Screenwriting : Favorite Romance Stories by Bill Costantini

Always loved ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Sleepless in Seattle’...

Vic: Those sure are two great stories. Many great accolades have been written about Nora Ephron, one of the most influential writers in these modern film times. One piece of wisdom from her from an interview I saw a while back "Sometimes to get to your destiny, you have to go through many false destinies." That nugget has stuck with me ever since I heard her say it. I'll always love Nora Ephron.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Vic!

"Leaving Las Vegas."

Eternal Sunshine

Under The Tuscan Sun

Ryan: see my above comments on Nora Ephron. Benjamin Button is a great one, too. It's almost hard to believe it's based on a story written 100 years ago. Super-Writer Eric Roth did a great job on that one, and is also up for another Academy Award for A Star is Born in a couple weeks.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Ryan!

Groundhog Day and Sideways are two of my favorite romcom style comedies. Both are masterfully written, directed and acted.

A love watching Silver Linings Playbook - the kiss in the second to last scene just perfect movie- not too romantic.

I love La La Land too, Bill. Other faves (in no particular order):

Brokeback Mountain

True Romance

Say Anything

Blue Valentine

Lars and the Real Girl (truly, this is more of a love story about family and community, but still a fave)

A Little Romance: Watched this again the other day and remembered how much I loved it. This was also my husbands inspiration for his wedding proposal to me (he proposed in Venice at sunset, as we rode a gondola under the bridge of Sighs. True story)

Bird Cage.

Tony S: Leaving Las Vegas sure was a great one. Not quite in the same theme as Leaving Las Vegas, but I also loved Vegas-themed romance-dramas The Cooler, and Frank & Lola.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Tony!

I'm gonna go with When Harry Met Sally. Although a close second is one of my favorite films, The Apartment.

Thanks, Bill. I had an argument with an actor friend who wouldn't buy "Leaving Las Vegas" as a love story. They're two shipwrecks who share unconditional love. Raw, uncompromising, ultimately tragic, The scenes at the desert motel are an amazement.

An Oscar for Cage and three other noms.

Adam Harper, Fiona Faith Ross, Ramus Labiapari, and Phillip Hardy: Those are all great ones, to be sure.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, all!

Bill, I'm doing this for you, because you kindly asked, and because you're a sweet, funny guy. Wait, this wasn't supposed to be about you. The romance I offer up is a little-known 2003 movie called "Tiptoes", which stars Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale and Gary Oldman about a handsome couple, Carol (Beckinsale) and Steven (McConaughey) who are about to wed, when we learn that Steven comes from a family of dwarfs (yes, little people, and Steven's brother Rolfe (Gary Oldman) is one of them). Unbelievable performance by Oldman, of course! So, what's the problem? The fact that if Steven and Carol have a child, their baby may very well be born with the condition. It's a movie that challenges notions of normalcy, what constitutes true love, the meaning of family and acceptance. It may not be a traditional romance, but it certainly hits you in the heart.

"Somewhere in Time" and "Out of Africa" set the bar for romance in my book. Both, coincidentally, have beautiful, sweeping John Barry scores. I also like " The English Patient". :^}

"Sleepless in Seattle" is one I loved.

Han and Leia in "Empire Strikes Back."

Dan MaxXx: Thanks for helping me win a bet. I bet you'd name at least five NYC films. Oh heck...but you didn't name The Warriors as a great romance, film. Dang! I lost it all back on the Double-Or-Nothing - as usual! I initially questioned After Hours as a romance, but any film with mouse traps around a bed; Martin Scorsese playing a lighting director; and a bound Linda Fiorentino qualifies as a romance film. A romance film it is! Hmm...gotta add Vision Quest, to the list, too. That is a great one, too.

James Matthew Chauvin: Silver Linings Playbook is one crazy-funny-twisted great romance. And talk about doubling your bet. You and Maxx must be partners. But that is a great film. Nice choice!

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Dan and James!

Jody Ellis: Those are all great romances, too. Blue Valentine might be one of the least-seen films on this list so far, and A Little Romance, but those sure are great films.

