Ten Romantic Films for Valentine's Day

Are you and your special someone planning on staying in and making dinner at home for Valentine’s Day?

If so, Patch has a list of 10 movies that will likely inspire you to cuddle up and be romantic.

It Happened One Night (1934)

Frank Capra’s comedy about a spoiled heiress (Claudette Colbert) who runs away from her family and into the arms of a reporter (Clark Gable) looking for a story swept the Academy Awards. It’s still considered one of filmdom’s greatest romantic comedies.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Often considered the greatest of all screwball comedies, Howard Hawkes’ classic tells the tale of a paleontologist (Cary Grant) who is pursued by a kooky heiress (Katharine Hepburn) and her titular pet leopard.

Casablanca (1943)

“Of all the gin joins in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) grumbles after old flame Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) shows up at the lounge he operates in Africa during the early days of World War II. Michael Curtiz’s Best Picture winner likely has more famous lines than any other picture in American film history and includes the ballad “As Time Goes By.”

Annie Hall (1977)

Woody Allen’s most beloved film is a bittersweet paean to mismatched relationships and – as are many of the director’s pictures - New York City itself. This film is your best Valentine’s Day bet for a movie that is both screamingly funny and poignant.

Moonstruck (1987)

Cher won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Norman Jewison’s charming film about a Brooklyn bookkeeper who finds herself falling in love with the troubled brother (Nicolas Cage) of the man she agreed to marry. The movie also includes terrific supporting roles for Danny Aiello, Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia.

Say Anything (1989)

Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut is simultaneously one of the most romantic pictures of the past 25 years as well as one of the best films ever made about youth. The movie is loaded with memorable lines – most notably, “I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.”

Amelie (2001)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s visually inventive romantic fantasy spins the tale of a lonely Parisian (Audrey Tautou) whose bad luck in affairs of the heart inspires her to help match-make among her eccentric circle of friends.

In the Mood for Love (2001)

Wong Kar Wai’s visually lush and haunting film was ranked among the best films of the Aughts. The Cannes Film Festival sensation involves a man and a woman in Hong Kong who become neighbors and form a (sort of) romantic bond upon finding out that their spouses are having an affair.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Based on Annie Proulx’s short story, Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed drama about two cowboys who carry on a secret relationship in 1960s Wyoming is among the most deeply moving films on the subject of longing in recent memory. It was with this film that the late Heath Ledger proved that he had the makings of a great actor.

Once (2006)

John Carney’s micro-budget musical was 2006’s little film that could. The movie starred The Frames’ Glen Hansard as a Dublin lad attempting to cut a record and, along the way, befriending a vacuum-toting Czech immigrant (Marketa Irglova), who shows great promise on the piano. The film is brief, but earnest and heartfelt.