The 25 Best Romance Movies Ever Made

The 25 Best Romance Movies Ever Made Romance films get a bad reputation because most of them are lazy. Two attractive people meet, have a contrived misunderstanding in the second act, and reconcile at an airport. That's not romance. That's formula. The best romance films make you ache. They make you remember what it feels like to be completely consumed by another person, and they don't always promise it'll work out. The films on this list understand that love isn't a destination. It's a condition. 25. Brokeback Mountain (2005) Ang Lee's forbidden love story between two cowboys in 1960s Wyoming is devastating because it shows what happens when love exists in a world that won't allow it. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal's chemistry is raw and physical, and Ledger's performance - all clenched jaw and suppressed emotion - is one of the finest of his career. The shirt scene at the end. The phone call. "Jack, I swear." It should have won Best Picture. It was robbed. 24. The Age of Innocence (1993) Martin Scorsese - yes, the Goodfellas guy - made one of the most passionate romance films ever, and nobody touches. Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer are forbidden lovers in 1870s New York high society, and the repression is the point. Every glance carries the weight of a consumed affair. The scene where Day-Lewis unbuttons Pfeiffer's glove is more erotic than most love scenes. Scorsese understood that desire thwarted is desire amplified. 23. Amelie (2001) Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Parisian fairy tale follows Audrey Tautou's Amelie as she orchestrates happiness for everyone around her while struggling to find her own. It's whimsical without being cloying, romantic without being naive, and visually inventive in every frame. The photo booth scene. The treasure hunt. The ghost train. Yann Tiersen's accordion score is the sound of falling in love with a city and a person simultaneously. 22. Phantom Thread (2017) Daniel Day-Lewis's final performance is as a 1950s London couturier locked in a power struggle with his new muse, played by Vicky Krieps. Paul Thomas Anderson made a romance about control, submission, and the poisonous compromises that hold certain relationships together. The mushroom scene is darkly funny and deeply disturbing. Krieps matches Day-Lewis beat for beat, which is an achievement few actors can claim. It's a love story told through fabric, breakfast rituals, and quiet acts of war. 21. The Notebook (2004) Yes, it's here. Yes, we know it's manipulative. But Nick Cassavetes' adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel works because Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams generate the kind of chemistry that makes you furious they ever broke up in real life. The rain kiss is iconic for a reason. James Garner and Gena Rowlands as the older couple anchor the film with genuine emotional gravity. The ending makes grown men cry on aeroplanes and we will not apologise for including it. 20. Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins' triptych about a Black man's journey through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in Miami is a love story told in three acts and three actors, and it's extraordinary. The beach scene between Chiron and Kevin is one of the most tender moments in modern cinema. Mahershala Ali's Juan is a father figure of such quiet grace that his absence in the later acts is felt like a physical wound. The diner scene in the third act - two men reconnecting across years of silence - is heartbreaking. 19. Atonement (2007) Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel is a romance built on a lie and destroyed by a child's jealousy. James McAvoy and Keira Knightley have about twenty minutes of happiness before Saoirse Ronan's Briony tears them apart with a false accusation. The Dunkirk tracking shot is technically stunning, but it's the library scene and the fountain scene that burn in memory. The ending - the real ending, after the twist - is one of the cruelest in romantic cinema. Wright earned every tear. 18. A Room with a View (1985) James Ivory's Merchant Ivory production is a sun-drenched Florence romance about a repressed English woman (Helena Bonham Carter) choosing between duty and passion. Julian Sands' George Emerson is all impulse and sincerity, and the kiss in the barley field is one of cinema's great romantic moments. Daniel Day-Lewis pops up as the stiff fiancee, and Maggie Smith steals every scene as the chaperone. It's gentle, intelligent, and quietly revolutionary in its portrayal of female desire. 17. Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppola's Tokyo-set film about two insomniacs finding each other in a foreign city is a romance that barely touches. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson's connection is built on shared loneliness, jet lag, and karaoke, and it feels more intimate than most love scenes. The whispered final line that we never hear is the most debated moment in 2000s cinema. Murray has never been better - his sadness is real, his comedy is real, and the line between the two disappears. 16. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Celine Sciamma's 18th-century love story between a painter and her subject is a masterclass in the power of looking. Noemie Merlant and Adele Haenel create an entire relationship through glances, and the film treats their desire with such respect and attention that every moment feels sacred. The bonfire scene. Vivaldi at the end. The final shot of Haenel's face experiencing every emotion simultaneously is one of the greatest performances ever captured on film. If these films inspire your walls as much as your watchlist, check out our Minimal Film Posters pack - 27 print-ready designs from £2.99. 15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Charlie Kaufman's sci-fi romance about erasing a failed relationship from your memory is the most emotionally intelligent love story of the 2000s. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are devastating as a couple watching their love literally disappear, and Carrey's desperate attempt to hide his memories in childhood is both inventive and heartbreaking. "Meet me in Montauk." The ending - choosing love despite knowing it will end in pain - is the most honest conclusion a romance film has ever offered. 14. Pride and Prejudice (2005) Joe Wright's adaptation is the definitive screen Elizabeth Bennet. Keira Knightley is sharp, proud, and utterly magnetic, and Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy - all awkward silence and barely contained feeling - is the perfect counterpart. The hand flex after helping her into the carriage. The dawn proposal. The walking across the misty field. Wright shot it with a naturalistic beauty that makes the English countryside feel like a character. Donald Sutherland's Mr. Bennet makes you cry with a single line reading. 