And man...what a great story about your Venice Bridge of Sighs wedding proposal. That is so profoundly beautiful. That mural on my profile was partly inspired by the Bridge of Sighs.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Jody!

"The Apartment" with Jack Lemmon. Funny, witty and, in the end, he does get the girl.

William Viglione: Tiptoes is truly one great and unique film - and quite polarizing, too. I remember a while back listening to two writer-types arguing about it in a deli. One went on a rampage about how it exploited small people - I mean, he went on for like ten minutes about it. Another person in their party asked "where did you see it?" He named a theater, and the pro-Tiptoes person said "Ha! It never played there!" Gotta love writers. But that is a great film, and I'm definitely on the pro-side.

Thanks for the compliments, Bill, and much, much, much great fortune with your soon-to-be released film What Lies Ahead!

Craig Griffiths: gotta love Birdcage. And I give it extra props for helping to advance the societal acceptance here in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere, too) for gay people, and especially because it was at a time when not many mainstream filmmakers/studios would have done that.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Craig, and Happy Valentines Day to you and your wonderful wife!

Jason Mirch and Dash Riprock: I was pretty young the first time I saw The Apartment, and I quickly realized how badly I wanted to be an adult. That is a great film, and I will always have a romanticized crush on that Shirley MacClaine.

Sweet Charity, which is partly inspired by Fellini's classic Nights of Cabiria, is another great one. I watch that every six months or so. I love both Sweet Charity versions - the original ending and the alternative ending version. I think I like the alternative ending version better, though, romantic that I am.

Much continued good fortunes to both of you in your creative endeavors, Jason and Dash!

Had the chance to revisit When Harry Met Sally recently. One remarkably well made film. And if you can get your hands on the screenplay, do so...It's near perfect.

This is neither here nor there but when Bill C mentioned one of my Top Ten favorite movies of all time -- Nights of Cabiria -- it conjured memories of one of the great acting performances ever by Giulietta Masina. Also has one of the absolute most uplifting endings in film (Paths of Glory is another one).

Any post that mentions Paths of Glory gets an immediate like.

Steve Cleary: wait a minute...you're a comedy writer. What are you doing watching Somewhere in Time, The English Patient and Out of Africa? Heh-heh. Just kidding, Steve. Those are three great films.

Bill Albert: Sleepless in Seattle and The Empire Strikes Back sure are two great love stories, too. Nice picks.

Tom/RB: Yeah...Cabiria smiling as she gathers herself amidst the happy frolickers...the soldiers humming along while the scared German woman sings...those are two beautiful endings. Talk about the resilience of the human spirit.

When Harry Met Sally screenplay link, if anyone needs it:

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/whenharrymesally.pdf

About Time is one of my favourites. Richard Curtis. Parent child love even more than romantic love. Passengers, not considered a romance, but to me a great love story, and, though I haven't watched it for years, not since my father died actually, Truly Madly Deeply.

Owen Mowatt Absolutely. Love it. One of my favourite films. Have watched it 5 times at least. Loved the screenplay, but the film was better. Sorry. (Not sorry!)

Owen: Forrest Gump is a great love story. Nice pick.

Wendy Jones: I was hoping somebody would pick Passengers. And About Time - that stormy wedding scene is one of the most hysterical scenes I have ever seen in a film. Oh man...Truly Madly Deeply. I only saw that film once, a long time ago, and that's as sad as it gets. Those are some really clever story lines and premises, and great romances, Wendy.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Wendy and Owen, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Owen: come on....he asked her out on a date...even the robot knew what was happening. They even danced in space. You're a romantic type...you know that once you get a woman dancing in space, and the stars start twinkling on her helmet....it's love, baby!

As the film said, he was a drowning man. You saw his struggle and then the two fall in love. Then you saw his sacrifice to give her up at the end and hers, to stay with him. Fab.

Too funny the first screen play I ever wrote is title Love is Not; inspired by many of the movies listed here, I wanted to tell a story about what love is and what Love is not. I never did anything with it but showed one (bad idea) and she laughed at it telling me its not realistic, that I wrote a fairytale so I shelved somewhere. This post and threads here made me think on it- too funny.

