Back in the day, my roommates and I would sit around and watch “look” clips. These were clips from films where the characters were deeply in love but the only way you could tell was by the “looks” they gave each other.
There was no passionate kissing, just a deep and repressed Pride and Prejudice-like passion. Something about the longing, the love without resolution was so romantic and so moving.
During the viewing of these clips, we screamed a lot, held hands and many tears were shed.
Some of my favorite moments include:
Pride and Prejudice (A&E) – the look Mr. Darcy gives Miss Bennet when she goes to straighten the pages of his sister’s piano music. AAAHHHH!!! Then he goes back to the same spot in the drawing room and relives the look.
The new Pride and Prejudice – Mossy columns…proposal…in the rain…
Sound of Music – The scene where they dance out in the courtyard and her face blushes and they can’t stop staring at each other. This portion of the musical is worn out on my DVD. When she ends up back in her room with evil Baroness Shrader, time to rewind.
Jane Eyre (A&E version) – Samantha Morton who plays Jane comes to save Mr. Rochester from being burned alive in his bed. He asks her to stay a moment and hold his hand…
An Affair to Remember – See Rita Wilson’s stirring rendition of this one in Sleepless in Seattle.
Riverdance – There’s a scene where a couple sings a love song and at the end she turns away and then he grabs her by the hand and they look in each other’s eyes and my roommates LOSE THEIR MINDS. Yes, Riverdance, with the dancing. That is correct.
Remains of the Day – Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, the love, the inability to express emotion, the physical and emotional closeness that can never be.
What are your favorites? Share – for the love of the season.
I enjoy the looks too, as long as they don’t take too long…I am more of a “say it with actions” kind of girl…(blush)
Ah-ha, I came up with an example… Maybe it is because I am an almost 30 year old woman who still loves teenage flicks. But in “Never Been Kissed” When the Alias guy comes running through the baseball park at the very last second and without talking (because lets face it, often talking messes up things) he just kisses her. That is where my DVD’s wear out…
Linsey will please SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!!!!!
That clip was on our “look” real. It was the only action we included with the looks. What a great scene. Yow!
those moments in Love Actually, when Colin Firth is driving his portuguese maid home…or the whole Keira Knightly plot…
great movie.
The Notebook.
When Allie comes back to visit Noah before she gets married…..
I just want to bawl right now.
“Legends of the Fall” towards the end when Tristan comes back from being gone for like 7 years to pay a congratulatory visit to the woman he loves who just married his brother. She said she would wait for him forever. In her garden, they look deeply at each other and you can just FEEL the immense sadness as she says “Forever turned out to be too long.”
Good for a few tears in my book.
Ah, but the “Jane Eyre” with George C. Scott is incomparable… Not to be missed.
Ooooh, “The Look!” My roommates and I were also students of repressed passion. I have a couple examples:
Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant): Edward’s look after Eleanor tells him of Brandon’s offer of employment (actually the tension in that whole scene is brilliant). Also, Eleanor’s look when she realizes Edward isn’t married — not really passion exactly, but I love it nonetheless.
It’s A Wonderful Life (Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reid): Can the looks they give each other when they’re both sharing the same phone be beat?
While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman): Jack looking at Lucy as she walks down the aisle to marry his brother — so passionate, yet so guilty!
French Kiss (Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline): When Luc looks at Kate across the table at his family’s vineyard. His sister knows what’s up (and so does the audience).
What a fun V-Day topic!!
Yum, yum, yum! Colin Firth and his “look” in Pride and Prejudice (and the one that Lizzy returns!) is one I can watch over and over again!
Perfect subject for today!
Oh, and I love the one Linsey talks about, too.
Okay so my favorite romance is You’ve Got Mail. A good part is at the end when he is telling her if they had just met and didn’t have their bookstores that he would have asked her out. For as long as they both should live. And she gets all flustered and books it.
You listed just about all of my favorites, although, the recent Walk the Line about Johnny Cash was pretty good. The looks between June and Johnny were pretty classic.
Oh, or what about “Say Anything” the way he watches her at the old folks home?!
Now what about “The Scarlet Pimpernel” with Jane Seymore and Anthony Andrews. Talk about several looks in the film. When he is behind her and she is telling him about being blackmailed to save her brother. When she reaches France and is able to see him for the first time since she realized who he was, and He knew that she was innocent of the things he was told. Some really great stuff in there!
