Love’s not going out of style anytime soon, no matter how cynical some people might feel about it, and its endurance is visible throughout much of cinema history. Stories about love go back way further than the advent of the moving image, of course, but films are being focused on here. Specifically, movies from the past century.
Admittedly, there aren’t many all-time great romance films that are more than 100 years old, though some Buster Keaton films (like Our Hospitality, from 1923) and Harold Lloyd films (like 1923’s Safety Last and 1924’s Girl Shy) do get disqualified for present purposes. But in the interest of going back almost a full century, the earliest movie below was released in 1931, and the newest in 2013, which… okay, yeah, that’s an 82-year period, but that’s close enough to 100. These movies are all great, is the main thing, and they all belong wholly or in part to the romance genre, too.
10
‘Titanic’ (1997)
You can resist it if you want, but Titanic was massive back in 1997 and still feels like the gold standard for what constitutes a romantic epic today. It’s about the infamous only voyage of the titular ship, with much of the movie’s first half being focused on the unlikely love story between a well-off young woman and a more rebellious – and less wealthy – young man.
They fall in love, and then the expected event goes down, with Titanic continuing to feel like a love story, albeit one that merges into more of a disaster film in the most spectacle-heavy second half. It’s a long movie, but the right balance between romance, suspense, and tragedy is struck, and it’s not hard to understand why it was such a gargantuan success financially and Oscars-wise.
9
‘In the Mood for Love’ (2000)
Compared to the broad maximalism of Titanic (not that there’s anything wrong with that), In the Mood for Love feels like a whisper of a movie, and one that benefits from being subtle. Two people each find their lives changed when they learn their partners are having affairs, and they themselves then have to grapple with the feelings that might well be developing between them.
It sounds like a recipe for melodrama, but In the Mood for Love keeps things restrained, and even describing the plot in such a way runs the risk of making this sound much more narrative-focused than it is. It’s a movie that’s all about being felt, even if that means not entirely understanding, and this approach ends up being emotionally resonant and hard to shake, once seen.
8
‘Cinema Paradiso’ (1988)
Much of Cinema Paradiso revolves around the more traditional sort of love, especially the parts covering the main character’s life as a young adult, making his way in the world and becoming romantically involved with someone for the first time. But throughout Cinema Paradiso, it’s also a movie about falling in love with cinema, maintaining feelings of passion in general, and finding connections outside of family and romantic partners, too.
The protagonist’s journey begins in childhood and ends with him self-reflective in middle age, and the entirety of it ends up being immensely bittersweet. The two-hour cut of Cinema Paradiso has enough by way of romance to feel like a romance film on top of a coming-of-age one, but the director’s cut, which is closer to three hours long, deals even more with the highs and lows of being in – and falling out of – love.
7
‘Before Midnight’ (2013)
Before Midnight concluded a trilogy that spanned nearly two decades, with each movie being released nine years apart. There are two main characters followed throughout, and it’s only really Before Midnight that has supporting characters, in effect… and even then, most of them disappear after the movie’s opening scenes, with the bulk of the film – like its two predecessors – focusing on dialogue between two people.
Before Midnight is the film in the trilogy that showcases a fittingly more mature sort of outlook on love and the obstacles that come with keeping a relationship going for many years.
Admittedly, Before Sunrise is more romantic, but it also deals with the characters falling in love with each other, and they’re in their 20s, so it’s all intentionally more bombastic and passionate. But Before Midnight is the one that showcases a fittingly more mature sort of outlook on love and the obstacles that come with keeping a relationship going for many years, and it’s all done in such a grounded way that it’s often easy to forget you’re not watching real people deal with conflict in their marriage.
6
‘Roman Holiday’ (1953)
There’s a sense of fun and escapism to Roman Holiday that’s persisted over 70+ years, seeing as you can watch this today and it still feels funny, moving, and undeniably romantic. It’s about an American reporter coming across a restless European princess while both are in Rome for their own reasons, and they immediately bond, and eventually start to feel their unlikely friendship turning to romance.
