RYAN O’Neal and Ali MacGraw in “Love Story”
What would the movies do without romance? More than 90 percent of full-length movies revolve around a romantic main plot and conflict—or, at the very least, a key subplot. So, what are some of the most memorable romantic movies ever made?
Each romance buff has his favorite cinematic love story—and that all too predictably includes “Love Story” (1970), with Ali MacGraw portraying a young woman who eventually succumbs to cancer, leaving her bereaved beau (Ryan O’Neal) to intone philosophically the film’s mantra, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry!”
However, some film buffs would prefer that their pet motion pictures don’t play “the medical card,” because that’s too facile a play to get viewers’ tears to fall torrentially—and to strum exploitatively those hammy heartstrings!
Opposites attract
BILLY Crystal and Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally”
They very much favor “The Way We Were” (1973), because it optimistically proves that opposites (communist student Barbra Streisand and wealthy jock Robert Redford) attract. The film rings emphatic lovers’ bells because of its gorgeous leads and the fact that its decades-long narrative arc includes a number of colorful pop-historical periods in our shared collective existence.
Also a lot of fun to watch, even on the nth time around, is “When Harry Met Sally,” with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal starting out as friends and ending up fighting a mano-a-mano distillation of the Battle of the Sexes!
Francois Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim” (1962) has its own, more Gallic take on the same “friends and lovers” theme. This time around, Oskar Werner and Henri Serre are bosom buddies who are in love with the same playful sprite, Jeanne Moreau, with both comedy and tragedy ensuing in alternating and equal measure.
Love and war make a potent combination in other memorable romantic sagas: In “Casablanca” (1942), Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are trapped in a place about to be
ANTHONY Quinn and Giulietta Masina in “La Strada”
consumed by conflict, driving viewers to hope against hope that their love will see them through, even as their tragic world implodes!
Painted on a much larger canvas, “Gone With the Wind” (1939) sets its tumultuous love story during the US Civil War, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh playing lovers whose passion transcends everything that fate and history hurls at them. The epic film may have a cast of thousands, but Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler are veritable forces of nature who refuse to be upstaged by that teeming multitude!
Unconventional pair
LEONARDO DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in “Titanic”
At the other end of the storytelling spectrum is the intimate drama “La Strada,” which limned the unconventional love story of a circus strongman (Anthony Quinn) and a deaf gamine (Giulietta Masina).
Other romance buffs still swoon over “Titanic” (1997), with “poor” Leonardo DiCaprio and “rich” Kate Winslet passionately bridging the social classes before a deadly iceberg puts a tragic end to their and 1,000 other ship passengers’ heartfelt aspirations.
What’s your most memorable romantic viewing experience, dear reader? (A theater colleague casts an early vote for “The Notebook”).