What about “The Slipper and the Rose”, when The Prince marrying another Princess turns around and there is Cinderella ready to marry him.
“Persuasion”, when he is writing his letter to Anne, and she rushes to find him, and they are finally able to share with each other the love that they have. That movie is full of looks too. Jane Austin is great with those kinds of scenes. As my husband says her stories are torture. Yes he watches them with me!
A Life Less Ordinary, after Ewan McGregor gets shot and they fight, when Cameron Diaz comes to the restaurant wanting to believe that he wrote the letter, but he tells her he didn’t…OH MAN, the sorrow, the passion! What a look!
Also, High Fidelity, when she comes to get her stuff and Jon Cusack watches her with puppy dog eyes. Jon Cusack is one of the best lookers on the screen.
Bear with me here… there is a Jerry Lewis movie called “Cindefella’ (yes, I said Jerry Lewis- don’t laugh- I mean, do laugh, it’s Jerry!)) and there is one moment in the film where Fella (JL) comes waltzing down the steps during the ball and dances right up to the Princess, kisses her hand, and gives her this almost pleading look, like “please like me!- and she looks at him like her Prince has just arrived- classic! Then they dance together and it’s more looks… I have re-played that a zillion times. I always dreamed about someone dancing up to me like that…
Oh yeah, I have to add Somewhere in Time with Christopoher Reeve and Jane Seymour “Beyond fantasy. Beyond obsession. Beyond time itself… he will find her.”
When Richard sees her after searching through the grounds and she is standing under the willow tree…Holy Crap. I balled.
I hate to be a copy cat, but Kathryn nailed it–the best “look” scene is that Sound of Music dance scene. My heart actually POUNDS when I watch that scene, and I’ve seen it 400 times.
Please PLEASE tell me you have read the novel The Remains of the Day. If not, go! NOW! Read!
My favorite movie moment is in The English Patient, when Almasy and Katherine are trapped in the truck in the sandstorm. Sigh.
And don’t even get me started on Colin Firth . . .
First of all: Colin Firth. Yes. Yum. Always.
And also….and I know how this sounds….
First Daughter, starring Katie Holmes and Marc Blucas (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer….semifame?). The last scene, they do this astounding ballroom dance (complete with SLOW MOTION, PEOPLE) and then say their “because we have to” goodbyes and then start running back to each other….and when they reach each other, she says, breathlessly “Did you forget something?” “Yeah,” he says, almost roughly….and then kisses her….oh, he kisses like he means it, with the hand cupped over her chin…
Rent it. Now. I did with one of my roommates. Who had a broken foot. And couldn’t run away. We watched the aforementioned scene a bajillion times.
An Affair To Remember…when Cary Grant realizes Debra Kerr was the lady in the wheel chair who bought his painting.
You’ve Got Mail…when Tom Hanks asks Meg Ryan to forgive him for the “one little thing” of closing her store.
While You Were Sleeping…when Sandra Bullock asks Bill Pullman if he can give her one reason not to marry his brother.
Happy Valentine’s day!
How about the look Travis gave Moana on The Bachelor last night when she started spouting off Italian? Lol…
Oh what a beautiful post. I love the repressed passion!
How about Anne and Gilbert at his bedside when she thinks he is going to die? Or when they catch each other’s eyes across the field at college? ~from “Anne of Green Gables” of course. Loved that scene in the movie, “The Notebook” too, heth. And Maria with the Capt. in “Sound of Music”, simply an “AWWWW. . . moment.” I LOVED IT!
A Room with a View. All the passion. All the tension. All the beautiful, joyful male nudity. It rocks!
I knew I’d see Remains of the Day on your list! As for Colin Firth as the amazing Mr. Darcy, I don’t remember anything repressed about ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’… 🙂 But you forgot one that has some smouldering repression (but also lots of unrepressed passion), ‘The English Patient’. I’ve watched it so many times that I start crying at the beginning of the movie now, in anticipation…
Oh I love the Sound of Music. That scene was good but I prefer two others.
