Unconventional romance films to stop you in your tracks 

Cinema, that magical realm where lives like ours are writ large, has had its fair share of star-crossed lovers over the years. From childhood sweethearts regrouping as changed people to career aspirations impeding romantic connections, many on-screen romances have featured heartache as a central facet of love. The films featured below have all struck unique philosophical chords and provided us with space for introspection in our little, crisscrossing lives. We, too, experience change, growth and separation from those we hold dear, and there’s no better place to reminisce (somewhat painfully) on some of the big screen’s most bittersweet what-could’ve-beens than in this Valentine’s-themed print. 

The convergence and divergence of two people who will always love each other and be formative to each other’s lives, no matter where they end up.

Damien Chazelle’s 2016 Oscar-winner La La Land, as those who’ve seen it will agree, is a profoundly moving tale of how dreams and success can be pursued at a price. Set in the ‘city of stars’, Los Angeles, the story of aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) reckons with the cost of finding that ‘someone in the crowd’ when career goals impede this blossoming romance. Listening to Justin Hurwitz’s soaringly beautiful score is itself a journey, capturing the convergence and divergence of two people who will always love each other and be formative to each other’s lives, no matter where they end up. The final shots of the film, wistful reflection evident on the duo’s parting smiles, confirm that sentiment. ‘Here’s to the fools who dream’, sings Mia, ‘foolish as they may seem’. She may be singing about us there, yearning for a different, wish-fulfilling outcome. But hey, there are other films for that. 

Crushing in its exploration of how love continues to reside in the depths of bitterness.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an emotionally shattering, sci-fi love story. When Jim Carrey’s heartbroken Joel discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has undergone a procedure to erase her memories of him, he decides to seek out the same option. As memories implode one by one, starting from their most recent argument, Joel revisits earlier, happier times, and, realising he still loves Clementine, attempts to rescue their rapidly fading memories. This expansive, wildly original, and experimental film is crushing in its exploration of how love continues to reside in the depths of bitterness. With its non-linear structure reflecting the fragmentary nature of memories, and what different moments mean for different people, Eternal Sunshine is a tearjerker which will stop you in your tracks. The tagline sums it up: “You can erase someone from your mind. Getting them out of your heart is another story.”  

Her makes us question the relationships of the future, and how sometimes love can originate from unlikely sources.

In Her, Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a lonely, introverted man in a near-future Los Angeles. Released back in 2013, Her offers a thought-provoking take on artificial intelligence and the possibility of humans forming emotional attachments with operating systems. Scarlett Johansson’s Samantha, the non-human party here, feels like a living, breathing person, even if she is just a voice with no corporeal existence. Imagine Alexa, only with developed emotions and a real personality. Samantha’s poignant predicament lies in her sexual frustration; can one truly love without a physical form? If anything, Her makes us question the relationships of the future, and how sometimes love can originate from unlikely sources. It’s like nothing else, and, if still a distant prospect, its existentialist take on human-robot love is both unconventional and strangely powerful.

Despite his resurfaced feelings for her— the war effort calls.

‘We’ll always have Paris’, Rick Blaine tells Ilsa Lund, in one of many oft-quoted Casablanca scenes. This 1942 wartime classic, an overt allegory for US interventionism in the Second World War, sees Humphrey Bogart’s American expat rekindle his pre-war connection with Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa, whose dramatic close-ups create a striking case for the most beautiful anyone has ever looked on the silver screen. Arriving in the purgatory of Casablanca in Morocco, a departure lounge for European refugees anxiously waiting to flee West, Ilsa and her endangered resistance-leader husband Victor Laszlo cross paths with Rick, who soon realises he must relinquish his past with Ilsa despite his resurfaced feelings for her— the war effort calls. Cinema’s finest screenplay is a canvas for some of the art form’s greatest acting, and Casablanca is undoubtedly the romance film, even if Rick must make a difficult choice in the end. 

The sobering ‘what if’ question posed by Past Lives is asked in all our lives.

2023’s Past Lives was also a heartrending romance – one which many will relate to. Two childhood sweethearts in Seoul, South Korea, separated by a family relocation to Canada, find each other again twelve years later through Facebook and resolve to meet again. Nora and Hae Sung’s lives have changed, though. There comes a point when the past is too far receded to return, and other circumstances have now arisen in their divergent destinies. The sobering ‘what if’ question posed by Past Lives is asked in all our lives. Watching it, just like the above films, we are reminded of the transitory nature of life; sometimes we don’t realise the true depth of love until long after it’s gone.