Romance
"Alice's Festival Of Romance"
Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight, young (and older) love, unrequited love, obsessive love, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, sexual and passionate love, sacrificial love, explosive and destructive love, and tragic love. Romantic films serve as great escapes and fantasies for viewers, especially if the two people finally overcome their difficulties, declare their love, and experience life "happily ever after" - implied by a reunion and final kiss.
Here "Alice's Festival of Romance" has been assembled below as an aphabetical list. Should more precise scrolling be required, one should go to the specific genre, ie "Classic Romance", "Comedy Romance" , "Drama Romance" or even "Queer Cinema"
Right: Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid star in Todd Haynes'
"Far From Heaven"
The River (1951)
7.6/10
Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight
In 1949 and 1950, Renoir travelled to Bengal for his first colour film - the story of a large British family living on the banks of the Ganges. Winnin... Read more
The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961)
6.6/10
Director: Jose Quintero
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya, Jill St John, Coral Browne
Vivien Leigh stars as a middle-aged actress whose husband dies on their way to an Italian vacation. Electing to remain in Rome, Leigh's trip takes an... Read more
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
5.2/10
Director: Roland Joffe
Starring: Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall
This questionable adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel of forbidden passion in 17th century America stars Demi Moore as an independent-minded col... Read more
The Scarlet Tunic (1998)
5.5/10
Director: Stuart St Paul
Starring: Jean-Marc Barr, Emma Fielding, Jack Shepherd, John Sessions, Simon Callow, Lynda...
A romantic re-working of a Thomas Hardy short story (The Melancholy Hussar) with a tale of doomed love and passion set in the beauty of Dorset. Desert... Read more
The Sea Purple (2009)
6.8/10
Director: Donatella Maiorca
Starring: Ennio Fantastichini, Isabella Ragonese, Valeria Solarino
A remarkable true story of forbidden love, "The Sea Purple" is the delicate, intensely moving tale of two spirited women who face the disapproving eye... Read more
The Seagull (2018)
5.9/10
Director: Michael Mayer
Starring: Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Corey Stoll, Elisabeth Moss, Mare Winningham, Jon...
An ageing actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin on a country estate. On one o... Read more
The Secret of Moonacre (2008)
6.2/10
Director: Gabor Csupo
Starring: Dakota Blue Richards, Juliet Stevenson, Tim Curry, Natascha McElhone, Ioan Gruff...
Following the death of her father, 13-year-old Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue Richards) is shipped off to the mysterious Moonacre estate, presided ov... Read more
The Shape of Water (2017)
7.4/10
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: David Hewlett, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Mich...
Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes fore... Read more
The Shape of Water (Blu-Ray) (2017)
7.4/10
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: David Hewlett, Richard Jenkins, Michael Shannon, Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Mich...
Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes fore... Read more
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
6.8/10
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Campbell Scott, Debra Winger, John Malkovich
The screen version of Paul Bowles' celebrated 1949 novel about a New York couple who embark on an unusual journey through post World War II North Afri... Read more