Romantic Comedies
We’ve always got time for a romcom escape on OVID — so long as they’re not too dumbed down for our sharp intellect. From Monia Chokri’s NATURE OF LOVE, about a philosophy professor engaged in a love affair; to PARTING GLANCES, a pioneering film of gay cinema co-starring Steve Buscemi; to the Dominican comedy A FILM ABOUT COUPLES by Oriol Estrada, Natalia Cabral about making a documentary on coupledom; to Romanian filmmaker Paul Negoescu’s charmingly funny exploration of middle-aged male arrested development in THE STORY OF A SUMMER LOVER, there’s something for every kind of love relationship in here.
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Le Week-End
Directed by Roger Michell • Drama • With Jim Broadbent, Lindsey Duncan, Jeff Goldblum • 2013 • 93 minutes
Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (IRIS, TOPSY-TURVY, ANOTHER YEAR) and Lindsay Duncan (ABOUT TIME, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, MANSFIELD PARK) give exquisite performances as Nick and Meg, a long-...
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Beauty in Trouble
Directed by Jan Hrebejk • Drama • With Anna Geislerová, Josef Abrhám, Jana Brejchová • 2006 • 110 minutes
Beauty in Trouble explores a young woman’s romantic dilemma: torn between a primal connection and the need to provide for her children, she loves two men. Set against the back drop of the ...
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The Great Pretender
Directed by Nathan Silver • Drama • With Maëlle Poésy, Keith Poulson, Esther Garrel • 2018 • 72 minutes
THE GREAT PRETENDER is a roundelay set in the off-off-Broadway world of New York theatre. Trying to exorcise her past, lovesick French director Mona comes to America to mount a play based on h...
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August at Akiko's
Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi • Drama • With Alex Zhang Hungtai, Akiko Masuda • 2019 • 75 minutes
Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (from the band Dirty Beaches) returns home to the Big Island of Hawaii having been away for nearly a decade. Hu...
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Funny Ha Ha
Directed by Andrew Buljalski • Drama • With Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder, Mark Herlehy • 2002 • 83 minutes
Marnie is 23, and drifts through "Funny Ha Ha," Andrew Bujalski's critically acclaimed debut feature, in search of romance and employment. The film's conversations sound improvised an...
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Whatever Lola Wants
Directed by Nabil Ayouch • Drama • With Laura Ramsey, Assaad Bouab • 2007 • 115 minutes
Lola (Laura Ramsey) is struggling to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer in New York, but the rejections are piling up. On top of it all, her day job as a mail carrier is beginning to look more and more lik...
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Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
Directed by Lili Horvát • Drama • With Natasa Stork, Viktor Bodó • 2021 • 94 minutes
After 20 years in the United States, a Hungarian neurosurgeon returns to Budapest for a romantic rendezvous with a fellow doctor she met at a conference. When the love of her life is nowhere to be seen, she trac...
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Carmo Hit the Road
Directed by Murilo Pasta • Drama • With Seu Jorge • 2010 • 100 minutes
Carmo would do anything to escape the hellhole of a Brazilian border town where she lives. So when a lonesome, wheelchair-bound low-life named Marco arrives on the scene, she jumps at the chance to help him transport a shipme...
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The Off Hours
Directed by Megan Griffiths • Drama • With Amy Seimetz • 2011 • 93 minutes
In THE OFF HOURS, Amy Seimetz alluringly commands the screen as Francine, a waitress whose liberation from her mundane existence is long overdue. In the restless world of the night shift at a highway diner, Francine's lif...
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The Nature of Love
Directed by Monia Chokri • Drama • With Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Monia Chokri, Francis-William Rhéaume • 2024 • 111 minutes
Sophia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor, has been in a stable and conventional marriage to Xavier for a decade. From gallery openings to endless di...
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Odette Toulemonde
Directed by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt • Drama • With Catherine Frot, Albert Dupontel, Jacques Weber • 2006 • 100 minutes
Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isn't. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hair...
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As Good As You
Directed by Heather de Michele • Drama • With Laura Heisler, Anna Fitzwater, Raoul Bhaneja, Bryan Dechart, Annie Potts • 2017 • 85 minutes
Jo (Laura Heisler) is having a bad year. She has major writer's block, a rather dire caffeine addiction and is deeply mourning the untimely death of her bea...
