Items50The creator’s order
  1. 1In the Mood for Love (2000)In the Mood for Love (2000) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased 29 Sept 2000Few films make withheld feeling so tangible. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung play Hong Kong neighbours whose spouses' betrayal brings them into an increasingly delicate intimacy. Wong Kar-wai uses repeated music, narrow interiors and glances held just long enough to make restraint the central romantic…0
  2. 2Brief Encounter (1945)Brief Encounter (1945) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Nov 1945Celia Johnson makes an apparently ordinary railway meeting feel like a crisis in an entire life. David Lean gives a married woman's attraction its full force while keeping everyday obligations close at hand. The station, the routines and the hesitant conversation become charged with what the…0
  3. 3Casablanca (1943)Casablanca (1943) 8.5/10 on IMDbReleased 15 Jan 1943Rick and Ilsa's reunion carries the weight of a world at war. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman give the remembered romance immediate life, while Michael Curtiz builds towards a choice that reaches beyond the couple. The nightclub's wit and bustle keep this a lively entertainment as well as a…0
  4. 4Before Sunrise (1995)Before Sunrise (1995) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased 27 Jan 1995A night walking through Vienna gives two strangers time to test how they see the world. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy make curiosity itself seductive: jokes, disagreements and pauses gradually change the meaning of a shared stroll. Richard Linklater trusts conversation to create suspense about…0
  5. 5Before Sunset (2004)Before Sunset (2004) 8.1/10 on IMDbReleased 16 Jun 2004Jesse and Céline meet again in Paris with less time and more history between them. Hawke and Delpy let attraction emerge through defensiveness, humour and the careful probing of an old possibility. Watch Before Sunrise first: recognising what has changed makes the film's compressed afternoon…0
  6. 6Before Midnight (2013)Before Midnight (2013) 7.9/10 on IMDbReleased 5 Apr 2013Romance becomes the harder work of sharing a life in Richard Linklater's third film about Jesse and Céline. Affection and accumulated resentment can occupy the same conversation. The performances allow both people to be witty, hurtful and vulnerable; it rewards seeing Before Sunrise and Before…0
  7. 7Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased 6 Sept 2019Céline Sciamma turns looking into an exchange of power and feeling between a painter and the woman she has been commissioned to portray. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel make each newly permitted glance count. The controlled framing and careful attention to artistic collaboration give desire a…0
  8. 8Carol (2015)Carol (2015) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased 20 Nov 2015A department-store meeting opens a connection between a young shop assistant and an older married woman in 1950s America. Todd Haynes makes touch, travel and looking through glass carry the tension of a relationship that cannot move freely. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara give its quietest moments…0
  9. 9The Apartment (1960)The Apartment (1960) 8.3/10 on IMDbReleased 21 Jun 1960Billy Wilder finds tenderness inside a bleak arrangement: an office worker lends his apartment to senior colleagues hoping to advance his career. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine make loneliness and self-respect matter as much as attraction. The comedy remains sharp because the romance requires its…0
  10. 10Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 8.3/10 on IMDbReleased 19 Mar 2004Michel Gondry gives a broken relationship the unstable geography of memory. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet find both attraction and irritation in two people who cannot keep their best moments separate from their disappointments. The imaginative effects serve an unusually searching romantic question:…0