Love stories, passionate relationships, feelings, and emotions. The romance genre is an inexhaustible genre that has produced countless films throughout the history of cinema. From mainstream classics to independent films, romance films focus on the love stories of the main characters, recounting the fundamental desire of every human being: to love and be loved. The search for love on the journey of life can be one of the most complex and exciting pursuits any person faces.
The conflicts and the enemies and obstacles that the protagonists of independent and arthouse romantic movies face are very different from those of other film genres. They can be internal conflicts such as racial or religious discrimination, problems with the traditional and retrograde mentality of the family of origin, psychological problems that prevent love from entering one’s life. Or it can be external and material problems such as economic hardship poisoning a relationship, a health problem, sexual temptations and betrayals outside the couple.
Another major obstacle that is halfway between the inner world and the outer reality is the incompatibility of the couple. Misunderstandings and quarrels in fact often occur for external causes but have an internal root. Sometimes conflict resolution comes when one partner changes his or her personal view of the other and of the things that have happened. The main enemy, however, both in real love stories and in movies, is loneliness. Or perhaps it is better to define it as isolation: the lack of communion with another person that makes us feel at one with the world.
🎬 Best Recent Romantic Movies
Queer (2025)
Mexico City, 1950s. William Lee, a lonely, drug-addicted American expat (played by Daniel Craig), spends his days drinking in bars and seeking fleeting connections. His self-destructive routine is disrupted by the arrival of Eugene Allerton, a young ex-military student. In Queer, Lee becomes obsessively infatuated with the boy and convinces him to embark on a trip to South America in search of Yage (ayahuasca), a drug rumored to grant telepathic powers, hoping to use telepathy to make the boy love him.
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) adapts William S. Burroughs’ “unfilmable” novel into a hallucinogenic and sensual film. It is not a traditional love story, but a feverish exploration of desire, addiction, and the desperate need for connection. Daniel Craig delivers the performance of a lifetime, vulnerable and raw, in a visually extravagant work blending romantic melodrama with psychedelic nightmare.
Love Me (2025)
Millions of years after humanity’s extinction, a smart buoy in the ocean and a satellite in orbit connect online. They begin exchanging data, learning to simulate human life through YouTube videos and social media profiles left on servers. In Love Me, the two artificial intelligences create avatars of Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun and start a virtual, clumsy love story, trying to understand what “loving” meant for humans, while the world around them shifts through geological eras.
Premiered at Sundance and arriving in 2025, this is the most original and strange indie romance of the year. Directed by the Zuchero spouses, it is a post-apocalyptic fairy tale mixing animation, CGI, and live-action. It is a poetic and moving reflection on our digital legacy and the nature of love: is it just imitation, or can a soul arise even in a machine? An existentialist “Wall-E” for adults.
Anora (2024)
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn with Uzbek roots, is hired for a week by Ivan, the spoiled and immature son of a Russian oligarch. What starts as a well-paid gig turns into a feverish fairytale when they impulsively decide to fly to Las Vegas and get married. But their honeymoon in Anora is brutally interrupted when his parents arrive from Russia to annul the marriage, triggering a frenetic and chaotic chase across New York.
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Sean Baker’s film is a reverse “Cinderella,” dirty, vital, and electric. It is not the usual glossy romance: it is a realistic and raw portrait of power and money dynamics in modern relationships. Mikey Madison delivers an explosive performance in a work blending screwball comedy with social drama, showing how love, for those living on the margins, is often a luxury one cannot afford.
Past Lives (2023)
Nora and Hae Sung are two deeply connected childhood friends in South Korea, separated when her family emigrates to Canada. Twelve years later they find each other online, and another twelve years later they finally meet in person in New York for one week. In Past Lives, Nora is now married to an American writer, but the reunion with Hae Sung forces her to confront her life choices, destiny (the Korean concept of In-Yun), and the love for the person she was and the one she has become.
Celine Song’s debut is already a modern classic of sentimental cinema. It is a film made of silences, glances, and unspoken words, rejecting melodrama for an intimate and delicate approach. It is not about betrayal or shouted passions, but the melancholy of “what ifs.” A masterpiece of writing exploring how love can survive time and distance, even when lives take different tracks.
A vision curated by a filmmaker, not an algorithm
In this video I explain our vision
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Adam, a lonely screenwriter living in a nearly empty London high-rise, begins a passionate relationship with his mysterious neighbor Harry. Simultaneously, Adam decides to visit his childhood home in the suburbs, where he finds his parents exactly as they were on the day they died, thirty years earlier. In All of Us Strangers, Adam begins to live two parallel existences: the budding love with Harry and the impossible dialogue with his parents’ ghosts, trying to heal past wounds to be able to love in the present.
Andrew Haigh directs a poignant and metaphysical auteur film, using the ghost not to scare but to speak of grief and loneliness. Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal have extraordinary chemistry in this queer love story that transcends gender. It is a visually hypnotic and emotionally devastating work, reminding us that love is the only force capable of breaking isolation and connecting us with those we have lost and those beside us.
1st Bite
Horror, romantic, by Hunt Hoe, Canada, 2006.
Gus is a charming man who works as a cook in an oriental restaurant in Montreal. His boss sends him to a remote island in Thailand to meet a master of Zen cuisine and improve the quality of his dishes. There he meets a mysterious woman named Lake who lives in a cave and informs him that the Zen cooking master is dead. Gus goes to live in the cave and begins a love affair with Lake. But the cook's psychological balance rapidly worsens, including hallucinations, alcohol and malaise. Lake doesn't want Gus to leave, but Gus feels that he needs to escape the island and that his life is in danger.
First Bite is a very original Canadian independent film that crosses different film genres in its narration, suddenly passing from romanticism to suspense to horror. Direction and editing that is never banal, supported by shots with wide-angle lenses that increase the tension and by a cast of actors in excellent shape that offer very intense and realistic interpretations. Between mysticism, black magic, love stories and tropical islands, Primo bite is the odyssey of a man who remains prisoner in a trap from which he can no longer escape, lost between passions and exotic foods. An escape from evil energies in search of spiritual meanings set between wild nature and metropolis.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish. French, German, Portuguese
Fallen Leaves (2023)
In modern Helsinki, two lonely souls meet by chance in a karaoke bar: Ansa, a supermarket cashier fired unjustly, and Holappa, a metalworker with alcoholism issues. The two try to build a relationship, but fate seems to work against them: they lose phone numbers, get addresses wrong, and face the hardships of working-class life. In Fallen Leaves, their love is silent, made of small gestures, shy glances, and the company of a stray dog, while the radio plays war news in the background.
Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki signs a minimalist and proletarian romantic comedy, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes. It is a “deadpan” film, devoid of cynicism and full of disarming sweetness. In a cold and hostile world, the love between these two losers becomes an act of poetic resistance. An essential indie gem proving that you can tell a great love story in 80 minutes with very few words.
We Live in Time (2024)
Almut, an up-and-coming chef, and Tobias, a recent divorcé, meet in a bizarre way (she hits him with her car). The film follows their love story not chronologically, but jumping through decades: from falling in love to building a family, up to a diagnosis that changes everything. In We Live in Time, the fragments of their life together compose an emotional mosaic on how time shapes relationships and how true love is measured not in duration, but in the intensity of shared moments.
