Garv’s Valentine’s Day Picks
Hello young lovers, wherever you are,
If you crave a romantic movie on this holiday, but you have exhausted all of the obvious classics (Casablanca, Brief Encounter, etc.), I have compiled a list of ten love-laced films that may be off your radar. Also, since everyone has different tastes when it comes to romantic pictures, I’ve have made sure that the films below run a fairly wide gamut, from romantic comedy to darker fare.
Garv’s Valentine’s Day Picks:
A Matter of Life and Death (1946): Directors Michael Powell and Emric Pressburger, with the help of cinematographer Jack Cardiff, produced some of the most beautiful films ever made. This film is no exception, but it is also one of cinema’s most deeply romantic dramas. David Niven and Kim Hunter are the amorous pair, and the story involves elements of fantasy, war, near-death experience, and a rare medical condition. That’s as much as I will say, because the less you know about the film, the better.
Le Grand Amour (1969): Comedian Pierre Etaix made a handful of hilarious films in the 1960s, often incorporating the type of visual humor most associated with silent comedians, such as Buster Keaton. With Le Grand Amour, Etaix explored the pressures and pitfalls of marriage. The film is both very funny and unflinchingly honest about how hard it is to keep a relationship fresh and afloat. This gem is included in Criterion’s Pierre Etaix box set.
Hear My Song (1991): This quirky British/Irish romantic comedy is a crowd-pleasing charmer. Adrian Dunbar plays a disreputable Liverpool nightclub owner, who loses his girl (Tara Fitzgerald) after booking an impersonator into his club as a famous Irish tenor. In order to win back his girl and restore his reputation, he travels to Ireland to bring back the real tenor (played by a magnetic Ned Beatty). Like many of the films released by Miramax in the 90s, this lovely film has yet to receive a Blu-ray release.
Girl on the Bridge (1999): This is another 90s gem that is long overdue on Blu-ray. Patrice Leconte directed this black and white romance about a suicidal beauty (Vanessa Paradis) who agrees to join a knife-throwing act as the target, because she has nothing to lose. Once she teams with the knife-thrower (Daniel Auteuil) the luck of the pair begins to improve. My full review can be found here.
Modern Romance (1981): Love can sometimes be a rocky road, and no film better captures the up and down nature of relationships than Albert Brooks’ very dry comedy, Modern Romance. Kathryn Harrold plays Brooks long-suffering girlfriend who tries to deal with his numerous insecurities in this off-again, on-again, off-again-again romance.
Holiday (1938): Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are one of the great teams in the history of romantic comedy. However, while Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story are well-known classics, Holiday may be the most charming of their on screen pairings. Grant plays a free-thinker who finds out that his girlfriend (Doris Nolan) comes from mucho money and that there are unpleasant obligations that come with marrying into a rich family. Things get even more complicated when his fiancée’s younger sister (Hepburn) sets her sights on him.
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967): Time for a musical, and nobody made more romantic musicals than French director Jacques Demy. While The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is the best known, The Young Girls of Rochefort has composer Michel Legrand’s best score. The plot includes multiple romantic pairings and a few bizarre elements (including a strange serial killer tangent). All together, it is a beautiful, candy-colored wonder, and you’ll find yourself humming the melodies for weeks after watching it.
Avanti! (1972): Billy Wilder makes adultry seem charming in his late-career comedy with Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. It is the type of film that spreads a romantic spell over the audience, and it may be the most sweetly good natured of all of Wilder’s films. You can find my full review here.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971): The loss of a love leads to murder in this campy Vincent Price horror. The mysterious Dr. Phibes takes his revenge on the nine people that he blames for the death of his beloved wife, which is romantic in a way. You can find my full review here.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943): I have been banging the drum repeatedly for this hilarious screwball romance, since it is my favorite film of all time. Consequently, I won’t add any additional comments here. You can always read my full review.
