Avoid Sappy and Go For Cinematic 

Romantic comedies these days could be made by blind five-year-old's who have lost their sense of direction. They are perhaps the most formulaic of all movie genres. I’m all for romance but it’s time to broaden our horizons and make Kate Hudson work for her paychecks.

5. Another Year (2010, written and directed by Mike Leigh)
In this simple yet affecting film Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play Tom and Gerry a married couple with a grown son and a full-house of family and acquaintances that invite themselves into their lives throughout the movie. The core of the movie is held together by this marriage which is inspiring by portraying two fully formed characters that have been happily together since university. While their relationship is not dramatic or over the top it shows that love can be about innate kindness and consideration that we could all use a bit more of.

4. Notorious (1946, directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
No, no friends, not the awful biopic of Notorious B.I.G., the romantic thriller starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Bergman plays the daughter of a war criminal and Grant plays a government agent who gets her to spy on her father’s former associates, cue falling for each other. While I can hear you all yelling at your computer screens, “that’s as formulaic as it gets!”, take into consideration that it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock who not only crafts a suspenseful thriller but utilizes some of the most inventive shooting techniques of its or any other day. If that doesn’t get you either, it has one of the hottest kisses ever. Hitchcock managed to get around the Production Code’s rule on kissing – no kiss could last longer than 3 seconds – by having Grant and Bergman break away from the kiss, nuzzle, then kiss again. Now that’s filmmaking!

3. The House of Mirth (2000, written and directed by Terence Davies)
One of the few truly successful book to film adaptations is all the more impressive because of Gillian Anderson’s star making turn. (ok, ok star making turn in the U.K) Based on the beloved Edith Whatron novel of the same name, the heroine Lily Bart must navigate her way through turn of the century New York upper-class society as a single woman. While her M.O. is to seek out and find a wealthy husband she cannot forget Laurence Selden (Eric Stoltz) a financially poor choice for her. Anderson and Stoltz share only a few scenes together and barely touch but it makes for one of the hottest would-be-on-screen love stories.

2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992, directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
Released at the height of first mainstream wave of the AIDS epidemic in North America, the film became the unofficial representative film of the period. It’s over the top, hammy as heck and includes some really … um… interesting accents by Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. Despite all of that Gary Oldman really gives it in this film and sells it, making sense of the tagline: Love never dies.

1. True Romance ( 1993, directed by Tony Scott)
This is one of the funniest, violent and most romantic movies ever. As two lovers who get entangled in a series of run ins with the mob, cops and Hollywood types Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette are sexy, loveable and make the phrase “You’re So Cool” one of the most romantic things ever written in cinema history.

Image from MorgueFile

Alex West
		About the author:
		After a five year stint in Montreal Alex moved back to her native Toronto to do her Masters and began writing for different publications. When in doubt she always asks, what would Nick Cave do? Luckily the answer almost always involves velvet, wine and writing. In her spare time she enjoys watching civil war reenactments, sharing her James Bond level charm and talking about that girl who did that thing that one time. Read more of her work at: www.scare-tactic.blogspot.com
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