Produced by A24 and directed by John Crowley (Brooklyn), this film avoids the traps of the tearjerker “cancer movie” thanks to intelligent narrative structure and extraordinary performances by Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. It is a modern, honest, and visually polished romantic drama exploring the beauty and cruelty of daily life. A film celebrating love as the only lifeline against the unpredictability of fate.
💖 What kind of emotion are you looking for?
Love in cinema is not an isolated island. It intertwines with drama, laughter, and cultural history. If you want to explore human feelings in all their nuances, beyond simple romance, here are our guides to the genres that tell stories of life and relationships.
Independent Movies
Indie cinema is the place where stories don’t necessarily have to end well or follow set rules. If you are looking for free cinema that tells of reality, relationships, and society with a raw and auteur gaze, far from Hollywood’s glossy filters, this is the selection for you.
👉 BROWSE THE CATALOG: Stream Independent Romantic Movies
Drama Movies
Great stories are made of conflict, tears, and catharsis. The drama genre explores the complexity of the human soul, pain, personal growth, and life’s challenges. If you are looking for intense films that shake you to the core and make you reflect on the human condition, this is the parent category.
👉 GO TO THE LIST: Best Drama Movies
Romantic Comedy Movies
Laughing is serious business. Romantic comedy is not just escapism, but a powerful tool to analyze society’s flaws and the absurdities of daily life. If you want to lighten the tension and are looking for films that use irony, satire, or pure farce to tell the world’s story, here you will find the right titles.
👉 GO TO THE LIST: Best Comedy Movies
Cult Movies
Some films stand the test of time and become icons. Whether they are dramas, comedies, or passionate tales, “Cult” movies are those works that defined the aesthetic and imagery of entire generations. If you want to catch up on the masterpieces every cinephile must see at least once, start here.
👉 GO TO THE LIST: Cult Movies
💘 Timeless Love: Romantic Cinema Classics
Love doesn’t age; it just changes clothes. Before dating apps and modern cynicism, cinema taught entire generations the language of feelings. From the silent gazes of the silent era to the elegance of classic Hollywood, up to the tormented passions of European auteur cinema. In this section, we retrace the love stories that stood the test of time, defining the very idea of romance on the big screen.
Chasing Butterflies
Comedy, romantic, by Rod Bingaman, United States, 2009.
Nina runs away from home hours before her wedding. In order not to postpone her mother's wedding ceremony, she pretends to be Nina and marries her boyfriend. Soon after they begin their search to find Nina and bring her back: Nina's husband is convinced that she no longer loves him. A fifteen-year-old nerdy boy meets Nina on the street and tries to impress her with his father's Corvette that he sneaked away without having her driver's license. Meanwhile, a rebellious young woman and her boyfriend who has escaped from prison meet the boy and steal his Corvette, sowing panic with a series of thefts as they head to Canada, in search of a better life and money to make their living. love dream. Meanwhile, Nina meets on a bus a man on the run from a failed marriage: a famous local radio broadcaster who has been abandoned by his wife. But the bus will be the target of a robbery by the engaged couple "Natural Born Killers".
Chasing the Butterflies is an action-packed romantic comedy populated by characters destined to cross paths. Love gives them energy or scares them, everyone is on the run in search of a better life or because they don't know how to deal with responsibilities. Everyone refuses to be imprisoned in social conventions even when they themselves have sought them, even when the social convention is that of a marriage to a man you still love. An on the road littered with grotesque situations and hilarious dialogues, often in American slang, made independently, with a very interesting cast.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Faithful Heart (1923)
Faithful Heart is a French silent film directed by Jean Epstein and starring Marie Bell, Georges Colin, and Jean Dasté. It is a melodrama set in Marseilles in the early 20th century. The film follows the story of Marie, a young woman who is engaged to marry Antoine, a sailor. However, Marie is also attracted to Jean, a fisherman who saved her life when she was a child. When Antoine is sent away on a long voyage, Marie and Jean begin to have an affair.
Faithful Heart explores themes of love, betrayal, and fate. It is also a portrait of working-class life in Marseilles. Faithful Heart was a critical and commercial success. It was praised for its direction, cinematography, and performances. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Forgotten masterpiece of the impressionist cinema, an exciting melodrama full of visual experimentation. A brutal philosophical and stylistic theorem. Faithful Heart takes place outdoors in disreputable and real areas such as the port, the tavern, the proletarian and disreputable suburbs, in natural settings on the border between land and sea.
Atalante (1934)
L’Atalante is a French film directed by Jean Vigo. It is the director’s second and final film, as he died shortly before completing the work. The film follows the story of Jean, a young sailor, and Juliette, a young country woman. The two marry and embark on the barge L’Atalante, where Jean is the captain. Juliette struggles to adjust to life aboard the barge, and Jean is often absent for work.
L’Atalante explores themes such as love, loneliness, freedom, and nature. The film is also a portrait of life aboard a French river barge. L’Atalante was a critical and commercial success. It was praised for its direction, cinematography, and performances. The film is considered one of the masterpieces of French cinema. One of the most beautiful love stories in the history of cinema, balanced between surrealist avant-garde and poetic realism. Jacques Louis Nounez, the producer of the previous film by Jean Vigo, Zero in Conduct, blocked by censorship, agreed to produce the director’s second film, Atalante.
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
To save her father, condemned to death for picking a rose in the garden of a mysterious castle, the gentle Belle decides to offer herself as a prisoner to the manor’s master. Here she meets the Beast, a creature with a feral appearance but a tormented and noble soul. In Beauty and the Beast, the forced cohabitation between the two slowly transforms into a deep bond: Belle discovers that behind the fangs and fur lies a man victim of a curse, learning to look beyond appearances until she breaks the spell with the power of love.
Directed by poet and visionary Jean Cocteau, this film is a miracle of cinematic craftsmanship that hasn’t aged a day. Without the use of CGI, Cocteau creates an unforgettable dreamlike atmosphere thanks to prosthetic makeup, living sets (candelabras held by human arms), and masterful use of chiaroscuro. Beauty and the Beast is not just a fairy tale, but a surrealist work of art exploring the dualism of the human soul, contrasting outer bestiality with inner purity in a visual poem of rare power.
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
In early 20th-century Vienna, Lisa Berndle, a shy and dreamy teenager, falls madly in love with her neighbor, the libertine pianist Stefan Brand. For her entire life, Lisa shapes her existence around this unrequited and unrecognized love, giving herself to him for a single night of passion that Stefan soon forgets. Years later, in Letter from an Unknown Woman, a posthumous letter reveals to the man the depth of a feeling he ignored for decades, confronting him with the emptiness of his dissolute life.
Max Ophüls signs the definitive melodrama, a masterpiece of formal elegance and emotional yearning. The camera moves with liquid fluidity, caressing the characters and Viennese sets, while the narrative builds a crescendo of inevitable tragedy. Letter from an Unknown Woman is a ruthless and moving analysis of romantic obsession and memory, where the greatness of female sacrifice clashes with male shallowness, making Joan Fontaine’s performance one of the most painful in cinema history.
Crazed Fruit
Drama, by Ko Nakahira, Japan, 1959.
