by Amanda Crouse

With Valentine’s season in full swing, I thought it would be relevant to recommend some of my favorite romance movies for those whose love language is watching films with friends. I tried to select movies that aren’t wildly well-known in the modern day, but that are also not so obscure that you need a VPN and pirating software to watch them. 

I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for classic musicals. I grew up watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on my grandmother’s old VHS tapes, and I can definitively say that “Shall We Dance” (1937) is one of their best romance features. The film follows Astaire as Peter P. Peters, a professional dancer who falls head-over-ballet-shoes in love with the famous tap dancer Linda Keene (Rogers). When the two finally meet, sparks fail to ignite any romantic feelings — but onlooking tabloids seem to think otherwise. Rumors begin to spread that Peters and Keene are the newest power couple in the dance world. The two realize how lucrative this kind of attention could be, and decide to milk their faux romance for all that it’s worth. However, what starts out as a publicity charade turns into something much more real when the star-crossed dancers find themselves developing true feelings for each other. The classic, warm and fuzzy hug of nostalgia for a time period long before any of our lifetimes is strong with this film. Astaire and Rogers glow with a buzzing chemistry in all of their movies, but I have always found this one to be particularly charming, as close as one can get to the perfect balance of romance and comedy that so defined the musical era. You can rent “Shall We Dance” on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and the Google Play Store.

A romcom relic from 1981, “Gregory’s Girl” is another one of my favorites. Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) is an average teenage boy playing on an average school soccer team, but dynamics change abruptly when a girl, Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), is recruited as a new player. What’s more, Gregory realizes that he’s starting to think of this girl as more than just a teammate. It seems that he is not the only one who feels this way, though, as before long, all the boys on the team seem to be driven not by a sportive competitiveness but by a desire to win Dorothy’s affections. I love this movie because of its ability to serve as a salient coming-of-age comedy as well as a romance. Just as protagonist Gregory is aging into a young man with an interest in women, he is also aging into a tall, uncoordinated adolescent who is far less useful on the field than he was in his prepubescent years. The addition of a shiny and new female teammate brings both beautiful and difficult truths to the forefront of Gregory’s ever-changing teenage life. You can watch “Gregory’s Girl” for free on Tubi, Amazon Prime and PlutoTV. 

Finally, for all of my German cinema fans, there is “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” (1974). Directed by the legendary Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Ali” follows German cleaning woman Emmi (Brigitte Mira), who spontaneously walks into a bar that mostly serves immigrants. This is where Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a migrant from Morocco, asks her for a dance. While platonic sparks fly between the two initially, their relationship quickly adopts romantic overtones. In the film’s post-WWII Germany setting, a relationship between a white German woman and a non-white immigrant man is seen as an unspeakable affront to the nation’s values. Emmi and Ali experience relentless shunning and backlash for their love, which begins to affect how they act towards each other. This rollercoaster of a relationship deemed unfit by society has the viewer constantly wondering whether the “forbidden” couple will be able to survive the criticisms of outsiders or if they will succumb to the unbearable weight of the status quo. This film is far more emotional than the other two I covered, and despite my not being a huge fan of ultra-serious romance movies, I adored “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.” The trope of “forbidden” love is used tirelessly, but director Fassbinder turns an overly familiar cliché into a refreshing portrait of middle-aged love whose struggle is defined by so much more than nationalistic boundaries. “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul” can be streamed on Max and Amazon Prime Video (with a Premium subscription), or rented on Apple TV. 

I hope these films may inspire some romance-lovers to try something new. Whether or not you have a Fred Astaire of your own to watch (or tap dance) with, give one of these titles a shot — maybe you’ll find yourself falling in love with a movie this Valentine’s Day!