"Here's looking at you, kid." 55 Best Romantic Movies of All Time, Ranked (2024)

The romance genre has been a staple of fiction since long before the first movies were made. Love's one of those rare universal themes, after all, and both romantics and cynics have always been able to find - and enjoy - different stories about fictional characters falling in (or out of) love. And like many broad genres, it's possible to combine romantic storylines with various other tried and true genres, which can add extra emotional engagement to a story, or otherwise ensure it attracts a wider audience.

Depending on one's definition of "romance," it might well be one of the most well-represented genres in cinema, thanks to the popularity of romantic subplots. However, when it comes to deciding the greatest romance movies of all time, it's best to focus on those films where the romance-focused aspect of the story feels like a priority. What follows are some of the best movies that emphasize - and thereby epitomize - the romance genre, and are ranked below from great to greatest.

55 'Wings of Desire' (1987)

Directed by Wim Wenders

A German fantasy film that provides a unique exploration of love and other broad human emotions, Wings of Desire takes place largely from the perspective of two angels. One of them is so fascinated with the human world that he longs to become a mortal being and live on Earth, even if that means giving up certain benefits that come with his apparent angel lifestyle.

It’s all quite lofty and abstract at times, but there’s a boldness to how it looks and a relatability to the emotions it explores that ensure Wings of Desire rides an odd but compelling line between arthouse cinema and entertainment. It’s a unique experience and a distinctive trip worth taking, not to mention being an overall much better film than its American remake, City of Angels.

Wings of Desire

PG-13

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Release Date

May 17, 1987

Director

Wim Wenders

Cast

Bruno Ganz , Solveig Dommartin , Otto Sander , Curt Bois , Peter Falk , Hans Martin Stier

Runtime

128 minutes

Main Genre

Fantasy

54 'What's Up, Doc?' (1972)

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

The screwball comedy genre was at its peak during the 1930s and 1940s, with What’s Up Doc serving as a genuinely great throwback/homage to the genre, to the point where it almost feels like it was plucked out of Hollywood’s Golden Age and colorized before being released in the early 1970s. Farce is the name of the game here, with various overnight bags getting mixed up, thrusting numerous colorful characters together for some cinematic chaos.

The comedy shines brightest in What’s Up Doc, but it also manages to be a light-hearted romance movie at the same time, with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal’s mismatched characters eventually falling in love after their various misadventures. It’s not so much about what happens, but how it happens, with What’s Up Doc being energetic and easy to like, as well as a skillful blend of comedy and romance.

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53 'Scenes from a Marriage' (1974)

Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Scenes from a Marriage was released in the same decade as What’s Up Doc, but couldn’t be more different tonally, thematically, and narratively, which speaks volumes to the versatility of the romance genre overall. This film runs for nearly three hours and is all about the gradual breakdown of a marriage, focusing intensely on a central couple with most supporting characters ultimately playing minimal parts.

Seeing two people argue with, mistrust, and resent each other for such a long time might sound tedious, but Scenes from a Marriage is blisteringly well-written and phenomenally acted by its two leads, Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson. It explores a less sunny side of love than most movies, being about falling out of love rather than falling in love, but it’s nevertheless compelling and expertly put together. It’s hard to watch, but also essential.Watch on Max

52 'Harold and Maude' (1971)

Directed by Hal Ashby

An unconventional romantic dramedy that aims to be both uplifting and kind of sad, Harold and Maude sounds like it might be too unusual to work on paper… but it somehow does in execution. It’s about a disturbed young man who’s obsessed with death, and the odd friendship that he enters into with a carefree 80-year-old woman, with this connection complicated when romantic feelings begin developing.

It's all done in a way that works shockingly well, ultimately being a movie about the unusual qualities of love, and the way bonds can form between people who might seem like complete opposites. There’s also an inherent nervous energy to Harold and Maude that sets it apart from just about anything else. In the 50+ years since its release, there’s been very little – if anything – released that ends up scratching the same itch.

Harold and Maude

PG

Comedy

Drama

Romance

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See Also

They're Back! What You Need To Know Before Seeing 'Moana 2'I Like Movies | Rotten TomatoesThe 50 Greatest Romantic Movies of All TimeThe 60 Best Romantic Movies

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Release Date

December 20, 1971

Director

Hal Ashby

Cast

Ruth Gordon , Bud Cort , Vivian Pickles , Cyril Cusack , Charles Tyner , Ellen Geer

Runtime

91 minutes

51 'Love Exposure' (2008)

Directed by Sion Sono

Sure, many of the best Japanese movies of the 2000s happened to be animated, but just focusing on anime means missing out on so much. Take, for example, Love Exposure, which is a genre-blending and overall gonzo epic that defies easy categorization. As the title implies, it is something of a romance film, but it’s also a dramedy, an over-the-top action film, a crime movie, and so much more.