I just did a quick add of the films listed here....52....give or take a couple....plus I consider Jody's Wedding Proposal Under The Bridge of Sighs to be film-worthy.....53....plus James Chauvin's Love is Not is film-worthy, too...so that's 54....plus Wendy and I are going to tie up Owen and make him watch Passengers as many times as necessary until he sees the romance in it.....heh-heh........but that's 52 really awesome romance films.....each with its own unique world, memorable characters, and interesting events that engage a viewer, and with or without a happy ending.....

.....nice choices everybody, and Happy Valentines Day!

THE CLASSIC: Marty. Was SO GREAT, that Producer Harold Hecht, Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, Director Delbert Mann and my dear friend Actor Ernest Borgnine, ALL WON OSCARS! ;) GOD BLESS and STAY FRESH! ;) ;)

Ohhhh, thanks for asking! THE APARTMENT just wowed me. Nothing wasted and the writing treated the viewer as smart and observant. Ahh, to have just a nano spark of Billy Wilder's writing magic.:) And I'll stop myself with one because I keep a geeky list of all my favs for jumpstart inspo.

@BillCostantini You crack me up. I'll bring the gaffa tape!

Definitely HARRY and SALLY is mine. But I started working on my new RomCom. Let's see how will that be for you all!

Your timing is right, Evelyn Von Warnitz - One of the hottest markets around right now.

Yeah RB! Logline and treatment will soon be online. The Feeling in the creation of it is already special! Absolutely love it. It's my first RomCom.

Sam: Marty sure is a great one. And your late friend beat out Sinatra, Cagney, Spencer Tracy and James Dean to boot! That must have been a blast to have worked with him in your film Night Club. You should do a blog about that.

Cheryl: You're the third person who chose The Apartment - it's starting to catch up to When Harry Met Sally.

Best fortunes to you both, Sam and Cheryl!

Eric The African Queen sure is a great one, and has one of the most interesting back stories that I'm familiar with. Don't know if you ever saw that backstory on AMC or TCM, but man....what a hoot. And that's the third pick of LaLa Land...catching up to When Harry Met Sally.

Wendy: Can you also bring a cricket bat or two? Owen is one tough dude and I can see him breaking through the tape once or twice. And if you have any sedatives, those might be helpful, too. Heh-heh.

Evelyn: "And here they come, spinning for home....and When Harry Met Sally is pulling away from the field, and opens up a two-length lead on LaLa Land and The Apartment!"

RB: True dat. Of the 25 or so films playing in Las Vegas theaters right now, four are rom-com's, and another three are rom-drama's.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Eric, Wendy, Evelyn and RB!

Aray: Those are four great romances, and you're about the seventh person who included When Harry Met Sally. Man...Dirty Dancing..... I wonder how many millions of hours that millions of guys around the world have spent, trying to dance like Patrick Swayze, or trying to imitate the final scene moves? As Carl Sagan would say...."bill--lions and bill-llions..." That film sure has had some major influence on people and on popular culture. Great choice.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Aray!

Boomerang and Coming To America. Both represent modern takes on men looking for love.

I truly love Dangerous Beauty, The Notebook, When Harry Met Sally and Dirty Dancing!

Myron: Great choices. I've always felt that Boomerang is pretty underrated, and both are great stories with great themes and story lines.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Myron!

Alessandra: those are some great films, too. I only saw Dangerous Beauty once a while, back, and I remember how well that subject was handled - and if I remember, the film was told from her POV, too. And The Notebook, if I recall correctly, took around ten years to get made because no A-List actor wanted the lead role. If that was true, then everyone else's loss sure was Ryan Gosling's gain.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Alessandra!

Bill: Thank you so much for posting the link for the screenplay HARRY AND SALLY! Definitely a loving act of you.

Evelyn: You're very welcome.

Here are a few more links to scripts that were from my favorite romances.