My favorite scene is when Christopher Plummer is singing Edelweiss. They make him all fuzzy romantic looking. I totally fell in love with him 🙂
And when Rolf and Liesl are in the gazebo dancing around to “I am 16, going on 17…”. Oh that one rocks too.
Gone With the Wind: I love the look on Rhett Butler’s face when he sees Scarlett for the first time as she is coming down the staircase at Twelve Oaks. And then again when he’s won the bid for her dance at the benefit auction. Their expressions and flirty banter while they dance. The scandal of a widow dancing. I just love it all.
Must chime in… but a lot of the moments that melt my insides are from foreign films… sorry to those who don’t watch those.
Il Postino – Every scene in the first 1/2 of the movie with Mario and Beatrice… I can hardly stand it.
Amelie – When Amelie chickens out of talking to Nino and he finally leaves the cafe, and she melts… literally melts… so sad, but who hasn’t felt that way?
Breathless (1960) – When Patrice realizes what she’s done to Michel…. cry cry cry
Jules and Jim – Full of such moments, but Catherine’s last goodbye before she drives off the bridge is almost eerily extreme in its passion. (spoiler, sorry)
Behind the Sun – Oodles of sizzling in looks, aided by some impressive editing and very attractive young actors.
The Apartment – When C.C. quits his job and goes home and finds Fran there and is absolutely stunned.
The end of Roman Holiday – in the press conference.
Mr. Deeds goes to Town (1936) -Louise watching Longfellow in the courtroom – knowing she broke his heart and realizing she is in love with him.
The Road Home – every time Zhao sees Luo its like she’s on fire.
Romeo + Juliet – The whole seeing each other through the aquarium scene, complete with incredibly sexy song going on… wow.
Two for the Road – When Joanna tells Mark she’s decided to come back, isn’t sure whether he’ll still have her, then he says “Thank God” and everybody within a 2 block radius of you starts to cry.
Bread and Tulips – Fernando says to Rosalba’s son (in front of Rosalba), “Do you know that I love your mother?”
Girl with a Pearl Earring consists of nothing but angst and searing glances….
Iris – The young John looking at Iris and just being content (& in awe)to be in the same room as her.
Unstrung Heroes – The kiss Selma gives Sid right before she dies. (oops, spoiler)
War and Peace – Just about every ballroom scene, looks that melt you are bouncing off the walls.
Sorry – I guess I overdid it… I just got so excited!
But, what about “LadyHawk” when they look at each other for the 1st time both in their human form.
Or “Return to Me” “You came all the way to Italy?” “Yeah, I came all the way to Italy.” (Hey, you can beat dialogue like that with a stick all you want, but the look was still good.)
And that new Reese Witherspoon movie. Is it “Nearly Heaven”? Where they look into each others’ eyes as they try to touch, but of course they can’t (since she’s not tangible) but shoot— it was worth a try.
if we’re going foreign, I have to add Cinema Paradiso. I could watch that movie a million times and never get enough.
This post is a keeper just for all the movie ideas. There are so many here I have never seen, incredible. I thank you all, my husband, well, not so much.
In While You Were Sleeping, when Jack shows Lucy “the Lean.” It’s a great look moment.
And in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants…when Kostos sees Lena swimming and he just gives her this look and dives in. They don’t kiss for like another twenty minutes at least, but he wants to kiss her. He wants to love her, but she’s scared of love.
well… I can’t share cuz you took all my favorites.
either we both have really good taste or we are both very mainstream.
take your pick, miss nominated about fifty thousand times at One Woman’s blog awards!!!!
congrats, btw!
My personal favorite is at the end of The Dirty Dozen, when Jim Brown is throwing grenades down the air shafts to kill the Nazis, and Lee Marvin is back on the the armored personnel carrier under heavy fire, and they look at each other, and….. I can’t go on…… snrrrrrrk!!!
Okay. This list is getting too good. My husband is going to be exploded upon with the passion when he gets home tonight.
John Cusak indeed has the “look” going on very nicely.
Susan – yes on the novel of Remains of the Day. I read it before I watched the movie and it added so much richness. The book is WONDERFUL!
Anne at Gilbert’s BEDSIDE!!!!
The unbuttoning of the glove in Age of Innocence.
The Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps scene from Strictly Ballroom where they’re dancing agains the red curtain back stage.
