Swoon...A Room with a View...hands down my favorite love story. Both the book by E.M. Forster and especially the 1985 movie with Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands and the incomparable Maggie Smith. Not to mention Daniel Day-Lewis! I have memorized every line and adore it. Set in Italy and England- STRONG SENSE OF PLACE! love and romance, society and class, self-discovery and independence, conformity vs. rebellion, beauty and art. I can't be the only one who feels this way. lol.
Strong agree! OMG, I love the movie and the book so much. I've listened to the audio many times, and watched the film so many times, that they're all conflated in my imagination. I don't know where one stops and the other starts, and I love it. HAve there ever been two prettier people falling in love than HBC and Julian Sands?! And Maggie Smith is a delight. The scene where they're trying to make change? Just perfection.
Also:
"I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!"
The Kiss? Get out. It is the best of all time! Love the swimming in the lake scene as well with Cecil swatting at the ferns to make a path for Lucy as they approach and then they see Mr. Beebe swimming naked! Your quote is magical- I wish Mr.Emereson was my relative! Can I just say that these are the best names of fictional characters I have ever known. Lucy Honeychurch, Charlotte Bartlett, Cecil Vyse, Eleanor Lavish. Love the scene when Cecil is reading from her book and gets hit in the head with the tennis ball. I could go on and on...
I feel like we both just need to go watch it again right now. I remember the first time I saw it, the swimming scene made me GUFFAW so hard, and it still does. I'm pretty sure that this was the first movie I ever saw by myself! I read about it in a magazine, and then it was playing at the student theater at Syracuse one night, and I went solo. What a great pick for that!
Yes please! I think I will actually watch it tonight! Great idea. What a great memory of seeing this at college by yourself! Amazing. I was also just thinking about the music- ao perfect for the film. Loved when Lucy and George switch rooms and George comes back to his original hotel room and flips over the painting that he drew a question mark on. The strong violin strumming as he walks just gets me every time.
OMG! Doing it know...need this in my brain stat. Ok...one more favorite scene. When they are in the cathedral and Lucy and Mr. Emerson are in the group tour with Reverend Eager...he is pointing out certain scenes in the frescos and their heads are going from the left to the right and to the left again. "Pardon me, the chapel is somewhat small for two parties.We will incommode you no longer."
Love this movie and book as well! Also, yes to The Kiss…which reminded me of another epic kiss between Jude Law and Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain. Maybe more drama/romance but I love both the movie and book, and seem to watch the movie whenever I catch it on.
The link for the musical has clips of the songs! I only listened to one, and it was... maybe a little much. But I bet in context, live on stage, it was super fun. Time for a revival!
Are you a Jane Eyre person? I can't remember... If yes, the stage musical was FANTASTIC, and the original broadway cast recording is one of my go-tos when I need to feel all moody. The songs map very well to the plot, so you can see the book in your imagination while listening to the music. (If you're not a Jane Eyre person, please ignore ;-)
I am totally a Jane Eyre person, you remembered right! Top ten. And I actually love listening to cast recordings I haven’t seen on stage yet. Excited to listen, thanks!
Oh my god I came here to post about A Room With A View and there’s already an infinitely long thread about it! I should have known, SSoPers have awesome taste. But yeah, everything you all have said Stephanie, Sarah, Mel. It’s one of the books and movies I have to re-read and re-watch every so often, it feels restorative whenever I do. In college after seeing it, I developed a major crush on someone who’d also just seen and loved it. We talked about the movie for what felt like hours. My crush was unrequited, alas! E.M. Forster’s one of my all-time favorite writers. I just saw a doc about him, E. M. Forster: His Longest Journey. Really good. Has anyone seen it?
Yes! Love this movie. So many wonderful actors including Denholm Elliott with one of my favorite lines: “Here is where the birds sing. Here is where the sky is blue. My view is from within!”
I love Amelie too, and most of the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movies. He directed Helena Bonham Carter, in The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet. It’s so great! Another excellent book-movie pairing. Have you seen or read it?
