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” outside her window. The gesture became an iconic declaration of love for a generation … and still holds up, even if the technology is obsolete. — PD

The Way We Were (1973)

Today, it would probably be a rom-com about opposites attracting: Katie (Barbra Streisand), a wisecracking Marxist Jewish political activist, and Hubbell (Robert Redford), a debonair WASP writer born with the entitlement not to have to worry about “causes.” But 50 years ago, when the story was filmed by director Sydney Pollack not as a comedy but as a romantic drama of tumultuous love-hate passion, the film, in its high-end soap-opera way, seemed to be expressing something new in the culture — the way that love, after the 1960s, was no longer going to be asking people to stay in their ethnic lanes. “The Way We Were” is a hefty slice of middlebrow Hollywood corn, yet the irresistible tug of it is that Streisand and Redford embody their characters on a level of romantic mythology. And let’s not forget the power of that title song! As sung by Streisand, it’s the incarnation of nostalgic beauty. — OG

Carol (2015)

Movies that involve romantic stories of same-sex couples are inevitably placed in a category called “gay” or “queer” or whatever, often by their biggest fans. Yet if you think about it for five seconds, that’s a retrograde way of putting movies into boxes. The director Todd Haynes has made several masterpieces (“Far From Heaven,” “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story”), but he has never made a drama more darkly romantic and enticing, more seductive in its suspense, more mired in the agonizing compulsion of love than this lavishly mesmerizing adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel “The Price of Salt.” During the Christmas shopping season, Therese (Rooney Mara), a New York department-store clerk, meets Carol, a woman of the world played by Cate Blanchett with a femme fatale swagger just this side of threatening. Their relationship will be fraught with the drama of divorce, blackmail, a private detective, and other elements that, as staged by Haynes, acquire the heightened quality of a vintage film noir. The final scene, set in the bar of the Oak Room, features one of the most transporting locked-gazes-across-a-crowded-room moments you’ll ever see. — OG

The Bodyguard (1992)

Is there anything more romantic than someone jumping in front of a bullet for you? Technically, that’s Frank Farmer’s job, but by the time Kevin Costner’s clean-cut, ex-Secret Service agent leaps in to protect endangered diva Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) — on Oscar night, no less — we know he’s acting out of love more than duty. Frank sweeps both audiences and Rachel off their feet much earlier in the film, during a concert meltdown where he lifts her up and carries her through the mob — a chivalrous image immortalized on the film’s poster. Amazingly enough, “The Bodyguard” never made a big deal of its interracial romance, and that itself was a big deal. Powered by one of the all-time great soundtracks, the pop blockbuster is a classy entry in the oft-smarmy category of R-rated ’90s thrillers. Recent talks of a remake raise the question of which couple could out-sizzle Costner and Houston. — PD

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Marriage, they say, has its ups and downs. But it’s doubtful that any movie has ever dramatized the ebb and flow of feeling in a relationship with the primal power of F.W. Murnau’s silent classic. In outline, it could almost be a murderous film noir: A man — known only as The Man (George O’Brien), and haunted by better times with his wife, known only as The Wife (Janet Gaynor) — leaves the farmhouse where they live with their child to be with a woman from the city (Margaret Livingston). She wants him to drown The Wife, and part of the film’s shock is that he nearly does. But “Sunrise” proceeds as a series of shocks, which have the effect of jolting love back to life. Shot as a kind of sensuous living daydream, it is the cinema’s most profound and stirring roller-coaster of passion, an affirmation of what it means for two people to be meant for each other. — OG

The Princess Bride (1987)

Presented as a beloved fairy tale passed down between generations, screenwriter William Goldman’s tongue-in-cheek riff on classic adventure tales takes the best parts of nearly a century of cinematic love stories and remixes them for the home-video set (the goal was to get through to media-savvy audiences who thought they’d seen it all). Starting with two impossibly beautiful leads in Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, he builds a legend of swashbuckling pirates, dangerous rescues and well-earned revenge, describing it all (via kindly narrator Peter Falk) as the ultimate example of the form. That’s an impossible tall order — a genre-straddling smorgasbord the studio didn’t know how to market at the time — which director Rob Reiner miraculously achieves by enlisting an astonishing ensemble. Everyone from Billy Crystal to Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn to Andre the Giant assemble to support the sacrifice Westley makes to save his beloved Buttercup from marrying the wrong guy. — PD

Past Lives (2023)

Two men and a woman sit at a bar, and before the audience knows anything about them, we try to figure out what their relationship is. Who belongs with whom? That we can’t entirely tell is key to what makes Celine Song’s remarkable drama such a haunting fable of love’s enigma. It turns out that Nora (Greta Lee), a New Yorker born and raised until the age of 12 in South Korea, is married to Arthur (John Magaro), a mouthy homegrown American she met at a writers’ retreat. The other man, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), is the childhood friend Nora has maintained ties with; he’s at once her past, the spirit of her homeland, and maybe her romantic partner in another avenue of existence. “Past Lives” is a movie that will strike chords of recognition in any true romantic, as it’s about the secret journey that love takes: a communion that may occur in this life, or that may just be waiting for the next one. — OG

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

It’s one of the most poetic distillations of romantic desire in all of movies; you could also call it the “Splash” of its day. Jean Marais plays the Beast, who in Jean Cocteau’s film is a kind of delicate aristocrat with the face of a courtly lion. Josette Day is Belle, who ends up imprisoned in the Beast’s castle to work off a debt accrued by her father. What follows is an intricate fairy tale of deception and magic, built around the luminous ingenuity of Cocteau’s visual effects. Yet the most magical thing about it is the bond that develops between Belle and her disarmingly chivalrous captor/lover, a character so touching in his passion that when Greta Garbo saw the movie, it’s reported that she reacted to his death at the end by crying out, “Give me back my Beast!” — OG

Love & Basketball (2000)

The title of this Y2K sports classic references two very different games, and the rules aren’t fair in either one. After discovering that they both love basketball, Monica cockily challenges childhood friend Quincy to a match (later, famously, she’ll play for his heart). Monica wins that first bout, but he winds up injuring her — an early sign that the dynamic is different when two sexes occupy the court at the same time. That gap widens as they grow up (into Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan). He finds it relatively easy to follow in the footsteps of his NBA-pro dad, whereas there’s no equivalent path for female players. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood empathizes with Monica, who watches fame go to her old friend’s head. Per the formula, audiences are conditioned to root for the romance to work out, but basketball occupies a bigger part of Monica’s heart, and the movie finds the perfect solution. — PD

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Italian director Luca Guadagnino (“I Am Love”) turned André Aciman’s ecstatic, wildly overwritten novel of a formative first love between teenage Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and his father’s slightly older — but still relatively inexperienced — teaching assistant, Oliver (Armie Hammer), into a sensual summer dream. There’s an intensity to the sights, sensations and emotions that imprints itself on audiences, such that Elio’s memories become our own. One needn’t be gay to recognize the significance that such an all-consuming early infatuation can leave on a young person’s romantic identity, though the movie offers a welcome message to all who’ve struggled to come to terms with their own sexuality in the eloquent heart-to-heart between the boy and his surprisingly understanding dad: “How you live your life is your business. Just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once,” he says. “Don’t kill it and with it the joy you’ve felt.” — PD

Vertigo (1958)

For a director who was known as the thrillingly precise and methodical Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was not shy about portraying romantic rapture. A number of his films (“To Catch a Thief,” “Notorious,” “Rear Window”) are entrancing love stories, but in “Vertigo” he dove deep into an almost private zone of love-as-fetishistic-obsession. James Stewart’s middle-aged detective falls for the woman he’s hired to follow — played, with a depressive carnality, by Kim Novak, who also plays the woman’s shop-girl look-alike, who Stewart then feels compelled to transform into the first woman. No classic Hollywood movie balances love on the precipice of kink and danger the way this one does, which is why “Vertigo” opened the door to everything from “Blue Velvet” to the career of Brian De Palma. — OG

La La Land (2016)

Damien Chazelle’s glorious, heartrending, bittersweet musical does an extraordinary job of retro-fitting the song-and-dance pleasures of vintage Hollywood into the sunlit freeway landscape of contemporary Los Angeles. Yet the film’s most radical feature is the way it brings Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, together with Seb (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist drowning in his own purity, and celebrates their union with intoxicating affection — only to show you how their love crashes on the shores of warring egos. What lifts “La La Land” into the realm of transcendently moving love stories is that it presents a happy ending that almost happened, and that could have happened if only life had turned out a bit different. — OG

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Dramatically speaking, the most exciting part of a relationship occurs either during the time a couple is falling in love or else at the moment it’s falling apart. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman incorporates both aspects — albeit as endangered flashbacks — while exploring a fantasy that anyone who’s been through the emotional wringer of a relationship can identify with: What if you could erase all traces of an ex from your memory? Director Michel Gondry proved the perfect partner to visualize the sketchy sci-fi apparatus that makes a brain scrub possible for Joel (Jim Carrey), who realizes halfway through that, however painful, he can’t live without any trace of his soulmate, Clementine (Kate Winslet), the manic free spirit with the Kool-Aid-colored hair. As Joel tries to hold on to the good times while his mind’s being wiped, Kaufman allows audiences to absorb their best memories and make them our own. — PD

