The 40 best romantic movies ever

History has left us great titles within romantic cinema, from those characterized by the drama, passing through those with stories that border on the fantastic, to the most eccentric.

Here we propose a list of the 40 best romantic films in history, a selection of films in which love takes center stage, ordered in descending order, from best to worst, ideal for all pleasures.

1. Casablanca (1942)

Direction: Michael Curtiz
Gender: drama
Ideal for: delve into one of the best classic romantic film titles of all time.

In the middle of World War II, Rick Blaine is the owner of a nightclub in Casablanca. Soon Victor Laszlo, leader of the resistance against the Nazis, arrives in town with his wife Ilsa who turns out to be a love from Rick's past and whom he had met in Paris.

2. Singing in the Rain (1952)

Direction: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Gender: musical
Ideal for: enjoy a love story to the rhythm of unforgettable musical numbers and some of the most fabulous scenes in cinema.

Singing under the rain It is one of the great musicals in the history of cinema. It is a film whose story takes place in the midst of the transition from silent to sound cinema.

Don is a silent movie star alongside his partner Lamont. The arrival of sound means that the production they had planned has to be transformed into a musical one. Soon, the protagonist meets Kathy, a young theater actress who, in principle, is not interested in movies but ends up dubbing Lamont's voice, which is not very pleasant for him. sound film.

3. The Apartment (1960)

Direction: Billy Wilder
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: delight in a mythical love triangle while enjoying a bit of humor and a dose of social criticism.

Billy Wilder manages to perfectly combine genres such as drama, satirical comedy and romantic comedy.

DC Baxter is a worker for an insurance company and lives in a small apartment, which occasionally grants his superiors to arrange their love affairs there extramarital. Everything changes when he meets Fran Kubelik, the mistress of his boss. This film highlights themes such as loneliness, love, heartbreak and makes a critique of American society at the time.

4. Philadelphia Stories (1940)

Direction: George Cukor
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: enjoy a good sophisticated comedy where elegance, subtlety and good dialogues predominate with which you will laugh and get excited.

The film focuses on Trancy Lord, a young woman who is about to marry a second time to George Kittredge, a wealthy man. The day before the link, CK Dextle, Trancy's ex-husband, appears, who is willing to resume the relationship with her. On the other hand, Mike Connor is the guest reporter to immortalize the wedding, he goes with Elizabeth, photographer, who are looking for scandals to publish.

5. Annie Hall (1977)

Direction: Woody Allen
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: have fun with a good dose of gags and neurotic characters in the purest Woody Allen style, all without filling yourself with love.

The film stars Alvy, a somewhat manic nightclub comedian who, when he reaches 40, begins to reflect on his life. He remembers the love of him and, especially, how was his relationship with Annie.

6. Brief Encounter (1945)

Direction: David lean
Gender: drama
Ideal for: attend one of the most moving films of the romantic genre in the history of cinema.

Laura is a married woman with a monotonous life. One day, she meets by chance at the train station a man named Alec Harvey, also married. Soon, a friendship arises between them and they meet weekly at the station to chat while they wait for the train to take them back to their respective homes. Later, that friendship turns into a passionate secret love affair.

Brief encounter is a film that remains intact over time and that has served as a point of reference for such mythical films as Apartment.

7. Eternal Radiance of a Memoryless Mind (2004)

Direction: Michael gondry
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a cult film within the romantic and science fiction genre. Also, you will love it if you are more into non-linear narratives.

This film, also known by the title of Forget about me!, revolves around Clementine and Joel, a couple who, after having gone through a complicated relationship, separate. Clementine has had all memories erased with Joel undergoing a process of memory loss. When the man finds out, he decides to do the same as his ex-partner. However, this will only cause them to fall in love with each other again.

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8. Her (2013)

Direction: Spike Jonze
Gender: Science fiction
Ideal for: experiencing another kind of love in cyber times.

Is it possible to fall in love with an operating system? This film revolves around Theodore, a man who works as a writer of love letters for other people. However, his life is marked by loneliness since he divorced. Soon, she acquires an operating system, Samantha, with which she begins a romantic relationship.

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9. It Happened One Night (1934)

Direction: Frank Capra
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: witness a wacky comedy full of ridiculous situations that seem improvised and fast-paced.

Ellen Andrews, a young woman related to high society, manages to escape from her controlling father to reunite with her beloved father. In his adventure he ends up on a bus where he meets Peter Warne, an unemployed reporter looking for a story to tell. He soon becomes interested in the young woman's life and wants to help her in exchange for turning her story into an exclusive.

This tape is one of the most outstanding screwball comedy, a subgenre that served as an alternative escape from reality during the Great Depression and that continues to have its effects today

10. Portrait of a Woman on Fire (2019)

Direction: Céline Sciamma
Gender: drama
Ideal for: get emotionally involved in a story of outstanding, poetic and intimate sensitivity and with a great connection between performers.