That line! So life-affirming. Mr. Emerson is just the best — and I love that George is on his way to being his best self. When he goes running in the rain?! Yes, George. Yes.
I’m gonna have to say Love Story with Ali McGraw and Ryan ONeal. Yes, it was not great art but to an 11 yo girl, it was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen. As soon as I hear the theme…Where do I begin…takes me right back!
I haven't seen that one, but I know my mom loved it. My version of that is 'Sooner or Later' starring Rex Smith and Denise Miller. Objectively not that great, but I will love it for the rest of my days.
When I see Ryan O’Neal in my mind, Michelle, I see him in What’s Up Doc? My favorite comedy of all time. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but the last scene-perfection! A screwball comedy that is also a rom com. Love that movie so!!
That’s fascinating. If you think about it, some classics have a high cheez factor. If you can get past the Shakespeare effect, Romeo and Juliet is pretty cheesy and is pretty over the top!
That's mine, too! I have to share with you this line from Erich Segal's obituary that will put the "not great art" in context:
Segal's interest at that time - and for most of his life - was the relationship between high and low culture. His specialty was the Roman playwright Plautus who was a master of taking the most refined high culture ideas and retreading them for the average plebe-in-the-street. That was what really fascinated Segal. Eternal verities transmuted into populist gold.
“Love Story” was the first “grown up” novel I ever read! (Probably because it was only, what, 125 pages or so? I was in Middle school & felt SO adult!) I shed a tear or two reading the book, but bawled my eyes out watching the movie. A classic for sure!
Oh my gosh, how did I forget that one?! "In all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world...she walks into mine." I love how that movie shows you that men can also have broken hearts, and what it is like for them to experience that emotional pain. Usually romance movies are focused on female leads.
I really love the love story between Alex and Henry in Red, White, and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston). Overall, I love that Alex and Henry have a genuinely healthy, supportive relationship that allows each of them to grow both together and individually, and is based on mutual admiration of the other as a whole entire person, not just in the context of their relationship. Of course I love their snarky banter and witty commentary and that they don’t just “let” each other gush for hours about the things that fascinate them, but they genuinely want to hear the gushing. I also really appreciate the role that family and close friends play in their story because that feels true to the way romantic relationships happen in real life— as part of a web of other relationships, rather than in isolation. Mostly though I think I love that it gave me words I didn’t even realize I was lacking for so much of what I intuitively hope for myself.
Yes! I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue. I’ve only read it once, over five years ago, but the feeling of their love story still sticks with me. It’s one I plan on rereading eventually. And I personally thought the movie adaptation was very well done too. It’s rare that I like the movie almost as much as the book, but this one managed to come close!
My favorite love story is the short story "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. These two lovebirds ironically give up the possession that they love the most in order to give the most thoughtful gift to their spouse. The man sells his pocketwatch to buy a fancy comb for his wife's beautiful, long hair, and the wife cuts and sells her hair to buy a nice chain for her husband's pocketwatch. It's really the perfect story.
If that's not a classic, nothing is. I was thinking of that the other day when I read D.S. Stevenson's Vittoria Cottage (British interwar light feminine fiction); there is a little hint of it there. Touching.
This is a weird answer to this prompt, but I also love a love story within a series. For instance, the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James (Crombie) mystery/detective series. Their growing love story throughout the series is one of my favorites. I also love the Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson (Griffiths) series and their unconventional love story.
Agree 100% Deborah Crombie did a fantastic job on that developing relationship. Unlike She Who Must Not Be Named who, with a (surreal) male pseudonym, did in the Strike series which i ultimately abandoned.
I LOVED watching the Ruth Galloway/Harry Nelson story evolve! I enjoyed the entire series, but by the final episodes I think I was more interested in their relationship that the mysteries themselves !🤦♀️
My favorite love story is Redemption Song by Bertice Berry. It has a little history, comedy, and a lot of romance in the sweetest way. They both reach for a the last book they desparately want to read and the owner suggests something that allows them to get to know each other and complete the book. Loved this book so much that I found out the bookstore existed in real life I booked a trip there so see if I could find a love of my own.
