Boy-being Meets Girl-being Under a Silvery Moon (Which Then Explodes for No Adequately Explored Reason): THE ROMANTIC COMEDIES POLL RESULTS THREAD

18 ballots, with 183 movies received votes. We will be counting down the top 50 (as above that the point spread narrows considerably and there are an awful lot of ties).

50. The Lady Vanishes (1938, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
3 votes, 88 points
http://hitchcock.tv/mov/lady_vanishes/images/ladyv.jpg

it's always nice to start with genre fraud

is michael related to vanessa?

49. Harold and Maude (1971, dir. Hal Ashby)
2 votes, 89 points
http://www.movieposterstudio.com/pimg/HaroldAndMaude_GBQ.jpg

was surprised this got so few votes tbh :(

It just wouldn't occur to me to consider this (The Lady Vanishes) an RC. (Can't bring myself to use the term romcom, for the same reason I hate "sci-fi.")

Love Harold and Maude--or at least, I loved it in my early 20s (haven't revisited since)--but I can understand it not coming to mind when one thinks "romantic comedy" (it didn't make my admittedly genre-strict ballot).

Amelie (2001, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
3 votes, 90 points
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/84/8f/76/848f76ac6999832430324ad0c67337b5.jpg

yes, Michael Redgrave was the (bisexual) father of Lynn and Vanessa.

People who can't THINK of/haven't seen more than 5-10 true romantic comedies have to pull this shit with comedy-thrillers. Fucking amateur hour.

Those next two, otoh, i just hate on the merits.

btw Hitch did make at least one genuine RC

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Smith_moviep.jpg/220px-Smith_moviep.jpg

Amelie is terrible garbage, I'll grant you that

i'm not sure if i remembered to vote for harold + maude but i def would have

fab soundtrack too

idk what Morbz has against it, I ranked it pretty high on my ballot. its idiosyncrasies and gags/editing make up for its more maudlin (*rimshot*) notes.

most significant now for being stripped for parts by Wes Anderson

is that to be held against it

What later directors take from a picture is never a reason to diss the original. In case that's what you were doing.

xp

Amelie is terrible garbage, I'll grant you that

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 11:50 AM

i like the part where she listens to the city orgasming

^^I saw it in the theater w/both of my parents. A.W.K.W.A.R.D.

47. Show Me Love (1998, dir. Lukas Moodysson)
2 votes, 91 points
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM5Nzc4NDkzMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNDU5Mjc4._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

i hated amelie so much at the time it almost makes me suspect it's good

http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3xyq2tix91qaliojo1_500.gif

Well I nominated The Lady Vanishes so I guess I get the honour of causing the first Morbius tantrum in this thread

Mr & Mrs Smith may be a "genuine" romantic comedy but it's also not very good, and I voted for thirty from a shortlist of fifty so I'm quite capable of thinking of more than 5-10 romantic comedies you awful old bore

and yet you included one that... isn't... one.

Show Me Love is Fucking Amal, right? I'm p sure I haven't seen it.

misread that

It's got romance, it's got comedy, it's also a thriller. Who actually gives a shit?

I guess we'll just have to pray the poll can recover from the damage I've done with my disregard for the inviolable sanctity of the genre

btw i am not of the opinion that Mr & Mrs Smith should've gotten votes, just that Hitchcock doesn't belong anywhere among the greatest 50 romantic comedies in history.

Who actually gives a shit?

EXACTLY, let's ban the next motherfucker who votes in a poll.

feeling good about my vote for Midnight Run right now

yes Show Me Love is Fucking Amal idk why there are two different titles

bcz no US marquee would show the original title

there were def marquees in 1998.

46. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961, dir. Blake Edwards)
2 votes, 92 points
http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/26/MPW-13067

one of those classics i've never seen

but i have heard the song

45. Moonstruck (1987, dir. Norman Jewison)
2 votes, 93 points
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSKe6X5XEf6zBshsT75lB_o_6_FG7imwPSGY397xevzzVW7rFz7

song is the best thing about it, most of the film is horrible and v dated imo. party scene looks fun.

in reference to BaT that is

xp

idk if mordy meant moon river, there are darker possibilities

44. Muriel's Wedding (1994, dir. J.P. Hogan)
2 votes, 94 points
http://www.pastposters.com/cw3/assets/product_full/(R)__MurielsWedding(teaser)3.jpg

43. Love Me Tonight (1932, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)
2 votes,95 points
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews21/a%20Rouben%20Mamoulian%20Love%20Me%20Tonight%20DVD/poster4%20Rouben%20Mamoulian%20Love%20Me%20Tonight%20DVD.jpg

First of the all-time greats to show up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNQ7TrVDrg

42. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, dir. Howard Hawks)
(3 votes, 98 points
http://woodstockwardrobe.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/gentlemen-prefer-blondes-poster.jpeg

There's Something About Mary (1998, dir. Peter and Bobby Farrelly)
3 votes, 99 points
http://www.pastposters.com/cw3/assets/product_expanded/(JamieR-BX)__TheresSomethingAboutMary(teaser)2.jpg

er that's no. 41.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/497404/Gentlemen-Prefer-Blondes-Movie-Clip-Anyone-Here-For-Love.html

Forgot to vote for Moonstuck.

TIE 41. Design for Living (1933, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
3 votes, 99 points
http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Posters/D/Poster%20-%20Design%20for%20Living_07.jpg

40. Sleepless in Seattle (1993, dir. Nora Ephron)
3 votes, 106 points
http://www.parkcircus.com/assets/0009/5465/SLEEPLESS-QUAD.jpg

the pensive expressions on this movie poster crack me up, so insipid

sleepless in seattle aged really poorly

was it the shoulder pads

you can tell they were meant to be together because they are both wearing shapeless grey outfits

it's just such a bizarre movie. iirc a huge portion of the plot relies on ppl calling into radio shows?

yeah, Nora Ephron ahead of Lubitsch, mm hmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlK5y5ne3Xs

i've got design for living waiting for me to watch at home

i'm pretty sure any aging that affected Sleepless' status was done by the viewers

well - i guess what i mean is that for many years i was told it was a classic of the genre and then i watched it and realized it was really really bad, even by the standard of contemporaneous rom-coms

SIS would've been approved with Edward Everett Horton and Lew Ayres as the leads.

All Quiet on the Screwball Front

the hardly edgy Owen Gleiberman of EW gave SiS a "C" in '93

i can't remember for sure but i'm pretty sure meg ryan just, like, left bill pullman with the check in a restaurant after she got him to agree she should call off their engagement and go meet a stranger at the top of the empire state building

according to wikipedia they were eating at the rainbow room at 30 rock

so it ripped off Love Affair

well they directly reference An Affair To Remember throughout the film, which was based on Love Affair

i wish he'd said something like "well christ if you want to leave me for a widower with a kid you've never met, who knows what bullshit you'd pull with an unattached co-worker in three years" rather than "follow your heart"

and An Affair to Remember (a rotten movie), which ripped off LA

crosspost

whoa I didn't even know the rollout had started

a lot of these I haven't seen or don't feel v strongly about, but I voted for Moonstruck & Muriel's Wedding :D

my fave scenes in Moonstruck were between John Mahoney and Olympia Dukakis

yeah they were fantastic -- Mahoney had such a small role but so memorable!!

as 'romcoms' written by John Patrick Shanley go I prefer Five Corners, where John Turturro stalks Jodie Foster and throws his mama out the window.

