SAY 'I LOVE YOU' WITH A MOVIE

Man, I hate Valentine’s Day.

I like what it stands for – in theory, anyway – love, compassion, romance . . but really, what is it but a cynical excuse for retailers to squeeze a little cash out of a slow, post-Holidays, mid-Winter sales period? The price of flowers, chocolates, cards and jewelry spikes like the temperature in August, and you have to wait in line at decent restaurants for hours while some strolling violinist saws through another yawn-inducing rendition of ‘Yesterday’.

Do I come across as jaded? Well, I didn’t get a card this year. So screw it.

On the other hand, I do treasure good romantic movies. Here’s an arbitrary list of some of my favorites. You can’t go wrong with any of ‘em. Listen, save a little bread, rent one of these, spend a little cash on a decent bottle of red, carve your partner’s initials on a Hershey bar and watch the sparks fly. Love favors the thrifty.


‘Robin and Marion’ (1976) – a romance for dreamers in middle age, with a wonderful performance from Sean Connery as an over-the-hill Robin Hood, and the luminous Audrey Hepburn as Maid Marion.

‘A Little Romance’ (1979) – a celebration of very young love.

‘The Princess Bride’ (1987), the enchanting comic fable based on William Goldman’s cult classic novel.

‘Beauty and the Beast’ – pick any version.

‘Roxanne’ (1987) – Steve Martin’s sweet parody of Cyranno de Bergerac.

‘When Harry Met Sally’ (1989) – Rob Reiner directs Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan is like a less-filling Woody Allen movie. And speaking of Woody . .

‘Annie Hall’ (1979), Woody’s most unabashedly romantic film.

‘Moonstruck’ (1987), Cher’s Academy-award winning performance as a thirty-something woman who finds love with pizza flipper Nicholas Cage (“Get over it!”)

‘The Taming of the Shrew’ (1967), an energetic and bawdy rendering of Shakespeare’s classic battle-of-the-sexes starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

‘The Way We Were’ (1973) Get out the hankies, ladies.

‘Casablanca’ (1939) Get out the hankies, guys.

‘An Affair To Remember’ (1957) – Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr star in the tear-jerker that inspired all those Nora Ephron movies.

‘The Bridges of Madison County’ (1997), wherein Clint Eastwood goes all soft and mushy over neglected housewife Meryl Streep, and both rewards and repercussions of adultery are artfully balanced.

‘On Golden Pond’ (1981) stars Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn as a long-time couple knowing their autumns together are dwindling to a precious few.

‘The African Queen’ (1951), Hepburn again, this time playing a spinsterish missionary teamed with hard-drinking steamboat skipper Humphrey Bogart.

‘Debbie Does Dallas’ . . . the romantic tale of . . . oops, how did that get in here?

Send me your faves. And viva l’amour.