The sweet life of the rich young Japanese of the Sun Tribe subculture which was inspired by the western lifestyle in the late 1950s, between lust and violence, water skiing and speedboats. A story of love, passion and betrayal. Two brothers fall in love with the same girl, but she hides her real life. The morbid passion for the girl becomes unmanageable and the conflict between the two brothers more and more dramatic. Almost unknown masterpiece in the West, it caused a scandal at the time of its release. It is the film that paves the way and inspires the Japanese New Wave. Director Ko Nakahira couldn't stand Nikkatsu's industrial production model and began abusing alcohol. Eventually, he had to expatriate China and use a pseudonym to make his later films.
Food for thought
Whenever you feel sexual attraction towards someone, jealousy can arise because you are not in love. If you are truly in love, jealousy never appears. You are afraid because sex is not actually a real relationship, you are afraid that the other person may go to someone else. This fear becomes jealousy. If there is a genuine relationship it is impossible to find that wealth somewhere else.
LANGUAGE: Japanese
SUBTITLES: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Story of a Love Affair (1950)
Paola is a beautiful and restless woman married to a rich Milanese industrialist who, consumed by jealousy, hires an investigator to dig into his wife’s past. The investigation brings to the surface an old love affair between Paola and Guido, a man of modest means, interrupted years earlier by a tragic accident. In Story of a Love Affair (Cronaca di un amore), their reunion reignites the passion between the two ex-lovers, driving them to plot her husband’s murder in a climate of suspicion, guilt, and fatality that will consume them both.
Michelangelo Antonioni’s directorial debut is a fundamental work that deconstructs American noir tropes by immersing them in Italian bourgeois alienation. It is not so much the criminal plot that matters, but the existential emptiness of the protagonists and their inability to find true happiness. Visually refined and icy, Story of a Love Affair anticipates the themes of non-communication that would make the director famous, offering a bitter portrait of a love that is born “guilty” and cannot find redemption.
The Lady Without Camelias (1953)
Clara Manni, a young shop assistant of humble origins, is discovered by a producer and launched into the film world, quickly becoming a star thanks to her beauty. However, Clara aspires to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress, trying to escape the femme fatale roles imposed on her. In The Lady Without Camelias, a marriage to a jealous and possessive producer and a failed extramarital affair lead her to understand the cruelty of show business, where she is seen only as a body to be exploited.
Antonioni continues his investigation into the crisis of feelings and the commodification of women in modern society. The film is a lucid and disenchanted critique of the Italian film industry of the time, far from celebratory tones. The Lady Without Camelias is a drama about loneliness and the failure of personal aspirations, supported by a magnificent Lucia Bosé portraying a woman trapped in a public image that does not belong to her and that ends up suffocating her identity.
Scandal in Sorrento (1955)
Marshal Antonio Carotenuto returns to his native Sorrento to take command of the local police and occupy his family home. Here he has to evict the illegal tenant, the fishmonger Sofia known as “la Smargiassa,” a volcanic woman with whom he falls madly in love. In Scandal in Sorrento (Pane, amore e…), the courtship of the mature marshal clashes with the woman’s aims, as she intends to make a young fisherman jealous, giving rise to a series of misunderstandings and romantic skirmishes against the backdrop of the Amalfi Coast.
The third chapter of the famous “Pink Neorealism” saga, this film marks the transition from black and white to color and the arrival of Sophia Loren replacing Lollobrigida. Directed by Dino Risi, Scandal in Sorrento is a brilliant and sunny comedy of manners celebrating popular vitality and the art of getting by. Beyond the laughs, it offers a fascinating cross-section of 1950s Italy, between tradition and a desire for lightness, dominated by Vittorio De Sica’s stage charisma.
Bob le Flambeur (1956)
Bob Montagné is a legendary ex-robber, now aging, who spends his nights between the clubs of Montmartre and the gambling table, where luck seems to have abandoned him. Reduced almost to ruin, he decides to organize one last, spectacular heist at the Deauville casino with a team of accomplices. However, in Bob le Flambeur, the perfect plan risks failing not due to police skill, but due to human weaknesses, gossip, and the uncontrollable passions of the gang members.
Jean-Pierre Melville signs a masterpiece that is the spiritual father of the French New Wave and films like Ocean’s Eleven. It is not just a heist movie, but a melancholic and stylish portrait of a man of honor past his prime. Shot with natural light and a handheld camera on the streets of Paris, Bob le Flambeur is a film about the elegance of defeat and mocking fate, where the nocturnal atmosphere and the moral code of criminals matter more than the action itself.
Festival in Cannes
Sentimental comedy, by Henry Jaglom, United States, 2001.
Cannes, 1999. Alice, an actress, wants to direct an independent film, and is looking for financiers. She meets Kaz, a talkative businessman, who promises her $ 3 million if she uses Millie, a French star who has passed her youth and no longer finds interesting roles. Alice tells the story of the film to Millie and the actress falls in love with the project. But Rick, a prominent producer working for a large Hollywood studio, needs Millie for a small part in a film due to shoot in the fall, or else he'll lose her star, Tom Hanks. Is Kaz a real producer or is he a charlatan? Rick is actually not as rich as he used to be and he absolutely has to convince Alice to give up Millie in order to close the big project deal with Tom Hanks. Millie is undecided about what to choose: an indie film she loves but with no big money or a small part in the Hollywood movie that pays very well? Meanwhile, a young actress named Blue becomes the star of the festival and Kaz discovers a new love. The wheel of life, and of show business, turns, between feelings, existential budgets and film business. A film shot with great stylistic freedom, like a documentary, during the 1999 edition of the festival, which focuses on the performances of the actors with a spontaneous and fluid improvisation method, inspired by Cassavetes' cinema. A light and moving sentimental comedy, where the conflicts and frailties of the stars of the show business gradually emerge, bringing the important themes of life to the surface.
Food for thought
Working as a cog in a system or for your own vision? Dependence or independence? Both are not completely real: the reality that happens everywhere, in any industry, in any natural event, is interdependence. We are all absolutely interdependent, not only between men, not only between nations, but between trees and humans, between animals and trees, between birds and sun, between moon and oceans, everything is intertwined with everything else. The humanity of the past did not understand this fundamental law, and it created big problems.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
The Mischief Makers (1957)
In a hot summer in French Provence, a group of wild boys (the “mistons” of the title) develops a collective obsession with the beautiful Bernadette. Jealous of her love for gymnastics instructor Gérard, the children begin to stalk the couple, spying on them, disturbing their dates, and turning their romantic idyll into a target for cruel pranks. In The Mischief Makers (Les Mistons), what begins as a summer of childish games soon clashes with adult reality and tragedy.
This short film marks the true beginning of François Truffaut’s career and already contains all the seeds of his future cinema: the love for rebellious childhood, sensuality, and melancholy. It is a work that shines with freshness and expressive freedom, paying homage to silent cinema (the gardener scene) and poetically capturing the precise moment when innocence gives way to the awareness of loss. A small gem of cinematic vitality.
L’Avventura (1960)
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During a yacht cruise to the Aeolian Islands, Anna, a rich and dissatisfied girl, mysteriously disappears on the deserted islet of Lisca Bianca. Her boyfriend Sandro and her best friend Claudia begin searching for her, but as days pass, the anxiety of the search gives way to a mutual attraction. In L’Avventura, Anna’s disappearance becomes a pretext to explore the birth of a new relationship founded not on love, but on emptiness and forgetfulness, while the initial mystery slides into oblivion.