Five Corners is good, p odd movie

I haven't seen Moonstruck, but Mahoney is also the key to Say Anything

Moonstruck hits all the right notes for me, has a terrific cast...and I adore Cher.

the best two parts of that movie:

"a bride without a head!" "a wolf without a foot!"

and:

"Bring me the big knife. I want to cut my throat." < which i love to quote

- In time you will see that this is the best thing.
- In time you'll drop dead and I'll come to your funeral in a red dress!

<3

39. The Awful Truth (1937, dir. Leo McCarey)
3 votes,107 points
http://michaelgloversmith.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/awfultruth1.jpg

xpost http://37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpgub4aL3g1qakh43o1_500.gif

TIE 38. Enough Said (2013, dir. Nicole Hofcener)
3 votes, 110 points
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiK-CAvMlCg/Ul8tJzKUDpI/AAAAAAAADMM/HcQ9CmvOxbY/s1600/Enough-Said-UK-quad-movie-poster.jpg

awwwww yes

such a good movie. I wish it came in higher but glad that it got into the top 50

didnt even occur to me to vote for Enough Said or Holofcener generaly

TIE 38. I Know Where I'm Going (1945, dir. Powell and Pressburger)
3 votes, 110 points
http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/66470/photos/PHOTO_10996440_66470_8882393_ap_320X240.jpg

yeah I saw Enough Said recently and it was okay I guess but p unremarkable

oh I loved it -- I just forgot about it.

I Know Where I'm Going![ is such a strange fairy tale. Glad to see it here.

god I wish Roger Livesey was in more movies, or had at least ended up doing some voiceover work

i still need to see enough said, been sitting on the dvr

Didn't vote. So happy to see Fucking Åmål on there. Varför måste vi bo i fucking jävla kuk-Åmål!!!

idk if mordy meant moon river, there are darker possibilities

― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, August 27, 2014 4:16 PM (2 hours ago)

lol i just realized this could've possibly meant the deep blue something song. i meant "moon river."

Yeah ppl, quote fucking Moonstruck (too cute by a half), let The Awful Truth go by in silence.

Enough Said should be about 500th.

I Know Where I'm Going! is great. AAAAND NOOOOOT A FUUUUUCKING ROMANTIC COMMMMMEDDDYYYYYYYYY

you can't just shut up and stop acting like George Will can you

hey guys, check out the genre labels under the film title on the iMdB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037800/?ref_=nv_sr_1

DRAMA. ROMANCE.

you can't just get your yuks reading The Corner, can you

'Dan' Leeson: I certainly learned about women from you.
Aunt Patsy: [handing him a Dear John letter] Here's your diploma.

BEST EVER

let The Awful Truth go by in silence

Better to say nothing at all than, et al.

I do love that this poll is twisting Morbs into fits over movies he actually LIKES placing, for a change.

pretty sure Asta would treat him like Ralph Bellamy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSMqXb7IAIU

don't worry Eric, Make Way for Tomorrow may yet show up here

Morbius: you're so well behaved over on the Ramones countdown, and so angry on the romantic-comedy countdown. Odd symmetry.

I voted for Dragonseed.

I voted for Demon Seed.

people on the Ramones poll seem to have heard the Ramones.

pretty sure people on this thread have seen Moonstruck.

that's the problem

"sorry to be seething with contempt but i have a really high standard when it comes to romantic comedies"

"the idea of people settling for films nowhere as warm and hilarious as the ones i enjoy...it just makes me want to berate them endlessly"

If we're conflating "romantic comedy" with "screwball comedy," then "warm" isn't at issue.

off to watch some Rockford Files s1

croup, i forget what this is from... "shit in your hat and punch it"

well, romance in the movies is bullshit, just like love songs in pop

Probably something really old

TIE No.37 Pierrot Le Fou (1965, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
3 votes, 111 points
http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1413941/936full-pierrot-le-fou-poster.jpg

^^Oh wow.

TIE No.37 Something Wild (1986, dir. Jonathan Demme)
3 votes, 111 points
http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5WquhxTj51tqKbSYhVHLYRMC5FV.jpg

No.36 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944, dir. Preston Sturges)
3 votes, 112 points
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Miracle_morgan_creek.jpg

That poster looks like Creepshow.

my #1

seems three ppl in this poll knew what was goin on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Rkj3u2UVk

35. Working Girl (1988, dir. Mike Nichols)
3 votes, 115 points
http://www.pastposters.com/cw3/assets/product_expanded/(JamieR)__WorkingGirl(1).jpg

great movie

TIE 34. High Fidelity (2000, dir. Stephen Frears)
3 votes, 118 points
http://images.posterjunction.com/High-Fidelity-poster-1020344801.jpg

terrible movie

Working Girl? ok that's enough

we might see an avalanche of screwball in the twenties

TIE 34. Broadcast News (1987, dir. James L. Brooks)
3 votes, 118 points
http://cdn.goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1987-broadcast-news-poster1.jpg

TIE 34. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010, dir. Edgar Wright)
3 votes, 118 points
http://damngoodcup.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Scott-Pilgrim-Quad-Poster.jpg

33. The Thin Man (1934, dir. W.S. Van Dyke)
4 votes, 119 points
http://cinemagumbo.squarespace.com/storage/0409%20THE%20THIN%20MAN.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1333810661021

All these great films makes me sad I didn't vote. All the crappy ones makes me even sadder...

BOO @ Scott Pilgrim, the biggest asshole on this list (the movie *and* the character)

yay Working Girl

tbh I'm kinda impressed by the quality of films so far. Certainly a lot more taste represented here than my ballot lol

i liked a lot of the ensemble work in scott pilgrim but there's nothing romantic about "if you want to date me you have to fight my exes while i stand there" imo

The high school girlfriend in Scott Pilgrim gets treated worse than Ralph Bellamy in The Awful Truth and deserves it even less.

Scott Pilgrim = 3 people are trolling.

Maybe Armond White has a secret account.

I liked Scott Pilgrim when I saw it but I've pretty much forgotten everything about it except lol fighting

yeah not going to a "somebody's trolling" zone because there's plenty of other fucked up "romance" right next to it on the list

not the thin man though, that's my shit

I gave SP a vote for visual flair. But yeah, he's an asshole. People are assholes.

biggest asshole on this list (the movie *and* the character)

that's a pretty strange complaint since obviously Knocked Up will be in the top 20

Is that any way to describe Katherine Heigl?

knocked-up Betty Hutton >>>>>>> knocked-up Heigl

Rogen >>>>>>> Bracken

for shooting-range practice, maybe

of course scott pilgrim is an asshole.

forgot all about broadcast news, that's a pretty good movie. lol high fidelity, lol the working girl poster captioning sigourney with THE CAREER BITCH.

the high school girlfriend gets out of scott's orbit at the end and rightly tells him she's too cool for him.

