5 Romance Films to Watch Instead of 50 Shades of Grey

     The 1939 film, Gone With the Wind stars the beauteous pair, Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable as Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler –ever tumultuous, never requited, but always romantic. Voted the most popular movie of all time in 2008 and again in 2014, the film, based on the book by the same title, is a classic. 

    Set in Clayton County, Georgia, the film commences on the verge of the Civil War. The flirty and frivolous Scarlett is the apple of every boy’s eye – apart from the one she loves. After confronting Ashley Wilkes with her undying devotion, he reveals that he reciprocates her feelings (sort of) but is already betrothed to his cousin, the kind, revered, madonna-like, Melanie Hamilton (note: do prepare yourself for creepy outdated customs and offensive (sometimes vile) cultural depictions; it is in fact a Civil War film made in 1939).

    Legendary debonair scoundrel, Rhett Butler, happens to be lurking behind a couch and over-hears the entirety of the desperate, heart-felt confession. The confrontation that ensues between Scarlett and Rhett initiates a savage duet, set to the devastation of burning Dixie, the carpet-bagged and ravaged terra left to wane, and the inevitable resurgence of the ruthless protagonists in a booming New South. These lovebirds always seem to lack in proper concurrence of feelings but never in cruel retaliation to one another’s low blows. True romance.

    Vertigo covers all the tenets of true love: voyeurism, obsession, deceit, and of course, murder. This Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece stars Jimmy Stewart (one of the director's favorite leading men, as he stars in three other Hitchcock films), giving his usual folksy performance and the perfectly cast Kim Novak as Madeline.

   Scottie, a former detective, is asked by an aquainttance to follow his wife who has been acting strangely. For Scottie, it is love at first sight and his obsession with the woman rises to that of mythology. From the moment he lays prying eyes on the icy siren, he is consumed with lust. Cue true love's tenets.

     From the opening of the film, we are under the control of Hitchcock. He constructs a world where the supernatural is possible, and a story of pure, yet unobtainable love breaks our hearts. He then rips the floor out from under us, and it is here that we are confronted with a sinister reality, devoid of magic. Hitchcock then abandons us to ordinary lives outside the realm of cinema; heads and hearts still spinning with feelings of vertigo.

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a cerebral romantic science-fiction comedy drama. The film was met with overwhelming acclaim by both audiences and critics alike at the time of its release in 2004 and continues to maintain a cult following. From the mind of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who reteams with second-time filmmaker Michael Gondry (Human Nature, 2001) to create an original non-linear narrative, Eternal Sunshine takes audiences through a retrospect; the shrine a man builds in his mind –somewhere between a memorial of a great and terrible war and a favorite photo album-- to visit and pay homage to the life of former passion. The labyrinth of memory and the sleepy hollow of subconscious realization intensify what all young couples feeling gravity’s pull back to earth sense: there is a disparity between the ever-sought romantic love and its less tantalizing great aunt –long time companionship.

    Performances in the feature are solid all around with Jim Carrey as Joel Barrish, a man informed that his ex-love has had every memory of him erased ( and to which he will return the favor). But an otherworldly achievement by the lovely Kate Winslet stands out as exceptional, as her magnetizing and colorful Clementine does not fail to move. The film prompts couples to look into one another's eyes and ask, “Would you ever dare erase me?”

     Vicky Cristina Barcelona: the film that embodies the relationship you wish you were in on Valentine’s Day. The Woody Allen feature follows two girlfriends and their time spent abroad in the fantastic city of Barcelona. Vicky, is engaged to a successful American man, and is certain of what she wants in life. Vocal in stating her purpose for being in Barcelona: she is there to research her thesis and come to a better understanding of the Catalan Identity. Cristina is not sure what she wants in life and is hesitant to reveal the existential crisis fueled quest for her own identity which has led her to Barcelona.

     Both Vicky and Cristina find passion with Juan Antonio –a sexy Spanish artist whose first romantic gesture is to whisk both of them away on a friend’s rickety helicopter to Oviedo. Things get interesting when Juan Antonio and Cristina move in together and his ex-wife, Maria Elena, enters the picture. Irresistible, captivating, and red-hot, Penelope Cruz’s Oscar winning performance is ample encouragement to pledge allegiance to the screen. An unconventional love story (kind of), this film epitomizes the crown of classic Woody Allen charm. This charming ménage a trois may leave couples a little thirsty.

    La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2 or Blue is the Warmest Color is a coming-of-age romance based on a French graphic novel of the same title. Written, directed, and produced by Abdellatif Kechiche, the unique, montage-style of filming creates an acute empathetic effect on the audience; what the girls feel and see, we experience first-hand via their senses. With stunning performances by both Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux (Kechiche, Exarchopoulos, and Seydoux each earned a Palm d'Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival for their work in the film), this film is extraordinarily sexy, but more than sexy –it is hyperreal.

     Where montage filming has traditionally been used to relay information rather than drive feeling, the film in lieu of using this style to save time, rather, takes its time to build a collection of memory. Dictated by the scene, one may disturb suppressed recollections of awkward adolescence, fall under the tender reminiscence of first love, tempt a chronicle of mind-blowing erotica (seriously), and in the end, revisit the writhing pain that accompanies first love’s loss and the inevitable feelings of emptiness sure to follow the heart ache.

Happy Valentines xoxo