Ghost Patrick Swayze Torrent
If nothing else the popularity of the film Ghost guaranteed a revival of that great love song Unchained Melody. It's always a pleasure when good music is heard on the airways and we have Ghost to thank for this little treasure making a comeback. Ghost also provided Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore with a couple of career roles as a typical yuppie couple settling in Tribeca when tragedy strikes one of them. But as it turns out, that's only the beginning of the story. If you were to describe Ghost I guess the best way you could describe it would be a drama/fantasy with some humorous moments, mostly as a result of the casting of Whoopi Goldberg as a fake psychic. But she comes into the story in the middle of the film. Patrick and Demi, those brat pack alumni are now eager young urban professionals, Demi makes and sells her own pottery and Patrick works in a bank, in the high end area of one, he's not just a teller.
Patrick Swayze, Actor: Ghost. Patrick Wayne Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas. His mother is choreographer Patsy Swayze, owner of a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was also a student. His father was Jesse Wayne Swayze, a chemical plant engineer who passed away in 1982. The clever concept by screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (director of My Life) extends outward into comedy (Swayze's character communicates through a sassy medium played by Whoopi Goldberg, who won an Oscar for this role), horror (the afterlife is populated by hell-bound demons and the like), and romantic complications (a handsome suitor, played.
When we meet them they are starting to fix up their Tribeca loft with one of Swayze's co-workers, Tony Goldwyn. But one fateful night after seeing a performance of MacBeth, Swayze is killed as a result of a street mugging. But was it just that, a simple robbery?
Not by a longshot and Swayze who was killed before his time is angry enough to stay on Earth and find out what really happened. Of course he needs an ally and that's where Whoopi comes in.
Turns out that there might be a little truth in her advertising as a spiritualist and consultant to the dead. Good enough for Whoopi to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the other Oscar Ghost won was for original screenplay. But you won't forget Patrick and Demi as a pair of literal starcrossed lovers. You also know that the universal fates will reunite them because people who care for each other as much as they did aren't destined to stay apart.
I do so love Unchained Melody. Introduced originally by blues singer Al Hibbler in the Fifties it got a revival a decade later by the Righteous Brothers. Tony Bennett also recorded a fine version and after his death a previously unreleased version of it was put out by Bing Crosby's estate. It's a perfect song for the theme for Swayze and Moore. One of the best love stories of the last decade of the last century, despite the tragedy that takes place, Ghost is one feel good motion picture. The imaginative but well-conceived idea of dishing up a romance upon lovers communicating spiritually owing to one of them is dead, was first filmed by Steven Spielberg 8 months before the Ghost's silver screen release. Spielberg's movie Always(1989) had classy use of visuals fulfilling the needs of viewers with mystery-based expectations.
Yet, Always lacked the sense of essential romance concept, despite having the same plot and even the same storyline in Ghost. Originally the idea has been created by Chandler Sprague and David Boehm. However, Ghost accomplished of what 'Always' tried and failed to accomplish. Thanks to the great acting trio of Patrick Swayze + Demi Moore + Whoopi Goldberg, for together they registered indelible moments into Ghost. It is scraped in our memory how in time Molly and Sam happen to keep their thoughts off each others' feelings, and that taught us: 'Love begins with emotions, ends with thoughts'.
On this account they never called off their faith on believing that they will keep an enduring love affair. These indelible scenes in Ghost are conceptually cut where the editing was so impressive that instead of trying to make the story more plausible, it empowered the devotion of lovers onto their relation. The scene which Sam's ghost drew upon Oda Mae's body to break the longing with Molly by kissing her is an imperishable cinematic instant. I was in love with someone, and it was February,2005; we were both watching the Ghost on TV, both talking on the phone.
Then that scene came upon(Sam's ghost kissing Molly in Oda Mae's body), I felt lost deep in my heart seeking the girl I'm talking on the phone. I heard she was crying and sobbing, and keep saying to me: 'I will never forget the first time you kissed me and I don't need to be alive to recall this' Ghost is one timeless romantic masterpiece that had its moments. For me the kissing scene was the best kiss in movies of all time.
MTV had honoured this kiss as well, several years after the release of the movie, as the best kiss in '90s. Superimposing that, the scenes where Oda Mae Brown convinces Molly that Sam's ghost is around her and then Molly reasons with police that Oda Mae knows what nobody is able to know but Sam and herself only, are the scenes that deliver the magic beyond eyes and beyond ears. To watch Ghost is in the to do list of what to do when you're on a date. The imaginative but well-conceived idea of dishing up a romance uponlovers communicating spiritually owing to one of them is dead, wasfirst filmed by Steven Spielberg 8 months before the Ghost's silverscreen release. Spielberg's movie Always(1989) had classy use ofvisuals fulfilling the needs of viewers with mystery-basedexpectations. Yet, Always lacked the sense of essential romanceconcept, despite having the same plot and even the same storyline inGhost.
Originally the idea has been created by Chandler Sprague andDavid Boehm.However, Ghost accomplished of what 'Always' tried and failed toaccomplish. Thanks to the great acting trio of Patrick Swayze + DemiMoore + Whoopi Goldberg, for together they registered indelible momentsinto Ghost.