Oh, yeah! I just want someone to look at me the way Edward Petherbridge looked at Harriet Walter. And some of the romantic passages in Busman's Honeymoon!
I may not have an absolute favorite, so I take the liberty of sharing a few of my favorites: "A Room With a View" for sure; Thorn Birds (I read it in high school and ugly cried, no other story has ever stayed with me in the same way); "Four Weddings and a Funeral" when Matthew reads the Auden poem "Funeral Blues" at Gareth's funeral (Stop all the clocks....) another ugly cry, such adeep love and because of it, absolute heartwrenching loss); "Sliding Doors" (John Hannah once again for the win--the way he watches her, drinks her in, and his accent slays me) and lastly with my somewhat unconventional list is the last scene of "Sixteen Candles" with Jake and Samantha perched on the table, candles on the cake lit, the wish that came true and the kiss, all while Thompson Twins play in the background "If You Were Here"...
Some years ago, Netflix put out a Norwegian series for the holidays called Home for Christmas. It's about a young woman in her 30s who hasn't found "the one" yet. As a result she gets stuck at the kids table and is always the 5th wheel. Until she says she is bringing someone to Christmas Eve and has to make it happen.
There series ended up continuing to a second year. You saw her on various dates. All the disappointments. Some crazy/weird dates. Some sex.
The series ends in a totally unexpected way and I cried my eyes out. All. The. Feels. I hadn't felt that way about anything in a long, long time!
Swoon...A Room with a View...hands down my favorite love story. Both the book by E.M. Forster and especially the 1985 movie with Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands and the incomparable Maggie Smith. Not to mention Daniel Day-Lewis! I have memorized every line and adore it. Set in Italy and England- STRONG SENSE OF PLACE! love and romance, society and class, self-discovery and independence, conformity vs. rebellion, beauty and art. I can't be the only one who feels this way. lol.
Strong agree! OMG, I love the movie and the book so much. I've listened to the audio many times, and watched the film so many times, that they're all conflated in my imagination. I don't know where one stops and the other starts, and I love it. HAve there ever been two prettier people falling in love than HBC and Julian Sands?! And Maggie Smith is a delight. The scene where they're trying to make change? Just perfection.
Also:
"I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!"
And the kiss!
Sigh.
I just learned there was a musical?
https://www.jeffreystock.net/arwav
The Kiss? Get out. It is the best of all time! Love the swimming in the lake scene as well with Cecil swatting at the ferns to make a path for Lucy as they approach and then they see Mr. Beebe swimming naked! Your quote is magical- I wish Mr.Emereson was my relative! Can I just say that these are the best names of fictional characters I have ever known. Lucy Honeychurch, Charlotte Bartlett, Cecil Vyse, Eleanor Lavish. Love the scene when Cecil is reading from her book and gets hit in the head with the tennis ball. I could go on and on...
I feel like we both just need to go watch it again right now. I remember the first time I saw it, the swimming scene made me GUFFAW so hard, and it still does. I'm pretty sure that this was the first movie I ever saw by myself! I read about it in a magazine, and then it was playing at the student theater at Syracuse one night, and I went solo. What a great pick for that!
Yes please! I think I will actually watch it tonight! Great idea. What a great memory of seeing this at college by yourself! Amazing. I was also just thinking about the music- ao perfect for the film. Loved when Lucy and George switch rooms and George comes back to his original hotel room and flips over the painting that he drew a question mark on. The strong violin strumming as he walks just gets me every time.
Cousin Charlotte: "... Naturally, of course, I would have given the larger room to you; but I happen to know that it was the young man's -"
HAHAHAHAHA!
