Valentine’s Day Movies I

“There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time” – Jane Austen.

Cuddle up with your buddy, significant other, husband, wife or ZOOM.

Casablanca 1942 Directed by Michael Curtiz. If you haven’t seen this one you can’t rightfully call yourself a film fan. 1941. Rick’s Café Américain, owned by cynical expatriate, Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), boasts a cross section clientele of Germans, French, and refugees. Local law officer, Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), keeps a suspicious, but respectful eye on the club.

When Rick’s former great love Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband, fugitive Czech resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) show up looking for life-saving letters of transit, Rick discovers what parted them years ago and has to choose between his own long awaited freedom and hers.

Peter Lorre plays petty criminal Signor Ugarte, Sydney Greenstreet is Signor Ferrari, Conrad Veidt is Major Heinrich Strasser. A large proportion of other European exiles and refugees were extras or played minor roles. A witness to the filming of the “duel of the anthems” sequence said he saw many of the actors cry. Iconic lines.

The screenplay is based on Everybody Comes to Rick’s an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. Bergman was two inches taller than Bogart and claimed Curtiz had the actor stand on blocks or sit on cushions in their scenes together. Henreid thought Bogart a second rate actor. The film’s final scene used a cardboard plane. A solid if unspectacular success in its initial run, it then went on to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Love Affair 1939 based on a story by Leo McCarey and Mildred Cram. Directed by McCarey. Great charm in its simplicity. Charles Boyer is a painter in this one. His grandmother, Janou, is played by Maria Ouspenskaya. Free with Amazon Prime.

An Affair to Remember 1957 Directed by Leo McCarey. The American Film Institute considers this the greatest romance of all time. It’s certainly high among them. Infamous playboy, Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), flirts with former singer Terry McKay (Kerr) on a transatlantic crossing where, because of his notoriety, they’re plagued by gossip. (Repartee is swell.) He’s on his way home to socialite fiancé, Lois Clark (Neva Patterson), she to businessman fiancé, Kenneth Bradley (Richard Denning), a man who’s played Pygmalion in her life. Their fate is sealed on a touching visit to Nickie’s grandmother (Kathleen Nesbitt) at Villefranche-sur-Mer. This scene will get to you in both films.

In love, but otherwise entangled, the incipient couple agree to meet atop the Empire State Building after six months, both breaking off from their intendeds. Terry goes back to performing (elsewhere), Nickie tries to earn a living as a painter. (Formerly a hobby.) When she doesn’t keep the date, he’s unaware she’s been in a car accident running to meet him and grows bitter. She disappears, taking a teaching job at an elementary school, unsure whether she’ll walk again.

They get a glimpse of one another at theater, but he doesn’t see her wheelchair. Terry is heartbroken, but proud. Serendipity leads Nickie to the truth (at Christmas!) and a happy ending. Get out your handkerchiefs! Critics were not kind looking at the piece measuring its realism. The public disagreed. Grand chemistry. Manages to be both sophisticated and deeply romantic. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Indiscreet 1958 Based on the romantic comedy (play) Kind Sir by Norman Krasna. Directed by Stanley Donen. Sophisticated and charming. London based theater star Anna Kalman (Ingrid Bergman) is successful, but lonely. Her sister Margaret (Phyllis Calvert) and brother-in-law Alfred Munson (Cecil Parker) introduce her to handsome economist Philip Adams (Cary Grant). Anna is extremely taken and invites him out. Philip politely tells her he’s married and though separated can never get a divorce. It seems to make no difference to Anna. They start to see one another. Romance blossoms.

As Philip is being temporarily transferred to New York, the couple must part. Aware of Anna’s feelings, Alfred tells Philip he’s aware that his associate is a bachelor and questions the deception. Philip declares his as yet unrevealed love for Anna. Before he can tell her, however, she discovers the lie and takes revenge. Everything comes out right in the end of course.