It is scraped in our memory how in time Molly and Samhappen to keep their thoughts off each others' feelings, and thattaught us: 'Love begins with emotions, ends with thoughts'. On thisaccount they never called off their faith on believing that they willkeep an enduring love affair. These indelible scenes in Ghost areconceptually cut where the editing was so impressive that instead oftrying to make the story more plausible, it empowered the devotion oflovers onto their relation. The scene which Sam's ghost drew upon OdaMae's body to break the longing with Molly by kissing her is animperishable cinematic instant.I was in love with someone, and it was February,2005; we were bothwatching the Ghost on TV, both talking on the phone. Then that scenecame upon(Sam's ghost kissing Molly in Oda Mae's body), I felt lostdeep in my heart seeking the girl I'm talking on the phone.
I heard shewas crying and sobbing, and keep saying to me: 'I will never forget thefirst time you kissed me and I don't need to be alive to recall this'Ghost is one timeless romantic masterpiece that had its moments. For methe kissing scene was the best kiss in movies of all time. MTV hadhonoured this kiss as well, several years after the release of themovie, as the best kiss in '90s. Superimposing that, the scenes whereOda Mae Brown convinces Molly that Sam's ghost is around her and thenMolly reasons with police that Oda Mae knows what nobody is able toknow but Sam and herself only, are the scenes that deliver the magicbeyond eyes and beyond ears.To watch Ghost is in the to do list of what to do when you're on adate. I just finished watching Ghost and I honestly must tell you it was one of the best romances I've ever seen. It was a great film because it blends like every genre together into one amazing movie. The scenes with 'Unchained Melody' will leave you with a chill.
This movie is beautiful and breathtaking. Having only thing Swayze in 'Dirty Dancing,' I must say I was a heck of a lot more impressed by his role in this where he was VERY convincing. You felt like Demi and Pat shared a binding love.
Honestly, the only thing that looked dated were the 'demons'. And it was funny seeing those ancient computers.
Whoopi was hilarious. Even though this movie is 15 years old, it's still wonderful. Highly recommended. I went into Ghost a little apprehensive. I had heard so much about it, and it was supposedly the crowning moment of one of my favorite actresses: Whoopi Goldberg. However, my apprehensions were instantly wiped away. This movie lived up to all of it's praise!
It's the story of two young lovers Sam (Patrick Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore). They have just moved in together. After a night out on the town, Sam is brutally killed by a seemingly random mugger and Molly holds Sam's bloody corpse in her arms- all while Sam's spirit watches. He has been left to wander Earth and desperately try to protect Molly. He gets help from Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) a psychic fraud who has more power than she realized. Together, Sam and Oda Mae begin to piece together the puzzle of Sam's death, and uncover something much more sinister than they ever imagined. The whole cast does an excellent job here.
Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore play the roles of grieving lovers perfectly. Moore is especially affecting.
But it's Whoopi Golberg's fantastic performance as Oda Mae Brown that truly steals the show. Her performance is hilarious and endearing throughout, and she takes the film to an entirely new level. She's really is half of what makes it so good. This, in my opinion, is a great film.
It entertains, it thrills you, and it even moves you. The writing is also excellent. The only place the film suffers is the special effects. Even they are fine- accept for the demons. The demons of the film are laughable. That is one major downfall.
However, it's not bad enough to ruin a film that is one to be treasured. Good fun all around! This may not be a classic, but it comes close. It has one big attribute of most great movies, a lot of great scenes. The story is about Sam, who has a great life, and this movie is the opposite of CLICK.
Unlike that stupid movie, this guy doesn't want to fast forward his life with a beautiful loving wife and great career. But it is taken away from him when he is killed. He becomes a ghost.
And that might be one of only two flaws in the story. Why he can project his needs when billions of other dead souls can't. But a great movie like this endears us to the characters and plot enough so that this is a very trivial flaw. He finds he can communicate with a fake spiritualist (Whoopi, in a role few could do as well), which is the second flaw, since we have a feeling we've seen this character in this instance all too often.
Hoever, again, if the movie is good enough we can overlook this. Without making spoilers, I can only add that the movie satisfies the viewer. There is romance, humor, logic, adventure, suspense, and great scenes. Among the great scenes that make the movie (I'll only mention some) are the scene where Sam follows his friend to the killer's apartment (actually just about every scene with his friend is classic), the scene where Whoopi goes to the bank, the scene where she leaves the bank, the scene where Sam is a ghost in the office with his friend, the scene where the friend hits on Sam's woman, the first scene with the little dark men, the second scene with the little dark men.I could go on and on. What is lost in all of this is one of the greatest emotional bits of capturing character ever, when Sam realizes what is going to happen to an evil man when the little dark men appear the second time, and he expresses true sorrow and compassion for a man who stole so much from him. This is one of the most poignant and heroic scenes ever in any movie I would find it very hard to believe anyone could not enjoy this movie. Truly a winner.
This is a classic. Sam and Molly are a very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theater, they encounter a thief in a dark alley, and Sam is murdered. He finds himself trapped as a ghost and realizes that his death was no accident. He must warn Molly about the danger that she is in. But as a ghost he can not be seen or heard by the living, and so he tries to communicate with Molly through Oda Mae Brown, a psychic who didn't even realize that her powers were real. This film probably has every genre in it.
It has romance, comedy, horror, thriller, mystery, action, suspense, and fantasy! It was really freaky because first you're laughing your head off but then it all turns into a horror film. There were even some 'edge-of-your-seats' scenes! The cinematography of the film is also fantastic! This film is highly entertaining! There are some memorable romantic scenes between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and hilarious scenes mostly done by Whoopi Goldberg, which is one of the most memorable character in the film winning her an Oscar. The three and Tony Goldwyn were great in the film.
As I said, this is a highly entertaining film. It will probably fit well for everyone because of it's various genres. This is one of the best films!
When seeing 'Ghost' 16 years ago with friends, and family I knew that this film would go down as a classic and it did it's one of the 90's best films. The movie in my opinion is so successful because of the many themes it's associated with it's not only a love story, but also this film has plenty of comedic moments while at the same time the main characters face a web of betrayal. The plot is well written with many turns as Patrick Swayze gives a strong performance as a New York City banker, who is gunned down and killed right in front of his sweetheart(Demi Moore)and all of this is over a dirty investment scandal.
'Ghost' then gets very interesting when the Swayze character finds out that the after life does indeed occur! He can see people, but they can't see him! Never fear the only hope is to team with a psychic(Whoopi Goldberg who rightfully wins an Academy-Award for best supporting actress) to uncover the truth behind his murder and to rescue his love(Demi Moore). Overall this movie is a great romance that touches your heart, and makes you appreciate your loved ones especially after their gone.
The laughs are also good with Whoopi and it's nice to see the now late Vincent Schiavelli have a small part as a subway ghost, who helps Patrick believe in his supernatural powers. Overall again one of the best movies of the 90's that taught us love, hope, and made us a believer that our past loved ones could be ghost. Also this picture helped make Demi Moore a superstar in the 90's, as she would earn 12 to 15 million a picture during this decade. I must say this film surprised me. Coming in, I knew nothing about itbut the famous clay-forming scene. I didn't know I was in for such astrong experience.
This film had me from the first few moments of it. Inever lost interest. The plot is so interesting and intriguing, youcan't help but watch, often at the very edge of your seat.
I will saythat I found one twist somewhat predictable, but maybe I've just seentoo many later movies before watching this. There is a lot of suspensein this film. When I found that it was directed by a Zucker(yup.Airplane and so forth), I was somewhat doubtful as to any other qualityin the film than the humor of it. If you're reading this and you'rethinking the same, trust me; he pulls it off. There arefew, if any, flaws in directing. The writing is solid.
At times, thereseemed to be a little too much humor and some scenes were maybe a tadlong, but apart from that, there was not really anything with this filmthat was flawed. The score is great. The pacing is incredibly good. Theacting is really good all-round. Goldberg provides a lot of comicrelief, without being obnoxious. Moore and Swayze have magnificentchemistry, you truly believe them as a couple.
The special effects aregrand, yet they don't take over the movie. This is driven by theemotions, by how the plot affects these characters. I was completelyinto this movie all the way. The humor is very good and surprisinglytasteful for the theme. Much of it is derived from the situation ofSwayze's character and his interaction with environment and othercharacters. All in all, just a very impressive film.
I recommend thisto any fan of drama, romance, comedy, thriller or fantasy, as well asanyone interested in seeing a non-parody Zucker film and fans of theactors. GHOST, in my opinion, is an excellent romance about true love thatlasts eternally. When Sam (Patrick Swayze) got mugged, I got reallyscared.
You'll have to see the movie if you want to know why. If youask me, Maurice Jarre's score is absolutely beautiful. To me, Carl(Tony Goldwyn) was a very creepy guy. Also, Willie (Rick Aviles) wasjust as scary as he was.
I was amazed at the way Sam could step throughanything in his ghostly state. All in all, everyone involved in thisfilm did an outstanding job. In conclusion, if you like Patrick Swayzeor Demi Moore, this is definitely a movie to see. You will really betouched by it. Certain movies will just always be hard to write a review for.
You cangive your opinion and say what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy but I findmyself hesitating in certain aspects just because a classic must beleft some space to be a classic. Ghost as far as I'm concerned willforever be a romantic classic. It's sheer brilliance is it's twists, itis incredibly, deeply, romantic and at the same time terrifying, andhas an underlying story that is never fully explored. It's got action,mystery, horror, and at the heart is the pure, simplistic romance of itall.The story is about an investment banker played by Patrick Swayze andhis girlfriend, played by Demi Moore. Sam and Molly are deeply in love,planning for the future and happier in their lives than ever before.Until Sam discovers laundered money in investment accounts. He isrobbed and subsequently murdered for his password to the computer inorder to empty the laundered money from the accounts. But Sam doesn'tgo the other side.
He is kept on earth in spirit form because of hisunfinished business both with Molly and to discover his murderer. Hemust learn the ropes of being a ghost and nobody else can hear himuntil he runs into a so called psychic who scams people into believingshe can contact their dearly departed. However it turns out, Oda MaeBrown played in her academy award winning role by Whoopie Goldberg canactually hear Sam. Together the unlikely team must help each otheruncover the horrible murder plot and save Molly.Swayze and Moore make an incredible couple.hot on screen. Their careershave perhaps slipped since then one might say but this was them attheir best. Swayze was indeed at the top of his game coming out ofDirty Dancing and Roadhouse and Moore was young and a new hot commoditywhich made them undeniably perfect together. Their roles fit themperfectly.
Whoopie Goldberg was hilarious and believable as Oda Mae andher character was such an integral part of the film. Tony Goldwyn playsa great villain as the betrayer of the film.
