MOVIES ABOUT LOVE

Considering it is the month of love, here is a list of (in my opinion) the greatest movies about love…

https://boxd.it/bbBeQ (this is a link to my list on letterboxd)

Pride and Prejudice

2005, Joe Wright

Adapted from the beloved classic by Jane Austen of the same name, this movie, set in late 18th century, follows the turbulent relationship of Elizabeth Bennet, whose mother is very impatient to see her five daughters get married as soon as possible, and Mr. Darcy, a rich, handsome and -it would seem- arrogant gentleman who finds himself reluctantly falling in love with Elizabeth. They must overcome their prejudgement of each other and let go of their pride to grow as people and see a reationship blossom.

Jane Eyre

2011, Cary Joji Fukunaga

Next on the list is another book-to-movie adaptation: Jane Eyre. It’s about an orphan girl who eventually leaves the orphanage as a governess. She works as a governess in Mr. Rochester’s house, during this time he falls in love with her… This story is full of mystery and it’s very exciting.

Emma

2020, Autumn de Wilde

Another adaptation of a Jane Austen novel follows Emma, a rich, handsome, clever girl who loves matchmaking is not in search of a husband. However, her matchmaking skills are less than perfect. While dealing with the consequences, she falls in love with the kind gentleman Mr. Knightley along the way.

La La Land

2016, Damien Chazelle

An aspiring actress, Mia, and a jazz musician, Seb are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.

Atonement

2007, Joe Wright

This sweeping English drama, based on the book by Ian McEwan, follows the lives of young lovers Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner. When the couple are torn apart because of a lie constructed by Cecilia’s younger sister Briony, all three of them must suffer the consequences. Robbie endures a lot, since Briony’’s deception results in his imprisonment, but the hope for their relatioship increases when their paths cross again in WW2.

Little Women

2019, Greta Gerwig

This story, based on a novel series by Louisa May Alcott, follows the four March sisters -Meg, Amy, Beth, and Jo. We see them growing up throughout the movie. While this movie focuses more on the love between the sisters, there is actually romance, and it is one for the ages.

Howl’s Moving Castle

2004, Hayao Miyazaki

This is another amazing book-to-movie adaptaion based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Sophie, a diligent teenage girl working in her family's hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when a handsome-but-mysterious wizard named Howl sweeps her off her feet. This innocent encounter enrages the vain and conniving Witch of the Waste, who transforms Sophie into a 90-year-old woman. Sophie's efforts to break the curse bring her to Howl's magical moving castle, where she befriends Markl, Howl's apprentice, and the hot-headed fire demon Calcifer. Her love and support have a major impact on Howl, who can be maddeningly self-indulgent and singularly noble. He defies royal orders to participate in a meaningless war and risks his life to bring peace to the kingdom.

Tangled

2010, Byron Howard – Nathan Greno

Disney’s interesting turn on the classic fairytale, Rapunzel, has one of the best couples in animation history. Rapunzel is a princess who has been locked away in a tower by an evil witch and she uses the power of Rapunzel’s hair to keep herself young. Rapunzel, however is not aware that she is, in fact, a princess. When she turns 18, she becomes curious of the outside world since she was never allowed to go outside at all. A thief uses the tower as refuge. Because of her mother’s absence, she uses this opportunity to sneak out and explore the world. Along the way, the thief, Eugene, falls in love with her.

Beauty and the Beast

1991, Gary Trousdale – Kirk Wise

Another Disney adaptation of a classic fairytale is about Belle, a girl who is very different from all the people in her little town in France, and the Beast (Prince Adam), a prince who has been cursed to be a beast because of his cruel behavior. Only if a girl falls in love with the Beast until the last petal of the Enchantress’ rose falls, the curse may be broken and he may become a human again. The Prince is not the only one who’s been affected by the curse, all the people in the castle are turned into furniture. When Belle tries to find her missing father, she is led to a castle deep in the woods and there she frees her father from the beast at the cost of her freedom. She later falls in love with the Beast despite all odds, for true beauty is found within…

Moulin Rouge

2001, Baz Luhrmann

A young Englishman Christian in the Paris of 1899, becomes involved with Satine, a singer at the Moulin Rouge. However, she has been promised to a Duke by her manager in return for funding his next production. The lovers meet in secret as her wedding day draws closer. However it is revealed that Satine has been keeping a fatal secret from both the Duke and Christian.

Bridget Jones’ Diary

2001, Sharon Maguire

As a new year begins, the 32 year old Bridget Jones decides to take control of her life and start keeping a diary. When Daniel Cleaver, her boss, starts flirting with her she pursues a relationship with him. She also keeps running into Mark Darcy, an arrogant and snobbish lawyer who has known her since she was a child, who hates Cleaver (truth is, Daniel may be a bit of a bounder). What are Bridget's choices?

Also, it’s actually loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, which makes it even better since that was on the top of this list.

Just Like Heaven

2005, Mark Waters

David is a recently widowed architect moving into a new apartment in San Francisco. But the apartment isn’t entirely empty, it’s haunted by the ghost of a woman named Elizabeth who can’t remember much about her life. She is convinced that she isn’t really dead. While David recruits Darryl, an absent-minded psychic, to get to the bottom of Elizabeth's identity, he and Elizabeth begin to fall in love.

About Time

2013, Richard Curtis

When Tim Lake turns 21, his father tells him a secret: the men in their family can travel through time. Although he can't change history, Tim decides to improve his life by getting a girlfriend. He meets Mary, falls in love and finally wins her heart thanks to time-travel. However, as his unusual life progresses, Tim finds that his special ability can't shield him and those he loves from the problems of ordinary life.

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

2018, Mike Newell

This movie is based on a novel of the same name by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows. In the year after WW2, Juliette, an author, begins exchanging letters with residents on the island of Guernsey -which was occupied by Germans during WW2. Feeling compelled to visit the island, she starts to get a picture of what it was like during the occupation. She later falls in love with a man from the book club which was formed under very strange circumstances.

You’ve Got Mail

1998, Nora Ephron

Struggling boutique bookseller Kathleen Kelly hates Joe Fox, the owner of a corporate Foxbooks chain store that just moved in across the street. When they meet online, however, they begin an intense and anonymous Internet romance, oblivious of each other's true identity. Eventually Joe learns that the enchanting woman he's involved with is actually his business rival. He must now struggle to reconcile his real-life dislike for her with the cyber love he's come to feel.

10 Things I Hate About You

1999, Gil Hunger

Another great story based on the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, is about the intelligent and beautiful Kat Stratford who is quite abrasive to most of her fellow teens. Unfortunately for her younger sister, Bianca, house rules say that she can't date until Kat has a boyfriend, so strings are pulled to set the dour damsel up for a romance. Soon, Kat crosses paths with handsome new arrival Patrick Verona. Will she put her guard down enough to fall in love with him?

A Star Is Born

2018, Bradley Cooper

This story has been made into a movie 4 times since 1937. The one shown here is the 2018 version. They all have a similar storyline where a seasoned musician discovers -and falls in love with- a struggling singer named Ally. She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer until Jackson coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally's career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jackson fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.

Big Fish

2003, Tim Burton

When Edward Bloom becomes ill, his son William travels to be with him. They have a strained relationship caused by Edward’s crazili exaggerated stories about his past, and William thinks he never told the truth. Even on his deathbed, Edward recounts fantastical anecdotes. He tells his son about the great romance that happened between him and William’s mother. When William, who is a journalist, starts to investigate his father's tales, he begins to understand the man and his penchant for storytelling.

Me Before You

2016, Thea Sharrock

Young and quirky Louisa Clarke moves from one job to another to help her family. Her cheerful attitude is put to the test when she becomes a caregiver for Will Traynor, a wealthy young banker left paralyzed from an accident two years earlier. Will's cynical outlook starts to change when Louisa shows him that life is worth living. As their bond deepens, their lives and hearts change in ways neither one could have imagined. This movie was also based on a novel by Jojo Moyes.

Titanic

1997, James Cameron

In 1912, the ship Titanic sails from Britain to America when two voyagers fall in love during the trip. Jack, a poor young man who managed to gamble his way into Titanic, and Rose, a young, beautiful and rich woman who is engaged to another man are at the center of this romance. The ship of dreams eventually sinks, carrying 1500 people to their deaths in the ice cold waters of North Atlantic in the early hours of April 15.