A manifesto film of modern cinema, Antonioni’s L’Avventura changed the rules of storytelling forever. The director abandons the mystery plot to focus on “dead time” and the psychology of characters lost in landscapes that reflect their inner barrenness. Booed at Cannes but later awarded, it is a hypnotic work on the instability of feelings and the ease with which human beings replace affections, a pitiless analysis of contemporary alienation.
La Notte (1961)
Giovanni Pontano, a successful writer, and his wife Lidia go through a silent and irreversible marital crisis over the course of a single day in Milan. After visiting a dying friend in the hospital and wandering aimlessly through the changing city, the couple attends a high-society party in a Brianza villa. In La Notte, amidst boredom, intellectual betrayals, and hinted flirtations, the two spouses become aware that their love has burned out, leaving room only for a desperate shared loneliness.
The second chapter of the “Trilogy of Incommunicability,” the film is an architectural and geometric portrait of the end of a love. Antonioni uses the Milan of the economic boom, with its glass and concrete skyscrapers, as a mirror of the protagonists’ emotional coldness. La Notte is a film of suspended atmospheres and gazes lost in the void, enhanced by the masterful performances of Mastroianni and Moreau, who stage the drama of those who have nothing left to say to each other.
L’Eclisse (1962)
Vittoria, a young translator, breaks off a long relationship with her partner after a night of exhausting arguments. Wandering through Rome, she meets Piero, a young and cynical stockbroker, vital and materialistic. A relationship born of physical attraction and misunderstanding develops between the two, which seems destined to have no future. In L’Eclisse, the love story progressively dissolves, culminating in an abstract ending where the protagonists do not show up for their date, letting objects and urban spaces “tell” of their absence.
Concluding the existential trilogy, this film takes Antonioni’s language to its extreme consequences. The Rome Stock Exchange becomes a hellish and chaotic place contrasting with the silences of the Roman suburbs, especially the EUR district. L’Eclisse is a visually bold work prophesying the dehumanization of capitalist society, where feelings are as volatile as stock quotes and humanity risks being eclipsed by the weight of things.
Hollywood Dreams
Comedy, drama, by Henry Jaglom, United States, 2007.
Aspiring actress Margie Chizek seeks stardom in Hollywood. She is rejected by the cinema scene, falls in love, discovers the deceptions behind the world of film advertising and understands her identity better than her. Saved from ruin by a kind producer, Margie manages to enter the world of the rich in Hollywood and falls in love with a young actor, who is building her career by pretending to be gay. The couple will face show business and sexual identity manipulation. Hollywood Dreams engages the audience thanks to the extraordinary performance of Tanna Frederick and her character as a tormented and emotionally unstable actress, a surprising and moving performance. The character of a fragile woman, a prisoner of false myths, at times repellent and bizarre. In the hands of the nonconformist independent director Henry Jaglom the charm of the false illusions of success is told in an exemplary and irresistible way.
The history of cinema is full of films about people making films, which can be interpreted as a universal story: everyone strives for success, recognition and fame in a competitive field. Henry Jaglom's Hollywood Dreams is a subversive film, a satire of an industry based on deception. Inspired by the productive freedom and improvisation of the actors of John Cassavetes' independent cinema, more rigorous and exciting than Henry Jaglom's other films, Hollywood Dreams focuses on a smiling actress who suddenly becomes famous. The director, in his fifteenth film, becomes more melancholy, and takes a journey between cinematic memories and gender identity confusion. The style is always the realistic one, almost a documentary, of other Jaglom films. One of the best known American independent directors in a nostalgic mood, reflecting on the negative aspects of fame and success.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
The Soft Skin (1964)
Pierre Lachenay, a celebrated Parisian literary figure and publisher, leads an orderly and bourgeois life until he meets Nicole, a flight attendant much younger than him. An extramarital affair begins, which Pierre lives with clumsiness and passion, trying to reconcile his family duties with the desire for escape. In The Soft Skin (La Peau douce), what seems like a banal adultery turns into a claustrophobic trap made of lies, clandestine meetings in provincial hotels, and misunderstandings, until a tragic and sudden epilogue.
François Truffaut abandons the light tone to direct a “Hitchcockian” drama about the mechanisms of adultery. The film analyzes with almost clinical coldness the banality of evil lurking in romantic relationships, showing how love can turn into selfishness and destruction. Underrated upon release, The Soft Skin is today recognized as one of the director’s most mature and bitter films, a ruthless portrait of male fragility and revenge.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the heart of the American Great Depression, Clyde Barrow, a charming ex-convict, meets Bonnie Parker, a waitress bored with provincial life. Together they begin a criminal career crossing the Midwest, robbing banks and challenging authority. In Bonnie and Clyde, their escape becomes media legend: the two become folk heroes, doomed lovers living fast and dangerously, surrounded by a band of eccentric accomplices, while the law tightens the noose around them in an inevitable crescendo of violence.
Arthur Penn’s film marked the birth of “New Hollywood,” breaking taboos on the representation of violence and sexuality. Mixing slapstick comedy tones with moments of brutal realism (the bullet-riddled finale is iconic), the film transforms two criminals into rebellious and romantic icons. Bonnie and Clyde is a revolutionary work speaking of youth, the desire for fame, and revolt against the system, redefining the gangster genre forever.
Stolen Kisses (1968)
Antoine Doinel, dishonorably discharged from the army for instability of character, seeks his place in the world in the Paris of 1968. He moves from one job to another (night porter, private investigator, TV repairman) with disastrous results and tries to win back his girlfriend Christine. Meanwhile, in Stolen Kisses (Baci rubati), he becomes infatuated with the mature and charming wife of a client, Fabienne Tabard. Between comic situations and moments of sweetness, Antoine continues his bumpy journey of sentimental education.
Truffaut returns to his alter ego Jean-Pierre Léaud with a light, sparkling, and improvised comedy, filmed right during the French May protests (which remain off-screen). It is a hymn to youth, uncertainty, and the beauty of fleeting loves. Stolen Kisses is perhaps the most lovable chapter of the Doinel saga, a film celebrating life with a touch of melancholy and inimitable grace, sealed by Charles Trenet’s song that gives the work its title.
Mississippi Mermaid (1969)
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Louis Mahé, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner on Reunion Island, awaits the arrival of Julie, a woman he met through correspondence who has agreed to marry him. When she arrives, she is much more beautiful than the photos sent (she is Catherine Deneuve), but she hides a secret. After marrying him and robbing him of everything, she flees to France. In Mississippi Mermaid (La sirène du Mississipi), Louis, instead of reporting her, pursues her obsessively, willing to forgive every betrayal and ruin himself just to be with her, in a self-destructive descent driven by a mad passion.
François Truffaut directs Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve in an atypical noir dedicated to Jean Renoir. It is a story of amour fou (mad love) that defies all logic and dignity, exploring the boundary between love and masochism. The film is a profound analysis of emotional dependence: Louis knows Julie is poison (“my drug”), but consciously chooses to “die” of love rather than live without her. An elegant, painful, and deeply romantic work in the most tragic sense of the term.