Working Girl had 6 Oscar noms? lol 80s.

harrison ford is so forgettable in that movie, but Melanie Griffiths & Sigourney are awesome

also Joan Cusack is awesome and her hair is AMAZING

seriously, it's all about the women in this movie and they fucking KILL it

lol all you want

wish I'd nominated Pineapple Express now

Working Girl is yuppie horseshit

shush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cg40zvIPeU

Nora Charles: Pretty girl.
Nick Charles: Yes. She's a very nice type.
Nora Charles: You got types?
Nick Charles: Only you, darling. Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.

Harrison Ford could handle that

Working Girl is a romcom if you imagine that the real love/hate is b/w Griffith and Weaver.

Pierrot le Fou (1965)
110 min - Crime | Drama | Romance

TIE 32. Roxanne (1987, dir. Fred Schepisi)
3 votes, 121 points
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/12/A70-6218

TIE 32. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008, dir. Nicholas Stoller)
3 votes, 121 points
http://www.richardcrouse.ca//wp-content/uploads/2013/09/poster_quad.jpg

TIE 32. Bull Durham (1988, dir. Ron Shelton)
3 votes, 121 points
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS6EH5Q-6Eo7jScHWd-neGNy0SWWnKZP62G1IlJyMJbX2-fEi0Orw

i rate bull durham

31. A Matter Of Life And Death (1947, dir. Powell and Pressburger)
3 votes, 123 points
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview2/matteroflifeanddeath/post9.jpg

I love Roxanne but I didn't vote for it because I forgot all about it

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was better than I expected and it makes me want to go Hawaii but now all I can think of is Jason Segel flapping his junk around and I just can't

I have never seen Bull Durham

(hides)

30. Twentieth Century (1934, dir. Howard Hawks)
3 votes, 124 points
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ru/7/70/20th_Century_1934_poster.jpg

29. Smiles of a Summer Night (1957, dir. Ingmar Bergman)
3 votes, 125 points
http://images.moviepostershop.com/smiles-of-a-summer-night-movie-poster-1955-1020235556.jpg

I have never seen Bull Durham

remedy this!

28. Raising Arizona (1987, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
3 votes, 129 points
http://www.rowsdowr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/RaisingArizona_quad-1.jpg

well if that ain't one of the worst posters ever

27. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, dir. Michel Gondry)
4 votes, 142 points
http://azharikahfi.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/2004_eternal_sunshine_of_the_spotless_mind_wallpaper_001.jpg

well if that ain't one of the worst posters ever

haha I know rite, I just had to use it instead of the other more common one. it's so off.

i missed the comedy part of ESOTSM

voted for four of the last five.

bull durham's way good. wasn't crazy about roxanne but haven't seen it in years; did vote for steve elsewhere. def come to hawaii vg.

"bawdy-nawdy enough to be french" haha. wau @ that raising arizona poster.

26. Holiday (1938, dir. George Cukor)
4 votes, 147 points
http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/40/4030/1XBLF00Z/posters/holiday-1938.jpg

John Barrymore going "ting-a-ling-a-ling" at the beginning of TC still makes me laugh out loud

Holiday is the most special Grant-Hepburn movie.

i missed the comedy part of ESOTSM

Jim Carrey gets beat up by a little kid. Ruffalo dances around drunk in his underwear w Dunst. David Cross. there are small jokes in there. I think plenty of it is funny, in among the heartwrenching stuff

find grant/hepburn a lil twee in holiday (and elsewhere) but voted for it cuz lew ayres.

that's it for today kids!

david cross saying "i am MAKING... a BIRDHOUSE" is what came to mind first in terms of eternal sunshine lols. realize that's v minor.

drink to mother, johnny. she tried to be a seton for a while. till she gave up and died.

Glad to see Fucking Åmål and Muriel's Wedding on the list, those were my #2 and #3. (And I suspect my #1 will place high in this poll.) Fucking Åmål is probably heavier and more dramatic than most of the movies in this poll, but there's plenty of comedy in it too, and it's one of my favourite movies of all time, so I had to place it high. I remembering just bawling my eyes out at the cinema when I first saw it. I love that there's a lot of other stuff going on besides the most "shocking" content (lesbian romance between two teen girls, can they admit it to others?), so even if times change and this theme will feel a bit outdated, the movie still works.

Funnier than twentieth century, anyway.

oh man just realized I forgot to vote for Flirting >:(

Anyway, it's been years since I saw Arizona Baby, but I don't remember it having much in the way of a romantic plot? Sure, it has a married couple, but IIRC the movie doesn't really focus on their romance?

and yet here it is

i almost posted an explanation of why someone could find raising arizona both romantic and a comedy but i'd prefer to let the mystery be

lol arizona baby

I find it very romantic, in a very funny way.

so there you have it

I'm not saying people shouldn't have voted for it, I'm just curious to here what makes them think it's a romantic comedy? The same applies to A Matter of Life and Death, which IIRC doesn't really have any comedy at all, it's pure melodrama. Both are great movies, but I didn't put them on my list because I can't see them as romantic comedies, so I'd love to hear why others do?

(xxxpost)

re-watch the opening and closing scenes. the middle may not be about "romance" but it establishes the romantic themes throughout

opening and closing montages, rather

biggest asshole on this list (the movie *and* the character)

that's a pretty strange complaint since obviously Knocked Up will be in the top 20

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, August 28, 2014 4:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Knocked Up has one good scene (the one with Harold Ramis) vs. the zero good scenes in Scott Pilgrim, so...

holly hunter can't have children, wants children, nicolas cage loves her so much he's willing to kidnap those darling little quintuplets just for her

it's about as stupidly romantic as you can get

croup otm -- it's all about the set up and the close

xxxxxpost can i just point out that I have a sentimental attachment to "High Fidelity" only because my alltime favourite album makes an appearance (a movie first & probably last)

http://www.quadrupedmedia.com/mx80/images/Hifi1.jpg

H.I.: A man for a husband.
Ed McDonnough: That ain't no answer.
H.I.: Honey, that's the only answer.
Ed McDonnough: That ain't no answer.

A Matter of Life and Death, which IIRC doesn't really have any comedy at all, it's pure melodrama.

give up, i have

anything less sobering than 12 Years a Slave is a comedy, apparently

lol

Unfunny P&P vs. unfunny Irene Dunne

vs unfunny Eric H.

I'll admit if someone had nommed The Red Shoes I probably would have voted for it without thinking about it too much

for the record, results so far:

26.Holiday
27.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
28.Raising Arizona
29.Smiles of a Summer Night
30.Twentieth Century
31.A Matter Of Life And Death
TIE.32.Bull Durham
TIE.32.Forgetting Sarah Marshall
TIE.32.Roxanne
33.The Thin Man
TIE.34.Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
TIE.34.Broadcast News
TIE.34.High Fidelity
35.Working Girl
36.The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
TIE.37.Something Wild
TIE.37.Pierrot Le Fou
TIE.38.I Know Where I'm Going!
TIE.38.Enough Said
39.The Awful Truth
40.Sleepless In Seattle
TIE.41.Design For Living
TIE.41.There’s Something About Mary
42.Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
43.Love Me Tonight
44.Muriel's Wedding
45.Moonstruck
46.Breakfast at Tiffany’s
47.Fucking Åmål (Aka Show Me Love)
48.Amelie
49.Harold And Maude
50.The Lady Vanishes

i'm gonna assume the Finnish subtitles on Matter of Life and Death and Muriel's Wedding were terrible but in different ways

a baby named arizona baby who represents the typical arizona baby

who represents the typical baby arizona

i missed the comedy part of ESOTSM

"Technically, it is brain damage," motherfucker

Carrey furiously masturbating to a catwoman sketch while repeating the word "Shame".

