One of the benefits of being a notoriously prolific artist is that there are occasions where one has very little choice but to step out of their comfort zone. John Ford’s name often evokes one of two images – classical westerns, or intense character-driven dramas. It doesn’t often lead one to think of gentle romantic…

It’s an iconic image – Steve Martin sporting a prosthetic nose, on the end of which is perched an adorable yellow canary, as he looks into oblivion, deep in despair at the fact that his appearance weighs him down and prevents his character from ever finding love, since it’s impossible to encounter anyone who can…

In the history of romantic comedies, few films have done quite as much heavy-lifting as Barefoot in the Park, Gene Saks’ beloved adaptation of Neil Simon’s adorable play about two people who discover how easy it is to get married, with the challenge coming in staying together, especially in contrast to the obstacles they face….

The career of Éric Rohmer is one filled with contradictions, and we can see this clearly in any of his films, such as Claire’s Knee (French: Le Genou de Claire), which is often considered one of his crowning achievements. It is a film centred on dialogue, but it is never overly verbose. It is set…

Some films exist to tell a story, others to make the viewer feel a particular sensation. On some rare occasions, we even find a film that’s primary function is to weave together pure visual poetry. This is the most appropriate way to look at The Earrings of Madame De…, the wonderful romantic melodrama by the…

Peter Wilson (Jack Lemmon) is a relatively successful cartoonist who is known to ruffle a few feathers, something that he doesn’t intend to change, especially not with the release of his newest book, entitled The War Between Men and Women, who features his frequent criticisms of the female sex, where women are portrayed as shapeless,…

Looking through Luis Buñuel’s extensive filmography, one might be shocked to discover that he directed an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (under the Spanish title Abismos de pasión), which stands as one of the more unheralded films in the director’s long career. A long-gestating passion project for the esteemed filmmaker, going back to the…

You have to admire the candour with which Albert Brooks made his films over the years – his debut feature film Real Life was all about reality, while his masterpiece Defending Your Life was exactly what it promised based on the premise. Modern Romance is one of the few times we’ve been misled by the…

In the vast landscape of romantic cinema, no one did it better than Luchino Visconti, whose career was populated by achingly beautiful stories of love, usually set to the backdrop of fascinating historical events, making his films multilayered explorations of the human spirit in its various forms. One of his finest achievements, albeit one that…

As one of the formative voices in the New Hollywood movement, Paul Mazursky had quite a distinct style, which he carefully constructed through a series of melancholy comedies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Some of them, such as Next Stop, Greenwich Village and Enemies: A Love Story, are very personal to the director, while others…