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Hugh Grant stammered his way into our hearts, fumbling and fluttering his eyelids the whole way, in a delightfully English rom-com from screenwriter Richard Curtis (who juggled no fewer than eight couples in his 2003 directorial debut “Love Actually”). This more streamlined love story starts where practically every Jane Austen story ends: at the altar. Grant’s not the one getting hitched at those opening nuptials, though he does fall hard for an American guest played by Andie MacDowell. Their courtship is unconventional (it amounts to shagging anytime their friends tie the knot), but the chemistry is undeniable. When it’s time for Charles and Carrie to get married, however, each of them says their vows with someone else. So how do they wind up together? It’s the little surprises that delight. — PD

Out of Sight (1998)

In terms of sheer sex appeal, it’s hard to top the chemistry between George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, who play an incorrigible bank robber and the U.S Marshall tasked with apprehending him in Steven Soderbergh’s sultry, time-skipping Elmore Leonard adaptation. It’s steamy from the start, as a prison break leaves cop and quarry stuffed in a trunk together — a cozy way to get acquainted. Four years after “Pulp Fiction,” the picture came at a moment when Soderbergh was experimenting with film editing and features several nifty innovations, including an unconventional love scene that turns up the heat by cutting between flirtation and payoff. In one thread, Jack Foley and Karen Sisco roleplay in the hotel bar, pretending to be strangers. Skipping ahead, it teases glimpses of the “time out” where all this cocktail talk is headed: a striptease upstairs, in which the pair put aside their differences long enough to make love. — PD

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Great as he is, we don’t tend of think of Daniel Day-Lewis as an overwhelmingly romantic movie star. In Philip Kaufman’s heady, intoxicating, high-wire adaptation of the Milan Kundera novel, he plays Tomas, a character who is very much a fickle Lothario — a randy physician in 1960s Prague who bounces from one conquest to the next, though he does have a regular thing going with Sabine (Lena Olin), an artist who likes to spice their lovemaking with mirrors and bowler hats. But then Tomas meets Tereza (Juliette Binoche), whose gravity pulls him down to earth. And then the Soviet tanks come rolling in, blowing up all their lives. When that happens, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” becomes one of the most seriously moving love stories in cinema, a tale of three lost souls yearning to connect, to survive, to unlock love’s mystery. — OG

A Star Is Born (1954)

For 30 years, the Judy Garland/James Mason version of “A Star Is Born” was tainted by the messy circumstances of its making. The script kept getting rewritten, Garland was a notoriously unstable presence on set, and when the movie premiered in New York, it was three hours long — but executives at Warner Bros. then chopped it by half an hour, without so much as consulting the director, George Cukor. Yet when the movie was re-released in the ’80s, its reputation was elevated in a way that’s comparable to what happened with Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” A world of moviegoers discovered that Cukor had crafted one of the most darkly entrancing love stories ever made. Its haunted spirit of rapture and loss is incarnated in Garland’s performance of “The Man That Got Away,” in Mason’s jaw-dropping drunken slap of Garland during a scene set at the Oscars, and in the tragic finale, which touches the secret heart of love: the faith necessary to sustain it. — OG

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Repression and strict social restraints are constantly keeping lovers apart in the works of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who together made a career’s worth of exquisitely nuanced literary adaptations frequently (and often unfairly) lumped in with lesser, made-for-TV costume dramas. While “A Room with a View” and “Maurice” are more overtly passionate, the trio’s take on Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated novel offers a heartbreaking portrayal of a couple kept apart by codes beyond their control. In this case, a butler (Anthony Hopkins) born and raised to serve the English aristocracy is so mindful of his place that he can’t bring himself to tell the housekeeper he adores (Emma Thompson) his true feelings. It’s wrenching to watch this docile attendant struggle between emotions for a colleague and devotion to his job, and yet, between the lines, and in these two masterful performances, are written volumes. — PD

Sid and Nancy (1986)

The director Alex Cox brought off something singularly audacious by centering a punk biopic on Sid Vicious, the Sex Pistols’ bassist and all-around showman-fuckup who was so dissolute most of the time that he could barely play his instrument or keep from nodding out. Yet the ultimate audacity of Cox’s film is that it dares to present Vicious’s relationship with Nancy Spungen, the torn-fishnet groupie from suburban Pennsylvania who turned him into a heroin addict, as if they were the Tristan and Isolde of the rock ‘n’ roll gutter. As Sid, Gary Oldman gives what may still be his greatest performance, and Chloe Webb, as Nancy, gives what is simply one of the most powerful performances in the history of cinema. Her Nancy is a caterwauling liar and junkie, such a damaged shard of a human being that it tears your heart apart just to behold her. Nancy and Sid are barely functional narcissist addicts, yet their love affair is fused on an animal level; they need each other to live, and to die. “Sid and Nancy” is raw and exhilarating — the greatest of all music biopics, and (not so incidentally) the most romantic. — OG

Moonlight (2016)

Told through poetic glimpses over three separate chapters in the life of its main character, “Moonlight” doesn’t feel like a love story at first. Director Barry Jenkins introduces Chiron at age 10, too young to recognize his own homosexuality, and yet already being teased as soft by his peers. In the middle segment, the boy meets Kevin, with whom he starts to explore his feelings, only to have that possibility derailed by bullying. Subverting stereotypes at every turn, the movie gives this lost soul a second chance in the final stretch, focusing on a tender, tentative reunion between Chiron (bulked up and thick-skinned from his time in prison) and his former crush. By this point, audiences are so invested in the character that “Moonlight” broke free of the rigid box that confines most queer stories to LGBT audiences, making it a crossover success and historic Oscar winner. — PD

The Apartment (1960)

The dialogue still zings and the heartbreak still stings in Billy Wilder’s ahead-of-its-time depiction of two Manhattan office drones who are both exploited by the same manager: Jack Lemmon plays ultra-cynical insurance salesman Bud Baxter, while Shirley MacLaine is Fran Kubelik, the elevator girl who brightens his days … but loves his boss. The plot (which involves Bud lending his place to higher-ups to schtup their secretaries) anticipates the #MeToo movement, while also acknowledging the reality that well-intentioned workers frequently fall for their colleagues. Bud goes about it the relatively respectful way, while Fran’s plight illustrates how unfair the world can be to those who mix business and pleasure. For audiences that love “Mad Men,” but identify with the underdog, the movie poses a wonderfully adult conundrum — one which forces Bud to decide between personal ethics and professional ambition, knowing it could all go sideways for him, career-wise. — PD

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

In the New Hollywood ’70s, a great many aspects of classic big-screen romance — the unabashed yearning, the sparkle, the lock-step gender roles — began to fall by the wayside. There was a lot of chatter about how romance itself was fading out of the culture. But that’s part of what made “An Officer and a Gentleman” loom so large. In its meticulous throwback of a story about a drifter, played with pinpoint narcissistic glamour by Richard Gere, who enlists in the Navy and falls for one of the “Puget Sound Debs” (Debra Winger) who want to marry a future jet pilot, the movie seemed to bring back, for the post-feminist era, the kind of shamelessly ardent love story that had fallen out of fashion. It helped that director Taylor Hackford infused it all with a contempo grittiness. As a basic-training movie, “Officer” anticipated much of ”Full Metal Jacket,” but what makes it indelible is the hungry desire enacted by Debra Winger, whose gaze of soulful adoration brings Gere fully alive as a romantic actor. — OG

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Cinema could hardly conjure a more lovely or elegant couple than cigarette-smoking Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, who floats through stairwells in form-fitting cheongsams. Operating on the wisp of a plot, improvised and evolved over nearly a year, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai denies these two beautiful avatars a conventional romance. They play neighbors who discover that their spouses are having an affair, and rather than sink to the same level, they indulge in a bit of imaginative detective work, reenacting how their partners might have met. This thin outline leaves near-infinite room for Wong to evoke a subjective range of responses from his audience, using the full range of cinematic tools — color, costume, gesture, music — to solicit a different reading from each viewer. Your mileage may vary, but keep in mind: Wong’s a feel-maker as much as a filmmaker, rewriting the rules via this elliptical dance between unrequited lovers. — PD

Moonstruck (1987)

At early test screenings, audiences weren’t falling for Norman Jewison’s now-classic New York romance the way they were supposed to, until he laid the tune “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…” over the opening credits. Cher tamped down her natural glamour to embody pragmatic Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini, who’s ready to settle for Johnny’s (Danny Aiello) passionless marriage proposal when she meets his brother Ronnie, played by a hot-blooded Nicolas Cage. Let’s just say, Ronnie gives this sensible Catholic woman reason to go to confession. The script by John Patrick Shanley is all but bursting with culturally specific detail, from drool-worthy dishes to unusual superstitions, but it’s the colorful ensemble — family members who want what’s best for Loretta — that ultimately serves to validate her seemingly reckless choice. After a lifetime of listening to her head, she finally decides to follow her heart. That’s amore! — PD

