A picture perfect hollywood heartbreak movie#

Later, they run into each other in a restaurant. So why do we continue to find this much-loved classic so unbearably moving? Because it’s still thrilling to watch the continents of emotion beneath Laura and Alec’s icy properness. A married woman falls in love with a married man and they do the decent thing. You’d think that Lean’s tale of stiff-upper-lip emotion would be frightfully and unwatchably old-fashioned today. 😍 The 100 best romantic films of all-timeīest quote: 'This misery can’t last… Not even life lasts very long.'ĭefining moment: That most restrained of farewells, Alec squeezing Laura’s shoulder goodbye. If you’re looking to wallow in romantic misery for a while, these movies invite you to sink all the way in.

A picture perfect hollywood heartbreak movie#

But when your own heart is shattered, the last thing you want to watch is a movie where everyone winds up happy and satisfied in the end. That explains why, if you check out our lists of the best romantic films and romcoms, you’ll find a lot of the same movies that made this list of the most heartbreaking movies in history. In fact, it’s almost impossible – or at least disingenuous – to talk about love without mentioning the emotional brutality that often accompanies it.

But acknowledging heartbreak does not dilute romance. Some end in sadness, others tragedy or, more simply, the recognition that relationships sometimes just don’t work out. Many of the greatest love stories in cinema don’t have happy endings. In the movies, as in life, love very often comes with loss.