In a short time directorJerry Zucker establishes a best friendship between Goldwyn and Swayze,a deeply loving relationship between Swayze and Moore, and a plot linethat goes far beneath the movie. Obviously Goldwyn's character is beingused by a much higher up criminal to launder money although we neversee him. Is he being blackmailed? Something held over hishead? Maybe he's not the bad guy but rather forced to commit theseacts? It's a big job because we also know Willie Lopez played by RickAviles is involved in this as well.
And deeper than that we have thetheology in the film. The light brings good people to the afterlife andthe dark shadowy beings torture the evil.This film is one of a few that is endlessly watchable meaning you cansit down any time and watch it through over and over and over againwhich is exactly what makes it a classic. It has it's holes, it has towith a plot like that.
And it has it's disturbing moments, a gratituousdeath scene, a make out scene which although features Swayze and Mooreis actually Demi and Whoopi.you have to see it to understand it. Alsoif Sam Wheat must learn how to physically touch things in his ghostform.how does he sit, walk, etc before he learns that?
And his firstexperience with walking through a door happens days after his death.I'm sure sometime between then and that point he would have had to havewalked through something. Perhaps those are minor points but they arethings that will come up especially if you have seen it as many timesas I have.The film is a must see and if you haven't seen it, go watch it rightnow!! Because it's one of those staples of films that everyone mustknow about. Ghost is amazing!! 9/10Happy Anniversary to my beautiful Sam.we watched Ghost together lastnight.
Certain movies will just always be hard to write a review for. You can give your opinion and say what you enjoyed or didn't enjoy but I find myself hesitating in certain aspects just because a classic must be left some space to be a classic. Ghost as far as I'm concerned will forever be a romantic classic. It's sheer brilliance is it's twists, it is incredibly, deeply, romantic and at the same time terrifying, and has an underlying story that is never fully explored. It's got action, mystery, horror, and at the heart is the pure, simplistic romance of it all. The story is about an investment banker played by Patrick Swayze and his girlfriend, played by Demi Moore. Sam and Molly are deeply in love, planning for the future and happier in their lives than ever before.
Until Sam discovers laundered money in investment accounts. He is robbed and subsequently murdered for his password to the computer in order to empty the laundered money from the accounts. But Sam doesn't go the other side.
He is kept on earth in spirit form because of his unfinished business both with Molly and to discover his murderer. He must learn the ropes of being a ghost and nobody else can hear him until he runs into a so called psychic who scams people into believing she can contact their dearly departed. However it turns out, Oda Mae Brown played in her academy award winning role by Whoopie Goldberg can actually hear Sam. Together the unlikely team must help each other uncover the horrible murder plot and save Molly.
Swayze and Moore make an incredible couple.hot on screen. Their careers have perhaps slipped since then one might say but this was them at their best. Swayze was indeed at the top of his game coming out of Dirty Dancing and Roadhouse and Moore was young and a new hot commodity which made them undeniably perfect together.
Their roles fit them perfectly. Whoopie Goldberg was hilarious and believable as Oda Mae and her character was such an integral part of the film. Tony Goldwyn plays a great villain as the betrayer of the film. In a short time director Jerry Zucker establishes a best friendship between Goldwyn and Swayze, a deeply loving relationship between Swayze and Moore, and a plot line that goes far beneath the movie. Obviously Goldwyn's character is being used by a much higher up criminal to launder money although we never see him.
Is he being blackmailed? Something held over his head? Maybe he's not the bad guy but rather forced to commit these acts? It's a big job because we also know Willie Lopez played by Rick Aviles is involved in this as well. And deeper than that we have the theology in the film.
The light brings good people to the afterlife and the dark shadowy beings torture the evil. This film is one of a few that is endlessly watchable meaning you can sit down any time and watch it through over and over and over again which is exactly what makes it a classic. It has it's holes, it has to with a plot like that. And it has it's disturbing moments, a gratituous death scene, a make out scene which although features Swayze and Moore is actually Demi and Whoopi.you have to see it to understand it. Also if Sam Wheat must learn how to physically touch things in his ghost form.how does he sit, walk, etc before he learns that? And his first experience with walking through a door happens days after his death. I'm sure sometime between then and that point he would have had to have walked through something.
Perhaps those are minor points but they are things that will come up especially if you have seen it as many times as I have. The film is a must see and if you haven't seen it, go watch it right now!! Because it's one of those staples of films that everyone must know about. Ghost is amazing!! 9/10 Happy Anniversary to my beautiful Sam.we watched Ghost together last night. The motion picture concerns upon the starring's killing (Patrick Swayze) who returns from beyond to save his lover (Demi Moore) harassed by a devious killer.
He's helped by a likable psychic (Woopy Goldberg). In the film there are a wonderful love story, humor, tearjerker, suspense, action and a little bit of horror. Runtime film is appropriate, isn't slow-moving but adjusted and the movie is very entertaining. Woopy Goldberg's interpretation is fantastic and humorous, she was Oscar winner to the category for supporting cast, a very well deserved prize.
The lover couple, Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, are riveting but overblown sweets. Maurice Jarre musical score is fascinating but principal song is copied from Alex North's theme. Direction by Jerry Zucker is first class, better than his previous films like ¨Airplane¨, ¨Top secret¨ or ¨Ruthless people¨. The movie will appeal to fantasy buffs and love stories fans.
