St Valentine's Day display: The Romance
Holiday Inn (1942)
The film is mostly associated with Christmas, due to the success of the Oscar winning song 'White Christmas' - reputed to be the largest-selling single in history until Elton John's revised version of 'Candle in the Wind', commemorating the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was released.
The plot centers around Bing Crosby (Jim Hardy) and Fred Astaire (Ted Hanover), part of a performing trio, and the former's decision to retire from showbusiness. After a year of running his farm, however, Crosby decides to convert it to a country-style inn, the eponymous Holiday Inn. Holding live shows on the holidays, he hopes, will prove to be a less tiring occupation. He hires Marjorie Reynolds (Linda Mason) and an attraction is formed. He then tries to keep her away from the attentions of Fred Astaire but the plan fails on St Valentine's Day...
The sequence features the song by Irving Berlin, "Be careful, it's my heart", as sung by Bing Crosby.
The lyrics for all the songs in the film can be found on the Peaches website.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The film opens with the line: "Random thoughts for Valentine's Day 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting-card companies to make people feel like crap". With a beginning like that, is there any doubt that romance will ensue?
Of course with a Charlie Kaufman script (previous work includes Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and under the direction of Michel Gondry (creator of the dream worlds of pop promos for Bjrk and Foo Fighters) the film is not as straightforward as that.
The plot follows the falling in and out of love of Jim Carrey (Joel Barish) and Kate Winslet (Clementine Kruczynski), the power of emotions and memories, and the effects of attempting to delete said memories - a service offered by Tom Wilkinson (Dr. Howard Mierzwiak) at Lacuna Inc. With all the pressures of St Valentine's Day placed on lonely hearts it's not surprising that the good doctor claims February is their busiest month.
The film received four nominations at the 2005 Golden Globe Awards. It has also received two nominations at the 77th Annual Academy Awards: one for Kate Winslet for Leading Actress, and a second for Best Original Screenplay.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Borrowing from the plot of her favourite film, An Affair to Remember, Meg Ryan (Annie Reed) writes to Tom Hanks (Sam Baldwin) offering to meet him on St. Valentine's Day at the top of the Empire State building. At the end of the film we see her sitting in a restaurant with her fiance . Faced with the view of the Empire State building decorated with a heart shaped display of lights she decides she must find out if he - Tom Hanks - wil be there waiting for her and if he is she will take a chance...
Sleepless in Seattle was a massive hit in the summer of 1993 grossing $17,253.733 in its opening weekend, providing competition to the traditional summer action blockbuster releases.
Someone to Love (1987)
Henry Jaglom (Danny Sapir) throws a St Valentine's Day party for all his single friends. As they gather at a beautiful old movie palace (Santa Monica's Mayfair) and find themselves confronted by a camera crew he explains that he would like them to help him "explore the reasons why the contemporary human condition seems to be a frustrated quest for romance", and effectively makes a film within a film. Orson Welles (Danny's friend), in his last film appearance, brings it all to a close by calling "Cut!".
Read the full credits, plot summary, and review, by Tom Milne in Monthly Film Bulletin, vol.56, no.660, January 1989, pp.28-9.
Brief Encounter (1945)
David Lean's third Nol Coward adaptation for Cineguild has become one of the most popular romantic British films of all time, regularly appearing on lists of 'best films'. The story of unconsummated middle-class adultery began life as a one-act play, Still Life, in the compilation Tonight at 8.30.
The film is a small masterpiece of construction. According to Kevin Brownlow's biography of Lean, it was the director's idea to start the film at the end of the story, and then recount earlier events in flashback before revisiting the first scene, now expanded and made all the more poignant by what the audience knows. Laura herself tells the story, as though to her dull but kindly husband Fred, although he never actually hears her voice-over confessions.
Script extract from bfi Special Collections. More information on the film, and its director David Lean can be found on the bfi David Lean website.