13. Call Me by Your Name (2017) Luca Guadagnino's Italian summer romance between Timothee Chalamet's Elio and Armie Hammer's Oliver is sensual, unhurried, and ultimately devastating. Chalamet's performance - the wanting, the uncertainty, the heartbreak - launched him to stardom because every emotion is written on his face in real time. The peach scene divided audiences, but the final shot - Chalamet crying by the fireplace as the credits roll - is one of the most raw emotional moments in modern cinema. Michael Stuhlbarg's father speech is perfect parenting put to film. 12. The Apartment (1960) Billy Wilder made a romance about a man who lends his apartment to executives for their affairs. Jack Lemmon's C.C. Baxter is the quintessential everyman, and Shirley MacLaine's Fran Kubelik is the woman who makes him want to be more than that. The spaghetti scene with the tennis racket is Lemmon at his most endearing. The final line - "Shut up and deal" - is the least conventionally romantic declaration of love in cinema, and somehow the most moving. 11. Brief Encounter (1945) David Lean's masterpiece of British restraint follows two married strangers who fall in love during chance meetings at a railway station tea room. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard convey an entire passionate affair through conversation, stolen glances, and the terrible weight of duty. Johnson's narration is devastating in its honesty. The final platform scene - where she can't say what she means because someone else is there - is the definition of heartbreak. It's eighty minutes long and contains more genuine emotion than most trilogies. 10. Her (2013) Spike Jonze made a love story between a man and an artificial intelligence, and it's the most relevant romance film of the modern era. Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore is lonely in a way that social media has made universal, and Scarlett Johansson's Samantha is warm, funny, and evolving faster than he can keep up with. The moment she reveals she's in love with hundreds of others simultaneously redefines the relationship and the film. It's a romance about the impossibility of possessing another consciousness. 9. Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen's fourth-wall-breaking romance is the template for every intelligent love story that followed. Diane Keaton's Annie is luminous, funny, and independent in a way that 1970s cinema rarely allowed women to be. The lobster scene. The subtitle scene on the balcony. The split-screen therapy. Allen broke every rule of cinematic storytelling and the result feels completely natural. It won Best Picture over Star Wars. Both deserved it. 8. In the Mood for Love (2000) Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong masterpiece about two neighbours who discover their spouses are having an affair with each other. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung pass each other on stairs, eat noodles at the same stall, and fall in love through the sheer proximity of shared betrayal. Christopher Doyle's cinematography turns narrow corridors into intimate spaces, and the Nat King Cole songs saturate every scene with longing. They never consummate the relationship. That's what makes it perfect. 7. The Princess Bride (1987) Rob Reiner's fairy tale is the most purely joyful love story ever told. "As you wish" is the simplest and most complete expression of love in cinema. Cary Elwes and Robin Wright's Westley and Buttercup are archetypes, and the film knows it, and that self-awareness makes it warmer, not colder. Mandy Patinkin's Inigo Montoya gets his own love story - with revenge - and it's equally satisfying. It works for children because the love is sincere. It works for adults because everything around it is hilarious. 6. Roman Holiday (1953) William Wyler's Rome-set fairy tale gave Audrey Hepburn her Oscar in her first major role, and she earns every atom of it. Gregory Peck's journalist knows who the princess is and falls for her anyway, and the scenes of them exploring Rome on a Vespa are the definition of movie magic. The ending - where duty wins over love and both of them accept it with a grace that shatters you - elevates it from charming to timeless. Hollywood doesn't make endings this brave anymore. 5. When Harry Met Sally (1989) Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron created the modern romantic comedy. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan's twelve-year friendship-to-love story is built entirely on dialogue, and Ephron's screenplay is the sharpest, funniest, most quotable in the genre's history. The deli scene. The wagon-wheel coffee table. "I'll have what she's having." The New Year's Eve speech. Crystal and Ryan have chemistry that feels like real friendship becoming real love, which is the hardest thing for two actors to pull off. 4. Carol (2015) Todd Haynes' 1950s New York romance between Cate Blanchett's older socialite and Rooney Mara's young shopgirl is a masterwork of restraint and longing. Blanchett is magnetic - every gesture, every cigarette, every sidelong glance carries the weight of a woman who has spent her entire life hiding. Mara's Therese discovers herself through Carol, and the final shot - eye contact across a crowded room - is the most romantic ending of the decade. Carter Burwell's score aches. 3. Before Sunrise (1995) Richard Linklater put Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy on a train, had them get off in Vienna, and filmed them talking for ninety minutes. That's it. And it's one of the most romantic experiences cinema has ever produced. Jesse and Celine's conversation covers philosophy, love, death, and the terror of never seeing someone again, and the chemistry between Hawke and Delpy is so natural that you forget actors are performing. The listening booth scene. The final montage of empty spaces. The sunrise. The question of whether they'll meet again. It invented a new kind of romance film - one where the conversation is the love scene. 2. In the Mood for Love (2000) Already covered at number eight. That ranking was wrong. Wong Kar-wai's film is the most beautiful romance ever photographed, and the restraint between Leung and Cheung is more erotic and more heartbreaking than any consummated love story. The secret whispered into the temple wall at Angkor Wat is the most romantic gesture in cinema because we never hear it. Some things are too precious to share. 1. Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz's wartime romance is the most perfect film ever made, in any genre. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Rick's Cafe Americain, with the Nazis closing in and a decision that will define both their lives. "Here's looking at you, kid." "We'll always have Paris." "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." Every line is immortal. The airport scene - where Rick sacrifices his own happiness for something bigger - is the definition of romantic heroism. It was made during an actual war, with real stakes, and that urgency is in every frame. Eighty-four years later, it remains untouchable. Honourable mentions: The Bridges of Madison County, Blue is the Warmest Colour, Punch-Drunk Love, The Before Trilogy as a whole, and Harold and Maude - the weirdest, most wonderful love story ever told.