Em – Great choices! I think we would greatly enjoy watching films together. I didn’t even think of Mr Deeds.
There are too many to mention here.
I will add, that there are some very romantic sequences in “March of the Penguins.” No, I’m not kidding.
I forgot about all those great films! Oh my, I haven’t seen Il Postino and Cinema Paradiso in YEARS!!! I know what I’m getting the next time I head to blockbuster!!
What about the looks between polly Harrington and the Dr. in Pollyanna?
Persuasion, another Jane Austin, is one of my ultimate favorite love movies. The looks, the casual hand holding, more looks, it is all to much for me to bear. Good topic. Happy Valentines Day!
OK, another guy entry (but not as bad as papa’s)–the looks between Jim and engaged-to-somebody-else Pam on The Office, Thursday evenings on NBC…
Ooooooh! But. What about “Age Of Innocence”? In the carriage when Daniel Day Lewis just unbuttons Michelle Pfeiffer’s glove and kisses her wrist while staring at her – wordlessly. Then rebuttons it.
That was better than any full blown sex scene ever.
~sigh~
Okay, a lot of my favorites (Pride and Prejudice, An Affair to Remember, Sound of Music, While You Were Sleeping, etc) have already been mentioned, but here are some other ones that I really like. So, in no particular order:
“Emma” with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam has some great looks going on, ranging from repressed passion to annoyance to barely suppressed fury. Good times.
“Sleepless in Seattle” when Sam sees Annie at the airport and later when she’s watching him play with his son, and then of course when they see each other at the end. 🙂
“Sabrina” with Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford, the scenes in the solarium and in his office when she asks who cuts his hair. *melt*
“IQ” when he sees Katherine for the first time, and on the sailboat and in Stargazer’s field.
“Big Fish” where time stops. And, this is not so much of a “look” moment, but I think it is so wonderfully sweet when he’s in the bathtub (fully clothed!) and she climbs in with him (also fully clothed!) and just snuggles.
“Life Is Beautiful” during the dinner scene when he finds out she’s engaged and then when she crawls under the table and the scene in the opera and… Just lots of great moments all around in that movie.
Pretty much any given moment in “Casablanca,” but mostly the one Ilsa gives Rick after he tells Lazlo what happened the night before.
“Sweet Home Alabama” when Jake is up on the water tower with the other guys and he just watches Melanie walking down the street below. So cute!
“North by Northwest” when Eve and Roger are standing in the forest after the incident in the visitor’s center.
“Runaway Bride” when she’s walking up the aisle for practice.
Silly movie, but I love the way Topher Grace looks at Kate Bosworth in “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.” Actually, I just like the way Topher Grace looks…
The way Bing Crosby watches his respective girls in both “White Christmas” and “Holiday Inn.”
And there are so many more! I’m loving this list but it makes me want to watch too many movies…
I like John Cusack too! Just saw a preview about “High Fidelity” last night — got check that one out!
But I also like Dennis Quaid.
The look in Persuasion that is so great is when Frederick helps Anne into his sister’s carriage after their long walk. They don’t look at each other, but the looks on their faces say it all. Beautiful.
Jessica,
That is my very favorite part in Persuasion. I am the anonymous one. I did that on accident. I love Persuasion. It got me started on all the others like Emma, Pride and Prejudice, etc. The look is fantastic. I love it when he takes her hand. I get all twitterpated.
Haha! I’ve never met anyone else besides me and my goofy sisters who cry every time in that Riverdance look. That guy’s smile is so freakin adorable I want to marry him….haha.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this one, and I’m too pressed for time to read through all the comments, BUT I always thought the sexual tension in The Piano between the tattooed Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunt was…well, very tense indeed. At least until they actually do something, of course.
I’m with DYM’s mom, the Ladyhawke scene is awesome. Must go watch it again, it’s been awhile.
What about the scene in Sommersby, at the end, when Richard Gere is searching the crowd frantically for a glimpse of Jodi and then their eyes meet. I sob and sob and sob and sob. And then I don’t want anyone to talk to me for twenty minutes while I wallow in my tears.
Scenes like that are priceless.
Y’all have got most of ’em… except for in “Bend It Like Beckham” the look that Joe gives to Jessminder when she walks out of the hotel dressed to go out clubbing in Germany. WoooooOO!
