Thursday, February 12, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #31: Unrequited Love




Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Unrequited Love

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Last week we covered romantic comedies, today I thought lets do a little heartbreak...the unrequited love type. As Toulouse-Lautrec from Moulin Rouge says "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return" and don't the characters in my picks know it. Now there are quite a number of unrequited love movies so I put up my own parameters before getting down to my picks today. First, there must be some confession of love and a rejection, because otherwise, how can there ever be a surety that the love is unrequited. Second, the parties must not come together by the time the movie ends in the they-learn-to-love-each-other-in-the-end (so no Sense and Sensibility). Third there are no obsessive stalker films (so no The Story of Adele H). So here are my picks: two favourites, a hidden gem and one bonus.

Love the movie. It's cute, quirky and funny. And I love that they did a reversal on the genders going for the opposite of the gender often assumed to be the more romantically and emotionally invested in a relationship. Oh Tom...it's sad that his heart broke, but it he had it coming, he was just not hearing anything Summer way saying.

Set in the 1930s England, 17 year old Cassandra's father is suffering from a bad case of writer's block, with no income her family struggles to survive in their crumbling castle. That is until their landlord, a pair of American brothers, come to check on their English estate and may just save them financially if one of the brothers marry Cassandra's older sister Rose. This is a sweet coming of age movie based on a book I love and it has not one but three unrequited love so lots of wasted hearts here. As Cassandra would say "It's like some hideous party game.Everybody's dancing, and nobody's getting the prize they want because it's all thirdhand and second best."

Joaquin Phoenix puts in a really good performance as Leonard a depressed suicidal guy who finds himself between two new relationships. The first is with the daughter of his family's friend who wants to save/care for him. Leonard is charming and funny but also awkward, sad and vulnerable and you can't help but think that the second relationship with the charismatic tall blonde party girl next door, who he falls for fast, is bad news.

Bonus...

Love Actually (2003)
This is a bonus because I already picked this last week and because the unrequited love story here is only one small story in a mosaic of love stories but the Mark and Juliet story is so perfect for this theme and it's so sweet that I just can't resist mentioning it once again.

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 So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

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23 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:22 AM

    I'm finally taking part again! Sorry it's been so long. Funnily enough, (500) Days of Summer and Love Actually are 2 of my 3! The post will publish itself tomorrow morning :)
    - Allie

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  2. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:42 AM

    Nice picks! (500) Days of Summer is actually one of mine as well. It was the first one that came to mind.

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    1. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:28 PM

      It is one of the more recent and obvious choices and of course just a really good movie as well.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:54 AM

    I wanted to use (500) Days of Summer...but I'll find something different :-D

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    1. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:30 PM

      I expected (500) Days of Summer to be really popular today.

      Delete
  4. joel65913February 12, 2015 at 5:13 AM

    I've seen the first two and enjoyed them, I Captured the Castle a bit more than 500 Days, and I love Love Actually. That story thread with Mark & Juliet is great and does fit this week perfectly. I haven't seen Two Lovers, while I'm a fan of Joaquin Phoenix I don't care for Paltrow but he might make it worth catching.

    My three this week are:

    Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)-In turn of the century Vienna a pianist (Louis Jourdan) is preparing to skip town to avoid a duel, his manservent hands him a letter from an unknown woman which tells the tale of the young girl (Joan Fontaine) who has loved the self absorbed cad though several decades and periods of their lives. The twist is that he's so shallow and selfish that each time he meets her again he doesn't remember her despite her enduring devotion to him. Moodily directed by Max Ophuls with wonderfully atmospheric cinematography the movie is heavy with doomed portent and highlighted by one of Fontaine's best performances.

    Splendor in the Grass (1961)-A young couple is pulled apart by circumstances driving the sensitive girl to madness with unrequited longing. Set in Kansas just before the stock market crash this Elia Kazan directed adaptation of a William Inge story was Warren Beatty screen bow and he's good, and almost supernaturally good looking, but he and everybody else is blown off the screen by Natalie Wood in what is without question her best performance. She's so raw at times it's painful to watch her.

    Brokeback Mountain (2005)-In the sixties two down on their luck cowboys sign up separately for a stint herding sheep in a remote location. During their extended isolation they are drawn together and become involved, when they return from the mountain they part and continue their separate lives. But they remain in each others minds and when they meet again they realize nothing has changed between them. However because of the times, their fears and timing they can never work out their conflicts and be together yet the film is full of that unrequited yearning. Masterfully directed and amazingly acted by Heath Ledger, Jack Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams this should have won the Best Picture Oscar in 2006, Lee did win for director though.