LaLa Land

https://lionsgate.app.box.com/v/lalalandscreenplay

If Beale Street Could Talk

http://www.annapurnaguilds.com/assets/pdf/ifbealestreetcouldtalk.pdf

500 Days of Summer

http://www.cinefile.biz/script/500daysofsummer.pdf

Youth in Revolt

https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Youth-in-Revolt.html

Love & Other Drugs (transcript only)

https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=love-and-other-drugs

By the money, the greatest romance film of all times is My Big Fat Greek Wedding (I kid you not--a huge ROI). Personally, Pride & Prejudice--both the BBC and the Joe Wright versions--are my favorites. Maybe someday, my franchise screenplays will be on some people's lists.

Patricia: True dat - $5 million budget, $370 million gross - and that's when film tickets were like $7-$8. I love My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Opaa!

While Pride and Prejudice and the many remakes aren't quite in my personal cinematic viewing wheelhouse, I certainly do respect the greatness of the stories and the films. I did see a "Character Relationship Chart" for it back in my English Lit days, and it was pretty complex and pretty interesting.

Best fortunes to you with your potential franchise, Patricia!

Nobody's picked Ghost?! Back in the day, that pulled my heartstrings. I'm not a fan of straight romance films, but I can be a sucker for a good romance drama. For those curious, here's a link to the top-grossing ones of all time https://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=romanticdrama.htm

You've Got Mail is terrific. You just can't beat the combination of Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and New York in every season.

Owen, that is very true, but could be said of many many love stories.

Erik: I love Fargo, but I think steam of Marge and Norm's romantic relationship was dissipated by the zero degree temperatures. And he was the Zodiac Killer, eh?

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Erik!

Phil: Dan MaxXx mentioned Ghost. And That entire Make-Your-Own Pottery cottage industry sprouted up here in the states as a result of Ghost. I can't believe guys would go to those types of lengths to impress a woman. I mean...how much of a sucker can a guy be?

And I have a slightly-used pottery wheel for sale if anyone's interested. Two, actually - work stations and leg extensions included, and one even has a digital recording of "Unchained Melody" built into it!

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Phil!

Owen: I'm not clicking on your link, because I have a feeling it's not a picture of the most handsomest of fellows. I hope it's not the old photo of me in my leopard-print Speedo's that I used to have on my profile, and that Stage32 made me take down after only 15 minutes - or, as RB put it, "your 15 minutes of shame is up!"

Aray: heh-heh....I should only be speaking for myself, of course. But I do remember the time a while back when I was doing yard work, and I heard the faint sound of my neighbor's voice...."Bill....Bill...", and I walked up to his front door, and said "John? John?"....and he was laid out on his dining room floor. Yep....trying to do a double-pirouette could be dangerous to your health.

Guys sure can do stoooooopid things. Heh-heh.

And your other choices are a bunch of great films, too!

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Aray.

Adam: You've Got Mail is a great one, based on an older film and an even older story. Nora Ephron sure did a great job in adapting it, and in directing. it. I can never say enough great things about Nora Ephron, who helped bring film into a new age/new during her career....and Audrey Wells, another great who continued that path.

Rest in Peace to Nora Ephron, and Audrey Wells - two great people, writers and filmmakers.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Adam!

Harriet: Safe Haven - that's like the third Nicholas Sparks' story mentioned so far. That dude sure is a prolific writer of much-loved stories - no more ten-year waits for one of his stories to be made into a film. That and P.S. I Love You are two great films for sure.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Velv!

Owen: I can't speak for anyone other than myself. I'm no moralist or ethicist. The feelings of that guy in that picture can be the same as anyone's to some degrees, or they can be different to some degrees, just like your's and mine are/can be.

But regarding Passengers, I'm not going to risk divulging any spoilers here, but if you recall the final determinant regarding why Jim chose Aurora...and the transformation of both...and what she said in the final scene....a person might conclude that Passengers is one great romance, and even if they don't morally/ethically approve of certain aspects of it. Many romantic films have some of the same elements, and many don't. But we can agree to respectfully disagree.

And I'll go back to the quote from Nora Ephron that I said way back at the beginning of this topic: "Sometimes to get to your destiny, you have to go through many false destinies." (As it pertains to Jim and Aurora, and not to you.)

Best fortunes to you in your endeavors, Owen!

