50 all-time great romantic movies

Romantic movies carry you away. The best ones take you on a passionate adventure. You can’t look away, and it feels like your own heart is the one being chased and courted. We’ve gathered the romantic movies that stand out from the crowd with a list that includes Hollywood classics, contemporary masterpieces, the best of international cinema, and love stories that are diverse and inclusive. Because what’s at the heart of every great love story? The journey of two people who connect beyond the chaos of a world that would sooner keep them apart. So, get ready to snuggle up with a soft blanket and a box of tissues (for happy tears!) to watch these dreamy, mushy, passionate and tenderly exciting romantic movies. Warning: Viewing them may turn you into a hopeless romantic.

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Hugh Grant perfects his shaggy-haired, adorable-British-guy charm in this classic rom-com. Andie MacDowell plays the American who steals his heart while they’re attending a whirlwind of weddings. The romantic highlight comes during the funeral the title warns you about, when a widowed spouse reads a love poem by W.H. Auden. This is one of those romantic movies that make your heart swell with all the emotions sparked by love.

How do you fall in love in a world full of sleaze and heartache? This is one of those black-and-white, classic romantic movies with a charm that endures. Directed by auteur Billy Wilder, it won the Best Picture Oscar in 1961 for its cynical presentation of relationships that still features one of the most romantic endings of all time. Jack Lemmon plays a junior exec who rents out his apartment (as a love nest) to his oily boss (Fred MacMurray) to score a promotion. Shirley MacLaine plays a woman having an illicit affair, but the result will make your heart sob because you know she deserves better.

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Finally! A butterflies-in-your-tummy high school romance about love between two boys. Adapted from the acclaimed novel Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, the movie follows Simon (Nick Robinson), a teenager who hasn’t come out to his parents or his friends, which creates coming-of-age-drama galore. The romantic meet-cute, set on a Ferris wheel, will give you allllll the feels. Who is Simon’s anonymous online crush? It’s a mystery that will make you swoon. You’ll love the movie and the book!

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Colin Firth and Hugh Grant play the dashing British boyfriends of Bridget Jones, and their rivalry eventually leads to a riotous fistfight. Renée Zellweger brings the famous novel’s heroine to life in this rom-com about a woman who’s hapless at love. Highlights include Jones belting out “All By Myself” while downing glasses of wine and an all-too-relatable klutziness. She’s the queen of self-deprecation and one-liners, but she keeps a stiff upper lip through heartbreak and hijinks. Get ready for a dash-through-the snow showdown to win the love of the right man.

Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps) are two neighbourhood kids who long for basketball stardom and share a deep love for the game. They both grow into exceptional players and their relationship blossoms, but when Quincy’s career takes off, Monica’s takes a backseat. They’re star-crossed rivals who go their separate ways, but their bond ultimately pulls them back together in this classic romance about courtship of every kind.

Ghost is one of those romantic movies that brings out the underlying passion in pottery wheels – especially if you’re Demi Moore and your art studio is in a spectacular Manhattan apartment. Patrick Swayze stole hearts as a murdered man who just can’t say goodbye yet. Whoopi Goldberg won a Supporting Actress Oscar as a medium who channels messages between two lovers separated by a terrible fate. Get ready to weep! But they’re good tears – of joy, loss, sweetness and faith.

This is the romantic movie for those of you smitten with the idea of a hunky graduate student coming to live in your parent’s Italian villa for the summer so you can fall head over heels in love with him. Armie Hammer is the American guest, and Timothée Chalamet plays the teenager who gets entangled in a relationship with him. The gorgeous cinematography captures the enchanting, natural landscape and makes the perfect backdrop for this all-consuming story about first love that has an end date looming in the future.

Ethan Hawke, as the original American hipster travelling abroad, meets a luminous, intriguing Parisian played by Julie Delpy. The two walk and talk all night, perusing the streets of Vienna until they’re faced with a morning goodbye at the train station. This classic spawned two more romantic movies, the sequels Before Sunset and Before Midnight, that explore love that can stretch across miles and years when you meet that rare someone who you truly connect with.

Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara give off the ultimate love-hate vibes in this classic romantic movie filled with iconic scenes and famous lines like, “You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how.” Swoon. Rhett’s the only one who sees straight through Scarlett’s wiles – and instead of judging her, he loves her for it. This is the ultimate story of unrequited love between a Southern belle (Vivien Leigh) and her roguish beau (Clark Gable). Just when she figures out that she actually loves the guy, he’s out the door! It’s also a love affair with the Old South, which is all the better if gone with the wind.

Not to mention, it includes one of the most famous movie quotes of all time.