The Greatest Movies About Love
No sugar coated romcoms, but intimate and gripping movies about real love. These are my favourite movies about love that everyone should see.
After seeing the period drama Elizabeth: The Golden Age I changed my wallpaper to a still in which the two main characters galloped away together on horseback. My boss walked passed and cried out ‘but you don’t even like romance!’ I was rather dumb struck, because I most definitely do. But no, I do not participate in Valentines’ Day, I only call my husband ‘dear’ in a purely sarcastic way and I have a deep founded hatred for romcoms. Movies like Love Actually are supposedly the ultimate love movies, but the clichés and stereotypes with which these sort of movies are packed, leave a nauseating taste in my mouth. Original movies that focus on the universal concept of love and in which the connection between people touches you deep inside; those are my kind of romcoms. Below are my favourites which everyone should see.
Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight
I saw the first part of this trilogy together with my grandfather in 1996. Deeply impressed we discussed it for hours afterwards and my grandfather said ‘what these two people have, that is real love. I hope you find this in your life.’ What Jesse and Celine share goes further than a crush or a fling. There is a deep connection between them that is empathized by the long takes and austere background. Being able to talk for hours, but also enjoy silence together. Laughing till it hurts, but also have passionate fights. And the feeling that the whole world around you is slowly disappearing when you are together. My grandfather was right; that is what real love is.
I believe if there is any kind of God, it wouldn’t be in any of us, not you or me, but just this little space in between.
Only Lovers Left Alive
I will gladly admit it; I am a sucker (pun intended) for vampire movies in all shapes or form. But you don’t have to be into the genre to appreciate this movie about a vampire couple. Even though Adam and Eve have been together for centuries, they deal with relatable mundane problems; depression, long distant relations and in-laws. But in spite of these problems nothing is as strong as their love and together they can conquer the world. This becomes clear in a scene where they reunite after a long time and dance to seventies song Trapped By A Thing Called Love. Through their eye contact and synchronized moves they give away their centuries old love and intimacy.
You’ve been pretty lucky in love, though, if I may say so.
L’écume Des Jours
This is a typical love it or hate it movie because of the surreal elements that director Michel Gondry applies in his movies. But even if this strange imaginative setting is not your thing, do give this movie a chance to experience the intense love between Chloé and Colin. Let yourself be carried away in their own simple fantasy world that slowly changes around them as their lives and happiness also do. Unfortunately with an unavoidable tragic ending, but with an abundance of romance that will not let you go.
If we screw this moment, we try the next. And if we fail the next… we have our whole lives to get it right.
Away We Go
The idea of travelling the world, or in this case the US, to find a place where you belong and want to raise your child, really appeals to me. If I was planning to have kids, I would go about it exactly as in this movie. While Burt and Verona are on their road trip, along the way they learn a lot about themselves, their dreams and their past. One of the strongest aspects of their relationship is that they are each others best friends and that they don’t take themselves too seriously.
No one is in love like us, right?