Love on the Run
Comedy, romance, by Francois Truffaut, France, 1978.
After seven years Antoine and Christine divorce, while remaining good friends. Antoine is in a relationship with Liliane, friend of Christine, has published an autobiography about his loves and finds work as a proofreader and also begins a cheerful, if tumultuous relationship, with Sabine, a saleswoman in a record store.
It is the fifth and final film in the series of 'Antoine Doinel', which follows the life of the main character from childhood to adulthood. The film won the Jury Prize at that year's Cannes Film Festival. It is a significant representation of human relationships, an intelligent and ironic reflection on the themes of love, loss and personal growth. It is also an homage to French cinema of the 60s and 70s, a sort of synthesis of cinematic themes and styles that Truffaut had explored throughout his career. Léaud had played the character in all the films of the "Antoine Doinel" series and his performance in "Love on the Run" was considered one of the best of his career. "Love on the Run" was well received by critics and is considered one of Truffaut's best films.
LANGUAGE: french
SUBTITLES: english, italian
My Night at Maud’s (1969)
Jean-Louis, a rigorous Catholic engineer who has decided to marry a blonde girl seen in church (without even knowing her), finds himself by chance spending Christmas Eve at the home of Maud, a divorced, free, and intelligent woman. Due to a snowfall, he is forced to sleep there. In My Night at Maud’s, the two spend the night not having sex, but talking about philosophy, religion, morality, and Pascal’s wager, in a game of intellectual seduction that will test the man’s rigid beliefs.
A masterpiece by Éric Rohmer and the peak of his “Moral Tales,” the film is proof that cinema can be made of words and ideas as much as images. Jean-Louis Trintignant is perfect in the role of the man torn between his principles and desire. My Night at Maud’s is a refined and cerebrally erotic film, capturing the intimacy created between two people when they bare their souls before their bodies.
Bed and Board (1970)
Antoine Doinel and Christine are now married, have a son, and live in a cozy Parisian apartment. Antoine works dyeing flowers in a courtyard, but his restless nature has not subsided. Marital stability is thrown into crisis when he meets Kyoko, a mysterious and exotic Japanese girl with whom he begins an almost surreal extramarital affair. In Bed and Board (Domicile conjugal), Antoine finds himself clumsily divided between wife and mistress, in a series of gags revealing the character’s eternal immaturity.
Truffaut continues the chronicle of Doinel’s life, veering decisively towards burlesque comedy and satire of bourgeois couple life. The film is full of Jacques Tati-style visual gags and keen observations on the small details that hold two people together (or separate them). It is an affectionate and lighthearted portrait of adultery, where drama is banished in favor of an irony that accepts human weaknesses as an inevitable part of existence.
Claire’s Knee (1970)
Jérôme, a diplomat about to be married, spends his last bachelor holiday on Lake Annecy. Here he meets Aurora, an old novelist friend, who challenges him to “live” a story instead of telling one. The object of the experiment becomes Claire, a very young girl with whom Jérôme is not in love, but whose physical detail he obsessively craves: her knee. In Claire’s Knee, the protagonist devises a complex strategy just to be able to touch that part of her body, turning a whim into a moral issue.
Éric Rohmer creates a luminous and sensual film, where the summer landscape and holiday idleness serve as a backdrop for a microscopic analysis of male desire. Almost nothing happens outwardly, but inwardly a battle unfolds made of glances, unspoken words, and fetishistic impulses. Claire’s Knee is a cinematic treatise on seduction as an intellectual game and on the hypocrisy of adults trying to rationalize their basest instincts.
Two English Girls (1971)
At the beginning of the 20th century, young Frenchman Claude Roc meets Ann Brown, an English sculptress who invites him to Wales to introduce him to her sister Muriel. A complex and painful love triangle is born that unravels over decades. Claude loves both sisters at different times: the pragmatic and free Ann and the puritanical and tormented Muriel. In Two English Girls, the protagonists chase, love, and hurt each other through letters, travels, and missed meetings, discovering that absolute love often does not coincide with daily happiness.
Often defined as the “dark side” of Jules and Jim, this film by Truffaut is a dense, literary, and deeply physical work (showing the blood of lost virginity, a taboo for the time). It is a film about lovesickness and the difficulty of synchronizing feelings. Two English Girls is a masterpiece of melancholy exploring how time and rigid morality can consume passion, leaving behind only the memory of what might have been.
Miss Oyu
Drama, by Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1951.
Bachelor Shinnosuke falls in love with Miss Oyu, the companion of his younger sister Shizu who visits him as a future bride. The family taboo prevents Shinnosuke from marrying Oyu. He marries Shizu without consummating their marriage so that Shinnosuke can remain faithful to the unconscious Oyu. However, the couple's commitment to appearances has a cost. The lack of sexuality and the malicious rumors about the ménage-a-trois lead to recrimination, separation and further pain. Miss Oyu is a radical reworking by Mizoguchi and his screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda of Junichiro Tanizaki's novel The Reed Cutter (1932). Miss Oyu moves in the aura of high art and good taste: opening credits beyond paintings of clouds, compositions of Chinese and Japanese art masterpieces, interiors decorated with refined furnishings and art objects, Japanese classical music recitals and songs derived from Japanese poetry, references to Heian costume, history and literature, historical and natural beauties; Japanese rituals such as ikebana, bonsai and tea ceremonies. A grand depiction of exotic and picturesque Japanese culture, Ms. Oyu was the first of the 1950s costume dramas that would make Mizoguchi famous outside of Japan.
LANGUAGE: Japanese language
SUBTITLES: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Paul, a middle-aged American devastated by his wife’s suicide, and Jeanne, a young Parisian bourgeois looking for an apartment, meet by chance in an empty rental house. Without telling each other their names, they begin a relationship based exclusively on violent and desperate sex, isolating themselves from the outside world within those walls. In Last Tango in Paris, the apartment becomes a limbo where the two try to annul their identities and pains through their bodies, but reality will end up intruding tragically when feelings begin to mix with flesh.
Bernardo Bertolucci signs one of the most controversial and powerful films of the century, turning Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider into icons of tragic and existential eroticism. Storaro’s ochre cinematography and sets inspired by Francis Bacon create an atmosphere of decadence and death. Beyond the scandal, it is a heartbreaking film about loneliness, the impossibility of truly knowing another, and the failed attempt to escape social conventions through transgression.
Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)
Frédéric, a happily married Parisian lawyer and father, lives an orderly bourgeois life but harbors harmless fantasies about other women deep down. His routine is interrupted by the arrival of Chloé, the ex-mistress of an old friend—a free, unstable, and seductive woman who enters his office and his life. In Chloe in the Afternoon (L’Amour l’après-midi), what begins as an intellectual game of afternoon conversations slowly transforms into a real temptation that tests the man’s moral principles.
The final chapter of Éric Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales,” the film is a subtle psychological analysis of marital fidelity. Rohmer does not judge but observes how desire stems from boredom and vanity. The final scene, where Frédéric is faced with the physical choice to cheat and has a sudden epiphany that leads him back home to his wife, is one of the most moving and realistic moments in French cinema regarding the fragility and strength of lasting bonds.