We should I suppose have one of the "Asshole realises he is an asshole due to his Feelings for mysterious lady, tries to shape up" films, and Scott Pilgrim's the best of them, so...

http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t407/KezzerC/tumblr_lvqvseP7H31qlbgxa.gif

i'm gonna assume the Finnish subtitles on Matter of Life and Death and Muriel's Wedding were terrible but in different ways

Huh?

well the former's a comedy and the latter's pretty much anti-romantic so

"Technically, it is brain damage," motherfucker

I heard that line as a straight-up factual statement tbh.

factual statements can be especially funny

allright everybody, grab your hankies and uh ... whoopie cushions... or something

lemme ask you a hypothermical question

25. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999, dir. Gil Junger)
4 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 149 points
http://hellogiggles.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/10thingsihateaboutyou-poster1.jpg

I walked out of this movie, and I hadn't even paid to get in

24. Midnight (1939, dir. Mitchell Liesen)
4 votes, 150 points
http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Posters/M/Poster%20-%20Midnight%20(1939)_02.jpg

Midnight was my #2.

23. Say Anything... (1989, dir. Cameron Crowe)
4 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 152 points
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvrj9mlTSD1r38d5m.jpg

always considered this inferior to Better Off Dead

xp Never realized that was the tagline.

[ 22. Ninotchka (1939, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
4 votes, 160 points
http://www.impawards.com/1939/posters/ninotchka_xlg.jpg

21. It Happened One Night (1934, dir. Frank Capra)
4 votes, 162 points
http://pre-code.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/it-happened-one-night-movie-poster.jpg

Garbo's a drag pre-laugh, although her scowl is funny the first couple minutes.

you just don't like Communists

I'm an anti-fan of the genre, but even I'm surprised by how low IHON placed.

Say Anything... my number one. Pretty good list so far. Funny how there's a huge split in time period. Where's Pillow Talk to give us a bridge?

I'm not particularly fond of IHON but I haven't seen it since high school

it seems more agreeable and less classic every year. hence all those Oscars

I'm an anti-fan of the genre

thx for voting

underwhelmed by IHON when I saw it (only part i really loved is when they imitate a squabbling, long-married couple) but i can take on faith it was fresh at the time

I do think it's interesting that these poll results are split almost entirely between pre-war and post-80s, it's like the intervening three decades didn't even happen.

Reagan era, I meant, not post-80s

Going back to conversation upthread, one of the (many) reasons I didn't vote in this is that I didn't know what to do about A Matter of Life and Death. To me, it is absolutely not a romantic comedy - some light comic relief does not a comedy make - but it is an absolutely wonderful film, and I'd want to vote for it over a lot of the dross here. Pretty sure there were a fair few others in this boat that had been nominated, so my ballot would've focused on non-comedy romances or non-romantic comedies, and thus been completely pointless.

Still think Thundercrack counts, though.

20. City Lights (1931, dir. Charlie Chaplin)
4 votes, 163 points
http://www.movieposterexchange.com/poster_photo/71.jpg

19. Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder)
5 votes, 165 points
http://noirwhale.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/film-noir-some-like-it-hot-movie-poster-via-movieart-net.jpg

I do think it's interesting that these poll results are split almost entirely between pre-war and post-80s

The James Harvey book I cited way up top diagnoses the genre as dying around 1948. So we have that bloc of scholarly voters, and then the ones who will watch very little pre-1984. Entirely predictable.

I'm an anti-fan of the genre

thx for voting

An anti-fan of screwball, not rom coms.

if ppl's ballots are anything like mine they are individually split between pre-war and post-80s. those are the two eras that best resonate w/ my aesthetics + taste in the genre. post-war romances that i considered nominating seemed more like melodramas than comedies.

also i'm rooting for clueless to go #1 overall

Entirely predictable.

yep - there are a few exceptions but even the noms list didn't include much in the intervening years, I had a hard time thinking of any myself (altho I do like Pillow Talk and What a Way to Go and some others).

18. The Graduate (1967, dir. Mike Nichols)
4 votes, 175 points
http://www.filmposters.com/images/posters/16430.jpg

Meh.

i know being dismissive of new movies is kinda morbz' raison d'etre but there's something genre-incoherent to me about damning all post-1980s rom-com film for it's lack of... what? seriousness? lol. maybe rom-com just brings out the cinematic poptimist in me. (idr morbz were you on the action thread complaining too? bc that seems like it'd be even worse in this regard.)

"one word. plastics."

Went with Virginia Woolf as a rom-com instead.

graduate is kinda an anti-rom-com which is why i think it belongs (and i voted for it)

TIE 17. All Of Me (1984, dir. Carl Reiner)
5 votes, 183 points
http://www.pastposters.com/cw3/assets/product_expanded/JamieF-TH/all-of-me-cinema-quad-movie-poster-(1).jpg

TIE 17. Trouble in Paradise (1932, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
4 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 183 points
http://www.filmsite.org/posters/trou3.jpg

this tie pleases me

the whole Doris Day Period is a divisive thing unto itself.

and then in the Classic Period commercially ambitious films did not take teens' amorous quandaries seriously (I don't mean in a drama vs comedy sense, I mean as something for the sole focus of an "A" picture). The Andy Hardy movies always found their ostensible moral center in his dad the Judge straightening his silly concerns out.

jesus christ i had no idea how bad taglines were in the 80s

granted now the nonsensical phrases of today won't age well either

The post-1980s rom-com pretty much has nothing to do with the 1929-48 repartee-and-slapstick-based romantic comedy. Different concerns, approaches, assumptions, style.

idk about that, i think the best movies from ever era have sharp dialogue, romantic banter, improbable plot narratives

"this is a movie where a great guy named Fred is going to have a wild adventure and you should go see it." vs "GET READ' FOR FRED"

i agree obv that the style of 1929 will obv differ substantially from 1999, but i like that 10 things i hate about you can appear in the same list as it happened one night

the whole Doris Day Period is a divisive thing unto itself.

these are p amusing and I'll watch them if they're on TV but they're hardly great. I did like that remake/ripoff w Obi Wan Kenobi in it, what was that called... Down With Love

all of me sounds terrible based on that poster

down with love...from the director of bring it on and the impending ant-man, as well as numerous superchunk videos

one major difference is that propriety allows ppl to make movies about relationships post-1980 that you couldn't do in 1942 when ppl were making divorce-coms.

all of me sounds terrible based on that poster

idk it kinda had me "Edwina Cutwater"

All of Me is the best Martin-Reiner film

probably

I did like that remake/ripoff w Obi Wan Kenobi in it, what was that called... Down With Love

Tony Randall was in it as the most explicit carryover, and he said while promoting it that they should've just re-released one of the originals, which i'm sure the producers loved.