Um, I just learned that the full script is available as a PDF. Did I download it immediately? Of course I did.
https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/A_Room_With_A_View.pdf
OMG! Doing it know...need this in my brain stat. Ok...one more favorite scene. When they are in the cathedral and Lucy and Mr. Emerson are in the group tour with Reverend Eager...he is pointing out certain scenes in the frescos and their heads are going from the left to the right and to the left again. "Pardon me, the chapel is somewhat small for two parties.We will incommode you no longer."
Love this movie and book as well! Also, yes to The Kiss…which reminded me of another epic kiss between Jude Law and Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain. Maybe more drama/romance but I love both the movie and book, and seem to watch the movie whenever I catch it on.
What?! A musical? OMG Mel. The music sounds good too. Field trip!
The link for the musical has clips of the songs! I only listened to one, and it was... maybe a little much. But I bet in context, live on stage, it was super fun. Time for a revival!
I would totally see it.
Are you a Jane Eyre person? I can't remember... If yes, the stage musical was FANTASTIC, and the original broadway cast recording is one of my go-tos when I need to feel all moody. The songs map very well to the plot, so you can see the book in your imagination while listening to the music. (If you're not a Jane Eyre person, please ignore ;-)
Here's a playlist of the cast recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYfRCAqHMAY&list=PLxImvavQHp1YfhcJJBhk3jHO5FdjdQEHp
A montage from the Broadway show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubi8NC4ntDE
I'm a little obsessed. My mom and I saw it on Broadway and had first-row seats. I cried through, like, 90% of it.
I am totally a Jane Eyre person, you remembered right! Top ten. And I actually love listening to cast recordings I haven’t seen on stage yet. Excited to listen, thanks!
What??!! Hope it makes it to Broadway!!!
Oh my god I came here to post about A Room With A View and there’s already an infinitely long thread about it! I should have known, SSoPers have awesome taste. But yeah, everything you all have said Stephanie, Sarah, Mel. It’s one of the books and movies I have to re-read and re-watch every so often, it feels restorative whenever I do. In college after seeing it, I developed a major crush on someone who’d also just seen and loved it. We talked about the movie for what felt like hours. My crush was unrequited, alas! E.M. Forster’s one of my all-time favorite writers. I just saw a doc about him, E. M. Forster: His Longest Journey. Really good. Has anyone seen it?
Your crush clearly needed to rethink their entire situation.
Haven't seen that doc, but now I'm going hunting for it. I have a real soft spot for ol' EM.
Patrick! So glad you are one of us! LOL. You too have awesome taste. By the way...your crushes loss.
I haven't seen the doc about E.M. Forster but I'll check it out. Thanks for the rec!
Yes! Love this movie. So many wonderful actors including Denholm Elliott with one of my favorite lines: “Here is where the birds sing. Here is where the sky is blue. My view is from within!”
Mine, too! I imitate him with the fork all the time! He's so great in the Indiana Jones movies, too. What a sweet actor!
Divine...I love him so much
Oh, I need to re-watch!
I adore both A Room with a View and Amelie - good reminders to do a rewatch soon. Another favorite is The Princess Bride. Inconceivable, but true.
Dave and I are rewatching Amelie on Friday night! :-)
Aw, love Amelie...
I agree with all of this!
I love Amelie too, and most of the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movies. He directed Helena Bonham Carter, in The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet. It’s so great! Another excellent book-movie pairing. Have you seen or read it?
I haven't! Seems like I should? HBC is so good in everything. And why is she so great at reading poems?!
Why is she so great? All I can think is that “By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes!”
That line! So life-affirming. Mr. Emerson is just the best — and I love that George is on his way to being his best self. When he goes running in the rain?! Yes, George. Yes.
I’m gonna have to say Love Story with Ali McGraw and Ryan ONeal. Yes, it was not great art but to an 11 yo girl, it was the most romantic thing I’d ever seen. As soon as I hear the theme…Where do I begin…takes me right back!
I haven't seen that one, but I know my mom loved it. My version of that is 'Sooner or Later' starring Rex Smith and Denise Miller. Objectively not that great, but I will love it for the rest of my days.
YES!
Sooner or Later was one of the best cheesy romances ever! Wasn’t there a scene where she eats a whole tub of Haagen Dazs? Vintage!
When I see Ryan O’Neal in my mind, Michelle, I see him in What’s Up Doc? My favorite comedy of all time. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but the last scene-perfection! A screwball comedy that is also a rom com. Love that movie so!!
That was the first movie I thought of.
That’s fascinating. If you think about it, some classics have a high cheez factor. If you can get past the Shakespeare effect, Romeo and Juliet is pretty cheesy and is pretty over the top!
Accurate. Everyone in Shakespeare is such a DRAMA QUEEN — so good.
That's mine, too! I have to share with you this line from Erich Segal's obituary that will put the "not great art" in context:
Segal's interest at that time - and for most of his life - was the relationship between high and low culture. His specialty was the Roman playwright Plautus who was a master of taking the most refined high culture ideas and retreading them for the average plebe-in-the-street. That was what really fascinated Segal. Eternal verities transmuted into populist gold.
“Love Story” was the first “grown up” novel I ever read! (Probably because it was only, what, 125 pages or so? I was in Middle school & felt SO adult!) I shed a tear or two reading the book, but bawled my eyes out watching the movie. A classic for sure!
My #1 romantic movie: Casablanca
swoon
Oh my gosh, how did I forget that one?! "In all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world...she walks into mine." I love how that movie shows you that men can also have broken hearts, and what it is like for them to experience that emotional pain. Usually romance movies are focused on female leads.
“We’ll always have Paris.” Gets me every time! 😭😭
I really love the love story between Alex and Henry in Red, White, and Royal Blue (Casey McQuiston). Overall, I love that Alex and Henry have a genuinely healthy, supportive relationship that allows each of them to grow both together and individually, and is based on mutual admiration of the other as a whole entire person, not just in the context of their relationship. Of course I love their snarky banter and witty commentary and that they don’t just “let” each other gush for hours about the things that fascinate them, but they genuinely want to hear the gushing. I also really appreciate the role that family and close friends play in their story because that feels true to the way romantic relationships happen in real life— as part of a web of other relationships, rather than in isolation. Mostly though I think I love that it gave me words I didn’t even realize I was lacking for so much of what I intuitively hope for myself.
This is all so nice! I haven't read this one, but your write-up makes it sound lovely!
I went in expecting it to be a fun beach read that would keep me occupied for a few days but it ended up becoming one of my absolute favorite books!
Don't you love when that happens?
Yes! I loved Red, White, and Royal Blue. I’ve only read it once, over five years ago, but the feeling of their love story still sticks with me. It’s one I plan on rereading eventually. And I personally thought the movie adaptation was very well done too. It’s rare that I like the movie almost as much as the book, but this one managed to come close!
French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Klein. For books, my favorite love story is the book One Day by david Nichols.
Is 'One Day' sad? I remember a friend really loving it, but maybe warning me it was a heartbreaker?
It is very sad but very good
OK! I will prepare myself accordingly.
Have you read David Nicholls latest You Are Here? So good!!
Yes. That was a really good book, the kind where you miss the characters once you finish it. I hope they make a movie!
Yes I did. I loved it.
My favorite love story is the short story "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. These two lovebirds ironically give up the possession that they love the most in order to give the most thoughtful gift to their spouse. The man sells his pocketwatch to buy a fancy comb for his wife's beautiful, long hair, and the wife cuts and sells her hair to buy a nice chain for her husband's pocketwatch. It's really the perfect story.
If that's not a classic, nothing is. I was thinking of that the other day when I read D.S. Stevenson's Vittoria Cottage (British interwar light feminine fiction); there is a little hint of it there. Touching.
The Thorn Birds.
I read this a zillion years ago when I was in high school. A very epic love story.
Same. Thorn Birds was awesome.
Same! I read it in high school and remember crying my eyes out. I was bereft when the book ended. It has stayed with me all these years.