City Lights (1931)

Charlie Chaplin stubbornly resisted the film industry’s embrace of sound, releasing this silent treasure into a sea of talkies. Cinema may have gone a different direction, but his stubborn adherence to pantomime (plus his obsessive need to reshoot every shot until perfect) makes this love story seem all the more timeless, as Chaplin’s signature character, the Tramp, falls for a blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill). She mistakes him for a wealthy man, and the Tramp allows her to go on imagining him that way in the most poetic version of a familiar rom-com trope ever committed to film: At some point, he’ll have to come clean. Will she still love him when she discovers the truth? The final scene, in which she recognizes the vulnerable fool after her vision has been restored, not by sight but by contact, ranks among the medium’s most romantic. — PD

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Of the many qualities that made it a revolutionary movie, two stand above all others. The first, and most talked about, is how violent it was — the bystander shot through the eye, the climactic slow-motion blood ballet, and everything else that rubbed the audience’s nose in what being a criminal really meant. But the other quality that defined “Bonnie and Clyde” was how shockingly sultry and romantic it was. The ads for the movie said, “They’re young. They’re in love. And they kill people.” The subtext was that something in the connection between Faye Dunaway’s torrid hunger and Warren Beatty’s vulnerable stud glamour was itself so dangerous that it was lethal. Just check out the two stars’ faces as they exchange one last look before being strafed to death by a hail of bullets. That look is the essence of true love. — OG

The 'Before' Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013)

Taken by itself, 1995’s “Before Sunrise” represents the perfect encapsulation of young love: Two strangers meet on a train, get off together in Vienna and spend the night walking and talking (there’s some debate as to whether they make love, as the movie’s too modest to show it). Nine years later, director Richard Linklater delivered one of the most satisfying sequels of all time in “Before Sunset,” reuniting with his two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy), in Paris. Their time is once again limited, but now, the conversation deals with their regrets. But the attraction remains, and the movie ends with the implication they wind up together. But is it happily ever after? Linklater and company caught up with the pair once again with “Before Midnight,” and the movie finds them together, but dissatisfied, acknowledging the challenges that confront couples after nearly a decade together. It was impossible to guess when they first met how deep this relationship would go, and still anybody’s guess how it will end. — PD

Annie Hall (1977)

“I lurve you,” says Woody Allen’s Alvy Singer, coming about as close as he can to declaring his feelings for Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), the beguiling thrift-shop space cadet who charmed the world with her la-di-da innocence. Allen’s late-’70s classic was, at the time, a new kind of love story — the saga of a “relationship,” which is to say a partnership not truly built to last. And maybe Alvy Singer had to say “lurve” instead of “love” because, deep down, he wasn’t really sure that he could commit himself to the L-word. Yet the magic of “Annie Hall” is that is channeled how an entire generation had come to regard love in the age of therapeutic navel-gazing: as something intoxicating yet transient, rooted in a seems-like-old-times nostalgia that felt more at home looking back than forward. — OG

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Tom Cruise had always been a solo vessel — a cruise missile of a movie star. It was Cameron Crowe’s inspiration, in casting Cruise as a sports agent who gets tossed out of the game and has to reinvent himself as a better person in order to come back, to pair Cruise with Renée Zellweger, an unknown actor who did not come off like some female-movie-star equivalent of Tom Cruise. She had a homespun allure that seemed to be calling his cockiness, his very stardom, on the carpet. The beauty of the line “You complete me” is that Cruise seemed, at last, to be letting down the guard of a dozen years of mega-stardom. The beauty of “You had me at hello” is that it reminds us of how easy love is when it’s real. — OG

Roman Holiday (1953)

Audrey Hepburn plays the fed-up crown princess of an unspecified country in this escapist romp through the Eternal City. The project kicked off a seven-picture run with Paramount, during which she may as well have been the queen of Hollywood romances: “Sabrina,” “Funny Face,” “My Fair Lady” and more. Suffocating under the obligations of her position, she sneaks out during a European tour, landing in the hands of Gregory Peck’s dishonest (yet honorable) American newspaperman. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot, betting his editor he can deliver an exclusive interview with the princess — but he doesn’t gamble on falling for the dame. Their whirlwind romance lasts but a day, but in that time, the reporter gives Ann/Anya/Audrey a taste of freedom. She plays it coy for most of the movie, but the closeup on her face at the end says it all. — PD

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The scene where Clark Gable carries Vivien Leigh up the stairs, with intimations of (to put it mildly) erotic coercion, would not pass muster today. Yet that scene, and others that rhyme with it, are part of what make the most epic of Old Hollywood love stories one of the most darkly complicated and enthralling of Old Hollywood love stories. Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara is fierce, strong, manipulative — the Southern belle as aristocratic vixen — and so she and Rhett Butler are destined to turn love into a battle that’s doomed to end in a draw. But what heat and light their fireworks give off! “Gone with the Wind” is a movie that’s now seen as “problematic,” yet one of the most seemingly imperfect things about it — the alternating currents of sex and anger, devotion and contempt that fuel the central relationship — is what makes it such a tumultuous classic. — OG

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

A couple needn’t end up together for a love story to stand the test of time. In the case of Jacques Demy’s bittersweet musical, there’s a relatable quality to the way circumstances keep a working-class French couple from their happily ever after. That downbeat fate serves to balance the bright colors and bold choice of delivering every line of dialogue, no matter how banal, through song. That recitative strategy is common enough in opera, but downright revolutionary on film, still fresh and highly unusual all these years later. Naive young Geneviève (Catherine Deneuve, doll-like at 19) sells umbrellas in the family shop. Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) fixes cars at a nearby garage. They seem destined to be together, until military service calls him away. Michel Legrand’s score leans into the melancholy what might have been in what feels like a snow globe rendering of real life. — PD

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

It’s a queer love story set entirely in the closet. Yet by dramatizing the inner lives of two cowboys who find a romantic home on the range in early 1960s Wyoming, Ang Lee’s breathtaking adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story undermined every expectation of contemporary audiences. In showing us two men who discover a love that they themselves think is forbidden, the film dramatizes how prejudice can worm its way into the very fabric of people’s lives; it also demonstrates that the myth of the straight-as-an-arrow American macho he-man is just that – a myth. At the same time, our yearning for Ennis and Jack to make a life for themselves becomes overwhelming in its heartbreak. The performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are indelible — and, in Ledger’s case, miraculous, as he turns the muffled, barely articulate Ennis into a living metaphor for a love that cannot speak its name. — OG

Ghost (1990)

It’s a love story, a ghost story, a corporate crime story, a pottery story, and a movie in which Whoopi Goldberg plays the world’s funniest cut-up mystic. But who would have guessed that just four months after “Pretty Woman,” it would be the headiest romantic movie of its year? The director, Jerry Zucker, was a veteran of the “Airplane!” troupe, yet somehow he juggled all these elements to touch a chord of pure fairy-tale rapture, spinning out the story of a New York banker who’s killed by a mugger and returns as a ghost to protect his artist girlfriend. The way Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore bond across the ectoplasmic divide is at once thrilling and moving (true love, it seems, knows no restrictions, from either physics or the spirit world). The film turned the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” into a retro smash, but only because of how it tapped the film’s emotions: intimate, operatic, quavering with devotion. — OG

Brief Encounter (1945)

It all began with a little piece of grit in her eye. Fortunately — or not — for Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), a doctor was present to remove the offending particle, and when her vision cleared, there he stood, Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), handsome and kind. The train station where this meeting happens serves as a kind of romantic purgatory, with each locomotive that steams through reminding Laura and Alec of their obligations to their actual partners. But every Thursday, they meet in town, too weak to resist the growing love between them — feelings which the conservative forces of the time could not condone, but which spoke to a human experience too widespread to go ignored. And so David Lean’s slender, achingly honest film has stood for years, staunchly refusing to judge two would-be adulterous souls, letting audiences in on a secret that even their spouses don’t suspect. — PD

A Star Is Born (2018)

It’s a seesawing Hollywood love story that’s been told on the big screen close to half a dozen times, yet never more powerfully or artfully than by Bradley Cooper in his astonishing directorial debut. From the bombastic kitsch of the 1976 Streisand/Kristofferson version, Cooper borrowed the idea of turning the central character into a rock ‘n’ roll star, and his performance as Jackson Maine — a half-deaf drunken burnout, running on fumes, even though he’s able to fool the world into thinking he’s still a rock god — grounds the soap-opera story in something disarmingly earthy and real. When Jackson meets Ally (Lady Gaga), a budding singer-songwriter, and invites her onstage to sing “Shallow,” you will get chills the way few romantic movies have given them to you — and the tremors don’t let up, as the two get on a serpentine roller-coaster of love vs. jealousy, arena rock vs. dance pop, and tragedy slipping into redemption. — OG