Love Exposure certainly has room to do many things all at once, thanks to a runtime that ends up coming close to the four-hour mark. It is a dizzying, exhausting, and unapologetically maximalist movie, but anyone with the time to spare and the desire to see something strange ought to give it at least one watch. To call the whole thing unique would be a monumental understatement.

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50 'Notorious' (1946)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The words “romance” and “Alfred Hitchcock” don’t tend to go together in the minds of most, given the director was best known for making thrillers, dark comedies, and crime movies. But Alfred Hitchcock's great films were often accessible and broadly appealing, and part of this sometimes meant including romance elements. With something like Notorious, those romance elements actually appear in a surprisingly prominent way, with the thriller/mystery stuff almost taking a backseat to the romance at times.

Notorious takes place in the wake of World War II, and follows the way a romantic bond between two people threatens to undermine an attempt to unearth a high-ranking Nazi hiding out in Brazil. It’s a film that expertly looks at love while also being a gripping spy movie and one of the best post-World War II films made immediately after the conclusion of the war itself.

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49 'Trouble in Paradise' (1932)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Ranking among the greatest movies of the 1930s, Trouble in Paradise may well be more than 90 years old, but much of it feels pretty well timeless. It blends a crime-related storyline with romance and comedy in a way that still feels rather fresh and engaging, following a man and woman who are romantically involved and make their money through pickpocketing.

Complications ensue when a love triangle ends up developing, since the man begins to fall in love with a wealthy woman the pair have set their sights on as their next target. Trouble in Paradise sees the somewhat underrated Ernst Lubitsch firing on all cylinders as a filmmaker, and it’s easy to see how a film like this proved influential for the genres it tackles in the decades since its release.

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48 'Silver Linings Playbook' (2012)

Directed by David O. Russell

Silver Linings Playbook might be fairly recent in the overall scheme of things, but it still feels good enough to label as something of a modern classic that future decades will hopefully be kind to (admittedly, it can be hard to know for sure how a film will age and be viewed in the years to come). It centers on a troubled man being released from a psychiatric hospital and moving back in with his parents, all the while trying to reconnect with his ex-wife, yet finds a connection between him and another woman complicates matters.

It was a significant movie for its two stars, showing that Bradley Cooper could do more than just be in The Hangover movies while working in tandem with a very different mainstream hit - The Hunger Games - to demonstrate that Jennifer Lawrence was a force to be reckoned with. Those two plus a great supporting cast that includes Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, and Chris Tucker make Silver Linings Playbook an approachable and engaging film, and one that blends comedy, romance, and drama genres well.

Silver Linings Playbook

R

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Release Date

September 8, 2012

Director

David O. Russell

Cast

Jennifer Lawrence , Robert De Niro , Bradley Cooper , Julia Stiles , Chris Tucker , Shea Whigham

Runtime

122

Main Genre

Comedy

47 'Wings' (1927)

Directed by William A. Wellman

Serving as a bit of a genre-buster, Wings is a romance film, a melodrama, a World War I movie, and also something of an action movie, given how many dogfighting sequences are featured. It centers on two fighter pilots who are both in love with the same woman, and how this eventually threatens their friendship, all the while they also have to deal with the dangers of serving in World War I.

It’s understandably old-fashioned, but that’s a word that can be thrown at most movies that are almost a century old. So long as one’s okay with silent movies and some pacing that feels a little slow by modern standards, Wings has a ton to offer, with a simple but effective romantic narrative, and action set pieces that genuinely hold up extremely well.

Wings

PG-13

War

Romance

Drama

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5 films on Netflix that perfectly capture the magic of first love

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Release Date

January 5, 1929

Director

William A. Wellman , Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast

Cast

Clara Bow , Charles Rogers , Richard Arlen , Jobyna Ralston , El Brendel , Richard Tucker , Gary Cooper , Gunboat Smith

Runtime

144 Minutes

46 'The Lady Eve' (1941)

Directed by Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges may not have directed many movies, but the ones he did make were generally winners, to the point where it’s possible to say he was a quality-over-quantity type of filmmaker. The Lady Eve is rightly considered one of his best and most enjoyable efforts (even by the oftentimes dour Paul Schrader), following a female con artist who targets a wealthy man, falls for him, has her con exposed, gets dumped by the man, and then tries to win him back by posing as a different person altogether.

If that all sounds a little screwball comedy to you, that’s because The Lady Eve is one! It takes a premise that's perfect for this old-school and endearing style of comedy and runs with it for a fast-paced and entertaining 97 minutes, with the romantic heart of the film ultimately shining just as much as the broader comedic elements.

