A Love Affair on Valentine’s Day

Dance With Me to the End of Love

Sexiest video IMO starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel (See also The Civil Wars version of this song).

A Love Affair on Valentine’s Day

As a Hopeless Romantic I love Valentine’s Day. I am single and nearing 40, and yet Valentine’s Day to me means showing those I love in my life (family and friends) how much I love them.

And there’s also my favorite romance books and movies that I love. Really reading or watching a romantic movie is second nature for me, so it’s nothing new on Valentine’s Day.

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Pride and Prejudice

This week I’ve been working on reading 4 various romance books. One of those four is a favorite reread, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is the fourth or so time I’ve read this book and I fall in love every time. There’s three male characters that I can’t help but like, and yes, that includes that Rake Mr. George Wickham. But Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is always my favorite Jane Austen Hero.

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As for movies…

My collection of dvd movies and blu-rays have a lot of romance genre. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite. There is the Audrey Hepburn movies with just the perfect amount of swoon, beauty and great quotes (Sabrina is one that I will be watching for my TCM 31 Days of Oscar review). Then there’s the newer stuff, like the foreign film Amélie with a hopeless romantic heroine, or The Princess Bride with that dashing pirate, or the movie with one of my favorite male actors, Matthew Goode in Leap Year. Or I could’ve gone full romance chick flick with a Nicholas Sparks movie. Or even more cheesy romance with a Hallmark movie.

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But the ones I chose to watch tonight is Love Affair and the remake, An Affair to Remember.

Love Affair

1939 Romance starring Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn and Maurice Moscovitch.

What is it about Love Affair that has me wanting to rewatch them over and over again? I love Irene Dunne as Terry McKay. Irene is such a great actress. She plays her role as an American Singer with a feminist touch along with the female beauty.

Terry McKay and Michel Marnet‘s romance is realistic in a way that they don’t fall in love with each other overnight. No. As the days ticked by on their Cruise Ship journey, their love grew from friendship to a tragic love affair. Tragic because they are both engaged.

If you would like to see the the movie, Love Affair is a great pick. And it’s one of those films that is now free to view anywhere because it’s publication rights expired, just like a lot of other arts at that decade and before.

Here’s the YouTube link. And if you don’t want to watch it on YouTube there’s always the Wikipedia site. Or on the Internet Archive site.

An Affair to Remember

Starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, and Marni Nixon as Terry McKay’s singing voice.

Sigh. This movie has a great casting mix. The best is Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr paired off as the love interest.

There are some things that are different than the original Love Affair. For one, Cary Grant‘s character’s name is not Michel Marnet. His name is Nicolò (Nickie) Ferrante. And along with that name is it’s notable nationality – IMO it sounds Italian, not French.

The most romantic part of both these movies is the ending, when the guy realizes why he was stood up at their date at the Empire State Building.

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Or there’s always the Saturday Night Live Valentine’s Special.

Did you go to the shop at the very last minute like these schmucks?

Happy Valentine’s Day