Swap your box sets for the sort of film you might have rented from the video shop on a Friday night. Starting with the brilliant Licorice Pizza, these are the romcom’s we’ve been enjoying this month.
Licorice Pizza
Why is it called Licorice Pizza? You might well ask, but if you start asking why then you’re slightly going to miss the point of this wonderfully random film set in 1970’s LA. Just go with it and you’ll be charmed from the opening scene where we meet a young couple at high school; he with the brilliant name, Gary Valentine, and she with the brilliant face, expressive and true. Valentine is played by Cooper Hoffman, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son whilst she, Alana Kane is played by Alana Haim, of Haim the band, whose real family star as her on-screen family too. The film follows their love story – the path of which, of course, does not run smooth – with waterbeds, pinball machines, police cars, tiny miniskirts, great music, a lot of running about and plenty of making one another jealous in between. ‘Do you think it’s weird I spend all my time hanging out with Gary and his friends?’ Alana asks her sister towards the end of the film. ‘It is what you think it is,’ the sister replies. And that’s maybe the underlying message of the film in that sentence, it is what you think it is. We thought it was the most brilliant romcom we’ve seen in ages.
Empire Records
A box office flop that has gone on to have a cult following, this is a classic 90’s romcom starring a baby Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger. The plot vaguely revolves around local record shop, Empire Records that’s being threatened with being overtaken by a big chain. Really, it’s about the gang of teenagers who work there whose actions are a vehicle for the excellent soundtrack. Very easy watching that makes you nostalgic for pre-Spotify days.
Far from the Madding Crowd
With Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, this 1960’s classic might not be a ‘com’ but it’s definitely a ‘rom’. We revisited it recently and loved it – horses galloping up hillsides, bleating lambs and beautiful Julie Christie in ribboned bonnets. Stamp plays a very handsome Sergeant Troy but he’s such an odious rogue that we preferred Gabriel Oak – played by Alan Bates – all along. The new version, with Matthias Schoenaerts also sways you in this direction. Most of all it is such a good story that stands the test of time.
Some Like It Hot
We could watch this film forever and ever. Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon star as Sugar, Joe and Jerry.
Marie Antoinette
Reading this Vogue article prompted us to re-watch Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, released in 2006. There is so much to enjoy including the beautiful sets; we had to pause just to look closely at the royal bed – and there’s something very DÔEN about Kirsten Dunst playing with baby Marie Thérèse at le Petit Trianon, picking flowers and looking at the bumblebees. The French queen famously never wore the same oufit twice, and the same is true in the film. The costumes are both exquisite and cool, with playful touches like a pair of lilac high-top Converse seen alongside Manolo Blahnik’s silken creations. The film stars an amazing cast; Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI, Marianne Faithfull as Marie Antoinette’s mother and Jamie Dornan’s first screen appearance as the impossibly handsome, Count Axel von Fersen. The soundtrack is also brilliant.
A Little Bird Loves