Set in France in the 18th century, this film focuses on Marianne, a painter who has to create a commissioned wedding portrait of Héloïse, who is forced to marry and does not wish to pose.

Marianne has to find a way to paint it in secret, so she decides to investigate it daily and pretends to be a lady in waiting to paint it at night. Soon their relationship becomes closer and a strong attraction arises between them.

11. Wall-E (2008)

Direction: Andrew Stanton
Gender: Science fiction
Ideal for: be enchanted with an original love story between robots, ideal to enjoy at any age and, especially, as a family.

In the year 2800 the planet Earth is devastated. Wall-E is a robot that has the task of collecting garbage and waste generated by the population during centuries of consumerism. Soon EVA arrives, a robot in charge of finding out if life on the planet is possible again. As they travel throughout the galaxy and have different adventures, a love story arises between them.

12. Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Direction: Luca guadagnino
Gender: drama
Ideal for: experience a sensitive and introspective journey into adolescence and first love.

Call me by your name is the homonymous adaptation of the novel by André Acima. The film is set in northern Italy, during the summer of 1983. Elio is a 17-year-old young man who lives with his family in a country house. Soon, Oliver comes as a guest to the house as a PhD student who will help Elio's father over the summer. This time will help Elio and Oliver get to know each other and love will emerge between them.

13. Wanting to love (2000)

Direction: Wong kar-wai
Gender: drama
Ideal for: Avoid the typical romantic movie in which the triumph of love is the goal to be achieved. Here love is not a matter of time, it is something that is desired, but never comes.

Two neighbors, a woman and a man, each living with their respective spouses, start a friendship. Soon, both will discover that their partners are having an affair. Instead, even though they begin to care for each other as more than just friends, they don't want to act like their respective partners.

14. Love (2012)

Direction: Michael Haneke
Gender: drama
Ideal for: experience an unconditional love story through good times and bad.

The story centers on Anne and Georges, two retired music teachers. One day Anne suffers a heart attack that produces paralysis on one side of her body and also prevents her from speaking. This fact will put your love to the test.

15. Up (2009)

Direction: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Gender: adventure
Ideal for: enjoy a story of love and unconditional friendship between a child and an old man, which shows that friendship is ageless. It contains a prologue capable of bristling the skin and putting a lump in the throat.

An old man who has lived alone since his wife died manages to fulfill his dream: to travel to South America making his house fly, thanks to some balloons. Russell, a boy who loves to explore joins the journey. Although the film does not focus exclusively on the love story of the old man and his wife, it does contain one of the Most emotional introductions of recent animated film that focuses on the beautiful love relationship between the protagonist and his wife.

16. The Life of Adèle (2013)

Direction: Abdellatif Kechiche
Gender: drama
Ideal for: delve into a story that was controversial at the time of its premiere for breaking taboos.

This film is an adaptation of the graphic novel "Blue is a warm color" by Julie Maroh. It focuses on the experience of Adèle, a 15-year-old girl who believes that it is normal for her to have to go out with boys. Until he meets Emma, ​​a young woman with whom he will fall in love and will help him to know himself, also to face the prejudices that surround him. It is a film that is not only about love but about the difficulties of growing up.

17. Cold War (2018)

Direction: Pawel Pawlikowski
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a passionate and moving love story between incompatible people while, between tears, you admire the splendid monochrome photography of her.

In post-war times, love is forged between Wiktor, musical theater director, and Zula aspiring to a future musical project. Soon their opposing personalities and political differences, among other misfortunes, end up separating them. But fate is determined to keep them together in difficult times.

18. Eleven (2007)

Direction: John carney
Gender: drama
Ideal for: experience all kinds of sensations through this musical journey while enjoying a story about soul mates.

Glen is a busker who performs his songs on the streets of Dublin. In some of her topics, she talks about her bad experience in a past relationship. Marketa Iglova is a young Czech woman who sells flowers on the street and also writes heartbreak songs, however she never performs them. One day Glen and Marketa wind up unexpectedly doing a duet at a music store and it makes them see that they have a lot in common.

19. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Direction: Ang lee
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy the western aesthetic while you attend an emotional and sad love story.

Brokeback Mountain tells the love story between two cowboys, Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist meet during the summer of 1963. They soon establish a relationship that goes beyond friendship. At the end of the summer, they both take different paths and marry other people. After four years they understand that, although their lives have changed, their love remains constant over time.

20. Carol (2015)

Direction: Todd Haynes
Gender: drama
Ideal for: Get involved in a melodrama reminiscent of the classics as you watch a visually and narratively exquisite show with sublime performances.