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45 'Closer' (2004)

Directed by Mike Nichols

Those who are after a nice or pleasant movie probably won’t find it with Closer, which is a surprisingly dark and emotionally intense romance film. It takes an approach that might normally be played for comedy – a tangling of romantic partners when two couples clash and form a complex web of infidelity and lies – but looks at the ramifications of doing such a thing with grit and plenty of hard feelings.

Closer is, therefore, something of a miserable movie, but it’s also captivating and admirable for how brutally honest it gets in its exploration of the hazards of love. Also helping things immensely is the fact that the four lead actors here all give genuinely great performances, with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen all getting ample opportunities to shine.

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44 'The Man Who Loved Women' (1977)

Directed by François Truffaut

A movie about love that’s well-loved by Wes Anderson, The Man Who Loved Women feels like one of the more under-appreciated efforts from French filmmaker François Truffaut (best known for The 400 Blows). The Man Who Loved Women begins with the titular man’s funeral, and a series of flashbacks play out among all who are gathered there… most of them being women the man was once involved with in some romantic capacity.

It's a cinematic eulogy for a flawed womanizer, and though his behavior is hard to admire or agree with, it doesn’t really feel like The Man Who Loved Women is glorifying its protagonist. It gets a good deal of mileage from its neat structure and never feels boring thanks to the various episodic misadventures one gets to continually see play out in flashback. Any fan of Truffaut ought to give it a shot, as it’s one of his most distinctive films.

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43 'A Scene at the Sea' (1991)

Directed by Takeshi Kitano

Though it revolves around a relationship, A Scene at the Sea is hard to place into a genre, simply because it screams “slice of life” more than just about any other film out there. Indeed, it mostly plays out by the seaside, with the very simple story centering on two young hearing-impaired people who are a couple, and what happens when one of them develops an interest in surfing.

In that sense, A Scene at the Sea eventually morphs into a sports movie of sorts, all the while being genuinely sweet/quietly romantic, and showcasing a gentle sense of humor every now and then for good measure. It’s warm and endearing as a film, and certainly different from many other movies directed by Takeshi Kitano, given he’s most well-known for directing numerous violent gangster/yakuza movies.

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42 'Challengers' (2024)

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Sure, Challengers is a very recent movie, and there’s always a risk of calling something an all-time great when the dust hasn’t yet settled, and it still feels like a film’s reputation could grow or shrink. But, for now, Challengers does feel like a modern classic and is yet another great entry within the vast and always exciting filmography of Luca Guadagnino, who’s one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

To describe the plot of Challengers might not make it sound very exciting, given it is, ostensibly, a “love triangle movie.” But in combining this concept with an inventive structure, exciting tennis sequences, expressive and honest performances, and a true sense of visual style, Challengers ends up being even better than the sum of its already very good parts. It’s a romance film that’s able to do things differently, and most of the risks pay off, making it likely that it will continue to feel like a great romantic movie well into the future.

Challengers

R

Comedy

Drama

Romance

Sports

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Release Date

April 26, 2024

Director

Luca Guadagnino

Cast

Zendaya , Mike Faist , Josh O'Connor , Darnell Appling , Bryan Doo , Shane T Harris , Nada Despotovich , Joan Mcshane , Chris Fowler , Mary Joe Fernández , A.J. Lister , Connor Aulson , Doria Bramante , Christine Dye , James Sylva , Kenneth A. Osherow , Kevin Collins , Burgess Byrd , Jason Tong , Hudson Rivera , Noah Eisenberg , Emma Davis , Naheem Garcia , Alex Bancila , Jake Jensen , Konrad Ryba , Hailey Gates , Andrew Rogers , Beverly Kristenson Helton , Brad Gilbert , Sam Xu , Caleb Schneider

Runtime

131 Minutes

41 'A Star Is Born' (1954)

Directed by George Cukor

There are many versions of A Star Is Born, and it’s probably more a matter of personal taste which one’s considered the best. The 1954 version could, however, be the best when judged as a romance film, because the relationship at the film’s core just feels extra passionate, tragic, and achingly real here, with both Judy Garland and James Mason giving – arguably – the greatest performances of their respective careers.

Like any other A Star Is Born, the plot here contrasts a young woman’s rise to fame with an older man’s fall from it, and the way they try to stick by each other, even if life seems to have vastly different plans for them. Beautifully shot and also containing numerous great musical sequences, 1954’s A Star Is Born is excellent all around, and one of the best tragic romance films ever made.