Annie Hall (1977)
Alvy Singer, a neurotic Jewish New York comedian obsessed with death, looks back on his failed relationship with Annie Hall, a ditsy, menswear-clad aspiring singer. Through non-linear flashbacks, breaking the fourth wall, and monologues to the camera, the film recounts the birth, evolution, and decline of their love. In Annie Hall, Alvy tries to understand where they went wrong, analyzing their cultural, sexual, and intellectual differences in a frenetic and intellectual New York.
Woody Allen’s masterpiece redefined the romantic comedy, turning it into an adult and introspective genre. The film is afraid to show that love can end and that, sometimes, people are just passing through our lives to teach us something. With razor-sharp dialogue (“Love is the answer, but while you’re waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions”) and an innovative visual style, it is a bittersweet work celebrating the irrational absurdity of human relationships.
The Man Who Loved Women (1977)
During the funeral of Bertrand Morane, an engineer from Montpellier, a crowd of women of all ages and types gathers to pay their last respects. Through a long flashback, the film reconstructs the life of Bertrand, a serial seducer who dedicated his existence to chasing feminine charm. In The Man Who Loved Women, Bertrand is not a predatory Don Juan, but a sincere and melancholic adorer who sees a unique mystery to discover and love in every woman (from shop assistants to strangers on the street), writing a book to immortalize his memories.
François Truffaut directs an elegant and literary dramatic comedy exploring romantic obsession without moralizing. The protagonist (played by Charles Denner) is a lonely man trying to fill an emotional void (the absence of a mother) through a collection of romantic moments. It is a film about the fleeting nature of desire and writing as the only means to make eternal what is destined to fade. A delicate and fetishistic homage to female beauty.
Nika
Drama, romantic, by Leilani Amour Arenzana, United States, 2020.
Nika, a young woman from Los Angeles who lost both her parents in a car accident, has started her modeling career for some time but she feels the emptiness that surrounds her existence and the weight of time passes. She is no longer so young and she looks back on her life that she looks like a long collection of failures: she has failed to achieve success in any of the artistic fields that she had studied for. But her friend who has become a popular star doesn't seem happy either. In the throes of a severe financial crisis and in desperation Nika faces a life choice that could either redeem or ruin her: becoming an escort.
Nika shows us a plastic world, of extreme fragility and of unaware characters who seek meaning in a society that appears hostile from all points of view. The director Leilani Amour Arenzana, perhaps not always intentionally, shows us characters caught in a trap that perhaps they don't even know exists. A "Western" trap in which vices, psychological frailties, materialism seem to inexorably take over. With surrealist and dreamlike sparks, nightmares, sweet dreams and concrete problems of everyday reality, Nika is a film that tells a period of transformation and redemption of a woman, between drama and romance.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Manhattan (1979)
Isaac Davis, a 42-year-old TV writer who hates his job, is dating Tracy, a 17-year-old high school student who truly loves him, but whom he doesn’t take seriously due to the age gap. Meanwhile, he falls in love with Mary, the intellectual and neurotic mistress of his married best friend. In Manhattan, against the backdrop of a black-and-white New York and set to Gershwin’s music, Isaac navigates his insecurities and selfishness, ending up hurting the only person who offered him pure affection.
Woody Allen signs his love letter to the Big Apple and simultaneously a fierce self-criticism of intellectual narcissism. Visually splendid (the bench scene under the Queensboro Bridge is iconic), the film is a bitter reflection on emotional maturity. Tracy, the “child,” reveals herself to be the only true adult in the group, and Isaac’s final run to stop her before she leaves for London is one of the most romantic and poignant endings in cinema history.
Before Sunrise (1995)
Jesse, a young American traveling in Europe, meets Céline, a French student, on a train bound for Vienna. Struck by her intelligence, he convinces her to get off with him and spend the night walking around the city before his flight the next morning. In Before Sunrise, the two wander through a nocturnal and magical Vienna, talking about everything: dreams, fears, love, death, and reincarnation. Knowing their time is limited, the intimacy between them grows exponentially, turning a chance encounter into a deep bond.
Richard Linklater inaugurates the most realistic romantic trilogy in contemporary cinema. Without plot twists or melodrama, the film relies entirely on the chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and the beauty of the dialogue. It is a work that perfectly captures the essence of youthful infatuation: that feeling of suspended time and absolute connection with another human being. An ode to spontaneity and the courage to seize the moment.
Amélie (2001)
Amélie Poulain is a shy and lonely waitress in Montmartre who lives in a world of small sensory pleasures (plunging her hand into grain sacks, cracking the crust of crème brûlée). After finding and returning a box of childhood memories to an old tenant, she decides to dedicate her life to fixing others’ lives through small secret stratagems. In Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain), her mission as a “guardian angel” clashes with her own need for love when she meets Nino, a collector of torn photo booth pictures, and she must find the courage to come out of her shell to win him over.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet creates a visually explosive modern fairy tale, dominated by red and green colors and a fast, inventive directing style. The film became a global cultural phenomenon, celebrating kindness and imagination as weapons against gray reality. Audrey Tautou is unforgettable as an introverted heroine who teaches us to find magic in small things and risk our hearts for happiness.
The Notebook (2004)
In a nursing home, an elderly man reads a diary every day to a woman suffering from dementia. The story recounts the overwhelming love that blossomed in the 40s between Noah, a poor but passionate worker, and Allie, a wealthy heiress. Their bond, hindered by her parents and the war, survives years and separations. In The Notebook, it is revealed that the two elders are Noah and Allie themselves, and that reading is the only way to bring the woman’s memory back, even if only for a few miraculous seconds.
Based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel, this film has become the benchmark for modern romantic drama. The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams (and their kiss in the rain) is legendary. Despite the sentimentality, the film touches deep chords by talking about the persistence of love in the face of illness and death. It is a story about eternal commitment (“If you’re a bird, I’m a bird”) that moves audiences with its unwavering faith in the power of feelings.
The Naked Kiss
Drama, Noir, by Samuel Fuller, 1964, United States.
Kelly is a prostitute who arrives by bus in the small town of Grantville, after moving away from the big city to escape her former protector. She meets her local police captain Griff who hosts her in her apartment, but then invites her to leave town. Kelly, on the other hand, wants to abandon her previous life and become a nurse in a hospital for disabled children. Griff thinks she is opportunism, he doesn't trust her and keeps trying to send her out of town. Kelly falls in love with Grant, the rich scion of the most important family in the city, a friend of her friend, Griff. After an extraordinary courtship in which not even Kelly's tale of her dark past can discourage Grant, the two decide to get married. Kelly manages to convince Griff that she truly loves Grant and has given up prostitution permanently, and her friend agrees to be their best man.
Food for thought
Sometimes we choose to change our lives because our existence no longer satisfies, and we choose to pursue something we like or that makes our days easier. But after making the change we realize that new conflicts and different problems arise. Often the best change is not what you like best, but the choice of a new lifestyle supported by real values. An ethical change of life. There will be new problems, new difficulties, but the satisfaction will be immediate.