Rating: 6,5/10. Good and well worth watching. I well remember the moment I realised that Ghost was a good film. It was several years since 1990, and I had written it off as a pointless chick flick. Then two female friends decided to watch it and, having nothing better to do, I cynically sat down to watch it with them. When I started to borrow tissues, I knew I'd been wrong. It may star two of the biggest has-beens in Hollywood today, but you can't deny the emotional power of this love story from beyond the grave, somehow keeping its punch even when competing against a comedy sub-plot about a `sassy' psychic.
And remember the ugly guy on the train, too. A cheesy classic, but a classic nonetheless. I cant believe all the people who are slamming this movie for bad actingormiscasting. Its a wonderful movie and demi moore and patrick swayze dogreat.Whoopi gives her oscar winning performance in force as a psychic whohelps the ghostly swayze avenge his murder.I couldnt believe the user whocommented that they wish they could go back in time and recast with nicolekidman and jason patric as the leads -WRONG. Now that would be moronicrecasting esp jason patric?
Who the hell is he? Some beverly hills 90210punk and nicole kidman would not pass for the sweatshirt type womanperiod.great movie ignore the naysayers. It may be easy to write this fantasy/love story off as a bloatedbox-office winner with a heart of F/X, however the performances are sowinning, and the Oscar-winning script so satisfying, I can't believe itdoesn't rate higher with viewers. Murdered businessman (Patrick Swayze,not a good actor but doing OK here) sets out in ghostly form to bringhis killers to justice-and to watch out over his lovely girlfriend(Demi Moore, hitting all the right notes of a grieving lover).
WhoopiGoldberg won a Supporting Oscar as a fake medium and Tony Goldwyn isuncanny as a slimeball ex-friend (his sniveling is so convincing it mayhave cost him real-life celebrity). Extremely well-directed by JerryZucker-in anybody else's hands, this might have turned to mush.1/2from. This is a must see movie.
The movie fits with practically every Genre. It's sad, funny, romantic, and violent.
Watch Ghost Patrick Swayze
It takes place in some of the roughest places in New York, that is clear when you see the buildings in the inside of a house. The lead characters are Sam(Patrick Swayze) and Molly(Demi Moore). They are very much in love but when Sam is killed right before Molly's eyes by Willie(Rick Avilles), who turns out to the hitman and Sam's best friend Carl(Tony Goldwyn), Sam's ghost knows he has work to do before he goes to Heaven. He discovers Oda Mae Brown(Whoopi Goldberg), who is the only person who can hear his voice. And he manages to annoy her into trying to convince Molly to believe that Sam is telling her to watch out for the murderers.
Molly struggles with whether or not to believe her because Oda Mae mentions private things between her and Sam. Patrick Swayze is very charmingly romantic, Whoopi Goldberg is very funny, and Tony Goldwyn is an awesome bad guy.
We've already counted down. But romantic films aren't always schmaltzy lovefests. In fact, romance movies can be downright devastating, leaving you sobbing your heart out on the sofa as the credits roll. That's because along with love comes heartbreak.Of course, we all love to indulge ourselves now and again with a weep movie. So, we've picked 33 films out of our list of 100 best romances that we believe deserve the label of heartbreaking. Be warned: you'll need a box of tissues and a hug after watching these.Recommended. Director: Marc WebbCast: Joseph Gordon Levitt, Zooey DeschanelBest quote: 'This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.'
Director: Ang LeeCast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne HathawayBest quote: 'I wish I knew how to quit you.' Defining moment: When Jack and Ennis make love in a tent.A camp romanceDamn, Heath Ledger. Newly plucked from shallow teen-heartthrob-dom, Ledger was just beginning to explore his own remarkable potential when his career was brutally cut short. But between the unhinged mania of ‘The Dark Knight’ and his heartbreakingly composed turn here, we get some measure of the possibilities.
And ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is, at heart, a film about possibilities, and the different ways they’re crushed and crippled by an uncaring world. Ang Lee’s film could so easily have been a polemic, a film painstakingly designed to play on prejudice. Instead, it plays mercilessly with the heartstrings – there are few more honest depictions of stifled love in cinema. Director: Leos CaraxCast: Juliette Binoche, Denis LavantBest quote: 'Paris can stay in bed.' Defining moment: Alex and Michele dance along the bridge and waterski down the Seine to a backdrop of fireworks, Strauss and Iggy Pop during a Bastille Day celebration.Paris when it sizzles'Les Amants du Pont-Neuf' ('The Lovers on the Bridge') is Leos Carax's valentine to amour fou, Paris and his then-partner Juliette Binoche.
And it's as rapturous and irrational as true love itself. Even the story of its production is something of a romantic tragedy: three years in the making and spiralling wildly over budget as Carax reconstructed Paris’s iconic Pont-Neuf Bridge in the south of France, it's the kind of grand artistic expression that must fail in order to succeed.The simple love story – between two bohemian bums, one a derelict fire-eater and one a painter losing her eyesight – could be the stuff of silent melodrama, but Carax crams it with sound and colour to the point of delirious sensory ecstasy. Directors: Pete Docter, Bob PetersonCast: Ed Asner, Christopher PlummerBest quote: 'You don't talk much. Defining moment: It’s all about the opening ten minutes, as we follow Carl and Ellie from childhood, through years of happy marriage ‘til death does them part.The story of usIt’s remarkable that ‘Up’ has managed to sneak into the all-time top 25 romantic movies on the strength of a single 10-minute sequence, but it’s also testament to the extraordinary power this Pixar classic possesses.It could’ve been so cutesy, so saccharine: a geeky kid with coke-bottle glasses dreams of being an explorer.
