The Most Beautiful Classic Romantic Films of All Time

Truman Capote's masterpiece, brought to life by Audrey Hepburn, is an on screen delight that brings as much amusement as it does melancholia.  Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, is a sophisticated young woman with a place in high society as a high class escort and in her ivory tower she is able to distract people from seeing her most vulnerable self.  After bearing witness to her daring parties and numerous suitors, her new neighbor, Paul, a writer who is having an affair with a wealthy older woman, falls in love with her. Appearances can be deceiving and Paul discovers this throughout the film, as he attempts to cut through her guize of an exterior to uncover the true Holly Golightly.  Breakfast at Tiffany's is a romantic film that never tires, in part thanks to Hepburn’s gorgeous Givenchy outfits.

Cary Grant plays Nickie Ferrante, an aspiring playboy artist, who meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) aboard an ocean liner.  Both already engaged, during the trip a friendship is born that soon spirals into a passionate love. Once back in New York, they promise to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building, with the promise of finding themselves single and with new careers started.  Fate, however, will do everything to keep them from meeting again.

This film is often attributed the title of the greatest love story of all time, which is in part due to the incredible on screen chemistry between Jane Fonda, Corie, and Robert Redford, Paul.  Cori is a passionate and romantic free-spirit, while Paul is a serious and prudent lawyer. As soon as they are married, they find themselves working through their first big obstacle in the form of a set-up gone bad.

Released in 1977, in Italy it was initially distributed under the title "Io e le donne" and then became Io and Annie.  This film is universally recognized as a masterpiece of Woody Allen's pungent irony.  It was this film that awarded him so much success, so much so that he won four Academy Awards for the picture, including Best Director and Best Actress.  However, Diane Keating’s performance is just as praiseworthy.

Unlike the others on our list, it is difficult to find a romantic film more tormenting than the Bridges of Madison County.  Released in 1995, directed and interpreted by an intense Clint Eastwood and an always talented Meryl Streep, it is based on the homonymous novel by Robert James Waller.  A story that tells of a unique and impossible love, a victim of the conventions of society.  The story’s narrative is hauntingly poignant and depicts the sordid romance of soulmates who met too late.