Valentine's Day Film Suggestions

The Princess Bride 1987

The Princess Bride is, according to my 17 year old son, the best film ever! And very romantic.

Westley: I told you I would always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?
Buttercup: Well... you were dead.
Westley: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
Buttercup: I will never doubt again.
Westley: There will never be a need.

A Knight's Tale 2001

A Knight's Tale is also a fairy tale, a sort of Cinderella tale for the guys. Anything is possible if you believe.

William: It is strange to think, I haven't seen you since a month. I have seen the new moon, but not you. I have seen sunsets and sunrises, but nothing of your beautiful face. The pieces of my broken heart are so small that they could be passed through the eye of a needle. I miss you like the sun misses the flower; like the sun misses the flower in the depths of winter. Instead of beauty to direct its light to, the heart hardens like the frozen world your absence has banished me to. I next compete in the city of Paris, I will find it empty and in the winter if you are not there. Hope guides me, that is what gets me through the day and especially the night. The hope that after you're gone from my sight, it will not be the last time that I look upon you.

Shakespeare in Love 1998

Shakespeare in Love is romance itself. Who better than The Bard of Avon to teach us about love.

Queen Elizabeth: Playwrights teach us nothing about love. They make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust, but they cannot make it true.
Viola De Lesseps: Oh, but they can! 

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is romance with a comic twist. Oscar Wilde mixes equal amounts of love and silliness.

Cecily: You must not laugh at me, darling, but it has always been a girlish dream of mine to love a man named Ernest.

Sense and Sensibility 1995

Sense and Sensibility takes a wonderful book by Jane Austen and brings it to life on the screen so well, it will make your heart ache.

Elinor Dashwood: What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.

Jane Eyre 2011

Jane Eyre is an incredibly romantic book. The recent film leaves a lot out, but not the romance!

Rochester: I offer you my hand, my heart. Jane, I ask you to pass through life at my side. You are my equal and my likeness. Will you marry me?
Jane Eyre: Are you mocking me?
Rochester: You doubt me.
Jane Eyre: Entirely.

Miss Potter 2006

Miss Potter is sweet and romantic. You're never too old for love! (and bunnies!)

Let me teach you how to dance
let me lead you to the floor
simply place your hand in mine
and then think of nothing more
let the music cast its spell
give the atmosphere a chance
simply follow where I lead
let me teach you how to dance

Lady Jane 1986

Lady Jane is a tragedy as well as a romance. It is not historically accurate, but it will make you believe in true love. Hey, Carey Elwes is in 2 of my picks! Fancy that.

Jane: [reading] The soul takes flight to the world that is eternal... invisible. But there arriving she is sure of bliss, and forever dwells in paradise.

An Ideal Husband 1999

An Ideal Husband is another Oscar Wilde, but this one is more of a commentary on the kind of love you find in an established marriage. Still a bit silly, but a very lovely ending.

Lord Arthur Goring: Gertrude, it is not the perfect, but rather the imperfect who have need of love.
Gertrude: You seem to know a great deal about it all of a sudden.
Lord Arthur Goring: Oh, I hope not. All I know, Gertrude, is that it takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love. Gertrude, you have more courage than any woman I have ever known. Do not be afraid now to use it.

Persuasion 1995

And for my final suggestion, Persuasion 1995 for the letter scene alone...

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago."

Sigh! Please add your romantic film suggestions in the comments. I just listed period dramas, but tell me which ones you can't live without, period or not. Happy Valentines Day!