The girl down the street wants the same thing. They grow up, fall in love, years pass, and we see the highs and lows of their life together: marriage, family, work, sickness, eventually death – a tapestry of honest emotion and meaning (and this, lest we forget, is a kids’ movie). The rest of ‘Up’ is ‘only’ hilarious and smart – but that opening is romance itself. Director: Baz LuhrmannCast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire DanesBest quote: 'A plague on both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me.' Defining moment: DiCaprio and Danes making loved-up eyes at each other through the glass and water of a fish tank.From the Globe to the ghettoBaz Luhrmann had some cast-iron source material to work with in the form of Shakespeare’s story – but the Australian writer-director took the playwright’s romantic tragedy to another place entirely with this ultra-modern reworking.
At the same, he never lost sight of the essence of Shakespeare’s tale of two young lovers doomed from the first time they lay eyes on each other.The moment that Romeo (DiCaprio, so young!) and Juliet (Danes, so young too!) meet at a wild fancy-dress party is pure bliss to watch, just as Luhrmann’s staging of the final death scene is almost impossible to bear. There are guns, hip-hop, open-topped cars and characters so larger-than-life that the whole thing now, in retrospect, feels like Tarantino directing a season-finale episode of ‘Dynasty’.
It’s mad, musical and immensely moving. Director: Michael HanekeCast: Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Louis TrintignantBest quote: 'Please never take me back to the hospital Promise Promise me.' Defining moment: When Anne suddenly freezes in the kitchen one morning.Looks like we made it to the endThe saddest film on this list is Michael Haneke’s portrait of the end of a marriage, as Parisians Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) face the inevitability of parting after almost a lifetime together. But while its central concern may be death, Haneke’s drama isn’t depressing. ‘Amour’ is a film about the connections between people, and how those bonds are the thing that makes life worth living. The performances are flawless, the script is razor-sharp and insightful. This might be the perfect heartbreaker.
Director: Anthony MinghellaCast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott ThomasBest quote: 'Swoon, I'll catch you.' Defining moment: The last kiss in the firelit Saharan cave, just after the Count tells the doomed Katherine he’ll never leave her – a promise they both know he can’t keep.Desert songElaine from ‘Seinfeld’’s rant against ‘The English Patient’ essentially destroyed Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-guzzler for a generation of viewers – making it become a byword for lengthy, handsomely sluggish prestige cinema. But watch it again, and you’ll see how undeserved that reputation is. Deftly adapting Michael Ondaatje’s novel of passion, grief and regret at either end of World War II, Minghella translated the novel’s lyrical prose into extra-sensory visual language. It’s the rare screen romance with a vivid sense of touch, of skin caressed, between both Ralph Fiennes’s and Kristin Scott Thomas’s desert lovers, and Juliette Binoche and Naveen Andrews’s worn, disconsolate drifters of war. And whatever Elaine says, that cave tryst and tragic farewell still makes many of us misty all over.
Director: Michael MannCast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine StoweBest quote: 'Stay alive. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you.' Defining moment: Declaring undying love against a thundering waterfall.Hip to be squawIt’s partly about the hair – wild, untamed, immaculately salon-shiny despite many months in the wilderness.
It’s partly about the running – manly men springing through the forest like deer, hatchets raised as they swoop down on their unsuspecting prey. And it’s partly about the guns – muskets, rifles, bayonets, all longer than a man’s arm, billowing smoke and sending another Indian brave to his untimely death.But in Michael Mann’s full-throated adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s timeless adventure story, it’s mainly about the romance.
Love comes in many forms here: shy, gushing, bloody, brotherly, doomed and feisty. And as Daniel Day-Lewis stands beneath that waterfall, bellowing his heart out and promising to track his beloved wherever the fates may take her, you’d need to have a hard heart not to be swept away completely.
Director: James CameronCast: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprioBest quote: 'Where to, Miss?' 'To the stars!' Defining moment: Oh, go on then: the prow scene, where Leo claims to be the king of the world, and just for a moment we all believe him.My heart will go on and on and onFew films inspire as much passion as James Cameron’s epic would-be folly.
Following a troubled production, when the film finally splashed into cinemas, it became the biggest money-spinner of all time, provoking an ocean of housewives’ tears and one of the biggest Oscar hauls in history. Then the backlash hit, like an iceberg in Arctic waters: wait a second, people pointed out, the dialogue’s godawful, the depiction of social class is farcical, and the romance is just join-the-dots Mills and Boon nonsense.So which is true? Well, both, to be fair. ‘Titanic’ is an incredibly involving experience, especially once the ship hits the berg and all hell breaks loose. Sure, it’s about as intellectually valid as a Jilly Cooper novel, but if you’re looking for a high-concept crowd-pleaser with its heart firmly on its sleeve, they don’t come much bigger, sillier or more enjoyable. Director: Andrew HaighCast: Chris New, Tom CullenBest quote: 'I couldn't be more proud of you than if you were the first man on the moon.' Defining moment: When Glen interviews Russell on tape for an art project the morning after the night before.Boy meets boyThis British film, shot on a shoestring, captures in a lively and fresh style the first throes of attraction, passion and maybe even love between two men, Glen (New) and Russell (Cullen), who meet one night in a bar and spend a couple of days and nights together.