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Baz Luhrmann’s visionary jukebox musical is in love with a lot of things: the look and feel of faux 1890s sound-stage Paris (that nightclub windmill etched in light), the epiphany of pop songs like Elton John’s “Your Song” when they pop up in what should be the wrong place (but then why does it feel so right?). Mostly, though, the film is in love with Christian and Satine, the romantic bohemians played by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, who summon gazes of such doomed longing that the film’s ultimate love affair seems to be with love itself — the unearthly kind, the kind that lives as an impossible dream. — OG

To Catch a Thief (1955)

From “The Awful Truth” to “An Affair to Remember,” Cary Grant enjoyed a two-decade run as Hollywood’s most dapper leading man, romancing everyone from Katharine Hepburn to Ingrid Bergman, sometimes multiple times over. But it was paired with impossibly elegant star (and future princess) Grace Kelly that Grant sparkled brightest, playing a notorious jewel thief who finds Kelly’s wealthy American tourist even more irresistible than her invaluable diamond necklace. Like a well-practiced cat burglar, this sprightly Hitchcock movie tiptoes so lightly it hardly touches the ground, sweeping audiences away to the chicest of locations on the French Riviera. Whether it’s the scene of Kelly’s gems outdazzling a fireworks show (she stands in the shadow while her diamonds glisten in full view of Grant) or the hilltop picnic overlooking Monaco, the vibrant full-color fling gave landlocked Americans a fizzy Mediterranean fantasy featuring the most distinguished couple imaginable. — PD

Titanic (1997)

The swooniest romantic movie of its time, and also the most sublime, James Cameron’s ocean disaster epic is the rare Hollywood blockbuster that achieves a larger-than-life quality. Yet its secret weapon as a love story is the too-often-unacknowledged deftness of its storytelling. As Jack and Rose, the sweethearts from opposite sides of the class divide, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have an effervescent chemistry, yet they’re playing starry-eyed youths caught in a puppy-love fling. The implication is that their union might last just about as long as the Titanic’s voyage — were it not for that fateful iceberg. In “Titanic,” it’s disaster itself that elevates love into something timeless. — OG

Casablanca (1942)

It was often said that in the 20th century, the movies taught people how to fall in love. You certainly know that watching “Casablanca.” In all of cinema, there is no love connection more pure, more impassioned, more haunted by the past, more alive in the present, more complicated by circumstance than the one between Rick (Humphrey Bogart), the expatriate owner of a shady Moroccan nightclub and gambling den, and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the woman he fell in love with in Paris in 1940, only to be abandoned by her for mysterious reasons. Do they still love each other? The answer to that is as simple as listening to Sam (Dooley Wilson), the saloon pianist, play “As Time Goes By” and hearing that it’s really about how a kiss is just a kiss…for all time. Yet if Michael Curtiz’s ageless Hollywood classic celebrates what love is, it’s also about the deepest level of what love means : not just rapture but sacrifice, devotion to the other, a giving over of oneself to something larger. “Casablanca” remains the ultimate big-screen romance, in part because Bogart and Bergman show us that love is a force within us powerful enough to connect to — and save — the world. — OG

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Essays About Movies: 7 Examples and 5 Writing Prompts

Check out our guide with essays about movies for budding videographers and artistic students. Learn from our helpful list of examples and prompts.

Watching movies is a part of almost everyone’s life. They entertain us, teach us lessons, and even help us socialize by giving us topics to talk about with others. As long as movies have been produced, everyone has patronized them.  Essays about movies  are a great way to learn all about the meaning behind the picture.

Cinema is an art form in itself. The lighting, camera work, and acting in the most widely acclaimed movies are worthy of praise. Furthermore, a movie can be used to send a message, often discussing issues in contemporary society. Movies are entertaining, but more importantly, they are works of art. If you’re interested in this topic, check out our round-up of screenwriters on Instagram .

5 Helpful Essay Examples 

1. the positive effects of movies on human behaviour by ajay rathod, 2. horror movies by emanuel briggs, 3. casablanca – the greatest hollywood movie ever (author unknown).

• 4.  Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

5. Blockbuster movies create booms for tourism — and headaches for locals by Shubhangi Goel

• 6. Moonage Daydream: “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney
• 7. La Bamba: American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

1. My Favorite Movie

2. movies genres, 3. special effects in movies, 4. what do you look for in a movie, 5. the evolution of movies.

“​​Films encourage us to take action. Our favourite characters, superheroes, teach us life lessons. They give us ideas and inspiration to do everything for the better instead of just sitting around, waiting for things to go their way. Films about famous personalities are the perfect way to affect social behaviour positively. Films are a source of knowledge. They can help learn what’s in the trend, find out more about ancient times, or fill out some knowledge gaps.”

In this movie essay, Rathod gives readers three ways watching movies can positively affect us. Movie writers, producers, and directors use their platform to teach viewers life skills, the importance of education, and the contrast between good and evil. Watching movies can also help us improve critical thinking, according to Briggs. Not only do movies entertain us, but they also have many educational benefits. You might also be interested in these  essays about consumerism .

“Many people involving children and adults can effect with their sleeping disturbance and anxiety. Myths, non-realistic, fairy tales could respond differently with being in the real world. Horror movies bring a lot of excitement and entertainment among you and your family. Horror movies can cause physical behavior changes in a person by watching the films. The results of watching horror movies shows that is has really effect people whether you’re an adult, teens, and most likely happens during your childhood.”

In his essay, Briggs acknowledges why people enjoy horror movies so much but warns of their adverse effects on viewers. Most commonly, they cause viewers nightmares, which may cause anxiety and sleep disorders. He focuses on the films’ effects on children, whose more sensitive, less developed brains may respond with worse symptoms, including major trauma. The films can affect all people negatively, but children are the most affected.

“This was the message of Casablanca in late 1942. It was the ideal opportunity for America to utilize its muscles and enter the battle. America was to end up the hesitant gatekeeper of the entire world. The characters of Casablanca, similar to the youthful Americans of the 1960s who stick headed the challenge development, are ‘genuine Americans’ lost in a hostile region, battling to open up another reality.”

In this essay, the author discusses the 1942 film  Casablanca , which is said to be the greatest movie ever made, and explains why it has gotten this reputation. To an extent, the film’s storyline, acting, and even relatability (it was set during World War II) allowed it to shine from its release until the present. It invokes feelings of bravery, passion, and nostalgia, which is why many love the movie. You can also check out these  books about adaption . 

4.   Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

“Lady Jessica is a powerful woman in the original book, yet her interactions with Paul diminish her as he thinks of her as slow of thought. Something we don’t like to see in 2021 — and for a good reason. Every book is a product of its time, and every great storyteller knows how to adapt an old story to a new audience. I believe Villeneuve received a lot of hate from diehard Dune fans for making these changes, but I fully support him.”

Like the previous essay, Cohen reviews a film, in this case, Denis Villeneuve’s  Dune , released in 2021. He praises the film, writing about its accurate portrayal of the epic’s vast, dramatic scale, music, and, interestingly, its ability to portray the characters in a way more palatable to contemporary audiences while staying somewhat faithful to the author’s original vision. Cohen enjoyed the movie thoroughly, saying that the movie did the book justice. 

“Those travelers added around 630 million New Zealand dollars ($437 million) to the country’s economy in 2019 alone, the tourism authority told CNBC. A survey by the tourism board, however, showed that almost one in five Kiwis are worried that the country attracts too many tourists. Overcrowding at tourist spots, lack of infrastructure, road congestion and environmental damage are creating tension between locals and visitors, according to a 2019 report by Tourism New Zealand.”

The locations where successful movies are filmed often become tourist destinations for fans of those movies. Goel writes about how “film tourism” affects the residents of popular filming locations. The environment is sometimes damaged, and the locals are caught off guard. Though this is not always the case, film tourism is detrimental to the residents and ecosystem of these locations. You can also check out these  essays about The Great Gatsby .

6. Moonage Daydream:  “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney

“Right from the start, Brett Morgen’s  Moonage Daydream  (2022) catches us off guard. It begins with an epigraph musing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead,” then takes us into deep space and onto the surface of the moon. It then unleashes an image storm of rockets, robots, and star-gazers, and rapid-fire fragments of early silent cinema, 1920s science fiction, fifties cartoons, and sixties and seventies newsreel footage, before lingering on a close-up of glittery varnish on fingernails.” 

Moonage Daydream  is a feature film containing never-before-seen footage of David Bowie. In this essay, Romney delves into the process behind creating the movie and how the footage was captured. It also looks at the director’s approach to creating a structured and cohesive film, which took over two years to plan. This essay looks at how Bowie’s essence was captured and preserved in this movie while displaying the intricacies of his mind.

7. La Bamba:  American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

“A traumatic memory, awash in hazy neutral tones, arising as a nightmare. Santo & Johnny’s mournful “Sleep Walk” playing. A sudden death, foreshadowing the passing of a star far too young. The opening sequence of Luis Valdez’s  La Bamba  (1987) feels like it could be from another film—what follows is largely a celebration of life and music.”

La Bamba  is a well-known movie about a teenage Mexican migrant who became a rock ‘n’ roll star. His rise to fame is filled with difficult social dynamics, and the star tragically dies in a plane crash at a young age. In this essay, Machado looks at how the tragic death of the star is presented to the viewer, foreshadowing the passing of the young star before flashing back to the beginning of the star’s career. Machado analyses the storyline and directing style, commenting on the detailed depiction of the young star’s life. It’s an in-depth essay that covers everything from plot to writing style to direction.

5 Prompts for Essays About Movies

Simple and straightforward, write about your favorite movie. Explain its premise, characters, and plot, and elaborate on some of the driving messages and themes behind the film. You should also explain why you enjoy the movie so much: what impact does it have on you? Finally, answer this question in your own words for an engaging piece of writing.

From horror to romance, movies can fall into many categories. Choose one of the main genres in cinema and discuss the characteristics of movies under that category. Explain prevalent themes, symbols, and motifs, and give examples of movies belonging to your chosen genre. For example, horror movies often have underlying themes such as mental health issues, trauma, and relationships falling apart. 

Without a doubt, special effects in movies have improved drastically. Both practical and computer-generated effects produce outstanding, detailed effects to depict situations most would consider unfathomable, such as the vast space battles of the  Star Wars  movies. Write about the development of special effects over the years, citing evidence to support your writing. Be sure to detail key highlights in the history of special effects. 

Movies are always made to be appreciated by viewers, but whether or not they enjoy them varies, depending on their preferences. In your essay, write about what you look for in a “good” movie in terms of plot, characters, dialogue, or anything else. You need not go too in-depth but explain your answers adequately. In your opinion, you can use your favorite movie as an example by writing about the key characteristics that make it a great movie.

From the silent black-and-white movies of the early 1900s to the vivid, high-definition movies of today, times have changed concerning movies. Write about how the film industry has improved over time. If this topic seems too broad, feel free to focus on one aspect, such as cinematography, themes, or acting.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the  best essay checkers .

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our  essays about music topic guide !

Meet Rachael, the editor at Become a Writer Today. With years of experience in the field, she is passionate about language and dedicated to producing high-quality content that engages and informs readers. When she's not editing or writing, you can find her exploring the great outdoors, finding inspiration for her next project.

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Isn’t it romantic? Movies, TV shows strongly shape how we view love

• Jared Wadley

And if seeing a romantic movie is your idea of a good time, you likely believe that “love finds a way,” carrying a couple through any obstacles it might face, according to a new University of Michigan study about how movies and television shows affect our beliefs about relationships and romance.

Romantic ideals that people hold often correlate with the types of media messages they are exposed to, which suggests that “the media may be teaching us what sorts of beliefs we should have about romantic relationships,” said Julia Lippman, a postdoctoral research fellow in the U-M Department of Psychology.

“It is possible that frequent exposure to romance and courtship in this idealized form could lead viewers to adopt equally idealized notions about relationships in the real world,” said Lippman, the study’s lead author.

Researchers studied the responses of 625 college students—including 392 females—to learn how romantic movies, sitcoms involving relationships and marriage-themed reality shows might affect their beliefs about relationships.

Participants indicated how often they watched each of 93 romantic movies such as “500 Days of Summer,” “Crazy Stupid Love” and “In Time.” They noted the frequency of watching 17 sitcoms that featured dating relationships, such as “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Big Bang Theory.” And they also responded to a survey that assessed their exposure to marriage-themed reality shows, such as “The Bachelor” and “Millionaire Matchmaker.”

The study indicated that higher exposure to romantic movies was associated with a stronger belief that “love finds a way.” Greater exposure to marriage-themed reality TV shows was associated with belief in “love at first sight” and “true love,” which did not surprise the researchers given the genre’s focus on early stages of romance (lavish dates, roses, etc.) and marriage.

However, students who frequently watched sitcoms featuring characters who dated multiple partners had lower levels of idealization—a belief that “true love” will be nearly perfect—and “one and only,” a belief that people have soul mates.

In addition to Lippman, the study’s authors were L. Monique Ward, a professor of psychology, and Rita Seabrook, a doctoral student in psychology and women’s studies.

Related Links:

• The findings appear in Psychology of Popular Media Culture: http://bit.ly/1lFKuWY
• Lippman: http://julialippman.com
• Ward: http://bit.ly/1lRO4ri
• Seabrook: http://bit.ly/1nkC4jn

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Why We Need Romantic Comedies More Than Ever at This Moment

One woman explains their value in the face of a crisis

Naomi Shah is the founder and CEO of Meet Cute , a new entertainment company that makes short, audio romantic comedies. An ideal night for her is a rom com movie marathon with her friends and a big bowl of popcorn (which translates well to social distancing!). Before starting Meet Cute, she was a member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures, a technology venture capital firm in New York, where she spent most of her time talking to companies in the well-being space. She shares an essay about why the romantic comedy is more important than ever during a bleak time in our history – namely, the coronavirus pandemic .

In the last couple of weeks, a lot of articles and tweets have talked about the influence of the Black Death on the Renaissance. During that time, people explored and patronized art and other creative endeavors that made them feel good as a means of coping with the misery of mass death and bad news. This historical tie-in points to a similar future that might be full of modern-day Midsummer’s Night Dream s.

In the 1930s, during The Great Depression, entertainment and specifically romantic comedies (rom-coms) burgeoned. The decade before, movies had just transitioned from silent films to “talkies”, setting up Hollywood well to make stories about human connection. Movies like Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Holiday (1938), Ninotchka (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and Woman of the Year (1942) were entertaining people during the crises of a severe worldwide economic depression and the Second World War.

This same time period saw a rise in slapstick comedy that functioned similarly to rom-coms as escapism: Charlie Chaplin helped pull people out of difficult times by making them laugh and Disney also released their first feature-length film Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs . About 30 years later, Woody Allen entertained the masses in the Vietnam era of the 1970s with movies including Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1977).

In fact, the modern “renaissance” of the rom-com — the ’90s — is an outlier in the genre, since movies like Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride thrived during a relatively peaceful era. This could be why the romantic comedy developed a reputation as being somewhat frivolous. Sure, these usually aren’t the movies that are shortlisted for awards, but this is a category that deserves a few moments of attention for helping us get through the tougher times and giving people a much-needed escape.

First, rom coms are hopeful and happy . They always end with a happily ever after. Many times, I feel like I’m watching a rom com for that one scene that I love (for example, this final scene on the bridge , from How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days ). We sit through the 90 minutes of the movie to get the feeling that this scene brings out. It leaves us feeling like anything is possible and believing in serendipity.

Second, rom-coms are incredibly consistent . Each story has the same narrative arc; there’s some sort of “meet cute” moment between two characters where two people meet in a way that the audience knows they are destined to be together, even if they start out hating each other like Kat and Patrick in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999). Then there’s some sort of conflict that arises, a journey in which their connection grows stronger, the resolution, and the happily ever after. Because the narrative arc is not particularly innovative, it allows the audience to relax into the story because they know that the characters will end up together by the end of the story. The audience knows not to expect shocking deaths or tragic twists, and therefore it is okay to emotionally invest in the characters.

Third, rom-coms are about human connection . An interesting coincidence is that the pandemic kicked off around the same time as the Netflix series Love is Blind , a show about whether or not you could achieve human connection without being able to physically make contact. It’s not such a coincidence that the show took off — in an almost poetic way, mirroring the experience we were on the cusp of living. Right now, people want to feel as though they can connect to others, even if they are not able to physically.

Will we be feeling the need to live vicariously through others’ connections during this time period? Rom-coms remind us that there are so many ways for people to form connections and that there is an incredible amount of diversity in the characters and settings that keep the stories fresh. In highlighting some of the mundane, yet very important, moments – like an awkward pause or a regretful glance – that define human connection, these stories about love remain super-relatable in the most trying times.

Finally, rom-coms are bingeable . They are like macaroni and cheese for your brain; and therefore it’s not surprising that during times of economic or emotional hardship humans have turned to rom-coms as a way to escape from uncertainty in the world, and in the headlines. So, while you are socially distancing yourself from other people over the next few months, turn off the news for a bit, grab some actual mac and cheese, sink into the couch, and put on your favorite rom-com. It might “just what the doctor ordered.”

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Her: Modern Perspective of Love in a Movie

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Love and Relationships in “The Notebook” Movie Essay

Introduction.

The influence of popular culture on the lives of billions of people cannot be overestimated or under-evaluated. Popular culture is a part of modern life. It is called ‘popular’ because the vast majority of people understand it and react according to personal preferences, would it be the positive or negative, or neutral perception of the particular piece of popular culture. Mass production of popular culture content affects the quality of the outcomes. The paper explores the motion picture The Notebook because it is one of the vivid examples of a romantic story that demonstrates how love helps people to overcome challenges in life.