A Star Is Born

PG

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Release Date

October 1, 1954

Director

George Cukor

Cast

Judy Garland , James Mason , Jack Carson , Charles Bickford , Tommy Noonan , Lucy Marlow , Amanda Blake , Irving Bacon , Hazel Shermet , James Brown , John Alban , Laurindo Almeida , Leon Alton , Rudolph Anders , David Armstrong , Phil Arnold , Nadine Ashdown , Gertrude Astor , Jack Baker , George Becwar , Don Beddoe , Rodney Bell

Runtime

176 Minutes

40 'Jules and Jim' (1962)

Directed by François Truffaut

Alongside Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut was perhaps the most famous of all French directors in the history of cinema (coincidentally, Goddard and Truffaut apparently didn’t get along, but that’s another story). Truffaut is likely best known for 1959’s The 400 Blows, a coming-of-age drama, but many of his films are definable as romantic dramedies, and in the latter category, Jules and Jim is one of his very best.

The two titular characters are friends living lives defined by youth and a carefree attitude (the whole thing taking place before World War I increases the sense of optimism), with both also falling for the same young woman, Catherine. Jules and Jim has a certain energy and vibrancy to it that prevents it from ever feeling too downbeat, though it’s perhaps one of the less outwardly comedic movies about romance that Truffaut made. Nevertheless, it should strike a chord for those who are young, those who remember being young, or those who still sometimes feel young at heart.

Jules and Jim

Not Rated

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Release Date

January 23, 1962

Director

Francois Truffaut

Cast

Jeanne Moreau , Oskar Werner , Henri Serre , Vanna Urbino

Runtime

105 minutes

39 'The Band Wagon' (1953)

Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli had a few types of movies that he generally stuck to making, and did them all very well. He could make melodramas, he was adept at romantic comedies, and he was perhaps most well-regarded for his classic musicals. The Band Wagon keeps things light overall, certainly staying away from melodrama but seeing Minnelli take on the romance, comedy, and musical genres all at once, and succeeding immensely.

It's a somewhat underappreciated movie, honestly scratching the same itch as better-known light-hearted musicals from the time, like Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris (Minnelli himself directed the latter, too). The Band Wagon is all about a doomed play that a fading film star takes part in to revitalize his career, but it’s all good-natured, much of it’s played for laughs, and there’s very little drama. It’s colorful, charming, funny, and has Fred Astaire at his toe-tapping best. What’s not to like?

The Band Wagon

Not Rated

Comedy

Music

Romance

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Release Date

August 7, 1953

Director

Vincente Minnelli

Cast

Fred Astaire , Cyd Charisse , Oscar Levant , Nanette Fabray , Jack Buchanan , James Mitchell , Robert Gist , Ava Gardner , Don Beddoe , Henry Corden , Steve Forrest , Bess Flowers

Runtime

112 Minutes

38 'Farewell to the Ark' (1984)

Directed by Shūji Terayama

You can try to summarize Farewell to the Ark, if you want, but most attempts will be in vain. Broadly speaking, it does revolve around, let’s say, complicated love and desire, as well as loneliness, being haunted by the past, the fleeting nature of memory, the mysteries of time, and insanity. It also all takes place in a small locale so bizarre that it makes the town of Twin Peaks look like Normal, Illinois (yes, that’s the name of a real town; one assumes it’s quite normal there).

Farewell to the Ark isn’t, therefore, a traditional romance, but it looks at an unusual side of life while also unpacking complicated – yet relatable – themes within what could be called the fantasy genre. It’s obscure, haunting, calming, mysterious, nightmarish, and kind of beautiful all at once. It offers an experience that’s impossible to put into words but is certainly something; words and thoughts fail, but the feelings it’s able to cause are undeniable.

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37 'The Earrings of Madame de…' (1953)

Directed by Max Ophüls

Given its status as a classic, it’s safe to say that there are a great many fans of The Earrings of Madame de…, but Wes Anderson ranks among the most high-profile. He’s got good taste, because this classic French romance/drama film takes a simple premise and milks a great deal of thematic complexity out of it, being about the consequences that follow the selling of an important pair of earrings for the purpose of getting out of some gambling debt.

The characters of The Earrings of Madame de… are generally wealthy, but nevertheless miserable in many ways, and find the privileges of their way of life diminish because of the continually building incidents the initial act of selling leads to. It might not sound gripping on paper, but its look at class and love – or lack thereof – is surprisingly riveting, and the control displayed when telling the central story is admirable, making the whole thing also feel timeless.

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36 'Tropical Malady' (2004)

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

One of the more underrated romance/drama films of its decade, Tropical Malady is a film of two halves: one quite digestible, and the other more mysterious and open to interpretation. The first half of the movie follows a slow-building romance between two men in Thailand, while the second half shifts gears and mostly seems to be – at least on the surface – about tracking down a shaman in the jungle.

Whether one wants to take both stories separately or look into how the second one might thematically reference aspects of the first (albeit in a darker way), Tropical Malady is interesting, unsettling, and quite haunting, however you want to cut it. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s style is one that can be difficult to get a handle on, but Tropical Malady is probably the ideal entry point, with later films of his like Syndromes and a Century and Memoria also being compelling while having similar strange vibes.

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