The 45 Best Films About Love
by Ivan_Ignatenko | created - 04 Feb 2014 | updated - 04 Feb 2014 | PublicIn chronological order
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1. The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Romance
In the Crimea, the Reds and the Whites aren't done fighting, and Jeanne discovers that the man she loves is a Bolshevik (when he kills her father). Penniless, she returns to Paris where she... See full summary »
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst | Stars: Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm
Votes: 875
2. Waterloo Bridge (1931)
81 min | Drama, Romance
A prostitute's self-loathing makes her reluctant to marry an idealistic soldier during World War I.
Director: James Whale | Stars: Mae Clarke, Douglass Montgomery, Doris Lloyd, Frederick Kerr
Votes: 3,168
3. July 14 (1933)
86 min | Comedy, Romance
Jean is a young cab driver. Anna, a flower-girl neighbour, is in love with him. But he is still thinking to Pola, who just left him. Jean asks her to the bal. Many events (Pola's come back,... See full summary »
Director: René Clair | Stars: Annabella, Jorge Rigaud, Raymond Cordy, Paul Ollivier
Votes: 474
4. Death Takes a Holiday (1934)
Passed | 79 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
The Grim Reaper takes the form of a Prince in an attempt to relate to humans and, along the way, also learns what it is to love.
Director: Mitchell Leisen | Stars: Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katharine Alexander
Votes: 2,413
5. Dodsworth (1936)
Passed | 101 min | Drama, Romance
A retired auto manufacturer and his wife take a long-planned European vacation only to find that they want very different things from life.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor
Votes: 10,205
6. The Shopworn Angel (1938)
Passed | 85 min | Drama, Romance
Shortly after the United States enters World War I in 1917, a Broadway actress agrees to let a naive soldier court her in order to impress his friends, but a real romance soon begins.
Director: H.C. Potter | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDaniel
Votes: 1,662
7. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,508 | Gross: $0.20M
8. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 606,225 | Gross: $1.02M
9. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama, Romance
A young Englishwoman goes to the Hebrides to marry her older, wealthier fiancé. When the weather keeps them separated on different islands, she begins to have second thoughts.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie
Votes: 9,783
10. The Captive Heart (1946)
Approved | 86 min | Drama, War
In 1940, a concentration camp escapee assumes the identity of a dead British officer, only to become a prisoner of war.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Michael Redgrave, Rachel Kempson, Frederick Leister, Mervyn Johns
Votes: 1,176
11. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Romance
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember, who may hold the key to his downfall.
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel Journet
Votes: 13,647
12. The Passionate Friends (1949)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Romance
A woman meets a man whose love she rejected years ago.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, Claude Rains, Betty Ann Davies
Votes: 3,036
13. Orpheus (1950)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa
Votes: 13,414
14. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
Approved | 124 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A seductive woman falls in love with a mysterious ship's captain.
Director: Albert Lewin | Stars: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim
Votes: 4,740
15. Casque d'Or (1952)
Not Rated | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Three gangsters and an ex-con carpenter all fall for the same beautiful golden-haired woman in Belle Époque France.
Director: Jacques Becker | Stars: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin, Raymond Bussières
Votes: 6,220
16. The Heart of the Matter (1953)
Approved | 100 min | Crime, Drama
An unhappily married British security officer stationed in Sierra Leone during World War II falls in love with a young Austrian woman and starts an affair. He soon starts feeling guilty.
Director: George More O'Ferrall | Stars: Trevor Howard, Elizabeth Allan, Maria Schell, Denholm Elliott
Votes: 545
17. The End of the Affair (1955)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, Romance
In WW2 London, a writer falls in love with the wife of a British civil servant but both men suspect her of infidelity with yet another man.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills, Peter Cushing
Votes: 1,466
18. Marguerite de la nuit (1955)
125 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Based on novel by Pierre Dumarchais. The story of the aging pedant who sells his soul to Satan in exchange for youth and knowledge.
Director: Claude Autant-Lara | Stars: Michèle Morgan, Yves Montand, Jean Debucourt, Jacques Clancy
Votes: 254
19. White Nights (1957)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A humble clerk courts a woman who awaits her lover's return night after night.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais, Marcella Rovena
Votes: 9,009
20. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 427,116 | Gross: $3.20M
21. Separate Tables (1958)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Romance
The stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel in Bournemouth which features dining at "Separate Tables."
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster
Votes: 8,602 | Gross: $7.40M
22. Violent Summer (1959)
98 min | Drama, Romance, War
Summer 1943: The war is in full swing in southern Italy. Together with friends, Carlo enjoys a carefree summer in youthful naïveté. He falls in love with Roberta, whose husband was killed in the war.
Director: Valerio Zurlini | Stars: Eleonora Rossi Drago, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Lilla Brignone, Raf Mattioli
Votes: 1,881
23. La Notte (1961)
Not Rated | 122 min | Drama
A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki
Votes: 24,047 | Gross: $0.04M
24. Girl with a Suitcase (1961)
96 min | Drama, Romance
A girl pursues a guy who fooled her, but fascinates his younger brother instead.