It’s the sort of movie that could’ve really gone wrong, because not every romance film that’s this old holds up by modern standards, but you do buy the love that’s felt here, and Roman Holiday is also refreshingly honest about the situation they find themselves in. It’s certainly bittersweet, and never runs the risk of going too far toward bitter or too cloying and sweet in a sickly sort of way. Of course, the performances help a great deal, with both Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn being at their respective bests here.
5
‘When Harry Met Sally’ (1989)
You can think of yourself as a rom-com hater if you want, but you won’t know for sure until you watch When Harry Met Sally, because disliking a rom-com this perfect would make your lack of love certain. Spun in a more positive way, this is basically a perfect romantic comedy that could well also convert those who are skeptical about the genre, since it’s an example of everything being done right.
There are conventions here, and the story does ultimately follow a well-worn path, but it’s the journey there that matters, as well as all the sharp dialogue throughout. When Harry Met Sally is about two people who don’t like each other at first eventually developing feelings for the other, albeit over a great deal of time and in a way that feels natural. It’s also extremely funny and sweet without ever feeling cheesy or insincere.
4
‘Brief Encounter’ (1945)
While David Lean might be best known for making epic movies, he could also helm more intimate dramas with ease, as Brief Encounter demonstrates. It’s a movie that does a lot within a fairly short runtime (under 90 minutes), focusing on a married woman who strikes up a friendship with another man, and then both have to navigate some complicated emotions when it becomes clear that they might be feeling more than just friendship toward the other.
As the title probably implies, Brief Encounter is fairly blunt and a little sad, but there’s a strong emotional core to this, and the way it openly and honestly looks at a complex kind of love is very striking for such an old movie. And, like the other older movies being mentioned here, Brief Encounter still holds up surprisingly well, being pretty much timeless, in some ways.
3
‘Days of Heaven’ (1978)
Days of Heaven is so striking visually and with its score (by Ennio Morricone) that any narrative here feels secondary, but it does also work as a bold romantic movie. It has a very arthouse approach to what is, on paper, a simple story about a young couple trying to con a wealthy but sick man out of his fortune by setting up a sham marriage to inherit his fortune once he passes.
But of course, it’s never going to be that simple, and emotions shift in and out like the continually cycling weather and scenery of the film (that’s all emphasized, because so much of Days of Heaven takes place outdoors). It’s the kind of movie that’s best experienced and felt, rather than explained, but so long as you’re okay with a bit of a slow-burn, it’s hard to imagine anyone coming away from this one feeling like they wasted their time.
2
‘City Lights’ (1931)
Charlie Chaplin held out with making silent movies longer than most, with City Lights being pretty much silent (and Modern Times being similarly dialogue-free, though neither were 100% free of synchronized dialogue). But in any event, City Lights is enough of a silent film to perhaps feel like the greatest romantic movie of the silent era… or, well, the best romantic film made just after the silent era, that itself was pretty much silent. That doesn’t roll off the tongue quite so much, though.
At its core, City Lights is just about a determined man devoting himself to a blind flower girl he’s fallen for, going to great lengths to fund an operation that will restore her eyesight. It traverses so much territory emotionally, being funny, charming, and bittersweet when needed, and given it came out almost a century ago and is still utterly absorbing, it feels pretty safe to assume City Lights is timeless.
1
‘Casablanca’ (1942)
Just as it might be predictable to label The Sopranos the best crime show of all time, so too is it kind of expected to prop up a movie like Casablanca as the all-time greatest romantic film, but it’s earned that distinction. This is a film that also goes to many places emotionally, and carrying the whole thing is one of the greatest screenplays ever written, with too many memorable lines of dialogue said by various iconic characters to count them all.
It’s also a World War II movie that was made while the conflict was still ongoing, and so it’s not just a story about love, but also one about politics, sacrifice, memory, and legacy. It does all this without being very long, and while also feeling remarkably approachable. There’s nothing pretentious or overdone about Casablanca. Everything here simply works perfectly, and few films – romantic ones or otherwise – can claim to be on quite the same level.
Casablanca
- Release Date
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January 15, 1943
- Runtime
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102 minutes