16. Defending Your Life (1991, dir. Albert Brooks)
5 votes, 204 points

https://briansfilmlog.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/jamier-bx__defendingyourlife1.jpg

i voted for that even though i haven't seen it in maybe 20 years just on how badly i want to see it again

i've seen defending your life a lot. it's great. my #4 overall.

i mean, not so badly i'll pay money or remember to put it on my netflix queue, but i really want to see the name scroll by when i'm dvr-ing pay cable

rip torn is hilarious in it

15. Manhattan (1979, dir. Woody Allen)
5 votes, 220 points

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews15/a%20woody%20allen%20manhattan%20dvd%20review/manhattan%20woody%20allen%20dvd%20review%20poster2.jpg

ok i didn't know rip torn was in it (certainly didn't know who he was when i saw it), bumping it up to "put on netflix queue"

yeah I haven't seen Defending Your Life in at least 20 years either, feel like it deserves a second viewing

but no All of Me is nowhere as brilliant as Trouble in Paradise

Meryl Streep sighed over her role in the Brooks "I'm just The Girl." To be great, 2 or 3 roles need to be comparably substantive, which is why City Lights doesn't really fit in this for me either.

Yusss @ Defending Your Life!

If Streep doesn't recognize that her comedies circa Life were what opened her up as an actress, she's nuts.

this rollout is serving as repeated facepalms for me over how many I forgot to vote for

how the hell did I forget Defending your Life? So great!!

then again I composed my ballot on my phone while I was at a concert so I have only myself to blame (the opener was kinda boring)

btw emil.y, I resolved your dilemma by not voting for non-RCs, and not looking at the nominations.

another lol tie comin up

I can't believe I forgot to vote for Thundercrack!

Eric, that doesn't change the fact that Defending Your Life is unbalanced, Brooks' The Muse even moreso. Then he got away from having to have a female counterpart entirely by squirming under Debbie Reynolds' thumb.

I wouldn't even say Brooks was balanced in Lost in America, really.

closer

I mean Hagerty has things to do, she loses the nest egg.

TIE 14. The Apartment (1960, dir. Billy Wilder)
225 points
http://www.impawards.com/1960/posters/apartment_ver3.jpg

TIE 14. The Princess Bride (1987, dir. Rob Reiner)
225 points
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/11/A70-5610

also distinguishing screwball from romantic comedies, yeah let me know when you see ppl doing that ITT

work's over, enjoy the rest of the alternating VegGrrl/Dr M choices

xp You aren't exactly keeping your votes or at least rooting interests secret here.

loved the apartment when i saw it as a kid but kinda got ruined when it was on tv and a friend with a more active social life saw jack lemmon wearing the bowler and asked why we're supposed to like this guy again. the whole "doormat with a heart of gold" thing just ain't been appealing since

I'll save the top 10 for Monday just for you morbz

(Labor Day)

13. Bringing Up Baby (1938, dir. Howard Hawks)
6 votes, 234 points

https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/95/MPW-47852

say anything has a similar "i'll just be a glutton for punishment until she realizes she should take my virginity" quality as the apartment (and hey who released a book of interviews with wilder, cameron crowe that's who) but i got more fondness for the ensemble in that, even if shirley maclaine's way better than ione skye

love the all of me-trouble in paradise tie. i put all of me very high.

bringing up baby bugs me.

TIE 12. The Palm Beach Story (1942, dir. Preston Sturges)
6 votes, 252 points
http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/posters/web/Picture58.jpg

TIE 12. The Philadelphia Story (1940, dir. George Cukor)
6 votes, 2 no. 1 votes, 252 points
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nX5fPYwu6ds/T7VRgAsrkrI/AAAAAAAAAJA/H2LIWIbuvXE/s1600/PS+poster.jpg

11. Roman Holiday (1953, dir. William Wyler)
6 votes, 259 points

http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/sc/posters/web/Picture71.jpg

ok that's it for today

Now, The Palm Beach Story I do kinda like.

bringing up baby is another one where on second viewing i just couldn't get past the obvious but ignored toxicity of the romantic dynamic. the sense that katherine hepburn was blatantly NOT WELL.

it's nice that neither you or your friend understood The Apartment, croup -- whoosh

xxxxps: the scene with the bowler, when he takes her aside at the christmas party to show off his status symbols, all of which rely on getting closer to the guy he doesn't know stomped on her heart, culminating in actually showing her w oblivious hierarchy-happy pride the generic christmas card w the picture of the guy and his happy nuclear family, is the painfulest/best thing in the apartment, which i didn't vote for for some reason.

I really can't stand Katherine Hepburn

xp

i LOVE the palm beach story. maybe my favorite movie about money.

it's nice that neither you or your friend understood The Apartment, croup -- whoosh

i feel like kirk van houten just told me he sleeps in a race car

is Mary Astor more sinister in TPBS or TMF?

I really can't stand Katherine Hepburn

xp

― Οὖτις,

Nicht, Toto, nicht.

xp more sinister IRL, now

voted for palm beach and philadelphia story which i've always loved. one of the best films ever about philly (even tho it actually takes place outside philly)

I can understand the Hepburn repulsion: the accent, the mannerisms, the range. In her early films she's more weird than good. She only starts looking like a human being in Holiday – then The Philadelphia Story spends most of its running time destroying what makes her unique.

it's not hepburn per se for me, the character just comes off like a psycho

re the apt, i'll admit my own embarrassment over masochistic pining shit in my youth makes me less sympathetic towards portrayals of the archetype today

i know i dug the palm beach story when i saw it but couldn't remember anything specific so i didn't vote for it.

it's a divorce-com

http://thefilmexperience.net/storage/messages-soused.jpg

I can understand the Hepburn repulsion: the accent, the mannerisms, the range.

yeah idk it's something about her stiff, brittle manner it just really rubs me the wrong way. my wife prob hates her more than I do so I p much never see her stuff anyway. I remember hating African Queen when I saw it in high school.

number none otm

hmph I voted for the Apartment AND Princess Bride, 'alternating'

The Palm Beach Story is just the best.

And Joel McCrea is damn cute

hmph I voted for the Apartment AND Princess Bride, 'alternating'

yeah Morbz is making a mistaken assumption about the uniformity of people's ballots, most covered both eras

Looking at my ballot, I had several movies from the 30s/40s/50s, several from the 80s/90s/00s, but only one from the years between 1960 and 1983. This was not intentional in any way, but I guess there really was a golden age for this stuff in the years around WWII, and the second golden age didn't start until the mid-80s?

Though I think the second golden age is over already? I voted for only a couple of movies from the last 10 years, Safety Not Guaranteed is really the only truly remarkable romcom I've seen in recent years. And even that one stretches the romcom formula quite a lot, though it undoubtedly belongs to the genre. The best "traditional" romcom that I've seen lately is The Mindy Project, which is a TV series.

My ballot dropped off -- drastically -- after 1950.

I only had 12 on my list, and six were from that 1960-83 bracket. I'm probably doing it all wrong--is there anyone here who lets you know when you're doing it all wrong?

ask Dr. Nadir.

idr morbz were you on the action thread complaining too? bc that seems like it'd be even worse in this regard.

