What’s your favorite romantic movie, the one that moves you to tears, be they of happiness or sorrow? Perhaps it’s Leo McCarey’s four-hankie 1939 weeper “Love Affair” starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, or maybe it’s McCarey’s own remake “An Affair to Remember” lead by the insanely photogenic likes of Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. And then there’s Nora Ephron’s rom-com riff on those films, “Sleepless in Seattle” toplined by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Prefer a good ugly cry? Arthur Hiller’s “Love Story” and that Francis Lai score will mug it out of you as Ryan O’Neal loses the love of his life in Ali MacGraw. In the mood for a good emotional scalding? Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” will leave you stunned and in the mood for anything but love.
For fans of the “Love Story” flavor, John Crowley’s “We Live in Time” did a glorious number on their tear ducts with two appealing stars like Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh at the top of their game. They’re such a winningly believable couple in this movie that you can’t help but wonder if they studied screen pairings of classics past. They certainly have their favorites, and you might be surprised to learn which Pugh prefers.
Blue is Florence Pugh’s kind of color
In an interview with Parade, Garfield and Pugh named their favorite onscreen couples. Garfield instinctively went with Hanks and Ryan, but Pugh had something else in mind — and it’s a movie that’s been mired in controversy since it won the Palme d’Or in 2013. As Pugh told Parade:
“Ooh, ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color.’ My goodness, [Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos] are so in love and just the way that they look at each other, it’s just like they’re eating each other with their eyes.”
Directed by French filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche, “Blue Is the Warmest Color” is an unforgettable romance shared between a teenager (Exarchopoulos) and a slightly older woman (Seydoux). It’s intense, difficult, and, if you dig into the production history, more than a little problematic. Kechiche’s indignant response to his young cast’s criticism of how he directed them (e.g. the much-discussed sex scene took 10 days to shoot), while all three were promoting the film, stunk to high heaven. Even if he was taken aback by their comments, he was literally the adult in the room. This should be a time for reflection.
That aside, I hope Exarchopoulos and Seydoux can still feel a measure of pride in their work because, as Pugh said, they are magnificent in the film (which is one of /Film’s top 25 coming-of-age dramas).
