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Well, does any person of us ever come to think of Hollywood’s most unforgettable romance classics spanning decades? As an ardent admirer of romance and the alluring Hollywood musicals, I unmistakably feel my pulses rising with the sheer magic and aura of the timeless romances portrayed so very lovingly in the silver screen of the yesteryears. Be it the ever-touching saga of star-crossed lovers meeting for the duration of wartime underneath the Moorish arches of Rick’s Café American in “Casablanca”, or the sweeping melodrama, “Gone With The Wind”– based on Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling Civil War epic (which specified the term “Hollywood blockbuster”), I have an insatiable appetite for each of them.

Oh how may I ever forget the sweeping emotions of the magic of a shipboard romance which charms a Frenchman and American woman (Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, respectively) into each other’s arms in the ever-memorable “Love Affair”? Or do you do not forget that extraordinary romance amongst Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in “An Affair To Remember”, where a man and a woman meet on a ship crossing an ocean and fall in love, only to part ways, promising to meet dramatically on the top of Empire State Building, New York (which unfortunately, doesn’t take place later)? Equally unforgettable to my mind is the all-time epic love saga, “Roman Holiday”, which happens to be the most priceless transient romance among a masked princess and a handsome American reporter (Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, respectively).

When you come to think of candlelight romances, serenading, wooing the beloved or star-crossed epic love sagas, you would evidently mark the romantic alchemy amidst the lover and his beloved as the quintessential foundation behind these wonderful, witty and immensely touching tales of true love. Interestingly, the success of these blockbusters in romance in Hollywood comes from incorporating core constituents of Hollywood (especially the music), classical romance constituents and a degree of sentimentality which, again, is rather stylishly sophisticated in nature.

The 50′s and 60′s were the hey days of classic romance in Hollywood, when ethos, pathos, happy endings, heart-wrenching goodbyes and romantic love scenes along with power-packed performances by a lot of of Hollywood’s heartthrobs like Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Marilyn Monroe were the staple of each young heart. Now, I would rather not undertake this article as a primer of cinematic history comprising the best films of all times from the classic romance genre, for that is the occupation of an encyclopedia and not that of a human. And these days, you are sure to get plentiful of those online. So I would limit my writing to the discussion of only numerous of the mileposts of our cinematic past, the era and the cultural milieu behind the production of these masterpieces, which again, comes from the sheer love I feel towards these movies.

While today, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, MGM and Columbia (Sony) are galore of the pioneers in Hollywood film production and distribution, in the yesteryears, Paramount Pictures, the longest-lived American movie studio, used to lead the arena of American motion picture production and distribution. Those were the blissful times when the Hollywood studio scheme formulated classic movies embodying a refined, evocative method of storytelling that left something to the audience’s imagination. While this was unfeigned right from the early nineteen hundred and thirties’ till the sixties’, the audience those days were fed on films which did cohere to sure standards of discretion and used established cinematic appliances to infer what they could not say explicitly. Without an iota of blatant sensory stimulations, the sheer use of compelling stories and characters, snappy dialogue, high production values (including those of cinematography, editing, shot composition, scoring, sets and costuming) and above all, extra-ordinary acting prowess of the stars those days gave birth to some of the most celebrated reel romances of all times, including “Gone With the Wind”, “West Side Story”, “Casablanca”, “Roman Holiday”, “My Fair Lady” and “An Affair to Remember”.

The 40′s, 50′s and 60′s, combined, was likewise the era constructing the biggest silver screen legends like Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, the irresistibly handsome Cary Grant and the super charismatic Gregory Peck, the celebrated smidgens Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Sofia Lauren, Audrey Hepburn, and the ravishing Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe. Interestingly enough, did you recognise that not long back the AFI has rated the biggest love stories of the basi century of American cinema, with “Casablanca” attaining the numero uno position? “Gone With The Wind” and “West Side Story” come only next to it amongst the greatest reel classics of America.

Truly worthy of their legendary status by virtue of their sprawling, epic film romance, few would effort to dispute the position of these three films as the silver screen’s greatest romances ever. And it is worth mentioning that in each of these films, there are potent screen moments among the protagonists that are replete with romantic content which again, unmistakably evolve into meaningful, individualized fantasies amongst the lovers of these reel romances. Whosoever has seen “Roman Holiday” will never for his/her life forget the extraordinary scene amidst Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck when Peck puts his hand into the “Mouth of Truth” (La Bocca della Verità), a stone face in Rome that according to legend, will bite your hand off if you tell a lie. In the film, when he pulls his hand out it is missing, causing Hepburn, the dissembled princess Ann, to scream hysterically. The alchemy amongst the two in the scene is so infectious that the audience never fails to discern the film as a superior love story with the distinction of classic romance elements.

