Comingsoon.net is thinking back on our biggest heartbreaks to choose the absolute best movies about lost loves. Check out our selections in the gallery below!
Watching a movie span countless years is a feeling that never gets old. Watching the lives of the characters move in fast-forward is something the audience will never get to experience themselves, so learning the fates and the futures of the characters they’re invested in is almost like the second best thing to actually seeing their own futures. This plot device can be utilized in any genre, but we see it quite frequently in dramas and romances.
More specifically, many filmmakers use time jumps in stories about lost loves. Whether the film follows two childhood friends who reunite decades later or two former lovers who run into each other by coincidence (or by fate), these flash-forwards are the easiest way to showcase the entire history of a relationship. They aren’t the only way to do things, though—some movies pick up at the “years later” part and rely on the dialogue between characters to establish their pasts, while others focus on the meet cute and then split the couple at the end, leaving things ambiguous. Either way, we’ll never get tired to these movies about long-lost loves.
lost love movies
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Atonement (2007)
Kiera Knightley and James McAvoy star in Joe Wright’s Atonement, a movie that follows a couple who must deal with the consequences when Knightley’s character’s younger sister accuses McAvoy of a crime he didn’t commit. Atonement is a total emotional knockout.
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Before Sunrise (1995)
Richard Linklater is one of the greatest living American filmmakers in the game right now, so it’s surprising that his European-set romance Before Sunrise packs such a heavy punch. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy simply can’t be beat in this lost-love narrative.
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Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)
One of the more recent entries here, Blue Is the Warmest Color is a three-hour romantic epic compiled from hundreds of hours of footage. The end result is something achingly beautiful and tremendously real, which is no surprise considering just how much time the lead actresses must have spent in each other’s presence.
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Brief Encounter (1945)
Second only to Casablanca, David Lean’s Brief Encounter is an absolute all-timer. Not only is it one of the loveliest and most romantic movies ever made, it’s also one of the most heartbreaking. This is the movie people are talking about when they say they don’t make them like they used to.
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Casablanca (1942)
Probably the most classic example of a movie about lost love, Casablanca just never gets old. Released in the midst of World War II (and heavily relying on that setting, as well), the film sees two old lovers reuniting at the man’s club in Morocco. It’s politically-tinged and as romantic as any other entry in this slideshow, but there’s just something about the chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman that elevates this film above the rest.
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Chungking Express (1994)
The first of two Wong Kar-wai movies featured here, Chungking Express tells the story of a man and a woman’s playful romance. Kar-wai is an icon of the Korean New Wave, and deservedly so—Chungking Express is a modern classic.
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
An essential piece of Charlie Kaufman’s filmography, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores an idea that many of the most tumultuous couples have likely fantasized about: What if you could erase the memory of another person from your mind? The lead couple, played perfectly by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, will surely have you thinking about all of your lost loves by the time the credits roll.
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In the Mood for Love (2000)
The second Wong Kar-wai film in this slideshow, In the Mood for Love builds on Chungking Express’s “right place, wrong time” theme by following a man and a woman who can never seem to make things work. It’s just as beautiful as Chungking Express, too, if not more so.
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is unlike any other romance ever committed to film—not only does he film the entire thing like an opera, with every line sung or spoken lyrically, but the film’s esthetic is also something to behold. Despite being another romance that relies heavily on the prospect of war interrupting a relationship, Demy’s film is truly one-of-a-kind.
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Vertigo (1960)
Not only is Vertigo Hitchcock’s best, but it’s the movie that easily ranks among the greatest ever made. There’s nothing that can be said about Vertigo that hasn’t already been said, but the film’s romance is more than deserving of a spot here.