LANGUAGE: English
SUBTITLES: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
Two American friends, prudent Vicky (who is about to get married) and adventurous Cristina, spend the summer in Barcelona. Here they are approached by Juan Antonio, a charismatic painter who proposes a weekend in Oviedo. Both, in different ways, fall under his spell. But the situation complicates in Vicky Cristina Barcelona with the arrival of Maria Elena, Juan Antonio’s unstable and brilliant ex-wife. Thus, a chaotic and passionate love triangle (and then quadrangle) forms, questioning everyone’s certainties.
Woody Allen explores the different faces of love: the safe but dull one (Vicky), the romantic but unstable one (Cristina), and the destructive but artistically fertile one (Juan Antonio and Maria Elena). Penélope Cruz steals the show (winning an Oscar) as the “too” passionate woman. The film is a sunny and sensual reflection on the impossibility of being happy: those who seek stability get bored, those who seek passion get burned.
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Tom, a failed architect who writes greeting cards, falls madly in love with Summer, his boss’s new assistant. He believes in destiny and soulmates; she does not. The two begin a relationship that lasts 500 days, but the film warns us immediately: “This is not a love story.” In (500) Days of Summer, the narrative jumps back and forth in time, showing us the euphoria of the beginning and the pain of the end, deconstructing Tom’s memories to make him realize that his idealized vision of Summer prevented him from seeing reality.
Marc Webb directs a brilliant and honest “anti-romantic comedy.” The film is famous for the “Expectations vs. Reality” scene, which perfectly illustrates romantic disappointment. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel embody a modern and credible couple. It is a film that teaches a fundamental lesson: projecting one’s fantasies onto another person is not love, it is loneliness, and sometimes you have to lose someone to find yourself.
Blue Valentine (2010)
Dean and Cindy are a working-class married couple with a young daughter whose marriage is falling apart. The film alternates between two timelines: the past, full of hope and romance, when the two met and fell in love despite difficulties; and the present, bleak and suffocating, where love has turned into resentment and misunderstanding. In Blue Valentine, a desperate attempt to save the relationship by spending a night in a “future” themed motel turns into the theater of their final breakup.
Derek Cianfrance performs a brutal and realistic autopsy of a dying love. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (who lived together in a house for a month to prepare for the roles) offer harrowing performances. There are no villains, just two people who have changed in opposite directions and can no longer find each other. It is a painful but necessary film, showing the dark side of “happily ever after,” where love is sometimes not enough to overcome life’s incompatibilities.
Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)
Celeste and Jesse married young and have always been best friends. Now, at 30, they are separating because Celeste wants to focus on her career while Jesse remains an eternal teenager without ambition. However, they decide to remain “best friends,” living in a symbiosis that confuses everyone. In Celeste and Jesse Forever, the balance breaks when Jesse unexpectedly finds new love and becomes a father, forcing Celeste to face loneliness and realize that her sense of superiority made her lose the man she truly loved.
Written by and starring Rashida Jones, this film flips clichés: here the woman is cynical and focused on success, while the man is the emotional one. It is a bittersweet comedy about the difficulty of letting go of one’s past and the maturity that comes through pain. An honest portrait of how friendship with an ex can be an obstacle to one’s growth until one accepts that paths have diverged.
Ruby Sparks (2012)
Calvin, a young literary prodigy with writer’s block and loneliness, begins writing a story about his ideal woman, Ruby Sparks, on an old typewriter. One morning, he wakes up to find Ruby in the flesh in his kitchen: the girl is real and behaves exactly as he wrote her. In Ruby Sparks, Calvin discovers he can change his girlfriend’s personality and actions simply by typing new sentences, but this godlike power turns the relationship into a nightmare of control and manipulation that destroys the authenticity of love.
Directed by the creators of Little Miss Sunshine and written by lead actress Zoe Kazan, the film is a brilliant metaphor for the “Pygmalion Myth” and the male desire to mold the perfect woman. Beneath the surface of a cute indie comedy, it hides a dark heart criticizing narcissism and possessiveness. The ending is a powerful lesson that loving means accepting the other in their unpredictable and uncontrollable freedom.
The Spectacular Now (2013)
Sutter Keely is the life of the high school party: charismatic, always with a cup in hand, and focused only on the present (“The Spectacular Now”). After being dumped by his girlfriend, he gets drunk and wakes up on a lawn in front of Aimee Finicky, an introverted, studious girl who has never had a boyfriend. They start hanging out, and what seems like an unlikely story becomes profound. In The Spectacular Now, Aimee sees the pain behind Sutter’s cheerfulness, but he risks dragging her into his abyss of alcoholism and self-destruction inherited from his father.
James Ponsoldt directs a teen movie that avoids all genre stereotypes. It is a raw and authentic film about adolescence, treating youth alcoholism seriously. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are extraordinarily natural. It is not the usual story of the “bad boy saved by the good girl,” but a tale of mutual growth where both must learn to save themselves before they can be together healthily.
The Immigrant (2013)
- Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant, arrives at Ellis Island with her sick sister, who is quarantined. Ewa, alone and desperate, risks deportation but is “saved” by Bruno Weiss, a charming man who runs a burlesque show and a prostitution ring. In The Immigrant, Ewa is forced to sell her body to survive and save her sister, until she meets Orlando, Bruno’s illusionist cousin, who offers her a hope of love and redemption, triggering Bruno’s possessive jealousy.
James Gray creates a classic and sumptuous melodrama reminiscent of opera. Marion Cotillard is immense in the role of a woman who, though forced into sin, keeps her spiritual purity intact. Joaquin Phoenix plays a complex and tragic “villain,” a man who exploits Ewa but is desperately in love with her. It is a powerful film about faith, sacrifice, and the brutality of the American Dream, visually inspired by religious painting.
The One I Love (2014)
Ethan and Sophie, a couple in crisis trying to save their marriage, follow their therapist’s advice and rent a secluded cottage for a weekend. They soon discover that “better” versions of themselves live in the guesthouse: another Ethan and another Sophie, funnier, more affectionate, and ideal. In The One I Love, what begins as an intriguing mystery becomes a psychological thriller when the protagonists start preferring the doppelgängers to their real partners, getting trapped in a game of mirrors that lays bare their dissatisfactions.
A brilliant little indie film that uses sci-fi (akin to Black Mirror) to analyze relationship dynamics. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss are excellent at playing two roles each with subtle nuances. The film explores the question: do we really love the person beside us or the idealized idea we had of them at the beginning? An unsettling and intelligent work deconstructing the concept of the “perfect partner.”
Carol (2015)
New York, 1950s. Therese Belivet, a young department store clerk aspiring to be a photographer, meets Carol Aird, an elegant and wealthy woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. An immediate attraction arises between the two, transforming into deep love during a road trip West. In Carol, their relationship defies the moral conventions of the time: Carol risks losing custody of her daughter due to a “morality clause,” forcing her to choose between her heart and her role as a mother.
Todd Haynes adapts Patricia Highsmith’s novel with absolute visual refinement. Shot in 16mm to evoke the grain of period photos, the film is a masterpiece of glances, restrained gestures, and warm colors. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara offer performances of palpable chemistry. It is a universal love story about the courage to be oneself in a world that demands conformity, told with an elegance that breaks the heart.