I'm not sure if I read the book back then, but the TV series?! OMG. So much crying!
And doubly cool that Rachel Ward & Bryan Brown fell in love while making that miniseries…and they’re still married! 💕
I forgot about that!
This is a weird answer to this prompt, but I also love a love story within a series. For instance, the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James (Crombie) mystery/detective series. Their growing love story throughout the series is one of my favorites. I also love the Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson (Griffiths) series and their unconventional love story.
Yes! See also the Veronica Speedwell series... oh, Stoker!
Agree 100% Deborah Crombie did a fantastic job on that developing relationship. Unlike She Who Must Not Be Named who, with a (surreal) male pseudonym, did in the Strike series which i ultimately abandoned.
I like the relationship in the Strike series, but those books have gotten SO bloated! Is everyone afraid to edit that author?!
I LOVED watching the Ruth Galloway/Harry Nelson story evolve! I enjoyed the entire series, but by the final episodes I think I was more interested in their relationship that the mysteries themselves !🤦♀️
I agree with being more interested in their relationship than the mysteries.
My favorite love story is Redemption Song by Bertice Berry. It has a little history, comedy, and a lot of romance in the sweetest way. They both reach for a the last book they desparately want to read and the owner suggests something that allows them to get to know each other and complete the book. Loved this book so much that I found out the bookstore existed in real life I booked a trip there so see if I could find a love of my own.
Love everything about this.
It would have to be none other than Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane books. Just delightful. ❤️
Oh, yeah! I just want someone to look at me the way Edward Petherbridge looked at Harriet Walter. And some of the romantic passages in Busman's Honeymoon!
Oooh, good one!
Sleepless in Seattle. I love that movie
Definitely a feel-good movie. Solid pick!
I may not have an absolute favorite, so I take the liberty of sharing a few of my favorites: "A Room With a View" for sure; Thorn Birds (I read it in high school and ugly cried, no other story has ever stayed with me in the same way); "Four Weddings and a Funeral" when Matthew reads the Auden poem "Funeral Blues" at Gareth's funeral (Stop all the clocks....) another ugly cry, such adeep love and because of it, absolute heartwrenching loss); "Sliding Doors" (John Hannah once again for the win--the way he watches her, drinks her in, and his accent slays me) and lastly with my somewhat unconventional list is the last scene of "Sixteen Candles" with Jake and Samantha perched on the table, candles on the cake lit, the wish that came true and the kiss, all while Thompson Twins play in the background "If You Were Here"...
My memories attached to 'If You Were Here' are so visceral. That scene is the definition of romance in my brain.
Sixteen Candles is one of my all-time faves—every girl’s high school dream come true!
JAKE RYAN!!!
For me, its Bridges of Madison County. Loved the film so much. I don't think I've read the book though.
Some years ago, Netflix put out a Norwegian series for the holidays called Home for Christmas. It's about a young woman in her 30s who hasn't found "the one" yet. As a result she gets stuck at the kids table and is always the 5th wheel. Until she says she is bringing someone to Christmas Eve and has to make it happen.
There series ended up continuing to a second year. You saw her on various dates. All the disappointments. Some crazy/weird dates. Some sex.
The series ends in a totally unexpected way and I cried my eyes out. All. The. Feels. I hadn't felt that way about anything in a long, long time!
Such a great recommendation! I LOVED that series so much! That actress is adorable, and such a strong sense of Norway. Plus all the romance.
Did you know there's also an Italian version set in Venice? Same story, transplanted... It's called I Hate Christmas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Hate_Christmas
I didn't love it as much as the original, but it's cute... and the Venice scenery/Italian vibes are fun.
Yes, I did see that Italian version and totally agree. Not as good. I think I only watched a couple episodes and trailed off.
The Kids Table! That is so funny 😁 you're not a real grown up until you're in a relationship!
Great romantic love story books:
- 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand, especially if you loved One Day, Before Sunrise/Sunset, and other passing of time love stories
- One Day too of course
- The Time Traveler's Wife
- Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid