There is no getting around it: to love is to be vulnerable. The characters in this collection all struggle with this concept, though perhaps none more than the childhood sweethearts turned star-crossed lovers in Gilles Lellouche’s rambunctious epic Beating Hearts (2024). On opposite sides of an immutable class divide, both must abandon their social milieus and step out of their comfort zones to keep the flames of passion alive.
Emotion rarely follows reason in these onscreen romances, and love can be found in the most hopeless places. In Jonathan Demme’s off-the-wall comedy Something Wild (1986), Melanie Griffith’s unpredictable beauty seizes it at a diner, on a Friday like any other. Embarking on a reckless adventure with Jeff Daniels’s total stranger, she throws into question all of his preconceived notions about attraction, compatibility, and romantic expectations.
Characters who find drastic and unusual strategies for resolving such tensions make for bracing and often deeply affecting cinema. For who among us has figured out all the mysteries of love? In Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001), Isabelle Huppert is both touching and unsettling as a woman whose warped psyche has lent her a particular kind of yearning, which few can satisfy. But let us not despair: going by the other films gathered here—Michael Lehmann’s raucously misanthropic classic Heathers (1989), Wong Kar Wai’s gorgeous yet ironically titled Happy Together (1997), and Nagisa Ōshima’s explicit masterpiece In the Realm of the Senses (1976)—finding a suitable mate to match your neuroses may not be the bliss it is cracked up to be. Passion is a fire that can consume infatuated lovers. Light-years away from romcom tropes, these films let you watch them burn.

There is no getting around it: to love is to be vulnerable. The characters in this collection all struggle with this concept, though perhaps none more than the childhood sweethearts turned star-crossed lovers in Gilles Lellouche&#8217;s rambunctious epic Beating Hearts (2024). On opposite sides of an immutable class divide, both must abandon their social milieus and step out of their comfort zones to keep the flames of passion alive.
Emotion rarely follows reason in these onscreen romances, and love can be found in the most hopeless places. In Jonathan Demme&#8217;s off-the-wall comedy Something Wild (1986), Melanie Griffith&#8217;s unpredictable beauty seizes it at a diner, on a Friday like any other. Embarking on a reckless adventure with Jeff Daniels&#8217;s total stranger, she throws into question all of his preconceived notions about attraction, compatibility, and romantic expectations.
Characters who find drastic and unusual strategies for resolving such tensions make for bracing and often deeply affecting cinema. For who among us has figured out all the mysteries of love? In Michael Haneke&#8217;s The Piano Teacher (2001), Isabelle Huppert is both touching and unsettling as a woman whose warped psyche has lent her a particular kind of yearning, which few can satisfy. But let us not despair: going by the other films gathered here&#8212;Michael Lehmann&#8217;s raucously misanthropic classic Heathers (1989), Wong Kar Wai&#8217;s gorgeous yet ironically titled Happy Together (1997), and Nagisa Ōshima&#8217;s explicit masterpiece In the Realm of the Senses (1976)&#8212;finding a suitable mate to match your neuroses may not be the bliss it is cracked up to be. Passion is a fire that can consume infatuated lovers. Light-years away from romcom tropes, these films let you watch them burn.

Love Sick: Tales of Destructive Passion

LOVE SICK: TALES OF DESTRUCTIVE PASSION

There is no getting around it: to love is to be vulnerable, and finding a suitable mate to match your neuroses may not be the bliss it is cracked up to be. Passion is a fire that can consume infatuated lovers; light-years away from romcom tropes, the films in this collection let you watch them burn.

There is no getting around it: to love is to be vulnerable, and finding a suitable mate to match your neuroses may not be the bliss it is cracked up to be. Passion is a fire that can consume infatuated lovers; light-years away from romcom tropes, the films in this collection let you watch them burn.