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We need a
H
is dark, brooding
figure paces
purposefully to the
door. Scarlett wants
him back. She pleads
tearfully: "Oh Rhett,
what will happen to me?"
Without turning, Rhett Butler
delivers his immortal, heart-stop-
ping line, as he strides out into the
night.
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a
damn!"
Pause for wracked sobs of longing
and messy nose-blows into damp,
mascara-stained tissues. The most
romantic scene in movie history has
just been played out to break our
hearts and haunt our dreams.
Or has it? Though Gone With The
Wind is widely credited as a classic
movie of high romance, Scarlett
O'Hara has in fact just been royally
dumped by her insanely jealous
husband, too vain and dim-witted to
recognise her love for him. She'd
have been better yelling: "Good rid-
dance! It's your loss, pal!"
And another thing... Clark Gable
had false teeth and breath so bad it
could knock back a damsel from a
full 50 paces!
But true romance pays no heed to
unseemly, harsh reality. True
romance hides flaws and faults
beneath a misty veil of sweet lies
and sugared imagination. We don't
get anything like enough of true
romance these days. It's time we
brought some back.
Life is never as it is in the movies
� not even for people in movies. But
wouldn't it be lovely if, on occasion,
it could be?
Hard boiled cynics are folks
who've had too little pure romance
in their lives... and there's a lot of us
about. At its core is passion, pack-
aged in pain, longing and dreams of
what might have been. Lovely.
That ridiculous yearning for a
little of what we fancy makes us
want to recreate great love scenes
and remember cinematic moments
of love in ascendancy � fabulously
romantic lines from favourite films.
And the best of those are timelessly
heart melting.
From Gone With The Wind again,
Gable's halitosis is set bravely aside
as he grasps Vivien Leigh in a vice-
like clinch and teases her roughly:
"No, I don't think I will kiss you,"
he tells her gruffly. "Although you
need kissing, badly. That's what's
wrong with you. You should be
kissed and often, and by someone
who knows how." Oo, er...
These days she'd call the police.
But it was 1939. There was taste for a
bit of rough in those days.
And what woman wouldn't give
up her dishwasher to hear a man tell
her: "It seems right now that all I've
ever done in my life is make my way
here to you," as did Clint Eastwood
in The Bridges of Madison County?
Who wouldn't love to have a suit-
or confess shyly: "Ah, look... this
isn't going well. I'm not great at
compliments. But what I'm trying to
say is you make me want to be a
better man," as per Jack Nicholson
in As Good As It Gets?
Romance is one of life's staples �
or should be. Anyone who tells you
they don't like it, be they male or
female, is in danger of growing a
nose like Pinocchio's.
From Pride and Prejudice, the
exceptionally fanciable Mr Darcy:
"Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in
vain and I can bear it no longer.
These past months have been a tor-
ment. I came to Rosings with the
single object of seeing you... I had to
see you. I have fought against my
better judgement, my family's
expectations, the inferiority of your
birth by rank and circumstance. All
these things I am willing to put
aside and ask you to end my
agony."
Elizabeth Bennet: "I don't under-
stand."
Mr. Darcy: "I love you."
He loved her! In spite of himself,
even though he fought his instincts,
his inability to show emotion, he
loved her � and found the strength to
declare it. Now, there was a man.
You'll not meet one like that at a
Carlisle bus stop.
"I promise I'll come back for you.
I promise I'll never leave you"�
Ralph Fiennes, in The English
Patient had the whole world in tears,
heroValentine has been cruelly hijacked by
pranksters, jokers and naughty cards.
ANNE PICKLES calls for a rightful return
of the good old fashioned, true romantic
as the love of his life slipped away,
dying with the spluttering light of
her candle, alone in a cave, unaware
of his vain fight to return to her
rescue.
"I have no armour left. You
stripped it from me. Whatever is left
of me, whatever I am, I'm yours."
A truly romantic line from James
Bond in the most unromantic film
Casino Royale. Exposure of 007's
softly vulnerable underbelly? Now
you're talking.
Jennifer Gray to Patrick Swayze
in Dirty Dancing: "I'm scared of
walking out of this room and never
feeling the rest of my whole life the
way I feel when I'm with you."
There's a girl who got loved up real
bad... and relished every minute.
"I want to tell you with my last
breath that I have always loved you"
� Chow Yun-Fat in Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon. Gulp back the
tears.
And for the anti-smoking crowd,
proof if any were necessary that a
bad habit shared is a love habit
made for bonding.
The closing scene of Now, Voyager
(1942) sees Bette Davis as a middle-
aged spinster on a balcony, gazing
lovingly into the eyes of Italian
smoothy Paul Henreid. Their love
affair is doomed � but they can still
share a ciggie.
He wants to marry her. She knows
he can't. As he lights two cigarettes
at once and hands her one, she says:
"Don't let's ask for the moon. We
have the stars."
Now, that's romance.
True romance: Elizabeth Bennet had her fair
share of passion and pain with Mr Darcy
A few good men: Above, Ralph Fiennes in The
English Patient, below, Gone with Wind, bottom
Daniel Craig reveals 007's softer side to Eva Green

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