Best Date captured on Film

When Gayla did Most romantic movie of all time, it got me to thinking about all the films that I’ve loved over the years. I’ve always been a sucker for romantic comedies and I have a growing collection of DVDs to show for it. Teeheehee.

As an idealist, I’ve always wanted to experience that perfect date. Sadly, nothing in life can ever be perfect though, it is a lot more interesting that way anyway, so I settled for the next best thing — watch a perfect date, in my opinion, on film. Hehehe.

It started with Before Sunrise that ended in Before Sunset.

Yea, I loved these movies which tells the tale of two characters, Jesse played by Ethan Hwake and Celine played by Julie Delpy, who finds each other by chance aboard a train then decides to get off in Vienna and spends hours and hours and hours getting to know each other through conversations then ultimately falling for each other. It ended with a promise of meeting each other again if they do decide to make things work between them. Of course, viewers had no idea after that if they did go through with it and we all can only assume that they would — every story should have a happy ending after all, right? However, the sequel picks up on the story 9 years later and they weren’t together and the fact that Hawke’s character is actually married. This time they met in Paris while Jesse was promoting the book he’d written about that night they spent in Vienna. And so, their conversations resume.

The New Yorker describes it as “an orgy of talk-flirtatious, soulful, boastful, self-depreciating talk, some of it borderline pretentious but all of it utterly convincing as the intelligent and foolish things said by people who connect through their tastes, ideas, and passions.”

Why do I love it? Because it’s simple. Pure conversation with a dash of tension and a handful of moments that make you think of similar experiences wherein you don’t want a good thing to end. It gives you a glimpse of what can actually happen on a date — a good date, that is. Hahaha. It had no special effects or a soundtrack that can move you. It simply didn’t romanticise that getting-to-know-you or i-like-you-do-you-like-me stage, or at least the “hollywood” type of romance in movies, that is.

I can’t think of a much better date than to be able to talk to him about anything and everything. Of course, it’s equally important that he can form an opinion about something. I love an occasional good, wholesome debate.