Valentine’s Day Movies

Grenville and Beatrice – that’s US – really love romantic movies. We’re watching several this weekend to celebrate Hearts Day.  Here’s some of our choices . . .

What’s more romantic than a classic big screen kiss?

Gone with the Wind (1939)
This film is an American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
"You need kissing badly," Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) told Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) in this 1939 epic. "You should be kissed, and often. And by someone who knows how."

When Harry Met Sally (1989)
This romantic comedy started a debate as to whether men and women could be friends. “You realize of course that we could never be friends . . .because the sex part always gets in the way.” says Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) to Sally Albright (Meg Ryan).
Then there’s the deli scene and the pair's New Year's Eve reconciliation. As Harry told Sally: "I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
Pretty Woman (1990)
"I don't kiss on the mouth," Vivian (Julia Roberts) warns Edward (Richard Gere) at the beginning of this movie. So when she does, it's pivotal. The audience understands that she's come to regard Edward as more than a client. But that kiss can't beat the one at the ending, after Edward “rescues” Vivian on her fire escape and she promises to “rescue him” right back.

Prelude to a Kiss (1992)
Peter Hoskins (Alec Baldwin) and Rita Boyle (Meg Ryan) fall in love despite her pessimistic outlook. As they struggle to come to terms with their relationship, something supernatural happens that tests it.
The title is from the 1938 song by Duke Ellington performed by Deborah Harry during the film’s opening. There’s also a Cole Porter song, Every Time We Say Goodbye,in the film.

French Kiss (1995)
Kate (Meg Ryan), who fear flying, flies to France to confront her straying fiancé, Charlie (Timothy Hutton) but gets into trouble when a French thief Luc Teyssier (Kevin Kline) seated next to her uses her for smuggling.
Luc later tutors Kate on how to get her beau back from the Parisian beauty he’s run off with.

Casablanca (1942)
This film has it all: romance, wartime adventure, and suspense and was our recent date night choice.
We never tire of hearing Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) ask Sam to play their song. Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications
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Sleepless in Seattle (1989)
Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks), an architect, loses his wife to cancer. He and his young son Jonah start new lives in Seattle, but Sam still grieves. On Christmas Eve, Sam’s son, Jonah, calls into a talk radio, advice show. He, on the advice of the radio show host, persuades Sam to go on the air to talk about how much he misses his wife. Hundreds of women from around the country hear the program, and touched by the story, write to Sam.
Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), a Baltimore Sun reporter, is listening and though engaged to Walter, feels there is something missing. After watching the 1957 film An Affair to Remember (starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr) Annie  writes a letter suggesting that Sam meet her on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day.

The film borrows from An Affair to Remember in using both its theme song and clips from the film in critical scenes. The climactic meeting at the top of the Empire State Building is a reference to a reunion between Grant and Kerr’s characters
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You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) is the owner of a bookstore chain; Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns a small bookstore that his company is trying to shut down. They meet online through email the woman he falls for online. Both are unaware that they are business rivals.
The film is a remake of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner which starred James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

There was also a 1949 musical remake, In the Good Old Summertime starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

It's turn of the century America when Andrew Larkin (Johnson) and Veronica Fisher (Garland) meet by crashing into each other; he destroys her hat and they develop an instant and mutual dislike which intensifies. Later on, Andrew is forced to hire Veronica as a saleslady at Oberkugen's music store. What the two don't know is that while they argue and fight during the day, they are engaged in an innocent, romantic and completely anonymous relationship through the post office.

What are Your Valentine’s weekend plans?