This drama, starring two disparate women, is set in New York during the 1950s. Therese is a 20-year-old girl who works as a clerk in a department store. Carol is a distinguished woman locked in a frustrated marriage with a daughter in between. Soon a story emerges between them that will revolutionize their lives and that will put the custody of Carol's daughter at stake.

21. Breakfast at Diamonds (1961)

Direction: Blake edwards
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a sophisticated romantic comedy full of humor that contains a captivating soundtrack and one of those characters that remain eternal within the history of cinema.

Holly Golightly is a young woman who lives in New York and has a habit of having breakfast every day in front of Tiffanys, a luxury jewelry store. On the surface, her life seems happy, although in reality it is not. Paul Varjak is his new neighbor in his apartment building, a writer in search of success. Everything changes the moment their paths cross.

22. Amélie (2001)

Direction: Jean- Pierre Jeunet
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: dream as you did in childhood. Amélie it is a story that promises fantasy in reality.

Amélie is a twenty-two-year-old girl convinced to help those around her. In her life, she has seen a fish slide down the sewers, her mother perish in the Place de Nôtre-Dame and her father dedicate all his time to a gnome that she has in the garden. For this reason, the young woman has decided to devise all kinds of skills to intervene in other people's lives without anyone noticing, all in order to improve them. Soon, Nino Quimcapoix appears and the girl is fascinated. Suddenly everything she has done for others seems to come back in her favor.

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23. Before Dawn (1995)

Direction: Richard Linklater
Gender: drama
Ideal for: immerse yourself in a magical story about the first times and love at first sight.

It is the first installment of the film trilogy Before which was settled years later with titles such as Before sunset (2004) and Before nightfall (2013), where the protagonists experience the different stages of love over time.

Celine is a young student who travels from Budapest to Paris by train. In the wagon he meets a young journalist named Jesse, who has just broken up with his girlfriend. When they arrive in Vienna Jesse must get off to fly from there to his country, the United States. Due to the chemistry that has emerged between them on the way, Jesse asks Celine to stay with him in Vienna until the next day. The girl agrees and, as they discover the city during that day, a love story will emerge between them. The film is more than a love story, it also reflects on life, death and fears of the future.

24. Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Direction: David lean
Gender:
Ideal for: enjoy one of the highest-grossing love stories in film history, a romance that knows no boundaries or ideologies.

The film revolves around Yuri Zhivago, a wealthy doctor whose vocation is poetry. Before going to war he marries his girlfriend Tonya, but during the war he meets Lara, a woman married to a political activist, with whom he falls deeply in love.

25. Eduardo Scissorhands (1990)

Direction: Tim Burton
Gender: fantastic
Ideal for: witness an atypical love story that combines fantasy and romance.

Eduardo Scissorhands is an artificial man who has blades instead of hands, since when he was created by his inventor, his construction was left incomplete. One day, he meets a girl who decides to take him to his house with his family, a beautiful love story will also arise between them. However, the arrival of Eduardo to the town gives rise to different reactions found among the inhabitants.

26. Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Direction: Elia kazan
Gender: drama
Ideal for: witness a tender, fleeting and unhappy love story that seems to reaffirm the verses of Ode to immortality by William Wordsworth.

During the Great Depression, Deanie and Bud meet and love arises between them. Young people want to get married as soon as possible, but they do not have the support of their parents. Bud must go to the university at the request of his father, there the young man meets other classmates. When Deanie finds out she tries to take her life and is admitted to a sanitarium. Years later the young people meet and their lives have completely changed.

27. Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998)

Direction: Julio Medem
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a deep and complex film that tells a love story through three stages different: childhood, adolescence and youth from two different points of view, that of Ana and that of Otto.

This film revolves around a romance that spans the years. Ana and Otto have known each other since they were children when they went to school together. In adolescence they become stepbrothers when Ana's mother marries Otto's father, however they live their love in hiding. Their relationship goes through different ups and downs until, finally, they manage to meet in Finland, in a cabin on the edge of the Polar Circle.

28. The Shape of Water (2017)

Direction: Guillermo del Toro
Gender: fantastic
Ideal for: attend an impossible love story with a fairytale aesthetic.

Elisa is a young woman who works in a high security facility during the Cold War. She soon, she in one of the rooms of the place she discovers an amphibian man with whom they are doing experiments and with whom she ends up falling in love.

29. Like water for chocolate (1992)

Direction: Alfonso Arau
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a delicious herd love story amid the aroma of rich Mexican cuisine.

Based on the novel by Laura Esquivel, this film tells the story of a girl named Tita, the who, due to family tradition, cannot marry because he must remain by her mother's side until the day that die. She is in love with Pedro, who ends up married to Tita's sister. The young woman will suffer several years for Pedro's love, however, her story will exceed the passage of time.