I was not, because there were no Hollywood films called "action movies" until the descendants of The French Connection were thoroughly lobotomized and hyperedited inro the sacred work of Mel, Ahnuld and Bruce. There were swashbucklers, cop thrillers, westerns etc, with characterizations instead of catchphrases.

so there

in fairness to Morbs, it is awful for him when people have opinions.

only when theyre wrong

I don't care what YOU ppl think about anything, unless you rule the world after Hillary drops the bomb

Who Bomb the World (Girls)

Morbz you spend hours every day telling us what we think is wrong. You care so much its funny.

complaining about Hepburn being "psycho" in BUB seems kind of like complaining that Bugs Bunny is a psycho, though I can see how her character being the ur-manic pixie feels sour in 2014

the point of nice-guy schlub Bud Baxter's awakening in The Apartment is not that he's a DOORMAT, but that he's a PIMP.

why don't you guys diagnose zany housewife Lucy Ricardo next

Is jack Lemmon gonna have to choke a bitch?

when i first saw philadelphia story i was pretty shocked at how casually domestic violence was treated (vis-a-vis cary grant slapping hepburn)

Morbz you spend hours every day telling us what we think is wrong. You care so much its funny.

The unfaceable truth. Wonder what Morbs' Mulholland Dr. fantasy looks like. (All of ILE in a lake of fire, I assume.)

ugh, ilx in a fantasy wd be worse than dead cats or old nuns

oh not THE UNFACEABLE TRUTH

lol

humming "the unfaceable truth" to the tune of man of la mancha's "the impossible dream"

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7mxWMvM3NuA/TFCLfVMOETI/AAAAAAAAAPU/oBMqMfo0dOA/s640/unfaithfully_yours.jpg

It feels so weird to note that "pimp" is a rather flattering description of a guy who lets his boss and his crush fuck in his apartment

That like, "pimp" suggests a criminal degree of domination and authority over women. That the neighbor assumes he has it is even a running joke in the film

If he learned he was a pimp the moral would have been to stop abusing women. He learns to stop being abused by his bosses, and is rewarded with respect from a woman.

Ha, I loved that movie as a kid. I haven't seen it in forever though.

Am rescreening The Freshman w/Harold Lloyd, and be damned if it doesn't have one of the all-time 'meet cutes' when our hero helps the heroine with her crossword puzzle on the train.

saving the rest for Labor Day? the winner is obviously

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4r2EfTj-_o/T5TAQYv1HoI/AAAAAAAAAHU/zkjoatvD8EE/s1600/nutty-prof.jpg

TCM has an evening of JL on the 11th...gonna try to catch that one.

xp my #2 iirc

wish i had voted in this.

philadelphia story is the ur-romantic comedy to me because it's so explicit in articulating the misogynist ideology that dominates so many romantic comedies that came later. i always feel guilty about liking it so much for that reason, but in highlighting the ideology, it makes it available for critique. i know the first time i saw it i was like why are all these men yelling at katherine hepburn for the exact thing that makes her awesome?

also the character of liz makes me so sad/mad.

the only cringy moment is when they make jimmy stewart say all that fires banked down crap.

cary grant is so beautiful.

i have seen this movie at least one hundred times and it still makes me laugh out loud. so, so funny and quick.

i'm not sure i would have put it at the top of my ballot, though. holiday is more human.

we're in perfect alignment

<3

and Cary Grant is so damn sleek in it, like an otter

Tracy Lord's being 'tamed' is sort of a neat prophecy of Hepburn's late career -- say after 1967 -- when she kept doing the kate thing mostly in disposable movies, w/out true bite.

(not that it didnt happen earlier, as in that lousy reshot climax to Woman of the Year)

btw if it hadn't been made for TV i'd have voted for this, her last great comic role

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncs3VO_TtjI

So, are we gonna get the top 10 soon?

results blew away with a gust of wind when Shakey's mother-in-law opened a window

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD55dkiX_ZQ

THAT'd be a RC if the threesome hadn't been cut

(I mean why do you think they had Walter act without his dentures)

OK kids GET READY

10. The Shop Around The Corner (1940, dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
6 votes, 269 points
http://www.filmposters.com/images/posters/14294.jpg

Margaret Sullavan's voice is one of the wonders of the western world.

Her selling the music box to the fat woman = gem.

Wonder how many of these will have figured in even half the ballots.

Shameful omission from my ballot. lolxp

goddamn it's an adorable movie

(The only reason I didn't vote for it is because I think of it as a Christmas movie, which now I feel like a total goob for even saying out loud)

9. The 40-Year Old Virgin (2005, dir. Judd Apatow)
8 votes, 274 points
http://www.pastposters.com/cw3/assets/product_expanded/R/40-year-old-virgin-cinema-quad-movie-poster-(teaser-1).jpg

I unreservedly hate this next entry and a pox on you all for voting for it

haha wait no I take it back this one is allright, it's the one after it that's terrible

8. My Man Godfrey (1936, dir. Gregory La Cava)
6 votes, 2 no. 1 votes, 277 points
http://luxedb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/My-Man-Godfrey-Poster.jpg

7. When Harry Met Sally... (1989, dir. Rob Reiner)
7 votes, 2 no. 1 votes, 280 points
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0EBzD8TFmjk/URYczXPATvI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/CqrbUL7tQB0/s1600/Romance_When+Harry+Met+Sally.jpg

i don't get 40 year old virgin rating so high. I mean, I liked it but jeez

xpost YAAAAY

sorry shakey but I love it

"I've lost a lot of money."

"Well, maybe you left it in your other suit."

could watch Alice Brady + Eugene Pallette in a sitcom.

i don't get 40 year old virgin rating so high. I mean, I liked it but jeez

this is on cable all the time so I feel like I've seen it (well, parts of it) an awful lot. the pacing of it is really great, the only false note is really the sappy bit at the end when he crashes through the billboard on his bike, it's just unnecessary. otherwise the ensemble cast makes it, all of the supporting characters add depth to it.

i don't get 40 year old virgin rating so high. I mean, I liked it but jeez

it got 8 votes where the movies before and after got 6, so it's more of a general thumbs up than a BEST MOVIE EVER thing

yeah the action chase sequence at the end of 40yo is really pro forma but great ensemble, and i appreciate how they get at the pathos of carell's haplessness without suggesting he's an unspoiled dreamboat or something.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall > 40yo Virgin imo but I didn't vote so eh.

Don't love any of these top 10ers, but whatever keeps the path clear for Annie Hall's fine with me.

" 6. Tootsie (1982, dir. Sydney Pollack)
7 votes, 291 points
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51u5ri0vVFL._SS500_.jpg"

" 5. The Lady Eve (1941, dir. Preston Sturges)
7 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 312 points
http://www.filmposters.com/images/posters/11676.jpg"

The Lady Eve my #1.

Tootsie I've written enough about.

4. His Girl Friday (1940, dir. Howard Hawks)
8 votes, 349 points
http://api.ning.com/files/sITKNS7bAwnFFKy*LoC-iuL9fbcUHr0D7Pchah-UnIST85dTVHSLWrcq-QLFKbcudKAvbHXZkyGsREiGTxb6N1HD-3GkowCp/hisgirlfriday.jpg?width=721

3. Clueless (1995, dir. Amy Heckerling)
9 votes, 359 points
http://www.timelessmoviemagic.co.uk/ekmps/shops/fozzy/images/clueless-original-uk-quad-poster-alicia-silverstone-95-2655-p.jpg

the cellphone jokes in this movie don't even register as jokes anymore

they remind me of the CD longbox joke in Defending Your Life

Sex. Clothes.
Is There Popularity.
A Problem Here?

is Dr. Nadir screaming in a restroom stall?

i need a mood bump after this, so i'm off to chemo.