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    1. Paul SFebruary 12, 2015 at 7:14 AM

      Splendor in the Grass is my kind of movie.
      Vivid technicolor images fill the screen as daring melodrama envelops your soul,and the ending is just soul destroying.
      Amazing stuff from Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, and Elia Kazan.

      Delete
    2. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 1:14 PM

      I have seen Splendor in the Grass and rather like it. But it and Brokeback Mountain, which I haven't seen, doesn't really feel like unrequited love to me. I always thought unrequited was a one side love where the affection was not reciprocated. In Splendor in Grass they seem to both love each other just that things happen and they weren't able to get together, same goes for Brokeback Mountain where due to the fear that their relationship won't be accepted and other circumstances they did not end up together.
      Letter from an Unknown Woman sounds interesting I'll look it up.
      As for Paltrow, she was perfect for her role in Two Lovers as the vivacious unattainable girl next door.

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    3. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2015 at 9:33 PM

      Concerning Brokeback, I'd say Alma's love goes unrequited, right?

      Delete
    4. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 9:45 PM

      I haven't watch. But now that I've read Mysterious Bibliophile's post this week which also had Brokeback Mountain, I realise that may be the unrequited love Joel was referring to.

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    5. DanielFebruary 12, 2015 at 10:07 PM

      I THINK Brokeback MIGHT count as unrequited love IF we're talking about the women, but I think you could argue that the men did love them back, just not in the same way they loved each other. The love between the two men was most definitely NOT unrequited.

      I ADORE Splendor in the Grass, but I thought he did love her back, just circumstance/their parents kept them apart. Either way, it's a great film. Natalie Wood just rips your heart out.

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    6. joel65913February 13, 2015 at 3:43 AM

      I guess I'm a bit off with Brokeback, although Alma's love is unrequited, and Splendor since both are more about a lost love that the characters yearn for rather than the unrequited kind. Letter from an Unknown Woman is definitely unrequited though. All three are an emotional workout that's for sure.

      Delete
  5. Paul SFebruary 12, 2015 at 7:09 AM

    500 Days of Summer far exceeded all of my expectations when I finally got around to watching it.
    It’s a wonderful film – so fresh and sharp!

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    1. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 1:15 PM

      Glad you got around to seeing it and like it. It is a wonderful movie.

      Delete
  6. Wendell OttleyFebruary 12, 2015 at 8:28 AM

    (500) Days is the only one I've seen and it is fantastic. The others do sound interesting. Nice picks.

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  7. Big Screen Small WordsFebruary 12, 2015 at 10:24 AM

    I also went with 500 Days of Summer. I haven't seen your other two choices, but the scene in Love Actually is one of the memorable ones in the movie.

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  8. DanielFebruary 12, 2015 at 12:37 PM

    I thought about doing (500) Days of Summer, but it's been a while since I've seen it and couldn't remember whether or not there was a point in the movie where she might actually love him back. Have heard very good things about I Capture the Castle and Two Lovers, but haven't seen them.

    "To me, you are perfect." Right back atcha, Andrew Lincoln! The moment when Keira Knightley watches the wedding video in front of him just kills me every time.

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    1. WandererFebruary 12, 2015 at 2:28 PM

      Love Actually - I know right....it was truly unrequited. It just didn't cross her mind. She thought he hated her all this time.
      500 Days of Summer - I don't think there was a moment that she loved him the way he did.

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  9. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2015 at 1:08 PM

    I picked 500 Days of Summer again this week. You know, that's the first movie to come in my mind when talking about unrequited love. Isn't that too obvious?
    Oh I love your other picks, too, especially Love Actually. Cheers!

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  10. RuthFebruary 13, 2015 at 12:53 AM

    Wish I could participate today as I LOVE this topic. Great pick on Love Actually, oh my it always makes me tear up seeing that scene. I was telling another blogger that I LOVE 500 Days of Summer and it absolutely fits this theme.

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  11. Kevin PowersFebruary 13, 2015 at 6:39 AM

    Great picks with the only two I've seen, 500 Days of Summer and Love Actually. I actually chose the former for myself. It's probably the perfect pick for this. Had fun with this topic!

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  12. MikeFebruary 13, 2015 at 11:11 AM

    Excellent picks, (500) Days of Summer is a fantastic movie, one I would have used this week had I not used it last week. I haven't watched the rest of your choices yet, but Love Actually is on my list to see soon.

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