This is the second film Grant and Bergman made together after Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (not available to stream). Donen agreed to direct “but only with Cary.” Grant agreed but only if his co-star was Bergman. Bergman agreed only if the film was shot in England. Donen and Grant formed a company together, Grandon Productions, to make the Indiscreet. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate )1993 Based on the novel by Laura Esquivel. Directed by Alfonso Aral. Mama Elena (Regina Torne) gives birth to Tita (Lumi Cavazos) on the kitchen table with the help of beloved housekeeper, Nacha (Ada Carasco). Because of sin, Elena can have no more children. Tita is raised to take care of her mother. Only sisters Rosaura and Gertrudis can marry. Nacha teaches Tita to infuse cooking with her emotions.

Tita and Pedro Muzquiz (Marco Leonardi) are in love. Elena forbids it. The young man is strong armed into wedding Rosaura. Tita bakes the cake which has an extraordinary effect on guests. We follow the three sisters with Tita’s own story at the axis, her fantastic cooking affecting at every turn. Romantic resolution and tragedy go hand in hand, but the legacy is passed on. Tradition and independence effectively go head to head. Creatively manifest magical realism. Subtitled. Rent on Amazon Prime, free with Netflix.

Bridges of Madison County 1995 Based on the novel by Robert James Waller. Produced, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Get out your handkerchiefs! Understated and beautiful. (Though her kids are an irritating framework.) The children of Italian war bride/farmer’s wife, Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep) are shocked to find vestiges of a secret love among possessions their mother has left after death.

We look back at her brief time with photographer Robert Kinkaid (Eastwood), two souls clearly meant for one another. The story was filmed chronologically from Francesca’s point of view, “because it was important to work that way. We were two people getting to know each other, in real time, as actors and as the characters.” Free with Amazon Prime.

Under the Tuscan Sun 2003 Based on Frances Mayes’ memoir. Written, produced, directed by Audrey Wells. Gorgeous to look at and deeply romantic. Recently divorced writer, Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) buys a fixer-upper Tuscan villa on a whim and manages, with some colorful help, to make it charming and livable.

She helps one of her Polish workmen secure his bride despite prejudice, provides refuge for her best friend giving birth, and makes friends with a beautiful expatriate embodying La Dolce Vita. (Lindsay Duncan is wonderful as Katherine). The perfect stranger seems to offer romance but… In the end, however…Yes, it’s happy.  Raoul Bova, Vincent Riotta, Sandra Oh. Sigh. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Letters to Juliet 2010 Inspired by the non-fiction book by Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman. Directed by Gary Winick. A pre-honeymoon trip to Italy finds Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) at cross purposes. She anticipates a romantic sojourn, he intends to research food and wine for his incipient restaurant. Wandering Verona, Sophie discovers a wall in which letters to Shakespeare’s Juliet are left in cubbies/cracks, then answered by a group of volunteer women. She joins the respondents and comes across an unanswered letter from Claire Smith (Vanessa Redgrave) dated 1957.

Sophie answers the missive which, miracle of miracles, Claire receives while visiting that very city with her grandson, Charlie Wyman (Christopher Egan). The women meet warly. Sophie talks Claire into trying to track down her lost love and, left alone by her intended, goes on a road trip with her and cynical Charlie.

The young people start at odds and are then drawn. Claire is hopeful, regretful, vulnerable, fatalistic. Both denouement and ending are exactly as one might wish in the best of all possible worlds. Call it corny, but the film is an absolute charmer, especially Redgrave. Wait until you see her and real-life ex-lover Franco Nero together! Showtime Trial through Prime, free with Netflix.

Top photo: Bigstock

About Alix Cohen (1706 Articles)
Alix Cohen is the recipient of ten New York Press Club Awards for work published on this venue. Her writing history began with poetry, segued into lyrics and took a commercial detour while holding executive positions in product development, merchandising, and design. A cultural sponge, she now turns her diverse personal and professional background to authoring pieces about culture/the arts with particular interest in artists/performers and entrepreneurs. Theater, music, art/design are lifelong areas of study and passion. She is a voting member of Drama Desk and Drama League. Alix’s professional experience in women’s fashion fuels writing in that area. Besides Woman Around Town, the journalist writes for Cabaret Scenes, Broadway World, TheaterLife, and Theater Pizzazz. Additional pieces have been published by The New York Post, The National Observer’s Playground Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, and ifashionnetwork. She lives in Manhattan. Of course.