Hey, here’s one that hasn’t been mentioned…the scene in Star Wars when he leans in and tells Lea she likes a Scoundrel–or something, guess I haven’t seen it in a while–need some movieage. :)Oh, and I guess there is a kiss involved, but the look is still a good one. How fun to read all your ideas!
Okay, Kathryn, I came over here fully intending to hack in and ruin your blog so I could smoke you out of the competition and dominate as the funniest blog EVER! (maniacal laugh) How I intended to do that when I can’t even get into my own bank account I don’t know–don’t bore me with details. But now that I’m here I’m having too much fun to think about causing trouble. Curse you, Daring Yound Mom! You foiled my evil schemes! You made me smile! You…you…
Okay, enough already. Nobody’s yet mentioned The Princess Bride, the way Wesley looks at Buttercup before she realizes that “as you wish” means “I love you.” Sigh. See, I really am a softy.
Hope you stop by my place sometime…
AAAhh “the look” from Riverdance. I have no idea how many times I have seen it, but forever a roommate memory and a secret desire that someone will look that way at me(preferably many more times than once).
Okay, I realize I’m coming late to this game, but only because the first time I read this Tip (and then forgot about it), I was supposed to be watching DYM’s children while she was at the Space Needle with DYD. I really WAS watching her children, but one of my children wanted to see something on Kathryn’s blog…and then I started clicking…and read the comments…and wanted to post my own…and realized DYM would read the time of the post and realize I was NOT watching her children. Which of course led to the “Spiderman Underwear Incident” of not so long ago…and now it occurs to me that everytime I post here it’s because I really am a slacker mom.
Anyway, you all took most of the good ones — Colin Firth, While you were Sleeping (my law firm represented the movie studio in a lawsuit about that movie BTW, so everyone had posters of the movie up on the walls of their offices), Cinema Paradiso, Sommersby…
I have only one left — I know this will date me, but in “Heaven Can Wait” when Julie Christie says to Warren Beatty (after a long pause with lots of looking searchingly into his eyes) “You’re the quarterback. Yes, I’d love to have a cup of coffee with you.” That’s it — that’s the best movie line ever in the history of the world!
Oh, I’m so bugged that I just found this post! I wanted to add mine:
“That day she was amazed to discover that when he said ‘As you wish,’ he was really saying ‘I love you.’ And even more amazing was the day when she discovered she truly loved him back.”
“Farm boy! …Fetch me that pitcher?”
:: reaches up and grabs it, hands it to her ::
Whisper: “As you wish….”
:: wiping drool with sleeve ::
UGh. These are TORTURE for me. I have been in that position before and don’t care to remember how torturous it has been to want someone I couldn’t have. First, it was my now husband. Then, a guy who had a fling with me while still with his girlfriend, when he told me that he was leaving her (and I thought that meant like, “tomorrow” when really it meant “I’m saying this now so you won’t feel guilty fooling around with me, even though I’m totally not going to leave her and will stay with her for a few years more!”) and then appeared in a musical with him where we never spoke and tried to completely ignore each other and the story gets even more torturous.
Hardly anything compares to this pain, it’s a unique kind, and Kate Winslet does a good job of explaining in the beginning of The Holiday.
ALTHOUGH…. the tension between Sydney and Vaughn in Alias was some of the best television ever and the best part was when the tension WAS diffused by that famous kiss!! It was THE BEST!
of course, classic cry-your-heart-out, “A Walk To Remember”. of course there are countless amazing memorable moments in that movie, but i must say that my absolute favorites were when Landon proposes to her. i mean come on!!! ITS SO FREAKIN CUTE!!! hes just like…can i ask you something? anything. will you,,please marry me?? OMGGG!!!! and of course, at this points i could NOT control sobbing my eyes out, when she is walking down the aisle at her wedding!!!! oh my gosh….i honestly couldnt control my tear flow at that.
With all due respect to people who love repressed passion movies, full of meaningful looks, I’d have to say I”m not a fan. Personally, I find repressed passion really quite boring and dull. The only movie in which I thought repressed passion / love was done really well was “Remains of the Day”, featuring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. That was convincing – Emma is a fantastic actress. She made it real.