On the other hand, those were the times that produced the ever-memorable, ever-fascinating Hollywood musicals, like the legendary “Sound of Music” (1965), “Singing in the Rain” (1952). Regarded as two of the outstanding movie musicals of all times, these are films that linger in the hearts of lovers of romance eternally. Who may forget the sweet, ethereal cantillating of Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music” where she teaches the seven children the notes of “Do re mi” or where she asserts her individuality singing, “I have selfassurance in me”, or where she playfully mingles with the children in the song “These are a few of my bestloved things”?

For the records, the cast album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, while the film itself won an Academy Award for Best Picture and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced. “Singing in the Rain”, on the other hand, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds, is replete with wit as a satirical comedy, featuring one of the most lavish parts of yesteryears’ musicals. It is the film where there’s the extraordinary dance scene of Gene Kelly with the title track, “singing in the rain”, while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and getting soaked to the skin. “My Fair lady”, another classic romantic comedy woven in the mould of a musical, happens to be one of my personal favorites with electrifying performances by Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, the young, uncouth Cockney girl and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins, an arrogant, irritable professor of phonetics. Together, they put the screen on fire with an unforgettable film adaptation of the stage musical, My Fair Lady, based in turn on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.

In the later years, to be more particular, from the nineteen hundred and seventies and eighties, there has been a noticeable transition of reel romance from the stylishly sophisticated, artsy and evocative style of the black and white years to the more bittersweet, flesh and blood world of the lovers, rocking with prolonged kissing and lovemaking scenes, unbridled energy and emotion. What may be a better example of the new cosmos in which the lovers find themselves other than that showed in “Love Story” (1970), one of the most romantic movies ever made? A romantic tearjerker from conductor Arthur Hiller with regards to a passionate couple with a tragic ending, this one happens to be a heartfelt tale of the love of a lifetime. Regarded as the most successful Paramount movie up to that time, the film received seven Academy Award nominations including the Best Picture award. Another one, from the 90′s, “Forrest Gump” (1994), revives the same pristine emotions of love as the story revolves along a great deal of of the most enduring and touching moments of love amid Forrest (Tom Hanks) and his lifelong love Jenny. While in the film, we have a sweeping look at thirty tumultuous years of American history seen through the eyes of the charmed simpleton Forrest, we are gifted with galore classic scenes those have unparalleled intricacy and depth while still being enormously engaging. Again, in the 90′s, we see the enormously gripping passion and on-screen alchemy amongst Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” (1990), a magnanimous love story regarding a wealthy businessman falling for effervescent hooker.

The alchemy amidst the lovers seemed to be so natural and convincing that it transcends the shackles of a romantic comedy and goes on to be remembered as rather a classic film in the romance genre. Towards the end of the 90′s, the world of romance in Hollywood was again ablaze with the blockbuster of all times, “Titanic” (1997), a fictional love story among Rose (Kate Winslett) and Jack (Leonardo De Caprio), members of dissimilar social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated 1912 maiden voyage of the ship Titanic. Even though the film is based on the historical sinking of the gigantic Titanic, the crux and the beauty of the entire film lies in the poignant tale of their love which is even more beautified by the soulful music and unforgettable soundtracks of the film. On a dissimilar note, though with the same poignancy and intensity of passion, unfolds the idyllic love story amidst Noah (Ryan Gosling) and his love Allie (Rachel McAdams) in “the Notebook” (2004). Adapted from the 1996 romantic novel by Nicolas Sparks, it has been one of the most touching screen romances of the present times.

Last but not the least; let me percentage with you my sensations of witnessing another classic film outside of Hollywood that portrayed romance on screen so evocatively yet with a poignant tone that I was without delay reminded of the classic undertones of originative suggestiveness and subtlety characteristic of the celebrated reel romances of Hollywood. The film is none other than the Italian masterwork “La Vita E Belle” (“Life is Beautiful”) directed by Roberto Benigni which went on to win 3 Oscars in 1998. While the film was based on the story of the violent indignities suffered by Jews in the concentration camps of World War II, the subtleties of the film transcend the horrors of the concentration camp with numerous of the most beautifully screened romantic sequences in world cinema.

Remember the scene where Guido follows his bride Dora into a greenhouse and the scenes which follow thereafter? Well, rather than showing what they do there, the scene tardily dissolves to a shot of the same greenhouse, only this time, a little boy is playing there. The significations are obvious, the device serves to advance the plot a few years without restoring to the clichéd “five years later…” inter-title and the love scene is left to the audience’s imagination. By virtue of the amazing screenplay, the film turns out to be an unforgettable fable that proves the indomitable spirit of love, family and imagination in the face of all evils. Undoubtedly, this, along with the joys of love, and life–has been the most enduring theory working as the uttermost foundation behind all successful romance classics in the history of Hollywood! And so, be it in “Casablanca” or in “The Notebook”, both ‘cupid’ and ‘life’ rule! For, all quintessential romances are a celebration of life in it is varied hues. Struck by cupid’s arrows, it becomes ever more pretty and transcendental by all means!

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