AFI's Greatest Romance Movies - A Kiss Isn't Just A Kiss

AFI's Greatest Romance Movies - A Kiss Isn't Just A Kiss

 The American Film Institute (AFI) revealed the 100 greatest love stories of all time on June 11, 2002 during AFI's "100 Years...100 Passions," a three-hour special television event. Of all the films, "Casablanca" walked in the joint at number one. The 1942 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was followed by "Gone with the Wind" (#2), "West Side Story" (#3), "Roman Holiday" (#4) and "An Affair to Remember" (#5).
"Last year, AFI's '100 Years...100 Thrills' counted down America's most heart-pounding films and focused on how those films viscerally effect an audience," stated AFI Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg. "This year, AFI's '100 Years...100 Passions' celebrates matters of the heart in a whole different way -- more heartbreaks, heartaches and hearts bursting with love, rather than heart attacks and hearts in the throat. It's a wonderful and broad list of films and I hope this fifth installment of AFI's centennial celebration of cinema will prompt people to watch these classics, either for the first time or the fortieth."
The 100 most passionate films of all time were selected by a blue-ribbon panel of leaders from the film community, including film artists (directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, etc.), critics, historians and film executives.
And the winners are...
1. "Casablanca" - 1942
2. "Gone with the Wind" - 1939
3. "West Side Story" - 1961
4. "Roman Holiday" - 1953
5. "An Affair to Remember" - 1957
6. "The Way We Were" - 1973
7. "Doctor Zhivago" - 1965
8. "It's a Wonderful Life" - 1946
9. "Love Story" - 1970
10. "City Lights" - 1931
11. "Annie Hall" - 1977
12. "My Fair Lady" - 1964
13. "Out of Africa" - 1985
14. "The African Queen" - 1951
15. "Wuthering Heights" - 1939
16. "Singing' in the Rain" - 1952
17. "Moonstruck" - 1987
18. "Vertigo" - 1958
19. "Ghost" - 1990

20. "From Here to Eternity" - 1953
21. "Pretty Woman" - 1990
22. "On Golden Pone" - 1981
23. "Now, Voyager" - 1942
24. "King Kong" - 1933
25. "When Harry Met Sally" - 1989
26. "The Lady Eve" - 1941
27. "The Sound of Music" - 1965
28. "The Shop Around the Corner" - 1940
29. "An Officer and a Gentleman" - 1982
30. "Swing Time" - 1936
31. "The King and I" - 1956
32. "Dark Victory" - 1939
33. "Camille" - 1937
34. "Beauty and the Beast" - 1991
35. "Gigi" - 1958
36. "Random Harvest" - 1942
37. "Titanic" - 1997
38. "It Happened One Night" - 1934
39. "An American in Paris" - 1951
40. "Ninotchka" - 1939
41. "Funny Girl" - 1968
42. "Anna Karenina" - 1935
43. "A Star is Born" - 1954
44. "The Philadelphia Story" - 1940
45. "Sleepless in Seattle" - 1993
46. "To Catch a Thief" - 1955
47. "Splendor in the Grass" - 1961
48. "Last Tango in Paris" - 1972
49. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" - 1946
50. "Shakespeare in Love" - 1998
51. "Bringing Up Baby" - 1938
52. "The Graduate" - 1967
53. "A Place in the Sun" - 1951
54. "Sabrina" - 1954
55. "Reds" - 1981
56. "The English Patient" - 1996
57. "Two for the Road" - 1967
58. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" - 1967
59. "Picnic" - 1955
60. "To Have and Have Not" - 1944
61. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - 1961
62. "The Apartment" - 1960
63. "Sunrise" - 1927
64. "Marty" - 1955
65. "Bonnie and Clyde" - 1967
66. "Manhattan" - 1979
67. "A Streetcar Named Desire" - 1951
68. "What's Up, Doc?" - 1972
69. "Harold and Maude" - 1971
70. "Sense and Sensibility" - 1995
71. "Way Down East" - 1920
72. "Roxanne" - 1987
73. "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" - 1947
74. "Woman of the Year" - 1942
75. "The American President" - 1995
76. "The Quiet Man" - 1952
77. "The Awful Truth" - 1937
78. "Coming Home" - 1978
79. "Jezebel" - 1939
80. "The Sheik" - 1921
81. "The Goodbye Girl" - 1977
82. "Witness" - 1985
83. "Morocco" - 1930
84. "Double Indemnity" - 1944
85. "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing" - 1955
86. "Notorious" - 1946
87. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" - 1988
88. "The Princess Bride" - 1987
89. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" - 1966
90. "The Bridges of Madison County" - 1995
91. "Working Girl" - 1988
92. "Porgy and Bess" - 1959
93. "Dirty Dancing" - 1987
94. "Body Heat" - 1981
95. "Lady and the Tramp" - 1955
96. "Barefoot in the Park" - 1967
97. "Grease" - 1978
98. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" - 1939
99. "Pillow Talk" - 1959
100. "Jerry Maguire" - 1996 The final list of passionate films produced some interesting facts:

-- Cary Grant is the most celebrated actor, starring in the six films in the top 100. Humphrey Bogart is next with five.
-- Hepburns make up 11% of America's Greatest Love Stories. Katharine stars in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "On Golden Pond," "Bringing Up Baby," "The Philadelphia Story," "Woman of the Year," and "The African Queen." Audrey Hepburn graces "Two for the Road," "Roman Holiday," "Sabrina," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," and "My Fair Lady."
-- Seven of AFI's top 10 greatest love stories feature couples that do not end up together in the end.
-- The AFI countdown contains approximately 187 fights and 260 kissing scenes, proving that lovers quarrel, but more often than not, they make up.