2. Groundhog Day (1993, dir. Harold Ramis)
9 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 382 points
http://www.timelessmoviemagic.co.uk/ekmps/shops/fozzy/images/clueless-original-uk-quad-poster-alicia-silverstone-95-2655-p.jpg

haha whoops

2. Groundhog Day (1993, dir. Harold Ramis)
9 votes, 1 no. 1 vote, 382 points
http://glance.matia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/groundhog_day-poster.jpg

1. Annie Hall (1977, dir. Woody Allen)
9 votes, 3 no. 1 vote, 382 points
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rNPEt6EFg7I/UAC1j4RNg2I/AAAAAAAATHU/4riyZK9gI04/s1600/Annie%2BHall%2Bposter%2B2.jpg

1.Annie Hall
2.Groundhog Day
3.Clueless
4.His Girl Friday
5.The Lady Eve
6.Tootsie
7.When Harry Met Sally...
8.My Man Godfrey
9.The 40-Year Old Virgin
10.The Shop Around The Corner
11.Roman Holiday
12.The Palm Beach Story
12.The Philadelphia Story
13.Bringing Up Baby
14.The Princess Bride
14.The Apartment
15.Manhattan
16.Defending Your Life
17.Trouble in Paradise
17.All Of Me
18.The Graduate
19.Some Like It Hot
20.City Lights
21.It Happened One Night
22.Ninotchka
23.Say Anything...
24.Midnight
25.10 Things I Hate About You
26.Holiday
27.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
28.Raising Arizona
29.Smiles of a Summer Night
30.Twentieth Century
31.A Matter Of Life And Death
32.Bull Durham
32.Forgetting Sarah Marshall
32.Roxanne
33.The Thin Man
34.Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
34.Broadcast News
34.High Fidelity
35.Working Girl
36.The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
37.Something Wild
37.Pierrot Le Fou
38.I Know Where I'm Going!
38.Enough Said
39.The Awful Truth
40.Sleepless In Seattle
41.Design For Living
41.There’s Something About Mary
42.Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
43.Love Me Tonight
44.Muriel's Wedding
45.Moonstruck
46.Breakfast at Tiffany’s
47.Fucking Åmål (Aka Show Me Love)
48.Amelie
49.Harold And Maude
50.The Lady Vanishes

will someone defend When Harry Met Sally? I'm curious.

Morbz must be bummed about Knocked Up not placing

clueless really should be that high

always kinda amazed that Rob was brazen enough to steal the faked-orgasm joke from his own dad

does Annie wear those poster clothes in the movie? Is it a still from an unused scene?

Surprised only half voted for the #1.

I will defend WHMS on the basis that I've watched it a million times and I still love it, but I think I'm too close to it to give any kind of critical analysis

baby fish mouth

i just realized the thread title is a hitchhiker's guide reference -- was that a prompt to include the hobbit/deschanel version on the poll?
the couples documentary segments are really good framing/punctuation marks in harry+sally.

I will defend WHMS on the basis that I've watched it a million times and I still love it, but I think I'm too close to it to give any kind of critical analysis

otm, saw it recently and it held up despite the fact that a billy crystal/meg ryan/rob reiner/nora ephron collab would sound like slow death just a few years later

though i gotta say i think bruno kirby and carrie fisher have the best meet-cute in the movie

bruno & carrie are my favorite thing about the movie - especially bruno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihaku9B92yk

Kinda have the urge to revisit Forget Paris, a semi-forgotten tonally similar thing Billy Crystal directed and starred in with Debra Winger in the mid-90s. the family rented it once at the time, didn't hate it but haven't even heard about it since

never gone near Mr saturday night though

I think WHMS kinda set the template for the modern romcom, but it's more emotionally subdued than most of the movies that followed (except for the "running to confess my true love" finale, which was a bit OTT even then, but I'm willing to forgive it because at least Sally isn't about to move to another country and Harry doesn't catch her at the airport as her flight is about to leave or anything), Crystal and Ryan have genuine chemistry, the "old folks reminiscing of their relationship" gimmick gives the movie a nice groundedness (something that wasn't used in most of its imitators), and in general the movie hits all the genre's sweet spots while featuring few of its more irritating cliches.

The only thing I don't like about it was "can [straight] men and women really be friends" debate that's both in the movie and was also sprung by it in the real world, because the idea that they can't is some essentialist bullshit. (Though to be fair to the movie, it never flat out states men and women in general can't be friends, just that these two can't.)

So yeah, if you like modern romcoms, I don't see any reason not to dig WHMS, because it has all that's good about them, and if you don't like the genre, well, what are you doing in this poll anyway?

I can't get past how uncharming Meg Ryan is, but I'm alone in thinking so: her appeal escapes me.

as a hetero man I cosign this sentiment

everything about this movie rubs me the wrong way - the cheap appropriation of superior material, the grating leads, the cloyingly pat resolution

if someone already had a masters in woody studies when it came out i can definitely see that being annoying

the cheap appropriation of superior material

Huh? Isn't it done from an original screenplay?

there's a very strange meg ryan romcom where she plays a biker from the future sent to kill her ex. that one might be a good watch for harry haters?

that does sound p entertaining

idk what to tell you Tuomas the film p obviously lifts its tone, style, setting, themes, and comic delivery almost entirely from Woody Allen (and this key bit from Reiner's dad as noted upthread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sxgnJVhKxxU#t=143)

but y'know minus the Jewy-ness and intellectual posturing and curdled mysanthropy

yeah when i was a kid i think i just assumed that all movies set in manhattan had jazz piano and modest title cards and shit

delivery of "and I think jazz is STUPID" in that clip >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the entirety of WHMS

xp

my sister went through a phase in the late nineties when she watched Forget Paris a lot.

"I will defend WHMS on the basis that I've watched it a million times"

i see, Chauncey

Chauncey von Poopandfart?

answers i arrived at

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Trouble in Paradise
The Shop Around the Corner
My Man Godfrey
Love Me Tonight
His Girl Friday
The Apartment
The Lady Eve
Annie Hall
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Palm Beach Story
Bringing Up Baby
Smiles of a Summer Night
The Gay Divorcee
City Lights
It Happened One Night
A Summer's Tale
The Awful Truth
Libeled Lady
Adam's Rib

Manhattan
Ninotchka
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
The Marrying Kind
The Philadelphia Story
All of Me
Pillow Talk
Say Anything...
To Be or Not to Be
Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Seven Chances
Midnight
Christmas in July
Design for Living
Cluny Brown
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Easy Living
The Last Days of Disco
Holiday
Taxi zum Klo

Remember the Night
The Thin Man
Tampopo
It Should Happen to You
A Fish Called Wanda
Kiss Me Stupid
Ball of Fire
Pygmalion
"10"
Theodora Goes Wild

equally weighted, thought i voted for Shop Around The Corner but musta spaced it

bold means i liked it more than most

A Fish Called Wanda
All Night Long
All Of Me
Before Sunrise
Bull Durham
But I'm A Cheerleader
Defending Your Life
Easy A
Friends With Benefits
High Fidelity
Knight And Day
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Married To The Mob
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Pygmalion
Raising Arizona
Roxanne
Splash
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The African Queen
The Princess Bride
The Sure Thing
The Thin Man
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
When Harry Met Sally...

oh and it was the brangelina mr mrs smith, though i forgot to specify

Romance dead, comedy dying--not my favourite genre.

