@mathmom Yes! I love Much Ado About Nothing, and the recent Joss Whedon version is particularly wonderful.
My favorite of all time: A.J. Antoon’s direction of the Joseph Papp production featuring Sam Waterston (be still my heart) as Benedick. I saw it on Broadway and several times on PBS. The start of a lifelong crush on SW. :x
I’m embarrassed to say Before Sunrise was the only movie my husband and I ever walked out on. Maybe we didn’t give it a long enough chance or weren’t in the right mood for it. We ended up sneaking into Legends of the Fall which was just starting. We loved it!
They’re really different movies, though. Watching Before Sunrise with my kids when they were mid-teens was one of the best parenting experiences ever. It provided a great, nonthreatening context for talking about love and sex and maturity and risk-taking, and it made growing up seem like one of the most wonderful gifts ever (if you were 15 at the time). Anyway, I think it’s a romantic comedy because the characters have to overcome obstacles and misunderstandings – albeit internal ones – to get together. And it’s often funny.
When I saw Before Sunset, my immediate reaction was that it should have a special rating and no one under 30 should be allowed to see it. Its vision of adulthood was so bitter and sad (but, um, yes, realistic). I never really censored my kids’ movie watching, but if they hadn’t seen that one before I did I would have tried to get them to give it a pass. I didn’t mind if they wanted to see sex or violence on the screen, but somehow I hated the thought of them watching adults frozen by fear and shame and unable to choose happiness without hurting others terribly. Kind of the opposite of the feel-great romanticism of the first movie (which was obviously the intent
Before Midnight was fun if you loved the other movies, but otherwise pretty boring. I doubt I will watch it again, except maybe if they come out with Before Noon sometime, which will no doubt deal with menopause, ED, and colonoscopies.
The movies were filmed over the course of a lot more than 12 years. More like 20 I think. [Checked. Before Midnight (2014) was released 19 years after Before Sunrise (1995) and 10 years after Before Sunset (2004).]
Many of my favorites are already on the list, but here’s one that hasn’t been mentioned: Heaven Can Wait (1978 version). For rom without too much com, I often turn to Gigi (1958). I’m sure that says something about me but who knows what.
I’ll always love the newer version of Sabrina. I especially love the part when Sabrina comes back from Paris, all grown up and sophisticated, and finally gets the attention of David Larrabee, who’d she’d been pining for forever. Even better is when David’s brother Linus (Harrison Ford!) falls for Sabrina. Sigh…
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Before Midnight
with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are 3 of my favorite movies. They may not be “rom-com” but they sure do qualify as rom! I agree with @JHS
I love You’ve Got Mail, but really don’t like Sleepless in Seattle - it’s only redeemed by the Affair to Remember/Dirty Dozen scene. Oh, and I want that houseboat!
Four Weddings and a Funeral
When Harry met Sally
Princess Bride
I like the Kenneth Branagh version of Much Ado, even if it has Keanu and Kenneth and Emma are too old.
JHS, I stand corrected! Must have been reading the wrong dates on Wikipedia! We watched them one right after another, so to us they seemed like one movie.