Screen love stories are as old as movies themselves, so essential is romance (and the climactic kiss or clinch) to our vicarious pleasure and satisfaction. Every moviegoing generation has its love-story touchstones, from The Big Parade (1925) to Casablanca (1942) to An Affair to Remember (1957) to The Way We Were (1973) to Brokeback Mountain (2005). This chapter looks at five different kinds of love stories, each challenged by a specific conflict: class difference; limited time; an unexpected love triangle; marital ups and downs; and same-sex love in a straight world. Though the circumstances vary, all of these relationships have the power to sweep you away.

excerpted from John DiLeo’s
Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery
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