20. Atonement (2007)
A bungled billet-doux, unjust accusations and the second world war drive a wedge between Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy). To be honest, it probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway, but Cecilia’s kid sister (Saoirse Ronan) tries to make amends for having naively destroyed their romance in this adaptation of Ian McEwan’s tricksy novel.
19. The English Patient (1996)
Swathed in bandages, a badly burned Ralph Fiennes recalls in fractured flashback his wartime affair with Kristin Scott Thomas, and their tragic date with destiny in the Sahara during the second world war. Put your cynicism on hold for Anthony Minghella’s epic romance, skilfully adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s Booker-winning novel.
18. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
Henry (Eric Bana) and Clare (Rachel McAdams) fall in love, marry and have a child – although not necessarily in that order, since he keeps bobbing helplessly around in time, popping in and out of their relationship at random moments. Adapted from Audrey Niffenegger’s bestseller, it is the ultimate metaphor for human connection thwarted by tragic happenstance.
17. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Feuding families, fast-acting poison, unreliable messenger service: the odds are stacked against everyone’s favourite star-cross’d lovers. Franco Zeffirelli broke with tradition by casting teenagers instead of the usual mature thespians in a very 1960s vision of olde Verona, a vivid riot of mad hormones, mod hairdos and romantic tragedy.
16. The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Clint Eastwood channels his hitherto unsuspected feminine side as director and co-star of this deft adaptation of a bestselling romance. While photographing bridges for National Geographic magazine, he meets a housewife (Meryl Streep), left alone on her Iowa farm while her husband and children are away. Their passionate affair presents her with a painful dilemma.
15. An Affair to Remember (1957)
Hurrying towards a rendezvous with Nickie (Cary Grant) at the top of the Empire State Building, Terry (Deborah Kerr) forgets to look both ways in Leo McCarey’s remake of his own Love Affair (1939). And then spends the rest of the film avoiding him because she is now in a wheelchair.
14. A Royal Affair (2012)
A British princess (Alicia Vikander) is married off to the mentally unstable king of Denmark, but is drawn – who would not be? – to a progressive German doctor played by Mads Mikkelsen. Alas, the puritanical court frowns on their affair and the doc’s enlightened influence.
13. Random Harvest (1942)
Paula (Greer Garson) marries an amnesiac (Ronald Colman) and they live happily in a cottage in Devon. But, oh no! He regains his memory and forgets all about her. So she gets a job as his secretary, hoping he will remember their life together. Preposterous tosh that never fails to make me blub. “Oh, Smithy!”
12. Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998)
Childhood sweethearts Ana and Otto (palindrome alert!) crisscross throughout their lives in an accumulation of coincidences and agonising near-misses. The Spanish director, Julio Medem, serves up a mystical romance that will have you yelling in frustration as karma comes up with excruciating new ways to keep the lovers apart.
11. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
In secession-era Vienna, a dying woman writes a letter to the pianist on whom she has always had a crush. They had a one-night stand, and the cad doesn’t even remember. Unrequited love doesn’t get any more poignant than Max Ophüls’ elegant tear-jerker, with Joan Fontaine doing what she does best: suffering beautifully.
10. Somewhere in Time (1980)
Christopher Reeve plays a present-day playwright who wills himself back to 1912 so he can woo the famous actor (Jane Seymour) whose old-timey photo he is obsessed with. But fate has a cruel trick up its sleeve in this adaptation of Richard Matheson’s Bid Time Return, derided by critics but lovingly embraced by anyone who enjoys a good wallow and a lovely John Barry score.
9. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Audrey Tautou is convinced that reports of her fiance’s death on the western front have been greatly exaggerated and scours France in search of her soulmate. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s sometimes whimsical but always unflinching portrait of the first world war’s effects on French society is a long way from Amélie. Let’s just say the journey and its outcome are both bittersweet.
8. Carol (2015)
An aspiring photographer (Rooney Mara) falls under the spell of Cate Blanchett as a glamorous but unhappily married woman in Todd Haynes’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Price of Salt. But Blanchett’s spoilsport husband, child custody laws and repressive 1950s society put the kibosh on a liaison steeped in meticulous period style. Or do they …?
7. Moonlight (2016)
Will Chiron ever reconnect with Kevin, the schoolmate with whom he shared a sexual awakening on the beach before their intimacy backfired in heartbreaking fashion? Barry Jenkins’ lyrical three-act drama questions the definition of masculinity as it depicts the obstacles facing a queer African American youth in his quest for identity and human connection.
6. The Age of Innocence (1993)
Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), engaged to the demure May Welland (Winona Ryder), is excited by the prospect of a dangerous liaison with worldly Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) in Martin Scorsese’s sumptuous adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel. But the high society of 1870s Manhattan will simply not tolerate such shenanigans. Meanwhile, both women are so much more interesting than the dull hero that you rather wish they could run off together.
5. Casablanca (1942)
Inside Rick’s ( Humphrey Bogart) hard, cynical shell is a romantic softy, still hurt at having been stood up in Paris by Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). Can they rekindle their romance after she walks into his bar? Or will he sacrifice their hill of beans for the allied cause? Luckily for Rick, Claude Rains is on hand to offer compensatory companionship as a congenially corrupt French cop. Here’s looking at you, Claude!
4. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
One paints, the other poses, they fall in love. Alas, this is 18th-century Brittany, and Marianne’s portrait is destined for the Italian nobleman to whom her sitter, Héloïse, has been promised in an arranged marriage. And so it all ends in unbridled Vivaldi, heaving bosoms and a final extended closeup that will almost certainly break your heart.
3. In the Mood for Love (2000)
The betrayed partners of an adulterous couple develop feelings for each other, but fate finds ways of keeping them apart in Wong Kar-Wai’s achey, breaky romance set in 1960s Hong Kong. Maggie Cheung sashays around in tight-fitting cheongsams and Tony Leung turns smoking a cigarette into an erotic artform in a series of dreamy vignettes, propelled by a melancholy score.
2. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Hired to herd sheep in isolated pastures, Wyoming ranchers Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) bond in a big, big way. They spend the rest of Ang Lee’s sublime “gay cowboy movie” trying to deny their feelings for each other while leading outwardly hetero-macho lives, leading to iconic shirt symbolism and a gut-wrenching ending. If you have tears, prepare to shed them.
1. Brief Encounter (1945)
Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard meet cute at the railway station in David Lean’s great British love story, but end up rejecting continental-style hanky-panky in favour of boring but honourable married fidelity, all of this set in the long-gone days when the middle-classes spoke with clipped RP accents and the trains ran on time. Seldom has English reticence been more affecting. Like Johnson, you, too, will get something in your eye.
