Before any of us became anyone’s lover, cinema taught us romance – how to flirt, how to kiss, how to love. The socialization effect of motion pictures is nowhere more profound than when it comes to what we call romance – but most of the films here are wise enough to somewhat deconstruct that normalization, even if many do finally advocate a new or renewed normal. (Some certainly don’t.) After the canon, after many of the films on the M-list (musicals), these are the best and most influential cinematic romances, often because they have a lot more than love on their mind. This romantic 100 includes comedies, dramas, thrillers, and Romantic themes – i.e. glorifying the past over the present, the individual over the collective, nature over civilization, and feelings over facts.
R1. Son of the Sheik (Fitzmaurice, 1926)
R2. The Wind (Seastrom, 1928)
R3. Love Me Tonight (Mamoulian, 1932)
R4. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Capra, 1936)
R5. Dodsworth (Wyler, 1936)
R6. Camille (Cukor, 1938)
R7. A Star is Born (Wellman, 1937)
R8. Jezebel (Wyler, 1938)
R9. Love Affair (McCarey, 1939)
R10. Woman of the Year (Stevens, 1942)
R11. Random Harvest (LeRoy, 1942)
R12. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Wood, 1943)
R13. Maria Candelaria (Fernandez, 1943)
R14. To Have and Have Not (Hawks, 1944)
R15. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Garnett, 1946)
R16. Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau, 1946)
R17. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Mankiewicz, 1947)
R18. Fatmah (Badrahkan, 1947)
R19. Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948)
R20. Orpheus (Orphee) (Cocteau, 1950)
R21. Father of the Bride (Minnelli, 1950)
R22. La Ronde (Ophuls, 1950)
R23. Sabrina (Wilder, 1954)
R24. A Star is Born (Cukor, 1954)
R25. Marty (Mann, 1955)
R26. To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock, 1955)
R27. Picnic (Logan, 1955)
R28. Smiles of a Summer Night (Bergman, 1955)
R29. Pyassa (Dutt, 1957)
R30. An Affair to Remember (McCarey, 1957)
R31. Pillow Talk (Gordon, 1959)
R32. A Summer Place (Daves, 1959)
R33. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
R34. Days of Wine and Roses (Edwards, 1962)
R35. Charade (Donen, 1963)
R36. A Patch of Blue (Green, 1965)
R37. An Evening in Paris (Samanta, 1967)
R38. Two for the Road (Donen, 1967)
R39. Barefoot in the Park (Saks, 1967)
R40. Romeo and Juliet (Zefferelli, 1968)
R41. The Thomas Crown Affair (Jewison, 1968)
R42. Women in Love (Russell, 1969)
R43. Zabriskie Point (Antonioni, 1970)
R44. Love Story (Hiller, 1970)
R45. Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972)
R46. The Way We Were (Pollack, 1973)
R47. The Story of Adele H. (Truffaut, 1975)
R48. The Goodbye Girl (Ross, 1977)
R49. Coming Home (Ashby, 1978)
R50. Body Heat (Kasdan, 1981)
R51. Making Love (Hiller, 1982)
R52. An Officer and a Gentleman (Hackford, 1982)
R53. Romancing the Stone (Zemeckis, 1984)
R54. A Year of the Quiet Sun (Zanussi, 1984)
R55. A Room with a View (Ivory, 1985)
R56. Roxanne (Schepisi, 1987)
R57. Dirty Dancing (Ardolino, 1987)
R58. The Princess Bride (Reiner, 1987)
R59. Moonstruck (Jewison, 1987)
R60. Bull Durham (Shelton, 1988)
R61. Say Anything… (Crowe, 1989)
R62. Cyrano de Bergerac (Rappeneau, 1990)
R63. Pretty Woman (Marshall, 1990)
R64. Ghost (Zucker, 1990)
R65. The Hairdresser’s Husband (Leconte, 1990)
R66. Like Water for Chocolate (Arau, 1992)
R67. The Bodyguard (Jackson, 1992)
R68. Sleepless in Seattle (Ephron, 1993)
R69. True Romance (Scott, 1993)
R70. Four Weddings and a Funeral (Newell, 1994)
R71. Before Sunrise (Linklater, 1995)
R72. Pride and Prejudice (various directors, 1995)
R73. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Chopra, 1995)
R74. Leaving Las Vegas (Figgis, 1995)
R75. Jerry Maguire (Crowe, 1996)
R76. Black Cat, White Cat (Kusturica, 1998)
R77. Out of Sight (Soderbergh, 1998)
R78. Shakespeare in Love (Madden, 1998)
R79. 10 Things I Hate About You (Junger, 1999)
R80. Notting Hill (Michell, 1999)
R81. Love & Basketball (Prince-Blythewood, 2000)
R82. Monsoon Wedding (Nair, 2001)
R83. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Zwick, 2002)
R84. Habla con ella (Talk to Her) (Almodovar, 2002)
R85. Punch Drunk Love (Anderson, 2002)
R86. Down With Love (Reed, 2003)
R87. Something’s Gotta Give (Meyers, 2003)
R88. Before Sunset (Linklater, 2004)
R89. 2046 (Kar-wei, 2004)
R90. The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004)
R91. Atonement (Wright, 2007)
R92. 500 Days of Summer (Webb, 2009)
R93. Blue Valentine (Cianfrance, 2010)
R94. Amour (Haneke, 2012)
R95. Blue is the Warmest Colour (Kechiche, 2013)
R96. Her (Jonze, 2013)
R97. Casa Grande (Barbosa, 2014)
R98. Beyond the Lights (Prince-Blythewood, 2014)
R99. 45 Years (Haigh, 2015)
R100. Carol (Haynes, 2015)
BEST LOVED FILMS 