By John C.

It’s Valentine’s Day, so it seems like the perfect time to celebrate love on the big screen.  There are many great dramas that I could be profiling, but due to the fact that a lot of romantic comedies have fallen flat in recent years, it seems like the perfect time to pause and remember why we fell in love with the sub-genre in the first place.

Whether you are in love, out of love or new to the whole experience, here are my picks for a diverse selection of some of the very best comedic romances that we have fallen in love with over the years.

One of the first romantic comedies to ever hit the screen, in 1934 we got It Happened One Night.  With dialogue and humour that is just as fresh today, Frank Capra’s Oscar-winning romance stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert as the perfect anti-couple, if you will.  She’s a spoiled heiress, and he’s a reporter looking for a story.  But what they ultimately realize is that they’re actually in love.

Believed by many to be Woody Allen’s greatest achievement, 1977’s Oscar-winning Annie Hall is arguably one of the most quotable movies on this list.  Although this certainly isn’t a feel-good Hollywood romance, Allen’s unique brand of cynicism and somewhat unconventional approach to story works here with a surprising amount of depth and insight.  One of the few comedies to win Best Picture, this is a great movie.

The 1980’s were a good decade for heartfelt comedies in general, and in 1984, John Hughes made his directorial debut with the teen love story Sixteen Candles.  But Hughes wasn’t the only one making defining movies in that decade.  In 1989, (7 years before Jerry Maguire), screenwriter Cameron Crowe made his directorial debut with Say Anything.  Sweet, romantic and often very funny, this John Cusack classic remains a prime example of Crowe’s true gift at writing believable characters and dialogue.

Also released in 1989, When Harry Met Sally may always be remembered for Meg Ryan’s scene in the diner, but the real star of the movie is Nora Ephron’s brilliant screenplay.  Offering a surprising amount of insight into the ways that both men and women view relationships, this is a movie that still remains as fresh and original as it ever was, even as it reaches it’s inevitable conclusion.  When it comes down to friendship and relationships, the movie has ideas and theories to spare.

I know this is technically a Christmas movie, but I consider Love Actually to be a great romantic comedy for its all-star cast and the way that it expertly ties together numerous characters and storylines.  Director Richard Curtis also had a hand in classics like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary, but in many ways Love Actually remains my choice for his greatest achievement.

What is brilliant about (500) Days of Summer, (the most recent film on this list), is that we are told right from the opening scene that “this is not a love story.”  Like Annie Hall, the film gives great insight into relationships by showing us one that we know isn’t going to work out.  Brilliantly using a fractured narrative, we are believably taken on a journey of both the ups and downs of young love.

There have certainly been other good romantic comedies over the years, but these are ones that have stood the test of time, and offer both entertainment and insight as they do their best to understand the feelings of being in love.  And that’s why we fell in love with them in the first place.