They talk, they have sex, they size each other up. Glen is open and chatty, while Russell is more guarded and defensive.Haigh’s film is marked by an immediacy and a sense of tentative exploration that’s rare in depictions of couplings, and by a keen awareness that we project one image on the world and hold another back for ourselves. Not a great deal happens in terms of big events, but the film’s honesty and realism mean that it’s a little film with a lot to say.
Director: Sofia CoppolaCast: Bill Murray, Scarlett JohanssonBest quote: 'Can you keep a secret? I’m trying to organise a prison break. I’m looking for, like, an accomplice.'
Defining moment: Crooning Roxy’s ‘More Than This’ in a Tokyo karaoke bar.Platonic bombPlatonic love can be just as romantic as the boy-girl kind, and there are few better examples of that than Sofia Coppola’s beautiful, hazy ‘Lost in Translation’. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is a photographer’s wife drifting around a Tokyo hotel bored while her husband jets off on assignment. Bob (Bill Murray) is a washed-up American actor reduced to appearing in Japanese whisky ads. The climactic whispering scene is the most talked about (what does Bob tell Charlotte?). But the whole film has a unique and entrancing air of discovery and adventure, as two foreigners find themselves and each other in an intoxicating landscape. Director: Jerry ZuckerCast: Demi Moore, Patrick SwayzeBest quote: 'I love you.
I really love you.' Director: Leo McCareyCast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard DenningBest quote: 'There must be something between us, even if it's only an ocean.'
Defining moment: The unbearable tension in the final reel. We know something Cary Grant is about to find out.Ship to shoreA playboy (Cary Grant) and a chanteuse (Deborah Kerr) fall in love on a transatlantic liner. Both are already attached but when they dock at New York, they agree to meet at the Empire State Building in six months’ time. Such is the set-up for one of Hollywood’s most imperishable romances, which Leo McCarey first directed in 1939 as ‘Love Affair’ (starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne) and remade in 1957 as ‘An Affair to Remember’.There’s another version, 1994’s ‘Love Affair’ – a tepid showcase for Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. But as any fan of ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ will tell you, the 1957 film is the most enduring, allowing Grant to play simmering passion beneath a debonair exterior, while Kerr suggests fervent yearning behind that reserved front. But we defy you not to blub like Meg Ryan.
Director: Jane CampionCast: Abbie Cornish, Ben WhishawBest quote: 'In what stumbling ways a new soul is begun.' Defining moment: The unpromising first meeting between Fanny Brawne (Cornish) and John Keats (Whishaw) is so spiky and sweet it’s like a screwball comedy in period dress.A wild surmiseSometimes the line between disaster and perfection is alarmingly fine. By all rights, ‘Bright Star’ should’ve been awful: a simpering love story between a fey poet and a bolshy society girl, all bulging bodices and whispered nothings. But then Jane Campion grabbed the reins as director, and produced perhaps the most intense and mesmerising romantic film of the century so far, a gorgeous, gossamer-light look at love as living poetry.The Georgian trappings are beautifully designed, but they’re never allowed to overwhelm the story: this could’ve been shot in sackcloth on a sound stage and it would still have been deeply moving.
The two leads are wonderful, but the real acting honours are unexpectedly stolen by Paul Schneider as Keats’ colleague Charles Brown, whose snappy Scots irascibility somehow allows the central romance to shine out all the brighter. Director: Charlie ChaplinCast: Charlie Chaplin, Virginia CherrillBest quote: 'Tomorrow the birds will sing.' Defining moment: The formerly blind flower girl recognises the man she fell in love with by touch alone.The eye of the beholderThe swan song for the silent era arrived several years after talkies had established themselves as dominant, and it came from a giant who insisted that the old ways were poetry enough. Charlie Chaplin was right, of course: ‘City Lights’ is a movie that’s impossible to improve upon, a gorgeous romance between a tramp and a blind flower girl that breathes the rare air of mythic fable.Romantically speaking, the heartbreaker comes in the film’s final seconds, in which the tramp’s identity is finally revealed to his love interest, who can now see. On Chaplin’s face, we see shame intermingling with fear and, ultimately, euphoria. Cribbed by Federico Fellini and Woody Allen for similar endings, it’s the greatest close-up in movie history. Director: Damien ChazelleCast: Ryan Gosling, Emma StoneBest quote: ‘People love what other people are passionate about.’Defining moment: Sebastian and Mia’s flirty tap dance at ‘the magic hour’.Singing, but no rainDamien Chazelle’s modern take on the old Hollywood musical definitely serves up a good portion of cheese, but somehow manages to avoid the trappings of other recent movie musicals; it’s a film that, despite people bursting into song and dance at seemingly random moments, feels genuinely natural.
The pairing of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as Mia and Sebastian, two creative types trying to cut it in Los Angeles, is electric. Both actors acutely capture the way their character’s own desires, ambitions and passions keep the path of true love far from smooth. Their on-screen chemistry, even when the mood sours, leaves a lingering and haunting memory. Director: Elia KazanCast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat HingleBest quote: 'My pride? I don't want my pride!' Defining moment: The young lovers break from their frenzied necking as waters symbolically cascade in the background.Youth in revoltRural Kansas, 1928, when ‘nice’ girls were supposed to hold out until the wedding night.