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LOL (Laughing Out Loud)
Directed by Lisa Azuelos • Drama • With Sophie Marceau, Christa Théret, Jérémy Kapone • 2008 • 103 minutes
When Lola's boyfriend is unfaithful to her on his summer holiday, she dumps him and flirts with his best friend as punishment. But as their class prepares to leave on an excursion to London...
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Parting Glances
Directed by Bill Sherwood • Drama • With Richard Ganoung, John Bolger, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, Kathy Kinney • 1986 • 90 minutes
Heroic, funny and romantic, Parting Glances is a triumph for everyone who has ever been in love-straight or gay. The story revolves around two men, Michael and Robe...
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The Country Doctor
Directed by Thomas Lilti • Drama • With François Cluzet, Marianne Denicourt • 2017 • 102 minutes
Rolling off Hippocrates, which world premiered at the Cannes' Critics' Week to warm reviews, doctor-turned-filmmaker Thomas Lilti delves once again into the medical world with THE COUNTRY DOCTOR (int...
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Never Too Late for Love
Directed by Gianni di Gregorio • Drama • With Gianni di Gregorio, Stefania Sandrelli • 2023 • 91 minutes
Italian actor-director Gianni Di Gregorio (CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, THE SALT OF LIFE) returns to filmmaking with NEVER TOO LATE FOR LOVE, a tender and lighthearted romantic comedy set against t...
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The Story of a Summer Lover
Movie
A coming-of-middle age romantic comedy. Carefree college professor Petru (Alexandru Papadopol) is a 42-year-old man-child, in an open relationship with Irina (Nicoleta Lefter)....until she gets pregnant. Petru must now change his ways and grow up. A charmingly funny exploration of middle-aged mal...
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School for Love (w/ Brigitte Bardot)
Directed by Marc Allégret • Drama • With Jean Marais, Brigitte Bardot, Isabelle Pia, Yves Robert • 1955 • 96 minutes
Brigitte Bardot was only 20 when she starred in this adaptation of a 1920 Vicki Baum novel. She’s Sophie, one of a platoon of young music conservatory students in postwar Vienna, ...
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The Dish & the Spoon (Allison Bagnall, w/ Greta Gerwig)
Directed by Alison Bagnall • Drama • With Greta Gerwig, Olly Alexander • 2011 • 92 minutes
This quirky romantic comedy follows Rose (Greta Gerwig), whose life changes after discovering her husband’s affair. Devastated and reeling, she soon crosses paths with a marooned British teenager (Olly Ale...
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DannyBoy
Directed by Ferdia MacAnna • Drama • With Darragh Byrne, Clelia Murphy • 2021 • 97 minutes
Set in small town Ireland in 1981, 'Dannyboy' tells the story of a young man trying to find love among New Romantics, Post Punks, Goths and others tribes. The film centres around Daniel, an anxious, stutte...
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Quantum Love
Directed by Lisa Azuelos • Drama • With Sophie Marceau, François Cluzet • 2014 • 81 minutes
A family man's encounter with a beautiful woman develops into a mutual fascination.
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Julietta
Directed by Marc Allégret • Drama • With Jean Marais, Dany Robin, Jeanne Moreau • 1953 • 97 minutes
JULIETTA is a romantic comedy with the whimsical energy of a hummingbird. Dany Robin stars as the eponymous demoiselle, a flighty, impulsive pixie in white gloves who is engaged to an older prince...
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Two Lottery Tickets
Directed by Paul Negoescu • Drama • With Dorian Boguta, Dragos Bucur, Alexandru Papadopol • 2016 • 86 minutes
Sile, an underemployed carpenter who spends most afternoons at the pub, convinces his buddy Dinel to play the lottery one hot afternoon. After borrowing a few Euro from Pompiliu, the loc...
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The Chef's Wife
Directed by Anne Le Ny • Drama • With Emmanuelle Devos, Karine Viard, Roschdy Zem • 2014 • 91 minutes
Two of the most critically acclaimed actors in modern French cinema, Karin Viard and Emmanuelle Devos, star together for the first time as two women who want more out of life-at work and at home...