1. The Heartbreak Kid
2. Broadcast News
3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
4. Roman Holiday
5. The Paper Chase
6. The Graduate
7. Annie Hall
8. Married to the Mob
9. The Wedding Singer
10. Ninotchka
11. Tootsie
12. Woman of the Year

My Man Godfrey
Holiday
She's All That
City Lights
The Shop Around The Corner
Easy A
Midnight
The Awful Truth
His Girl Friday
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
Easy Living
The Lady Vanishes
Claire's Knee
Twentieth Century
Amelie
Roman Holiday
A Matter Of Life And Death
The 39 Steps
The Palm Beach Story
Bringing Up Baby

Here's mine:

1. The Philadelphia Story
2. Fucking Åmål (aka Show Me Love)
3. Muriel's Wedding
4. Clueless
5. The Seagull's Laughter
6. Groundhog Day
7. How to Marry a Millionaire
8. The Wedding Banquet
9. Four Weddings And A Funeral
10. Safety Not Guaranteed
11. The Incredibly True Adventure Of Two Girls In Love
12. Monkey Business
13. Romancing The Stone
14. Addicted To Love
15. The Lady Eve
16. Love And Other Disasters
17. American Pie
18. The Shop Around The Corner
19. Happy Accidents
20. Pillow Talk
21. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
22. Trick
23. As Good As It Gets
24. There's Something About Mary
25. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
26. When Harry Met Sally...
27. The Tao Of Steve
28. Green Card
29. Bridget Jones's Diary
30. Irma la Douce

the cheap appropriation of superior material

Huh? Isn't it done from an original screenplay?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, September 2, 2014 3:03

srsly, fuck non-expertise

1. The Philadelphia Story
2. Working Girl
3. Ninotchka
4. My Man Godfrey
5. Moonstruck
6. Bull Durham
7. Groundhog Day
8. Roman Holiday
9. Roxanne
10. Some Like It Hot
11. Harold And Maude
12. Tootsie
13. It Happened One Night
14. Pat And Mike
15. Murphy’s Romance
16. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
17. The Princess Bride
18. The Thin Man
19. When Harry Met Sally...
20. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
21. Sleepless In Seattle

Trouble in Paradise 1932
The Shop Around The Corner 1940
Annie Hall 1977
The Lady Eve 1941
His Girl Friday 1940
Roman Holiday 1953
The Palm Beach Story 1942
Love in the Afternoon (Wilder) 1957
Ninotchka 1939
City Lights 1931
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek 1944
Forgetting Sarah Marshall 2008
Bringing Up Baby 1938
Desk Set 1957
Say Anything... 1989
L.A. Story 1991

30s 4
40s 5
50s 3
60s 0
70s 1
80s 1
90s 1
00s 1

annie hall? really?

Would have easily been my #1 if I'd voted.

it was a foregone conclusion that it would win imo

bcz both people who do and don't gen watch films before 1987 have seen it

Maybe the issue is that it doesn't seem like a very typical romcom?

i mean, i like the movie, but it's so... earthbound compared to so many other films that made the list.

bcz both people who do and don't gen watch films before 1987 have seen it

^^^
ding ding ding

ballots reflect this p clearly

it's so... earthbound compared to so many other films

idk what you mean by this really. it's departures from reality are frequent and numerous

we're dealing with a poll where 9 people voted for the #1 pick and 7 voted for #10 so I wouldn't bother reading too deeply into the tea leaves re: a big comedy director's best picture winner taking the top spot

not looking for a flight to the moon on gossamer wings

Morbs is still waiting for his Wiener King.

you'd think morbz would be thrilled ilx voted a woody allen #1 even after the earlier hullabaloo

we're dealing with a poll where 9 people voted for the #1 pick and 7 voted for #10 so I wouldn't bother reading too deeply into the tea leaves re: a big comedy director's best picture winner taking the top spot

― da croupier, Wednesday, September 3, 2014 3:30 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good point.

by earthbound i guess i just mean... it's an amusing character study. sometimes very amusing. but compared to a lot of other films on the list it seems very conventional, complacent even.

but you know taste etc.

but i think it'd be hard for me to understand someone who would put it in the league of something like "his girl friday" which on the level of performance and pacing is such a miracle.

but what da croupier said, really

but compared to a lot of other films on the list it seems very conventional

This seems like a surprising thing to say about Annie Hall but I'll admit that there's a lot I haven't seen on the list.

not conventional compared to motherfucking When Harry Met Sally

yeah I don't really get calling it conventional - its structure and pacing is p unusual

but compared to a lot of other films on the list it seems very conventional, complacent even.

http://585579096.r.lightningbase-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/0749852143.gif

comfort yourself that Groundhog Day didn't win, a great comedy THAT IS NOT A ROMANTIC COMEDY

And fwiw (not much) I don't put Annie Hall in the same league as His Girl Friday.

the fact that it's about a couple that split and move on to plausibly more momentous relationships also seems less than conventional for a rom-com

it's an anti-romcom bc the misanthrope doesn't get the girl at the end, he just gets to be miserable, desperately trying to figure out how to recreate magic that is permanently gone from his life

When I saw Annie Hall on release, it definitely felt like no film I'd ever seen before. I was 16, mind you, and everything seemed new, but Annie Hall still feels unique 37 years later.

yeah i guess you're right. it just feels kind of uninspired compared to some of the other films on the list, but looking at the full list i suppose it doesn't qualify as 'conventional'

sry

and then came India Song xp

To reiterate, "uninspired" in a list that includes When Harry Met Sally ...

india song is kind of funny if you approach it a certain way

xpost

sure fine

I'd have no objections to calling Annie Hall mundane in practically any other context. But this list ... I mean, girls, Lisa, boys kiss girls!

I would have liked India Song a lot better if there'd been two or three scenes involving lobsters and/or this guy.

http://media.cinemasquid.com/screenshots/1ad421b6-c0b1-49dc-ba96-2c302d6d001b/annie-hall-blu-ray-screenshot-0004929-I-824.jpg

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/y2glIlm0rGs/hqdefault.jpg

india song is kind of funny if you approach it a certain way

Le Camion has the real yuks.

point morbs for namedropping even more obscure duras film

i saw a screening featuring post-analysis by John Waters!

that's right, i remember reading his praise the budget-saving minimalism of le camion and bresson's lancelot du lac

there's a Marguerite Duras doublebill marquee shot in one of his '80s films

http://www.thecinetourist.net/uploads/7/0/9/9/7099213/8568482_orig.jpg

:)

i wish i liked john waters's films more :(

Stick to your guns. I'm f'n glad Howard Hawks bores me.

why would you be glad to be bored that seems sort of strange

he doesn't even hate what he hates

Glad that I didn't have to sit through 60+ Hawks films after the 5 or 6 (most of them acclaimed as being among his best) I watched did nothing for me.