For this list, I have picked scenes that I love. Some ring true, some are fantastical, some subtle, some explicit, some gently romantic, some erotic, some tender, some torrid. It's personal and highly subjective. I also decided to only pick scenes where I enjoyed both actors equally. In no particular order...
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995)
Francesca (Meryl Streep) and Robert (Clint Eastwood) dance - and finally kiss - in her kitchen, with Johnny Hartman singing on the radio in the background.
Eastwood takes a badly written, hopelessly overrated book and makes a beautiful film out of it. Meryl Streep, the ultra-WASP, is perfectly convincing as an Italian woman. Truly, she is a goddess! Both actors showed that it is never too late to fall powerfully, IRREVOCABLY (in-joke for some of my colleagues) in love.
THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982)
Guy (Mel Gibson) and Jill (Sigourney Weaver) banter over after-lunch drinks in the stifling heat of a Indonesian noon. They are caught in a rain storm, run for his car and collapse with laughter, giddy from the chemistry and the alcohol.
This was Mel Gibson before his roles utilized his native (yet strangely unnatural) American accent. As a young, ambitiously raw Australian journalist in Indonesia in the early 60s, he's compelling and exciting and a great foil for Sigourney Weaver's cool English diplomat. During the promotion of this film, she was apparently very impressed by Mel's lack of self conciousness that she was a fair bit taller than him.
THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982)
Guy (Mel Gibson) has crashed the embassy ball and persuaded Jill (Sigourney Weaver) to break curfew and go somewhere where they can be alone. As they drive through the dark streets of the countryside surrounding Jakarta, she tosses away his cigarette and distracts him with kisses; they smash through a checkpoint to the spray of machine-gun fire; and revel in the erotic excitement of their dangerous actions.
The music of Vangelis was brilliantly used here. It's an excerpt called "L'Enfant" from his Opera Sauvage.
CASABLANCA (1942)
At the airport, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is determined to get Elsa (Ingrid Bergman) on the plane with her husband Laszlo. He assures her that as painful as their separation is now, they have the memories of their love affair, and reminds here that their personal problems are nothing compared to what is at stake.
Bogart speaks those oft-quoted lines (the entire scenes is oft-quoted, what a piece of writing!) in a rapid-fire manner. But in his eyes you see all the love and longing he is careful not to indulge too openly. Elsa is the weaker one here; she wants to stay, but Rick knows they have to do the honourable thing. Which of us has ever been so self-sacrificing? This final scene always leaves me gob-smacked. Humphrey Bogart was a small man and seemed prematurely aged and worn. But there was always something very powerful about him. I always feel that if you were in trouble, he'd be the man you'd want around. I have no idea how he did it. His large, dark eyes spoke volumes and, for me, the actor's eyes are everything. I suppose whatever he had was real screen presence.
NOW VOYAGER (1942)
With humour and firmness, Jerry (Paul Henreid) finally breaks through Charlotte's (Bette Davis) bitter protective shell and she melts into a man's arms for the first time in years.
Bette Davis could be hard as nails and soft as butter; not beautiful, but with poise and elegance in the way she moved. Every scene with these two is a love scene. And she is splendid in all of them, evolving as the film progresses, with Henreid as a handsome, charming foil to her shifting moods. And in this moment, on the hotel balcony they share, you experience Hollywood's coy and effective suggestion that the scene might end with a kiss, but the night has just begun.
ROMEO + JULIET (1996)
Romeo (Leonardo di Caprio) and Juliet (Claire Danes) meet for the first time at a costume party at her family's magnficent home.
Director Baz Luhrmann stays true to the spirit of the Shakespeare play. The language suffers somewhat, but who cares when young infatuation/love is so beautifully portrayed by young actors who express all on their faces - nothing is hidden. The scene starts as they view each other through the water of a giant fish tank, and ends with them falling into the pool, a perfect watery environment in which to succumb to primitive, sensual discovery.
LONE STAR (1996)
Sam (Chris Cooper) and Pilar (Elizabeth Peña) rekindle their past love affair with a spontaneously sweaty love-making that leaves them both gasping. When she can speak again, she ask "What do we do now?" in reference to other complications in their lives. As the blood rushes back to his head he whispers... "More?"
The teenage love between these two characters has haunted them for years. They were separated forcefully then, and now they reunite as different people who have evolved with life experiences... but the attraction and chemistry is still there. These characters feel so real, and you are longing for them to make it work.
MOULIN ROUGE (2001)
Lifting from a series of schmaltzy and not-so-schmaltzy love songs of the past 20 years, Christian (Ewan McGregor) convinces the courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman) that they should be lovers. She succumbs, and the scene ends with her comment "You're going to be bad for business."
Another outrageously self-indulgent and hopelessly romantic movie by Baz Luhrmann. Some of it is hard to take, but this scene - operatically over-the-top and speaking to romantics everywhere - is made possible by the charm of the two stars. The camera loves Nicole Kidman's face like it did the stars of old Hollywood.
THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941)
As the year turns from 1799 to 1800, Lord Nelson (Laurence Olivier) has stolen away with Lady Emma Hamilton (Vivien Leigh). The clocks chime midnight and he is kissing her atop a Neopolitan balcony, with fireworks exploding in the bay below. "Now I've kissed you through two centuries."
The stars were at the height of their physical beauty (even when Olivier as Nelson has lost an arm and an eye, he's still pretty gorgeous) and the sets and costumes are sumptuously satisfying. And these two - married in real life - had real chemistry on screen and that often isn't the case. There is a use of paste-encrusted organza in this film, a sort of sparkly veil on some of Leigh's costumes, that always seemed the height of glamour to me as a little girl. It still does.
PAT AND MIKE (1952)
Even as sports-trainer Mike (Spencer Tracy) is tucking his prized lady-athlete Pat (Katherine Hepburn) into bed, you can read through his gruffness and her melting eyes, and with no kisses or touches yet, that they have fallen in love.
Here is another couple who had great off- and on-screen chemistry. Both the script for this movie and Adam's Rib (1949) - in which Spencer and Tracy depicted lawyers married to each other - were written by another married couple, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who were inspired in their writings by their own relationship.
FALLING IN LOVE (1984)
Molly (Meryl Streep) and Frank (Robert de Niro) borrow a friend's apartment for the afternoon to finally consumate their relationship.
I won't describe the scene any further as it would be wrong to do so until you have seen it. This movie didn't do as well as it might have at the box office or with the critics. A straightforward love story of two suburban, American thirty-somethings was a surprise to most audiences who were used to seeing the two stars in more seemingly challenging roles. Both were/are famed for playing extremes of tranformation. But how challenging is it to play extraordinary love felt by everyday people? They do it wonderfully.
PERSUASION (1995)
Anne (Amanda Root) has read Frederick's (Ciaran Hinds) letter, and has come to find him in the last moments of the film.
This is the best of the Jane Austen adaptations in my opinion. A lack of make up (shiny noses!), and a great deal of natural lighting effects create a very real world. You can almost smell the sea, the interiors, and the cold ham on the lunch table. Amanda Root transforms in the film from pinch-faced, disappointed spinster to radiant lover, with a flush in her cheeks and a glow in her eyes - the marks of love very cleverly applied. Ciaran Hinds is drool-worthy as Captain Frederick Wentworth. Sigh. I would have included Sense and Sensibility (1995) here, as I love Emma Thompson's sobbing/honking joy at Hugh Grant's declaration of love, but I'd rather she'd ended up with someone more like Alan Rickman's character, so can't really list it.
THE PIANO (1993)
George (Harvey Keitel) makes love to Ada (Holly Hunter) as she plays the piano.
I only saw this movie once, when it was first released, so I don't remember huge amounts. But when Keitel stroked his fingers up Hunter's bare arms, I found myself holding my breath so as not to miss a second. A simple scene breathtakingly choreographed and very erotic.
OUT OF SIGHT (1998)
Karen (Jennifer Lopez) and Jack (George Clooney) teasingly undress for each other in a hotel room.
The first time these characters meet, pressed up against each other in the trunk of a car, there is the most magnificent chemistry. But really I have to go with this scene, when finally they consumate that chemistry. It was also my first experience of seeing JLo's magnficent bottom. It's a scene-stealing posterior, even when you have a getting-naked George Clooney too. Two gorgeous people heating up the screen. Someone put them in another movie together, please!
LA BELLE ET LA BÈTE (1946)
In the final moment, the Beast (Jean Marais) has transformed into a handsome young prince with the look of Avenant, Belle's former suitor. Belle (Josette Day) is understandably discombobulated. He tells her he will take her away to his kingdom, and asks if she is frightened. With a growing glow of possibility in her eyes, she replies "I like being frightened... with YOU."
Not so much a scene, as a moment. Jean Cocteau described his film as a fairy tale for adults. The imagery, surreal and deeply romantic, is unforgettable and has been homaged in many films since.
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