The 10 Most Epic Romantic Movies of All Time

By Shane Scott-Travis

The following list is one not just for cineastes, but for those who delight in being swept up in a large-scale whirlwind of melodrama, star-crossed lovers, inescapable contretemps, all amidst swirling backdrops that sow the seeds of legend, and often span years of fleeting affection and aching regret.

Tallying only 10 epic romances of course means that this list is not definitive, so please include your favorites that were overlooked in the comment section below.

10. Indochine (1992)

This sweeping story from director Régis Wargnier (who co-wrote the script with Catherine Cohen, Louis Gardel, and novelist Érik Orsenna) unfolds in colonial French Indochina during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Éliane Devries (Catherine Deneuve, stunning in an Oscar nominated performance) is a French plantation owner with an adopted Vietnamese daughter, Camille (Linh Dan Pham), and Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Pérez) is a fetching French naval captain, with the rise of the Vietnamese nationalist movement in the periphery of the proceedings.

Proceedings which involve a cross-cultural love triangle intensified as European imperialism grips Indochina. Soon Camille and Jean-Baptiste must choose where they stand as Elaine must face the emotionally tumultuous task of raising the child of her daughter and former lover.

The recipient of the 1993 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Indochine is a maudlin melodrama that seems to follow the Gone with the Wind playbook –– Deneuve’s great, even if her character takes her cues from Vivien Leigh’s –– but the lush locales, stirring cinematography, and soap opera sweep, make it something of a guilty pleasure. And when it comes to grand scale doomed romance, who’d want it any other way?

9. Map of the Human Heart (1993)

“Map of the Human Heart tells a soaring story of human adventure –– adventure of the best kind, based not → continue…

From:: Taste Of Cinema