It's just a FAD

Happy Valentine's Day! Or as some call it -- FAD: Forced Affection Day.

I made caramel rolls for Steve this morning. Certainly not homemade ... excuse me while I recover from this laughing fit ... I'll be right back..... No, they were frozen. He loves cinnamon rolls but not the frosted type but you can't find the non-frosted type in stores pretty much anymore.

So, today is Valentine's Day. Celebrating love, mostly the romantic type. I thought I'd make a list of my favorite romantic movies. These are just my personal taste and not in any particular order:

• Romeo and Juliet (1968) Directed by Franco Zefirelli and starring Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Milo O'Shea, Michael York, & John McEnery. This is the ONLY filmed version of R&J that I accept. No other substitutes even come close.



• Pride & Prejudice (1996) & (2006). The 1996 version is my favorite with Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle (the wet shirt scene!) but the 2006 version with Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightly is actually okay too. My favorite book of all time.



• Persuasion (1995) with Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, again is the only version I accept. I love this Austen story of finding love after losing it.



• The Notebook (2004) with Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner and Gena Rowlands. This is a recent entry for me as I only watched it a couple years ago. Love not only in the first bloom but also as it lasts and lasts until the very end.



• Ladyhawke (1985) starring Rutgar Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Matthew Broderick. Navarre and Isabeau have a curse that the Bishop has placed on them that causes Navarre to be a wolf during the night and Isabeau to be a hawk during the day ... always together but always apart.



• City of Angels (1998) with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan (though I don't care for either actor now). This movie made me sob my eyes out IN THE THEATRE. Seth, an angel watching over Los Angeles, begins finding his job difficult as he falls in love with Maggie, a beautiful heart surgeon. She becomes interested in Seth, and soon his not-quite-mortal state seems a barrier rather than a gift. A choice must be made between celestial duty and earthly love. Excellent soundtrack. Based on another movie, Wings of Desire.



• Strictly Ballroom (1992) directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice. Scott Hastings is a champion caliber ballroom dancer, but much to the chagrin of the Australian ballroom dance community, Scott believes in dancing "his own steps". Fran is a beginning dancer and a bit of an ugly duckly who has the audacity to ask to be Scott's partner after his unorthodox style causes his regular partner to dance out of his life. Together, these two misfits try to win the Australian Pan Pacific Championships and show the Ballroom Confederation that they are wrong when they say, "there are no new steps!" Very funny and I love the slo-mo scene when Scott and Fran begin their dance at the Pan Pacifics.



• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). Starring Hugh Grant and a cast of brilliants. I think this is one of the best written romantic comedies ever. Period.



• The Philadelphia Story (1940) directed by George Cukor, starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Haughty divorced socialite Tracy Lord is preparing for her second marriage. Enter Dexter Haven, her first husband, and Macaulay Connor, a tabloid reporter with a distrust of the wealthy. What follows is a rapid-fire war of words as the two men try to help Tracy discover the heart beneath her holier-than-thou exterior.

Honorable Mentions:

• Truly Madly Deeply (1990) starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson - death can't stop love



• The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) Brosnan and Russo are very sexy together.



• Say Anything (1989) and The Sure Thing (1985) starring young John Cusack.



• The Princess Bride (1987) who doesn't love Princess Buttercup and Wesley? One of the funniest movies ever.



• Bull Durham (1988) when Costner was still cool and Sarandon was fabulous.



• A Room with a View (1985) Merchant/Ivory production at their height.



• Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington.



• Sense & Sensability (1995) Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet
• Roxanne (1987) I love Cyrano de Bergerac and this is the closest we get

Over-rated, in my opinion:

• The Way We Were
  


• When Harry Met Sally
  


• Pretty Woman



• An Officer and a Gentleman



• Titanic



• Ghost

Classics worth mentioning:

• Gone With The Wind (1939)


• West Side Story (1961)



• Love Story (1970)



• Casablanca (1942)



• Doctor Zhivago (1965)



• Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961)



• Out of Africa (1985)



• An Affair to Remember (1957)

So today's Blog/Website of the Day is a collection of famous love letters found at http://www.theromantic.com/LoveLetters/main.htm. An example is from John Adams to his wife Abigail in 1782 :

...should I draw you the picture of my heart it would be what I hope you would still love though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have obtained over it, leaves not the smallest space unoccupied.

They knew about love; it's not a recent invention. There is something missing in our world of email, texting and instant messages when we no longer write letters.

So, I leave with a Valentine that I stole from Murderati but I think it's funny:

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster