The 25 all-time greatest movie love stories

The Age of Innocence, 1993

By Laura Jacobs of Vanity Fair | Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Whether judged by hankies used, sighs heaved, or pulses quickened, a truly fine romantic movie can burn its way into generations of hearts. From the star-crossed (Casablanca, Roman Holiday, Brokeback Mountain) to the triumphant (It Happened One Night, Say Anything . . . , Working Girl), Laura Jacobs falls for the 25 greatest love stories the movies ever told. Beautiful and grave from the first strains of Gounods Faust to the last ray of sun bouncing off a window, Martin Scorseses film version of Edith Whartons greatest novel gets richer with every viewing. This period drama was a departure for Scorsese, until then known primarily for street, gang, and Mafia movies. But were the fabled 400 of New Yorks Gilded Age any less controlling than the Cosa Nostra? Newland Archer, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, hasnt sold his soul to the devil but to a gilded ideal. His marriage to the angelic debutante May Welland (Winona Ryder) will fulfill every conventional wish. But in Mays unconventional, unhappily married cousin, the Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), he awakens to another idealthe romance of deep affinity. This new love is blocked at every turn. But by whom or what? New York society closing ranks? Newlands own pride of place? Or a moral code that wills out? Its unbearably poignant, this life suspended between ideals. -- By Laura Jacobs

Kyauk Khe Hudson