Favorite Piece

The movie called The Notebook depicts the classic love triangle between the girl, Allie Hamilton, an innocent girl from the respectful family, Noah Calhoun, a young man from the countryside, and Lon Hammond, Jr., a perspective rich young lawyer. The summer months spent by Noah and Allie together sparkled a great teenage love that had been forbidden by Allie’s mother who took Allie away from Noah. He tried to contact Allie but failed as the mother did not want to allow it to happen. In despair, Noah went to World War II with his friend Fin who was killed in a battle later. Allie met Lon at the war and thought she fell in love again. However, once they accidentally met, Allie and Noah realized that their love was still burning in their hearts and reunited. The had a happy life with a house, children, and grandchildren until Allie got sick and started to forget her beloved ones. Noah kept reading her the notebook with the story of their life inside day after day to the moment when death reunited them again.

It is one of my favorite stories about love and strong will that allowed people to be together. It teaches me that nothing is over, and there is always a chance to achieve the desired goal. Everything depends on the efforts applied. I have learned from this movie that passion, loyalty, strong will, and patience can lead to the results a person desires the most. Additionally, it is a very romantic story that emphasizes the power of love. Distances, time, and will of other people cannot be stronger than true love. Even the fact that your beloved partner forgets you every morning can be overthrown by the power love.

Expectations and Social Norms

In The Notebook, the love of a rich girl and a countryside boy breaks the social norms acceptable for both classes. It has always been inappropriate to have a relationship between the poor and the rich, so Allie and Noah break social norms in the story. However, their love is bigger than any barrier of such kind. A viewer expects from the movie some miracle and it happens. The insightful factor of the story is the idea that no one should give up on something or somebody if the desire is big enough. Noah fought for his happiness even after Allie got sick and did it every day, reading the notebook to her to remind that their love was still alive.

Summing, the paper explored the motion picture The Notebook because it is one of the vivid examples of a romantic story that demonstrates how love helps people to overcome the challenges in life. This classic love story emphasizes the power of love and teaches to never give up as everything is possible. It is a great, heart-piercing story that can be recommended to watch.

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A Study On The Influence Of Romantic Comedy Films In Cultivating Unrealistic Perception Of People About Love and Relationship

The concept of romance has changed throughout the centuries. In the past, the ideal of love was expressed through poetry. Love stories were commonly depicted in plays and novels. People read Shakespeare or Jane Austen and formed a concept of love based on chivalry, love at first sight, and damsels in distress saved by the knight in shining armor (Lubomir, et al., 2009). In these days, love and romantic stories are mostly depicted in films. Romantic comedies and chick flicks are the main genres which include these themes. The intended audience is generally women and teenagers. The popularity of these films leads to the thesis statement: People’s perception of love is greatly influenced by films, and this leads to false expectations about “ideal romance.” It has become increasingly apparent to researchers that with its rise in popularity, film and television have become teaching tools for how to behave in society. This ability for the media to shape social interactions, has led many to theorize on how mass media alters the individual. Two of these theories are: cultivation theory (Gerbener, et al.) and social cognitive theory (Bandura). “Social cognitive theory suggests that individuals may actively observe media portrayals of behaviors in romantic relationships for insight into how they themselves could behave in their own relationships”.

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This study analyzed the romantic content of a sample of 40 romantic comedy films using a basic grounded theory methodology. Analyses revealed that such films appear to depict romantic relationships as having qualities of both new and long-term relationships; that is, to be both novel and exciting, yet emotionally significant and meaningful. Further-more, relationships were shown to have both highly idealistic and undesirable qualities but for any problems or transgressions experienced to have no real negative long-term impact on relationship functioning. The potential for viewer interpretations is discussed and the need for future research highlighted.

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Media has grown in popularity throughout time, and with it, so has media’s ability to influence those who watch it. Specifically, romantic media has the potential to influence personal romantic beliefs. However, to date, research has typically relied on self-reported questionnaires for determining associations. Therefore, the present study examined the influence of romantic reality media on a specific set of romantic beliefs (i.e., individuals’ implicit theories of relationships) using an experimental procedure. Participants from a small liberal arts college first completed an online, prevideo survey (N = 128) assessing their prior romantic media consumption and their current romantic beliefs. A subset of the participants (n = 81) then came into a computer lab and watched 1 of 3 videos: emphasizing growth beliefs, emphasizing destiny beliefs, or a nonromantic media video. Immediately after the video, participants filled out a postvideo survey assessing their romantic media consumpti...

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The mass media have been saturated with messages and stories about romantic love-fed to us through various channels, including television, movies, music, books, and the Internet. In addition, it is currently believed to be a critical love coach, as well as a source of idealized views of love and romance, for today's youth. This research aims to examine the potential impact of romanticized media on generation Z's understanding and expectations of romantic relationships. By systematically investigating relevant scholarly literature, we analyze and review how individuals develop perceptions of romantic relationships through media exposure. By engaging in an online survey with 152 young people aged from 17 to 26, this study attempts to explore the relationship between the consumption of romance-related content and generation Z's perception of romantic love. Overall, the result suggests that romanticized content preference is significantly associated with highly idealized beliefs and unrealistic expectations of romantic relationships.

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25 Modern Love Essays to Read if You Want to Laugh, Cringe and Cry

The popular column, which began in 2004, has become a podcast, a book and an Amazon Prime streaming series. Here are some of its greatest hits.

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Whether you’re new to Modern Love or a longtime fan, we think you’ll enjoy this collection of some of our most memorable essays. You’ll find some of our most read and most shared of all time, and others that really got readers talking (and tweeting, and sharing). We present, in no particular order, the quirky, the profound, the head scratching and the heartbreaking. (A handful of these essays and dozens more of our most memorable columns can also be found in the Modern Love anthology .)

To keep up on all things Modern Love — our weekly essays, podcast episodes and batches of Tiny Love Stories, along with other relationship-based reads from The Times — sign up for Love Letter , a weekly email. And check out the “Modern Love” television series , based on this column, on Amazon Prime Video.

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Daniel Jones is the editor of Modern Love.

Modern Love can be reached at [email protected] .

Want more? Watch the trailer for the Modern Love TV show ; read past Modern Love columns and Tiny Love Stories ; listen to the Modern Love Podcast on iTunes , Spotify or Google Play Music ; check out the updated anthology “ Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption ;” and follow Modern Love on Facebook .

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Romantic Movies on Relationship Essay Example

• Pages: 3 (670 words)
• Published: May 13, 2017
• Type: Research Paper

While studies have examined the influence of romantic movies on the love lives of young couples, there has been scant attention paid to how jealousy is portrayed and its implications for real relationships. This paper aims to investigate this subject matter and its impact on viewers' relationship dynamics.

The impact of television, including movies and dramas, on people and the portrayal of jealousy in movies will be discussed in this text. While Comstock and Strzyzewski (1990) argue that television does not have a significant effect on behavior, Roloff and Creenberg (1980) suggest that if direct experience is lacking or confusing, social perceptions of the viewer may strengthen the messages conveyed through television. Weaver ; Wakshlag (1986) support this perspective.

Furthermore, it is possible that watching interactions in movies and prime time series could enhance the viewer's direct experience, particularly if they have had similar ex

periences portrayed in the film (Doob & Macdonald, 1979; Comstock & Strzyzewski, 1990), supported by George Gerbner's cultivation theory and Bandura's social learning theory (Comstock & Strzyzewski, 1990; Shanahan & Morgan, 1999). The feeling of jealousy arises when someone perceives that they have lost influence over another person, which poses a threat to the existing relationship (Comstock & Strzyzewski, 1990). However, romantic triads present a greater risk for negative effects caused by jealousy, especially when one person becomes involved with a rival (Harris, 2003). Research conducted by DeSteno, Valdesolo and Bartlett (2006) has shown that the threat to self-esteem can influence the intensity of jealousy.

Jealousy has been studied in various psychoanalytic literatures, which attribute its presence to emotional disturbances resulting from childhood conflicts (Greenberg & Pyszczynski, 1985; Scheinkman & Werneck, 2010)

However, other factors such as personality traits - like obsessiveness and neuroticism -, cultural variables, evolutionary pressures, and relationship factors have also been identified as predictors of jealousy (Rydell, McConnell & Bringle, 2004). Furthermore, Erikson's psychosocial theory suggests that during early adulthood, when individuals explore interpersonal relationships, the developmental stage of intimacy vs. isolation occurs (Nosko, Tieu, Lawford ; Pratt, 2011).