Every fibre of her being is telling high-schooler Natalie Wood she wants alpha male Warren Beatty right now, but his oil magnate dad has decided she’s too ordinary for marriage. Welcome to a world before contraception, as acclaimed playwright William Inge’s Oscar-winning script puts in place a devastating conflict between fundamental human desires and layers of obfuscating social hypocrisy.Both in their early twenties at the time, Beatty and Wood make a sensual couple, as director Kazan constructs a pristine vision of Americana, played against a coruscating narrative where yearning slides uncontrollably into hysteria. Wood’s startling performance deserved an Oscar but got only a nomination. Director: Mervyn LeRoyCast: Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Virginia FieldBest quote: 'Every parting from you is like a little eternity.' Defining moment: Viv and Bob slow-dancing the ‘Auld Lang Syne Waltz’.They are in paradiseThe young Vivien Leigh will always be remembered for her indomitable Scarlett O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’. But she also displayed heartbreaking fragility in this famous version of Robert E Sherwood’s play, an ill-starred romance ’twixt soldier and ballerina set against the chaos of war.As WWII breaks out, colonel Taylor finds himself on Waterloo Bridge, assailed by memories of his whirlwind love affair in the same city during the Great War. Cue triple-strength schmaltz in the golden-age Hollywood manner as fate comes between the radiant couple, though not before they’ve shared an all-time classic clinch on New Year’s Eve, breathily smooching as lights are extinguished round a darkening dancefloor.
Passion and foreboding in potent harmony. Director: Wong Kar-WaiCast: Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigitte LinBest quote: 'People change. A person may like pineapple today and something else tomorrow.' Defining moment: Faye Wong’s idea of affection involves rearranging cop Tony Leung’s apartment while he’s on the beat.The Wong goodbyeWong Kar-Wai’s third feature remains a perennially fresh declaration of his unique aesthetic, where the accretion of voiceover, music cues, faces and places creates an immersive mood more significant than whatever passes for a plot.In this instance, that involves two sets of would-be lovers – policeman Kaneshiro falls for shady lady Brigitte Lin, while his colleague Leung circles around winsome kebab-stall girl Faye Wong. Still, the idea of actually getting it together is much less headily intoxicating than the sweet ache of a broken heart, or the woozy rush of unconsummated possibility. Meanwhile, Wong’s stop-go camera captures the restless bustle of pre-handover Hong Kong, and the melancholy sway of the original ‘California Dreaming’ sets the seal on an off-hand masterpiece.
TJBuy, rent or watch 'Chungking Express'. Director: David CronenbergCast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena DavisBest quote: 'Help me be human.' Defining moment: The climax. Is there anything more romantic than attempting to fuse on a genetic level with your intended?2 become 1Never underestimate the ability of gross-out director David Cronenberg to elbow his way onto any list, including one that ranks the most romantic movies of all time.
His smart update of the 1950s sci-fi classic certainly brings the gore and Frankenstein-ish doom, but it also wins over our hearts.Real-life couple Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were expertly cast as a brainiac inventor and curious ace reporter. You never blink when they fall into bed together: ‘The Fly’ vibes on its actors’ obvious smarts and nuanced sense of attraction. The endgame is majestically tragic, as science and ego upend the headiest onscreen pairing since Diane Keaton and Woody Allen.
Director: Arthur PennCast: Warren Beatty, Faye DunawayBest quote: 'When we started out, I thought we was really goin' somewhere. We're just goin', huh?' Defining moment: That orgasmic ending, with the two outlaw-lovers going out in an hail of bullets.When they met, it was murderMost great screen romances don’t end with their beautiful lovers dead and speckled with bullet holes, slouched limply like rag dolls on the roadside. But that’s just one of the many rules Arthur Penn’s landmark crime biopic set out to break with cool, even chilling, confidence.
This biopic of the legendary Depression-era bank robbers broke boundaries in terms of on-screen violence. Though it perhaps wasn’t just the bloodshed that unnerved conservative viewers in 1967, but the sensual, borderline erotic kick ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ implicitly shows its eponymous duo to get out of it. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway made for a far glossier, sexier pair than the original gangsters could ever have been, but the raw, carnal charge between them is no feat of Hollywood sanitisation. Director: David LeanCast: Julie Christie, Omar Sharif, Geraldine ChaplinBest quote: 'There's an extraordinary girl at this party.' I'm dancing with her.' Defining moment: Years after their parting, Yuri catches a glimpse of his beloved Lara from a crowded tram and runs after her – a mirror image of his first sighting.A balalaika made for twoIf you’ve got more than three hours to spare, David Lean’s epic, slow-burning adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel takes a snail-paced, sumptuous journey through this romantic tragedy set in pre- and post-revolutionary Russia.
At its heart is the doomed romance between poet Dr Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie), the ex-wife of a Communist revolutionary (Tom Courtenay).As in ‘Gone with the Wind’, great events – the First World War, the 1917 Revolution, the Russian Civil War – rumble in the background, and Lean harnesses all the visual splendour you’d expect from the director of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. How much true passion and romance there is here, though, is debatable and largely a matter of taste.