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30. Under the Same Star (2014)

Direction: Josh boone
Gender: drama
Ideal for: relive adolescent love and shed the odd tear

It is based on the homonymous novel by John Green and her story revolves around Hazel, a young woman who is ill with cancer with a somewhat routine life to which she adds the overprotection of her parents. Soon he meets Gus and his reality changes completely

It is an exciting film that explores first love, tragedy, and happiness. She also invites us to reflect on the importance of valuing life.

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31. 500 days together (2009)

Direction: Marc Web
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: enjoy an unconventional romantic comedy that alternates happy moments with bittersweet ones. Confront expectations and reality.

This film focuses on the story of Tom, a young architect who blindly believes in love. He soon meets Summer, his boss's new secretary, a girl he falls in love with. At that moment we witness the story of his infatuation, his dates, moments of crisis and reproaches.

32. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Direction: Rob reiner
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: entertain you if you like movies in which love is not always synonymous with kitsch. This story contains good humorous touches in its dialogue.

Sally and Harry meet by chance during a car trip from Chicago to New York. It all starts with a conversation about friendship between people of different sex. For Harry, friendship between a man and a woman is not possible. Sally thinks otherwise. From that moment on, a friendly relationship arises between them that lengthens over the years, without wanting to recognize that, in reality, they are in love.

33. The Bridges of Madison (1995)

Direction: Clint eastwood
Gender: drama
Ideal for: experience a journey of conflicting emotions while enjoying one of the unforgettable romantic stories.

In 1965, a National Geographic photographer went to Madison for a photographic job to report on its bridges. There he meets Francesca, a woman who lives with her family on a farm. Soon love arises between them.

34. A star is born (2018)

Direction: Bradley Cooper
Gender: drama
Ideal for: see the transformation of a love story that, since its first version in 1937, has marked different generations with four versions produced. This one will thrill you with Gaga and Cooper's performances and original soundtrack.

A veteran musician named Jackson Maine is going through one of his worst moments because of his addictions. Ally is a young woman with a brilliant musical talent and wants to succeed as a singer. When he is about to abandon her dream, Jack discovers the girl's talent and bets on her. As she helps her get off the ground and her fame grows, Jack tries to fight her own demons.

35. The Danish Girl (2015)

Direction: Tom hooper
Gender: drama
Ideal for: enjoy a story of love, transformation and improvement based on real events.

Set in Copenhagen in 1926, this film tells the story of a marriage of artists Einar and Gerda Wegener. The happy couple's life changes the moment Einar replaces the model that Gerda has to paint in her paintings. At that moment she discovers that she wants to change her sex and the couple undertakes a struggle for transformation, facing the conventions of the time.

36. Notting Hill (1999)

Direction: Roger michell
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: witness how platonic loves can also come true.

William Tacker owns a bookstore in London's popular Notting Hill neighborhood. He has a calm and monotonous life. One day, Anna Scott, one of Hollywood's best-known stars, accidentally walks into the bookstore. William's life changes when he sees the young woman, with whom he falls in love. The moment a possible romance is reported in the press, she has to be torn between a quiet life or the hustle and bustle of fame.

37. The Notebook (2004)

Direction: Nick cassavetes
Gender: drama
Ideal for: Delve into an emotional and sweetened love story that will keep you from letting go of your handkerchief throughout the movie.

The story, told with a flashback technique, centers on a man who goes to visit a woman who is ill and cannot remember her past. At the residence, the man tells the story of two young men, Noa Calhoun and Allie Hamilton, who kept a summer romance and that, due to different social and economic circumstances, they were forced to Finalize.

38. Something to Remember (1993)

Direction: Nora ephron
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: experience the tenderness in the first person if you are a hopeless romantic.

When Sam Baldwin is a widow, she doesn't think about falling in love again. However, her son Jonah wants his father to give love a new chance and decides to call a radio program to tell his story. Several miles away, Annie Reed, a girl about to get married, hears her story and insists on getting to know him.

39. Love actually (2003)

Direction: Richard Curtis
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: enjoy a story with a choral protagonism that promises humor, romance and bittersweet moments in equal measure.

Love Actually it is a compendium of stories that intersect and whose main element is love. The Prime Minister of Great Britain falls in love with Natalie, a young woman who works in his cabinet. A writer who tries to get over a breakup during retirement ends up falling in love with her. These are some of the stories, eight in total, that appear in this film set in London a month before Christmas.

40. Pretty Woman (1990)

Direction: Garry marshall
Gender: comedy
Ideal for: witness a classic romantic comedy par excellence, an entertaining story that does not seek tears. It is ideal to have a good time and enjoy two stars like Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

The film centers on an important businessman who during one of his trips to Los Angeles meets a prostitute named Vivian. The man asks her to live with him in the hotel for a week and accompany him to business events. She agrees and, although they have very different personalities, little by little feelings arise between them.

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