Well, I attribute the ending of Passengers to that of Stockholm syndrome, not romance. Plus the sexism in this fundamentally icky film is astounding. How is that romantic?! Lol! Me, I wish they had embraced its true essence and genre: that it is a horror film. Aurora should be the late-coming protagonist, not the creep, Jim, who's really her stalker and captor—sorry, Chris Pratt. ;)

Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of romance or rom-com genre(s) having not watched very many, so as far as a favorite romance film... I'd probably have to go with When Harry Met Sally. ;)

Beth: your comments certainly echo the sentiments from some of the bad reviews, and Passengers certainly generated differences of opinions. Glad you liked When Harry Met Sally.

Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Beth!

Erik: that's a great film, and handles some pretty complex subject matter, too. Nice choice.

Best fortunes to you in your creative endeavors, Erik!

Here is the compiled list of everyone's favorites so far, and in received order.

1. Love & Other Drugs

2. Modern Romance

3. Youth in Revolt

4. 500 Days of Summer

5. If Beale Street Could Talk

6. LaLa Land

7. When Harry Met Sally

8. Sleepless in Seattle

9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

10. Leaving Las Vegas

11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

12. 10 Things I Hate About You

13. Under the Tuscan Sun

14. A Star is Born - 2018

15. Groundhog Day

16. Sideways

17. Manhattan

18 Annie Hall

19 After Hours

20. Working Girl

21. She's Gotta Have It

22. Ghost

23. Vanilla Sky

24. Thomas Crown Affair

25. Vision Quest

26. Fatal Attraction

27. You Got Mail

28. Hitch

29. Tootsie

30. Scent of a Woman

31. Silver Linings Playbook

32.Brokeback Mountain

33. True Romance

34. Say Anything

35. Blue Valentine

36. Lars and the Real Girl

37 A Little Romance

38. Birdcage

39. The Cooler

40. Frank & Lola

41. Tiptoes

42. Somewhere in Time

43. Out of Africa

44. The English Patient

45. The Empire Strikes Back

46. The Apartment

47. Sweet Charity

48. Forrest Gump

49. About Time

50. Passengers

51. Truly Madly Deeply

52. Marty

53. African Queen

54. Romancing the Stone

55. Dirty Dancing

56. Streets of Fire

57. Boomerang

58. Coming to America

59. Dangerous Beauty

60. The Notebook

61. My Big Fat Greek Wedding

62. Pride & Prejudice - 2nd remake

63. Pride & Prejudice - 3rd remake

64. Fargo

65. You've Got Mail

66. Safe Haven

67. P.S. I Love You

68. Love and Basketball

69. Deliver Us fro Eva

70. Casablanca

71. Lost In Translation

Nora Ephron leads the way with quite a few mentions for When Harry Met Sally, and also has the most films mentioned (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail). She sure was a great and influential writer.

Great picks, everyone, and thanks for your inputs!

P.S. - word on the street is, if the list hits 100, then RB might put his re-imagined Saturday Night Fever "You Should Be Dancing" video in his next blog. Only 29 to go!

Nora Ephron is one of the greatest influences on my own screenwriting--I've learned so much from her commentaries on the Sleepless and Mail dvds.

I'll add another romantic film: Ever After (starring Drew Barrymore), the Cinderella story with some real twists, including gypsies, the Mona Lisa, and Utopia.

Harry met Sally, because it's damn funny and often very true.

Patricia: not quite Ever After, but I was starting to watch Enchanted the other night, but got busy. But I saw the first twenty minutes or so, and that was a really interesting film. I really wanted to see it and forgot to record it. And that's another film that took ten years to get to screen, if I recall correctly.

I'm glad you're a Nora Ephron fan, too, and am also glad that she left so many great interviews for us. There are a bunch on youtube, too.

Gary: like many before you....great choice!

Best fortunes to you and your franchise project, Patricia, and to you, Gary!

Pride & Prejudice AMC miniseries will always have a special place in my heart. Also, for animation Beauty & The Beast. A tale as old as time that never seems to get old. You probably have guessed I am of the "hate to love" theme.