Director: Valerio Zurlini | Stars: Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin, Luciana Angiolillo, Renato Baldini
Votes: 2,464
25. Lola (1961)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.
Director: Jacques Demy | Stars: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden, Alan Scott
Votes: 7,531
26. Bebo's Girl (1964)
106 min | Crime, Drama
A country girl becomes involved with a partisan, follows him, and stands by him even when sentenced for crimes.
Director: Luigi Comencini | Stars: Claudia Cardinale, George Chakiris, Marc Michel, Dany París
Votes: 524
27. Girl with Green Eyes (1964)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Romance
In 1960s Dublin a young girl becomes involved with an older man, a much-travelled and still married land-owner.
Director: Desmond Davis | Stars: Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave, Marie Kean
Votes: 1,484
28. A Place for Lovers (1968)
R | 88 min | Drama, Romance
Julia, a fashion designer harboring a secret, spends ten days of passion in the Alps with Valerio, a race car driver, in what will be their last vacation together.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Faye Dunaway, Enrico Simonetti, Karin Eugh
Votes: 878
29. Rider on the Rain (1970)
PG-13 | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A US Army colonel in France tries to track down an escaped sex maniac.
Director: René Clément | Stars: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Marlène Jobert, Gabriele Tinti
Votes: 3,869 | Gross: $0.71M
30. The Go-Between (1971)
GP | 116 min | Drama, Romance
A tale of torrid and forbidden love between a couple in the English countryside.
Director: Joseph Losey | Stars: Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Dominic Guard, Margaret Leighton
Votes: 6,306 | Gross: $0.75M
31. Deep End (1970)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski | Stars: Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Karl Michael Vogler, Christopher Sandford
Votes: 7,503
32. Klute (1971)
R | 114 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead: a connection with a New York prostitute.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider
Votes: 29,639 | Gross: $17.44M
33. Raphaël ou le débauché (1971)
100 min | Drama, Romance
1830, somewhere in France. Aurore is a young, beautiful and virtuous widow. She meets Raphael, a man of leisure, a debauchee. Raphael is obsessed by the death, and wait for it by chasing ... See full summary »
Director: Michel Deville | Stars: Maurice Ronet, Françoise Fabian, Jean Vilar, Brigitte Fossey
Votes: 447
34. Breezy (1973)
R | 106 min | Drama, Romance
A young girl runs away from home and meets a grouchy older man who reluctantly takes her in. Eventually they develop a romantic and affectionate relationship.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: William Holden, Kay Lenz, Roger C. Carmel, Marj Dusay
Votes: 5,753
35. Tell Her That I Love Her (1977)
107 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A man is desperately attaining beloved woman, despite her husband and child.
Director: Claude Miller | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou, Claude Piéplu, Jacques Denis
Votes: 665
36. Days of Heaven (1978)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance
A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz
Votes: 62,780
37. A Room with a View (1985)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Romance
Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands
Votes: 47,886 | Gross: $20.97M
38. My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989)
110 min | Drama, Romance
A story of doomed passion by two mortally ill people: he is physically, she is mentally.
Director: Andrzej Zulawski | Stars: Sophie Marceau, Jacques Dutronc, Valérie Lagrange, Myriam Mézières
Votes: 2,207
39. The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)
R | 82 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Antoine has always been fascinated by a hairdresser's delicate touch, the beguiling perfume and the enticing figure of a woman with an opulent bosom. After all, he always knew he would marry one, completing his idealised love fantasy.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Roland Bertin, Maurice Chevit
Votes: 10,366 | Gross: $1.16M
40. Bitter Moon (1992)
R | 139 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After hearing stories of her, a passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner, Peter Coyote
Votes: 42,704 | Gross: $1.86M
41. A Heart in Winter (1992)
105 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Stéphane is an emotionally distant but professionally dedicated violin restorer whose cold heart is tested when his employer's new girlfriend, a beautiful violinist, falls for him.
Director: Claude Sautet | Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, André Dussollier, Elizabeth Bourgine
Votes: 10,654 | Gross: $1.67M
42. The Remains of the Day (1993)
PG | 134 min | Drama, Romance
A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.
Director: James Ivory | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, John Haycraft, Christopher Reeve
Votes: 84,484 | Gross: $22.95M
43. The Horseman on the Roof (1995)
R | 118 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.
Director: Jean-Paul Rappeneau | Stars: Olivier Martinez, Juliette Binoche, Pierre Arditi, François Cluzet
Votes: 6,396 | Gross: $1.88M
44. La fille sur le pont (1999)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
One night, a fading entertainer intervenes when a woman contemplates suicide, beginning a strange, unpredictable relationship.
Director: Patrice Leconte | Stars: Vanessa Paradis, Daniel Auteuil, Frédéric Pfluger, Dimitris Georgalas
Votes: 14,360 | Gross: $1.71M
45. An Affair of Love (1999)
R | 80 min | Drama, Romance
A woman puts an ad in a magazine looking for a man to fulfill her fantasy of a stringless, anonymous pornographic affair.
Director: Frédéric Fonteyne | Stars: Nathalie Baye, Sergi López, Jacques Viala, Paul Pavel
Votes: 5,730 | Gross: $0.35M
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