The Lobster (2015)
In a dystopian future, being single is illegal. Lonely people are arrested and taken to a Hotel, where they have 45 days to find a soulmate among the other guests. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choice and released into the woods. David, a mild-mannered man recently left by his wife, arrives at the Hotel accompanied by his brother (who has become a dog). In The Lobster, David flees into the woods to join the “Loners,” rebels who forbid love, but there he makes the mistake of falling in love with a short-sighted woman, finding himself persecuted by both factions.
Yorgos Lanthimos directs a surreal and pitch-black satire on social conventions regarding couples. The film attacks both society’s obsession with marriage (seen as a bureaucratic obligation) and the selfishness of die-hard singles. Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz act in a detached, robotic style that makes the absurdity of the situation even more evident. A unique, funny, and disturbing film that asks whether love is a choice or just a matter of survival.
Moonlight (2016)
The film tells the life of Chiron, a gay African-American boy growing up in the poor neighborhoods of Miami, in three acts: childhood (“Little”), adolescence (“Chiron”), and adulthood (“Black”). Bullied by peers and neglected by his drug-addicted mother, Chiron finds a father figure in Juan, a local drug dealer. In Moonlight, the protagonist struggles to accept his sexual identity and his feelings for his friend Kevin, the only one who has ever touched him with affection, in a journey of growth marked by silence, violence, and the search for tenderness.
Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, Barry Jenkins’ work is pure visual poetry. The saturated photography and intimate direction break the stereotypes of “urban” cinema, showing black male vulnerability like never before. It is not just a coming-of-age film, but a meditation on identity and how the environment shapes us. The final meeting between Chiron and Kevin is one of the most delicate and powerful moments in contemporary cinema.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
In the summer of 1983, seventeen-year-old Elio Perlman spends his holidays in his family’s villa in the Italian countryside, playing classical music and reading. His quiet is shaken by the arrival of Oliver, a charming American student hosting his professor father. Initially distant, the two develop an attraction that grows under the summer sun. In Call Me by Your Name, Elio discovers the power of desire and love for the first time, living a brief but absolute passion that will change his way of seeing the world forever.
Luca Guadagnino directs a hymn to sensuality, culture, and youth. The film is an immersive experience made of food, river swims, pianos, and cicadas. Timothée Chalamet delivers a breakout performance perfectly capturing the restlessness and ecstasy of first love. The father’s final monologue and Elio’s gaze before the fireplace have become instantly legendary, reminding us that the pain of loss is the price to pay for having lived something true.
A Star Is Born (2018)
Jackson Maine, a wildly famous country-rock star consumed by alcohol and tinnitus, stumbles into a drag bar and discovers Ally, a waitress with an extraordinary voice who has given up on her dream of singing. Jack drags her onto the stage during one of his concerts, launching her career. In A Star Is Born, while Ally’s rise to pop stardom is unstoppable, Jack sinks deeper into addiction and self-destruction, in a dynamic of love and professional jealousy that will lead them to a tragic breaking point.
Bradley Cooper (director and actor) and Lady Gaga revitalize a Hollywood classic, making it modern, dirty, and real. The first part of the film, with the falling in love and live concerts, is electrifying. The chemistry between the two is explosive, and the song Shallow has become an anthem. It is a powerful melodrama exploring the cost of fame and how addiction can destroy even the purest love, leaving those who remain to pick up the pieces through art.
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Harlem, 1970s. Tish, 19, and Fonny, 22, have been friends forever and recently lovers, ready to build a life together. Their dream is shattered when Fonny is wrongly arrested for a rape he did not commit, a victim of a racist judicial system. Tish discovers she is pregnant and, together with her family, begins a race against time to prove her partner’s innocence before the baby is born. In If Beale Street Could Talk, the young couple’s love becomes a spiritual refuge and a force of resistance against the world’s injustice.
Barry Jenkins adapts James Baldwin, creating a film of moving visual beauty. The warm colors, intense close-ups, and jazz soundtrack wrap the viewer in an emotional embrace. It is not a legal thriller, but a story about unconditional love and family solidarity. Jenkins shows how black love in America is a political act of survival, capable of maintaining dignity and hope even behind prison bars.
The Sub-Genres of the Romantic Movies
The most frequent themes in romantic independent movies are love at first sight, love between people with a large age difference, love between people of the same sex. Unrequited love, the obsessive and destructive amorous passion that can often lead to the sub-genre of the romantic drama. Tragic romance, self-destructive love, and love that requires extreme sacrifice are all themes of the romantic drama film.
In some cases the sub-genre of the romantic drama movies can generate a further sub-genre, which we could define as weepy romantic movies. A type of film that runs through a large part of the history of cinema: from the sentimental melodramas of the 1930s to today. The skill of the director and screenwriter to evoke sad emotions to tears is not something common: sometimes it is the result of a well-constructed artifice, other times it is the authenticity of the real life that the director has been able to convey in the film.
Romantic Drama Movies
Romantic drama is the mainstay of the romantic movie genre. This sub-genre is the one that offers the greatest insights to writers and directors because it is richer in conflicts. It is usually romantic movies that make cry the most audiences of both sexes. Extra-marital affairs Sex scenes and cheating are the main ingredients of romantic drama movies. The soundtrack is often used in more dramatic ways than in comedy movies, emphasizing the intense emotional states of the protagonists.
The isolation and the difficulties that the couple has to face usually take on more extreme shades and there is no shortage of extremely dramatic scenes. Often romantic drama movies, even if they suggest a happy ending, do not show it directly at the end of the film. Crest to the public the possibility of interpreting the evolution of history.
Romantic Women’s Movies
Romantic women’s movies take a typically female look at the world. The protagonist is a woman and the viewer experiences her torments and her amorous joys through a female point of view. We could associate the female romantic film with what in literature is called a romance.
The plot focuses mainly on sentimental vicissitudes, but does not explore the territories of pure drama, as in romantic drama movies. Although there are moments in the story in which the conflict that the protagonist faces can be dramatic, it usually remains anchored to sentimental and erotic events, and does not extend the range of action to other events.
Romantic Comedy Movies
Romantic comedies, on the other hand, explore the sentimental and amorous vicissitudes of the protagonists with a lighter and more carefree tone. There are almost never any dramatic scenes and if there are they are softened with irony. In some cases the dramatic event becomes a source of comedy.
Romantic Thriller
Romantic thriller movies are a sub-genre of romantic movies in which the element of thrill and intrigue is inserted. The love story then mixes with dramatic and violent events, such as mysteries and murders. In some cases the thriller element clearly prevails as in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece the woman who lived twice. Despite being a film with a strong romantic and passionate component, it remains primarily a film by the master of the thriller genre, in which the mysterious element and the intrigue represent the most important part of the story. In movies, such as in The Phantom of the Opera and The Tourist, the love story represents the main story, while having as a secondary plot the typical elements of the thriller and mystery genre.
Teenage romantic movies
Teenage romantic movies, on the other hand, have adolescents as protagonists. Their love affairs are often linked to the social group they belong to, to school and to family. In these stories the figures of parents, teachers, or authorities in general are almost always present.
Characters who create obstacles and misunderstandings with the feelings of the protagonists. Teen romantic movies usually have large audiences among the youngest. They rarely use the style of arthouse movies, but rather use a more standard language, typical of commercial movies.
A vision curated by a filmmaker, not an algorithm
In this video I explain our vision
