Vive l'amour!

[stoutfellow]

Shakespeare's Sister has a post up on the topic of "favorite romantic comedies". Some of the nominees are unknown to me; some are good, some bad, and some bizarre (Casablanca?). (All IMO, of course.) Inspired by this, I thought I'd use my own private soapbox to expound on the subject. Under the cut, then, are some of my favorites.

• 6. Ball of Fire (1941; Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper). When I was a kid, my family often watched "The Big Valley"; from this, I acquired an image of Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley, stern matriarch of the Barkley family. Ball of Fire came as a bit of a shock, featuring as it did a decades-younger Ms. Stanwyck. "Matriarch"... is not the word. ("Yowza" comes closer...) In the movie, bad-girl Stanwyck falls in with a team of academics, led by Cooper and engaged in writing an encyclopedia. (How could I resist that?) It's a bit dated, and at its best it's no more than fluff, but it's very entertaining fluff.


• 5. Sabrina (1954; Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Humphrey Bogart). I adore Audrey Hepburn, and the sight of stuffy businessman Bogie, trying to woo a woman quite a bit younger than he is, is hilarious. Holden is surprisingly good in a lightweight role, and the snobbish chauffeur is fun. Fluff, still, but good fluff.


• 4. Roman Holiday (1953; Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck). This one's just as funny as Sabrina, but meatier; both leads face ethical dilemmas, and handle them in fine style. Hepburn is a runaway princess; Peck, the freelance reporter who finds and hides her. (Yes, there's a resemblance to It Happened One Night, but there are substantive differences, and I honestly prefer this one.)


• 3. His Girl Friday (1940; Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant). This is a partial remake of The Front Page (1931), which is a great movie in its own right, but not a romantic comedy; HGF switches the gender of one of the leads of TFP. Russell and Grant are reporters; she is lured out of a planned retirement by one last (heh) juicy story. Hilarious, but not for the slow of ear.


• 2. The Lion in Winter (1968; Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole). This is a good deal blacker than the others on the list; Hepburn is the aging Eleanor of Aquitaine and O'Toole her estranged husband, Henry II. Kate's great, as always, with a terrifically acid tongue, but O'Toole actually outshines her from the very first scene. Romantic? Well, they're still, obviously, in love, no matter the needs of politics and power that drive them apart. Just a wonderful movie.


• 1. The Philadelphia Story (1940; Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant). This was designed as a vehicle to revive Kate's flagging career, and it succeeded. She wanted Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable to play the male leads - either way would have worked - but had to... settle... for Stewart and Grant. Hepburn plays socialite Tracy Lords, on the eve of her wedding; Grant is her ex-fiancé, and Stewart is (get this) a fast-talking Easterner, a reporter sent to cover the story. This one is my favorite comedy of all time, romantic or no.

So, what are your picks?

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a lightweight, when it comes to romantic comedies. I know there are others that I have loved, but I can't bring them to mind, right now.

There are so many movies that style themselves "romantic comedies" when to me they are not. I don't find much funny in the My Best Friend's Wedding kind of movies, where the principals deceive their affianced or SOs, and end up with each other. It's one thing if the SO is a total jerk (or jerkette), but especially when the deceived is a decent person, I just can't empathize with the lead character doing the deceiving.

I enjoy witty dialogue, sweet romance, the second chance, mistaken identity, or the discovery of the rose in the one you thought a weed (where did THAT image pop up from?).

So, my current picks for delightful romances (that I can think of, and not in any particular order) are:

French Kiss – Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline

13 Going On 30 – Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner

Kate & Leopold – Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman

The Truth About Cats And Dogs – Janeane Garofalo and Ben Chaplin

Much Ado About Nothing – Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh

Say Anything – John Cusack and Ione Skye

While You Were Sleeping – Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman

The original Sabrina. Harrison Ford is a little long in the tooth to play the romantic lead with a young girl.

Sleepless in Seattle – Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, but NOT You’ve Got Mail

Green Card – Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell

The Wedding Singer – Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler

High Fidelity – John Cusack

The Goodbye Girl – original, not remake, with Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason

Only You – Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed the ones from that list that I've seen - The Truth About Cats And Dogs, While You Were Sleeping, Sabrina, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Goodbye Girl. That last one rates very highly with me. (And I agree about You've Got Mail. I actually found that one repellent.)

Ford was 53 when he appeared in the remake of Sabrina; Bogie was 55 in the original. Just FYI...

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

You'd probably like the others, as well, then.

Kevin Kline is wonderful (French Kiss) in the role of the *apparent* petty thief who uses unwitting fellow traveler Meg Ryan as a "mule," unknowing that doing so would change his life forever.

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore characters are so appealing in The Wedding Singer; we've seen it numerous times, and it never fails to charm. Don't be put off by other characters Adam Sandler has played; this is his best role, IMHO.

"Ford was 53 when he appeared in the remake of Sabrina; Bogie was 55 in the original. Just FYI..."

Somehow the age difference in a previous era where it didn't seem to matter as much didn't seem so appalling.

BTW, why *is* Breakfast at Tiffany's considered a romantic comedy? I expected an evening of witty dialogue and fluffy romance, only to feel like I was watching the German film, Der Blaue Engel (NOT quite as bad (g)). It was a very depressing movie to me, watching someone continue to self destruct.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't class Breakfast at Tiffany's as a comedy. Romantic, perhaps (although even that is doubtful), but nothing with that closing scene could possibly rate as a comedy.

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have thought so, either! It was more like a tragic character study. I like my romances to have hopeful, happy endings!