MSN has published it’s Top 50 Greatest Movie Romances, from Notting Hill (#50) to An Affair to Remember (#1) what is your favorite movie romance?  There are some obscure…have you ever heard of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg or That Obscure Object of Desire…me either!  Many of my favorites were on the list, who doesn’t love Say Anything?  So…counting them down from #50…

50.  Notting Hill…”I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”  love this line!
49.  Sleepless in Seattle
48.  Ghost…”ditto”
47.  Four Weddings and a Funeral
46.  That Obscure Object of Desire
45.  Two for the Road
44.  Barefoot in the Park (one of my favs!)
43.  That Hamilton Woman
42.  Before Sunrise/Before Sunset (actually 2 movies made 10 years apart!)
41.  Harold and Maude (May-December was never like this!)
40. Now, Voyager ( this is the movie that introduced the gesture of lighting two cigarettes in one mouth and giving the other one to the person you were being intimate with)
39.  The Bridges of Madison County
38.   Jane Eyre
37.  Pretty Woman
36.  Rebecca
35.  Brokeback Mountain
34.  The Apartment
33.  Sense and Sensibility
32.  Jerry Maguire…”you had me at hello”
31.  The African Queen (Love Humphrey Bogart)
30.  City Lights
29.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
28.  Reds
27.  The Crying Game
26.  Vertigo
25.  The Philadelphia Story (I loved the remake…High Society with Grace Kelly!)
24.  An Officer and a Gentleman (who didn’t dream of being swept away by a guy in uniform!)
23.  Love Story
22.  The Way We Were
21.  Say Anything (do kids today even understand the boombox?)
20.  Notorious
19.  Moonstruck (another fav!)
18.  In the Mood for Love
17.  A Man and a Woman
16.  Jules and Jim
15.  The Awful Truth
14.  Wings of Desire
13.  Splendor in the Grass
12.  Make Way for Tomorrow
11.  Titanic (guess what folks…the boat sinks and Leo looks like he’s 12…I just don’t get this one!)

and now for your top 10!!!!

At Number 10…Gone with the Wind…it’s the story of a girl, standing in front of a boy with big ears and a pencil mustache, asking him to love her, and him telling her he frankly doesn’t give a damn.

Number 9…Wuthering Heights…Those crazy kids Heathcliff and Cathy and the moors and the brooding.

Number 8…Annie Hall…a film of love among neurotic New York intellectuals

Number 7…When Harry Met Sally…just love Sally’s oft-parodied fake orgasm in Katz’s

Number 6…Casablanca…”Here’s lookin at you kid”

Number 5…Roman Holiday…A weird reverse Cinderella story, but Audrey Hepburn is great!

Number 4…Doctor Zhivago…the love story is a beating heart

Number 3…Breakfast at Tiffany’s… the ultimate in Manhattan romance

Number 2…The Umbrellas of Cherbourg…it’s French…need I say more?

And finally…Number 1 of the greatest movie romances…An Affair to Remember!  Directly from the MSN captions:  “Yes, this IS the movie that Meg Ryan and Rosie O’Donnell go on about in “Sleepless in Seattle,” and indeed the movie that “Sleepless in Seattle” adapts its climax from! This film’s place at No. 1 ties Leo McCarey with Alfred Hitchcock as the most cited director on the list, with three titles each. This 1957 film is itself a remake of McCarey’s 1939 “Love Affair,” and while some believe the original’s still the greatest, it’s an arguable point. This particular viewer is highly taken with the remake’s lead actors, Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and its sumptuous color and widescreen look. And, yes, the Vic Damone-crooned theme song, so there. For all intents and purposes, the perfect Hollywood heartbreaker and, for all its gloss, another proof of McCarey fan Jean Renoir’s observations that Leo understood people better than any other filmmaker of his generation.”

Did your favorite make the list?  Who did they miss?  Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Vicki Reed