marți, 12 februarie 2013

The best romantic movies of all times



 A comparison between the best romantic movies of all times

We all want love in our lives, because love is the best sentiment that was given to us. This is the reason why the most successful films are the romantic ones.
But what is a romantic movie? According to Wikipedia romantic films are romantic love stories that focus on passion, emotion and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters and the journey that their genuinely strong, true and pure romantic love takes them through dating, courtship or marriage. Romance films make the romantic love story or the search for strong and pure love and romance the main plot focus. Occasionally, romance lovers face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, various forms of discrimination, psychological restraints or family that threaten to break their union of love. As in all quite strong, deep and close romantic relationships, tensions of day-to-day life, temptations (of infidelity) and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films. Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight, young with older love, unrequited romantic love, obsessive love, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love/ romance, platonic love, sexual and passionate love, sacrificial love explosive and destructive love and tragic love. Romantic films serve as great escapes and fantasies for viewers, especially if the 2 people finally overcome their difficulties, declare their love and experience life 'happily ever after', implied by a reunion and final kiss. In romantic television series, the development of such romantic relationships may play out over many episodes and different characters may become intertwined in different romantic arcs.
          The tone of romance film can vary greatly. Whether the end is happy or tragic, romance film aims to evoke strong emotions in the audience; they can often leave you wishing for a different, happier version of the ending. Fortunately for those of us who still believe in happy endings, there are still enough diehard romantic screenwriters around to write the fairy tale ending to a majority of romance movies.
Common themes include the characters making decisions based on a newly-found romantic attraction. The questions, 'What am I living for?' or 'Why am I with my current partner?' often arise.
The appeal of these films is in the dramatic reality of the emotions expressed by the characters. The most successful romantic film is the 1997 blockbuster Titanic which grossed over $600 million in America and $1.8 billion, worldwide. Another prerequisite is that the film has a happy ending (or at least bittersweet) and many would argue that no film with a sad ending may be correctly defined as romance; however, this second prerequisite is admittedly disputable and many screenwriters and directors will push the boundaries of the genre in this aspect.

Romance sub-genres films:

Romantic-action-comedy – are films that blend romantic comedy and action.

Romantic-comedy (abbreviated as rom coms or romcoms and sometimes known as chick flicks)are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. Humor in such films tends to be of a verbal, low-key variety or situational, as opposed to slapstick. Romantic-comedy film revolves around a romantic ideal, such as true love. In the end the ideal triumphs over the situation or obstacle. Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films and often have elements of screwball comedies and stoner comedies. Romantic comedy can also be used to describe some television series.

Romantic-drama – are films where the plot usually revolves around an obstacle which prevents deep and true romantic love between 2 people. Music is often employed to indicate the emotional mood, creating an atmosphere of greater insulation for the couple. The obstacles in romantic drama film can range from a family's disapproval, to forbidden love, to one's own psychological restraints. Many romantic dramas end with the lovers separating because of the enormity of the obstacle, the realization of incompatibility or simply because of fate.

Romantic-thriller/ horror – the storyline is combined with elements of the romance film and the thriller genre.

According to Wikipedia there is a 5th genre named chick flick. This represents a slang term for a film genre mainly dealing with love and romance and designed to appeal to a largely female target audience.  Although many types of films may be directed toward the female gender, 'chick flick' is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based (although not necessarily romantic as many other themes may be present). Chick flicks often are released en masse around Valentine's Day. Generally, a chick flick is a film designed to have an innate appeal to women, typically young women. Defining a film a chick flick is, as the New York Times has stated, more of a parlor game than a science. These films are generally held in popular culture as having formulaic, paint-by-numbers plot lines and characters. This makes usage of the term 'problematic' for implying 'frivolity, artlessness and utter commercialism', according to ReelzChannel. However, several chick flicks have received high critical acclaim for their stories and performances, like the movie 'Terms of endearment’ 1983. Some frequent elements of chick flicks include having a female protagonist, thematic use of the color pink (along with metaphorical allusions of the color) and romance and/ or dating based storylines. The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, commonly known as one of the 'classic' films from the golden age of cinema, is sometimes considered as an early chick flick due to common elements such as dealing with loneliness, obsessive materialism, and happy endings.
The term chick flick is often associated with romance films as many are targeted to a female audience. Although many romance films may be targeted at women, this is not a defining characteristic of a romance film and a chick flick does not necessarily have a romance as a central theme, revolve around the romantic involvement of characters or even contain a romantic relationship. As such, the terms cannot be used interchangeably.

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Everything in this world is subjective, so, anyone of us has his favorite romantic movie or moment from a romantic movie. As a reminder of this favorite romantic movies or moments I decided to make a comparison between 10 sites with their opinion about this matter. Frankly, it became an interesting surprise. On some sites there are included only American movies (AFI) or international film, on others the movies are chosen based on the rating given by their readers/ members, on some the movies are chosen 'for their direction, script, acting, cinematography, storyline, originality and success'.
Writing this article I remembered some movies and about others, that was the first time I heard about them. As a movie fan, they made me curious and gave me the desire to see them.
Enjoy my list and make your own choice.

1.      AFI's 100 years...100 passions http://www.afi.com/100years/passions.aspx only American movies
2.      Top 100 Romance movies http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/top_100_romance_movies/?category=18 international movies
4.      50 most romantic movies of all time http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/the-50-most-romantic-movies-of-all-time
5.      100 greatest romance movies http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/movie-pages/movie_romance.html  Criteria - these movies are chosen for their direction, script, acting, cinematography, storyline, originality and success. These films were not chosen for how highly rated they are overall, but how they rate in the subject of romance.
6.      The best romance movies of all time are calculated by overall movie ratings and members. This list calculated daily was taken on 11 February 2013.  http://www.filmcrave.com/list_genre_movie.php?genre=Romance&page=1 international movies
7.      Best romance movies of all time http://blog.moviefone.com/2008/02/05/best-romance-movies
9.      60 most romantic movies http://allwomenstalk.com/10-most-romantic-movies     
10.  Top 100 Best love movies http://www.squidoo.com/love-movies

You can view & download my comparison between the best romantic movies of all times from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-40KuglvMJaTS1YeTU1TEtXWkU/edit?usp=sharing

Last uptade: 2nd February, 2014.