Despite the potential for anxious attachment style, which may lead to increased jealousy and insecurity in relationships (Collins, Cooper, Albino ; Allard, 2002; Nosko et al. 2011), there is a lack of research specifically on jealousy portrayal in television. One study conducted by Comstock and Strzyzewski (1990) videotaped 29 hours of prime time television programmes in 1987 to 1988 and found that jealousy was portrayed in 48.9% of instances. Their analysis showed that romantic involvement with a rival posed the biggest threat for a jealous individual (Comstock ; Strzyzewski, 1990). Another study by Rydell et al. is mentioned but not further explained.

According to a study conducted in 2004, the presence of a threat can induce jealousy in individuals who may experience it more intensely when negative information is received regarding their compatibility in a high commitment relationship. Additionally, research cited in Barelds and Barelds-Dijkstra (2007) reveals three forms of jealousy which include reactive, possessive, and anxious jealousy. Reactive jealousy involves a higher emotional component when a person experiences negative feelings due to a partner being unfaithful either emotionally or sexually. Possessive jealousy involves behavioral control where an individual restricts their partner's contact with the opposite gender. In contrast, anxious jealousy involves cognitive aspects such as rumination, distrust, worry, anxiety, and suspicion. The study found

that anxious jealousy has a negative correlation with relationship quality while reactive jealousy has a positive correlation (Barelds & Barelds-Dijkstra, 2007). Furthermore, this article explores how movies can influence real-life relationships and the concept of jealousy.

This section discusses jealousy in romantic movies, which often appears in the form of a rival threatening a relationship. In When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), Michael became jealous when Alice's guy-friend wanted to talk to her in private and she happily spent time with him. In Valentine's Day (2010), Jason was annoyed when he caught Liz having phone sex with another man. Similarly, in Beauty and the Briefcase (2010), Tom was jealous of Lane dating everyone in the office except him and doubted her article about Seth and their sexual exploits. These films may negatively affect young couples by making them suspicious about their own relationships.

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Film Studies Movie Review

Genre and ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’., movie review on romance in bollywood films, what is bollywood and hollywood.

Bollywood and Hollywood both have many similarities and differences in regards to their portrayal of romance in film. The term “Bollywood” is defined as, “films produced by the Mumbai film industry, primarily in the Hindi language, distributed across the normal commercial film circuits of northern India, and containing song and dance item numbers as an integral part of the plot.” (Brief History). Hollywood film is defined as, “the cinema of the United States since the early 20th century.” (Brief History).

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Discover the 20 Best Romance Movies of All Time!

Posted: November 22, 2023 | Last updated: November 22, 2023

The magic of romance movies is that they energetically transport you to another place. They make it easier to imagine what romantic love feels like, even if it’s something you’ve never actually experienced. There’s nothing wrong with labeling yourself a “hopeless romantic” who enjoys binge-watching romance movies every time you get the chance.

These films are full of grand gestures, sweet affection, and blissful examples of how two people can show their love and devotion to each other in the real world. The Hollywood industry has always done a fabulous job encompassing the true essence of romance on the silver screen. Here are 50 of the greatest love story movies of all time.

To determine the best romance movies of all time, 24/7 Tempo developed an index using average ratings on IMDb , an online movie database owned by Amazon, and a combination of audience scores and Tomatometer scores on Rotten Tomatoes , an online movie and TV review aggregator, as of October 2023, weighting all ratings equally. We considered only movies with at least 5,000 audience votes on either IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. Directorial credits are from IMDb.

Charade (1963)

• IMDb user rating: 7.9/10
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (42,943 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 94% (50 reviews)
• Directed by: Stanley Donen

“Charade” is a 1963 romantic comedy about a woman named Regina who goes on vacation in the French alps to clear her mind. While enjoying her holiday, she reveals a secret she’s been keeping to one of her close friends. She’s in the process of divorcing her husband. After one too many discouraging experiences, she’s ready to spread her wings to give herself a new chance at finding happiness.

She then crosses paths with a handsome man named Peter whose stays by her side as she goes through the highs and lows of a major criminal investigation. Dealing with a murdered ex-husband who sold off all of her personal belongings before his death is just the beginning of this convoluted love story.

Ninotchka (1939)

• IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (20,101 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: (6,837 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 97% (36 reviews)
• Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch

“Ninotchka” premiered in 1939 as a romantic comedy about three agents traveling to Paris from the Russian Board of trade. As they work together handling a pile of illegal jewels that was stolen and seized, an unlikely romantic connection begins to form. A man named Leon finds himself so attracted to Ninotchka that he follows her to the Eiffel tower.

It’s his way of expressing interest, despite how bored and unimpressed by him she is. Unfortunately for him, she isn’t an easy woman to crack! It takes some additional effort from his end to convince her to start looking at him through a more romantic lens.

Manhattan (1979)

• IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (136,504 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (51,871 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 94% (69 reviews)
• Directed by: Woody Allen

The messy and complicated love story of “Manhattan” is what makes it such an iconic romance movie to reflect on. It might not be a new romance movie since it premiered in 1979, but it’s still a great tale. It’s about a twice-divorced writer named Isaac who’s pushing boundaries in an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

He then finds himself involved in inappropriate relationship when he falls in love with his best friend’s mistress. Isaac does everything he can to escape a life of stagnancy and boredom, which is why his romantic connections are always so edgy and over-the-top.

Holiday (1938)

• IMDb user rating: 7.8/10 (15,539 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 89% (6,665 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (26 reviews)
• Directed by: George Cukor

“Holiday” premiered in 1938. The classic romantic comedy is a remake of a 1930 film of the same exact name. It’s about a man who must come to terms with the way his lifestyle is about to change when he marries into a wealthy family. His free-spirited way of life is far from controlled or a stuffy.

Marrying the woman he’s engaged to means he’ll have to sacrifice much of his freedom in exchange for structure and order. Things get even more complicated when he starts developing feelings for his fiancé’s older sister. She happens to be a woman he can relate to since they’re both slightly rebellious.

My Man Godfrey (1936)

• IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (22,597 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 90% (7,668 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 97% (37 reviews)
• Directed by: Gregory La Cava

“My Man Godfrey” is a 1936 romantic comedy about unexpected love and societal differences. The story takes place during the Great Depression focused on a man named Godfrey “Smith Park.” He’s a fellow who has fallen on hard times. He’s homeless and doesn’t have much to offer society.

When he meets two sisters named Cornelia and Irene, he gets wrapped up in one of their spiteful sisterly games. His connection with Irene starts off as something silly and playful, but later develops into something far more serious as they spend more time together.

Notorious (1946)

• IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (97,303 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 91% (35,835 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 96% (48 reviews)
• Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

“Notorious” is a 1946 movie that fits into both the mystery and romance categories. A woman named Alicia falls in love with a United States government agent named T.R. during World War II. The reason their love story is so wildly complicated is because she’s the daughter of a war criminal from Germany.

Instead of simply focusing on their blossoming love for one another at the start of the new relationship, they also have to worry about everything falling apart in the world around them. This includes the ongoing war, chats about politics, and judgment from other people.

Before Sunset (2004)

• IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (248,039 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (71,186 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 94% (177 reviews)
• Directed by: Richard Linklater

“Before Sunset” is a 2004 romance about a couple who reconnects after spending a magical night together nine years prior. It’s a sequel to the movie “Before Sunrise,” which premiered in 1995. Jesse penned an entire novel about the evening he was able to spend with Celine in Vienna.

His novel became a bestseller and provided him the opportunity to go on a book tour. During his book tour in Europe, he crosses paths with Celine again. This time, they have an hour to spare before they must part ways. They spend their time rehashing all of their deepest thoughts and emotions.

His Girl Friday (1940)

• IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (56,106 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 90% (24,333 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 99% (67 reviews)
• Directed by: Howard Hawks

“His Girl Friday” is a 1940 romantic comedy about a newspaper editor named Walter. The most talented reporter he has on staff also happens to be his ex-wife, Hildy. Walter knows he’s about to lose Hildy for good in a professional sense and a romantic sense since she’s now engaged to marry someone else.

Annie Hall (1977)

• IMDb user rating: 8.0/10 (258,110 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (153,824 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 96% (84 reviews)

Is love supposed to be thought of as something neurotic and painful? That’s one of the heavy-hitting questions asked in “Annie Hall" from 1977. The movie is about a man named Alvy as he tries to overcome the heartache of a failed relationship. Annie treated him differently than any other woman he ever interacted with.

Although he genuinely enjoyed his relationship with her, their breakup was inevitable. The destruction of their love sets him down the path of trying to discover the meaning of his existence before ultimately trying to reconcile. Along the way, he does his best to rebound with other women who simply don’t satisfy him as much as Annie once did.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

• IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 (948,653 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (571,910 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 92% (250 reviews)
• Directed by: Michel Gondry

How would you react if you found out the person you used to love was having every memory of you wiped from their brain? That’s what a character named Joel is faced with in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." The movie premiered in 2004 starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in the leading roles.

In an attempt to forget each other and move on beyond their heartbreak, they pay for surgical procedures to have their memories wiped. Soon enough, they realize it makes more sense to remember the relationship they once shared instead of pretending it never happened at all. Although both of their memories end up successfully wiped, they allow themselves the opportunity to fall back in love with each other by using their situation as a fresh slate.

