They really are my favourite genre in film and I never get tired of them, but there are very few good ones. I am still doing Screen writing on Uni, my script is nearly finished, and is currently in rewrite state. Which means reading it a million times, and polishing it by changing words and dialogue. Remember, Love Actually – 34 rewrites.
A short list of Rom coms which I think are excellent (= can see indefinitely):
Love Actually
Notting Hill
Pretty Woman
The Girl In The Cafe
4 Weddings and a funeral
Sliding doors
You’ve got mail
Runaway Bride
Bridget Jones
I decided that my Valentines gift to myself this year was going to be a one day writing course completely focusing on Romantic Comedies. For this course, which is on Friday, we had homework. We had to watch 2 rom coms, I watched both of them in the weekend. (tough job!)
- Imagine You and Me (2005) dir./scr. Ol Parker ( I saw that one in the cinema, and loved it)
- The Wedding Date (2005) dir. Clare Kilner scr. Dana Fox
I have no idea why they picked those two. But I do know that I loved the first one, and thought the second one was pretty crappy. Watching the first I cried, watching the second one – I couldn’t care less about the main characters. Of course the first one has Anthony Head which does make things a lot better, and the cast of the second one was more American than the first. English accents do score high on my list. Both films play (partly) in London. I look forward to hear more about those 2 films and to learn quite a bit about this specific genre too.
So – what are your favourite rom-coms?
(Short trip update : waiting for visas (no stress yet), and waiting for permission from my work – they suddenly seem to think that 2.5 week is too long. Don’t worry about it, as I don’t, if they won’t let me go, I quit my job. And you can quote me on that.) All is OK, kind of.
Top of the list: Notting Hill, thanks to Rhys Ifans, who’s absolutely brilliant. Bridget Jones’ Diary is a close second. On the other hand, if Amelie counts (is it romantic enough? The photography certainly is.), she moves up to first place.
Hello – how could I forget Bridget Jones! Added.
Rhys Ifans – you should have come over to see him in Don Juan, he is brilliant indeed and so very funny.
Amelie – romantic enough? Are you kidding me? It might not be a typical rom-com, but great one indeed!
I fell in love qith Amelie the first tme I saw that film… she is brilliant! one of my favourite films… also Love Actually… beautiful views from London… what about Sweet Home Alabama(2002)? or…Just my luck(2006)..quite funny…A walk to remember(2002) is not rom-com, but it is completely rom! and a bit sad…the perfect film to stay at home and cry … and… Before Sunrise(1995)… you should see it!! I love the script… and after seeing this film, take a look at Before Sunset (2004)…later you tell me what do you think… : )
I envy you for your looong journey…. it will be unforgettable! I am looking forward from reading about it!
take care!
I’m sorry about the spelling mistakes… qith means with… :P ‘q’ is near ‘w’ … tme is time…
sorry!
I have seen both Before Sunrise, I absolutely loved it (had forgotten all about it). And did see Before Sunset when it came out as well. The second one was OK but not as great as the first one.
The other 3 you mentioned (Sweet Home Alabama, Just my Luck and A walk to remember – I don’t know them at all, but will check them out. Thanks for the tip!
(Don’t worry about spelling errors, I can’t spell 100% either! ;-)
My journey, I promise to write as often as there are internet cafe’s :)
Apart from the films on your list (with some of my all time favourites) there is a more recent one: The Holiday. With an absolutely adorable Jude Law.
And there is “Fauteuils d’Orchestre” of which I don’t know the English title.
Bridget Jones and Love Actually (both with the delightful Colin Firth of course, we’ll gloss over Hugh Grant!)
All of the above, plus “Garden State” with Zach Braff and Natalie Portman. A quirky bunch of people, but some original stuff.
No older films mentioned. I’ve always liked the Judy Garland/Van Johnson version of “You’ve Got Mail”, called “In the Good Old Summertime”. (Perhaps it’s a generational thing.)
When my son Frankie and I were in New York City a few years ago, he brought a list of all the filming locations of “You’ve Got Mail”, and we ran around visiting them all and photographing them. Frankie got himself a t-shirt from the Cafe Lalo and a Zabar’s coffee mug from the grocery store, and we stopped for lattes at the Starbuck’s. It was a really fun day!
I thought When Harry Met Sally was delightfully structured, script-wise. I liked Garden State too, although I didn’t think of it as a romantic comedy. I guess it kinda is.
And now that I think of it, Fight Club is a fearsomely awesome rom-com.
@Zazz – it’s called Orchestra Seats here, it has it’s premiere this coming weekend, and it was already on my list. Look forward to that one, the trailer looked promising.
@Michele : Garden State, I have heard good things about that one before, I now am going to check it out!
Oh that You’ve got mail tour sounds like fun!
I have the Love Actually movie map, I forgot all about it, but now I am going to find it, and when the weather gets better I am going to follow that trail in London. It has 24 locations on it, so I guess I won’t make that in a single day!
@Paul – The Fight Club …
When Harry Met Sally, I think I have seen it, and when I was in New York in december, I ate in the diner where Meg Ryan gave here world famous, ehrm, scene, you know, yes that one. There is a sign in Katz Diner pointing at the exact table where they have filmed it.
I recently saw Angel-A, which fitted nicely into my perception of this world.
http://www.angela-lefilm.com/
a danish angel ,-)
This one was funny and romantic, very bavarian, probably never hitting the big screens
http://www.wer-frueher-stirbt-ist-laenger-tot.de/
“if you die early, you’re dead longer”
I have to vote for Love Actually as my ultimate all-time favourite – but that’s because I saw it while I was in London :)
Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason has to be my favourite rom-com; the book is even better! I liked Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind very much too although it has been I while since I last saw this movie.. don’t know if it really is a rom-com. And Prime was pretty funny too.
Looking forward to The Accidental Husband, starring Colin Firth :)