Roman Holiday (1953)

• IMDb user rating: 8.0/10
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (63,537 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 97% (60 reviews)
• Directed by: William Wyler

"Roman Holiday" is a romance from 1953 starring none other than Audrey Hepburn. She plays the role of a princess vacationing in Rome to take in the sights and admire the scenery. Her schedule is supposed to be super controlled to the very last detail, but everything goes awry after she gets an injection from a doctor.

The shot leaves her feeling loopy and strange. When a reporter named Joe finds her laying out on a stone bench, he immediately assumes she’s under the influence! This is just the beginning of their romantic love story, full of precious moments and wild adventures.

The Apartment (1960)

• IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 (172,183 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (38,259 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 93% (72 reviews)
• Directed by: Billy Wilder

“The Apartment" is a dramatic romance from 1960 that tells a story of an insurance clerk named Budd who's living a dreadfully lonely existence. He works for an upscale corporation in New York City surrounded by people who leave him feeling lonelier than ever. Whenever his boss needs alone time with one of his mistresses, Budd offers up his apartment as a safe place to go.

Things take a turn when Budd finds out that one of the women his boss is hooking up with is someone he's actually attracted to. The situation makes him rethink his morals. After realizing that he’s falling in love with a woman who has been invited up to his apartment with his boss before, he decides he needs to make some changes regarding his involvement in such illicit affairs.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

• IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (254,537 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 94% (82,393 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 95% (65 reviews)

Marilyn Monroe starred in her fair share of romantic movie during her incredible career, but “Some Like it Hot" is definitely one of the most talked about. It premiered in 1959 telling the story of two men named Joe and Jerry on the run from trouble. As a way of staying under the radar, they disguise themselves as women by taking on female personas.

While pretending to be Josephine and Daphne, they befriend Marilyn’s character, Sugar. Even though they’re dressed up as women, they go out of their way to compete for attention and affection from Sugar. She remains blissfully unaware of their true genders until later on.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

• IMDb user rating: 7.9/10 (66,253 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (47,240 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (101 reviews)

“The Philadelphia Story" is a 1940 romance based on a Broadway play from 1939 of the same name. A woman named Tracy is excited about moving on with her life now that she is engaged to marry someone who makes her happy. Unfortunately for her, wedding planning isn’t rainbows and butterflies thanks to the arrival of her ex-husband.

Having her ex-husband around while she’s trying to plan a wedding with her new partner makes everything confusing and complicated for her. Ultimately, her ex-husband reveals slick plans to weasel his way back into her life – and into her heart.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

• IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (30,166 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 91% (11,972 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (37 reviews)

“The Shop Around the Corner” is another romance from 1940 filled with loads of comedic moments. It’s about two people who work together at a shop selling leather products during World War II. In their day to day life, they absolutely despise being around each other. They don’t get along at all!

Little do they know that they’re also in communication with each other through anonymous love letters. With each handwritten letter, their feelings for each other continue blossoming. They don’t realize they’ve been writing letters back-and-forth to each other until a big reveal towards the end of the film.

It Happened One Night (1934)

• IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (98,815 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (33,748 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 99% (97 reviews)
• Directed by: Frank Capra

“It Happened One Night” is a 1934 romance about a woman doing everything she can to rebel against her father. Her dad has been telling her what to do for her entire life and she’s finally ready to break free of his control and go her own way. She falls in love with a reporter who doesn’t get the seal of approval from her dad.

She starts off in a complicated marriage to a man who’s potentially only using her for her wealth. She ends up exploring a new romantic connection with the hard-working reporter who genuinely has her best interest at heart. As her father sets his sights on ending her marriage to her fortune hunter husband, he’s unaware that she’s already drifting into the arms of someone else.

Rebecca (1940)

• IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (131,069 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 92% (39,605 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (94 reviews)

“Rebecca” is a movie from 1940 that falls into the romance genre. It also happens to be a psychological thriller. It’s about a widower named Maxim and the young woman who agrees to become his second wife. His first wife, Rebecca, died after drowning in the ocean.

When Maxim and his new wife go to his estate, she’s constantly reminded about his past marriage with Rebecca since a lot of her little details are left everywhere in sight. Although Maxim’s new wife does her best to compete with the ghost of Rebecca, their love story is still filled with an abundance of challenges.

Before Sunrise (1995)

• IMDb user rating: 8.1/10 (286,974 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (73,661 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (46 reviews)

“Before Sunrise” is a 1995 love story that premiered years before “Before Sunset” in 2004. “Before Sunrise” showcases the very start of Jesse and Celine’s romance. They bump into each other on a train from Budapest and instantly hit it off because their conversation is intense and thought-provoking. They quickly realize how much they have in common and how much time they want to spend together.

After learning that Jesse has a flight to catch the next morning, Celine makes it her mission to grow as close to him as she possibly can within the limited timeframe. This movie serves as proof that you don’t need to spend multiple years in a row with someone to realize how you feel. It’s possible to fall in love in an evening. This movie paints the picture that it’s possible to fall in love in an hour.

The Heiress (1949)

• IMDb user rating: 8.2/10 (14,956 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 93% (3,056 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (14 reviews)

“The Heiress” is a 1949 romance about a naïve young woman who finds herself falling for someone her father doesn’t approve of. Catherine’s father is convinced that Morris is nothing more than a fortune hunter pursuing her for her wealth. It’s difficult for Catherine to take advice from her parents since they’re always judging her for minor things.

They even judge her over her level of etiquette. Her parents opinions seemingly push her deeper into Morris’s arms since she’s so eager and excited to become an independent woman who isn’t controlled by her father. You won’t find this movie on Netflix since it’s on the older side, but it’s still worth tracking down for a watch.

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

• IMDb user rating: 8.3/10 (228,668 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 95% (138,714 reviews)
• Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score: 100% (67 reviews)
• Directed by: Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly

“Singin’ in the Rain” is a 1952 romance with enough funny moments to classify it as a comedy as well. Although it was released in 1952, the film is set in 1927. he tells the story of two actors learning to branch out from the silent movie genre into a world that requires them to memorize dialogue and speak out loud.

Their producers want them to pretend they’re dating whenever they attend red carpet events together, but they aren’t actually attracted to each other at all. Along the way, they start developing lovey-dovey feelings for each other in the most unexpected manner. “Singin’ in the Rain” is the type of movie viewers hope to see a modern sequel from. Find out more about these 25 sequels that were more beloved than their originals.

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Romance Movies and the Effect of Films on Viewers - Essay Example

• Subject: Visual Arts & Film Studies
• Type: Essay
• Level: High School
• Pages: 2 (500 words)
• Downloads: 2

Extract of sample "Romance Movies and the Effect of Films on Viewers"

The movie revolves around Sam Baldwin who has just lost his wife to cancer, Sam's son Jonah thinks that his father needs another wife in order to get back on track, Jonah goes ahead and calls a radio station and he convinces his father to go on air too. The call is heard by6 many women on-air including a journalist from Baltimore (Annie reed), well the rest is history. Other top rated romance movies include titanic (1997), pretty woman (1990), a love story (1970), city of angels (1998) among others.

Movies not only romantic movies are a nice mode of passing time as they also reduce incidences of idleness that is a major reason for drug abuse. In Addition, movies are a popular way of relaxing with friends and catching up on good times. They also assist their viewers to be updated on the current dating catchwords.IMPACT OF ROMANCE MOVIES ON VIEWERS:Romance movies are good to watch at any time. They provide viewers with an enticing time as they incorporate the themes of love and romance. These movies usually have a great impact on viewers since at the end of the day many adults, as well as kids, learn a lot from them.

Relationship building: romance movies have both a positive and negative impact on viewer's relationships. From a positive perspective, these movies teach their viewers to be persevering, forgiving, understanding as well as cooperating. They also impact positively on how viewers think and treat hardships in their relationships. By watching these movies viewers come to understand that love and relationships are not a bed of roses and that each of the involved parties needs to put in some effort into the relationship as well as endure or make some sacrifices in the process.

In addition, the movies some of which are multi-ethnic educate viewers on the dangers of discrimination, stereotyping, and racialism.Romance movies also do have a negative impact on a significant proportion of the viewers. Most romance movies are usually set on a not so common setting. The way the main actors meet is usually a rare incidence in our day-to-day lives. Furthermore, these actors look like they are destined or made to be together. This creates an idea in the viewer's mind that love or falling in love is something that is automatic, and that actually shoots up at first sight.

This makes people feel like losers if they find out that there are no candlelit dinners and going to the movies in the first week after the initial meeting.CONCLUSION:Romance movies are usually very good to watch, not only do they help the viewers to relax and catch up on good times, but they also help promote the movie industry substantially. Due to their increasing popularity, they have also boosted the fashion industry, since people usually like to associate with the dressing mode of the popular actors in the movies.

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