There likely isn't anything more soul-satisfying in all of film than a great love story. Cinema at its purest and most effective reveals something about the human condition through craftsmanship and artistry. So it would make sense that many of the greatest and most popular films explore connection, and what happens when two humans react to meeting each other.

These are the movies that tell a love story with the steadiest hand and the finest skill. From silent comedy to timeless Hollywood musical to piercing modern drama, these are all among the best romance films that are genuinely flawless from beginning to end. These are the movies that will, truly, make you believe in love.

10 'Say Anything...' (1989)

Directed by Cameron Crowe

Somehow it's even more special and impactful when a great romance is also a great coming-of-age story. So many, too many teen films treat young people like they're about half as intelligent and empathic as they really are. A film as smart and sweet as Say Anything is miraculous. Critic Gene Siskel famously said the joy he felt watching Say Anything... convinced him to stay on the job after watching the crummy, spiritually disgusting Tony Danza comedy She's Out of Control on the same day nearly made him quit.

John Cusack and Ione Skye are resplendent in a witty, believable story about a high-school schmoe who falls for the luminous valedictorian. Cameron has made some serious career fumbles (remember Aloha?), but his best movies—like Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous, are about as fine as American filmmaking gets. His legacy is permanent.

Buy on Amazon

9 'All of Us Strangers' (2023)

Directed by Andrew Haigh

Andrew Haigh makes the deliberately paced, impeccably crafted films (and television, in the wildly underrated Looking) that slowly build to something extraordinary. He's made perfect movies before (really), but All of Us Strangers is something entirely transcendent. In the critically adored low fantasy, Andrew Scott gives the performance of his career as Adam, a lonely and isolated soul who falls in love with Harry (Paul Mescal) as he attempts to make peace with the ghosts of his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell).

Haigh approaches a scene of two people meeting for the first time with the kind of care and precision that went into the finale of Avengers: Endgame. Impeccably insightful writing combines with music, lighting, editing and performances to make the kind of rare film that makes even more sense emotionally than it does logistically. Saying All of Us Strangers is emotionally shattering—gutting, even—is a little like saying Sea World is wet. You'll never see a sadder movie; it leaves a kind of feeling and imprint that may never leave. But when art is this incisive, this good—as rare as that is—it has a way of healing just by simply being.

8 'Trouble in Paradise' (1932)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

One of the best and funniest romantic movies ever made was nearly lost to the archaic Hays Code of censorship, mostly for the simple reason that it's about lovable criminals, who never face any kind of legal consequences for their actions. Set in and very much about the Great Depression, the greatest rom-com of Ernst Lubitsch (of the silken "Lubitsch touch") is about two sexy, hilarious pickpockets (Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins) who fall madly in love in Venice before setting their target on glamorous Parisian perfume tycoon Madam Colet (Kay Francis). A love triangle and all kinds of chaotic feelings follow.

Trouble in Paradise glides so meticulously yet so breezily, so confidently in its tender dissection of foibles; it's hard to believe motion pictures were ever this sophisticated. Marshall, Hopkins, and Francis aren't remembered as enormous stars, but their performances here must be preserved forever. Trouble in Paradise is an intoxicating movie about unapologetic, endlessly suave socialites and what happens when they open themselves up to feelings and even hurt. That part is surprisingly relatable.

Buy on Amazon

7 'The Sound of Music' (1965)

Directed by Robert Wise

At one time the top-grossing movie ever made (overtaken by the decidedly less romantic The Godfather, Robert Wise's widescreen musical epic is such an enduring, oft-cited phenomenon that it may be easy to forget what a potent and affecting love story transpires in the center. An Oscar-nominated Julie Andrews (she won the previous year for Mary Poppins) stars along Christopher Plummer in a classic movie that betters the successful Rodgers and Hammerstein stage show about the real-life family Von Trapp.

The romance of The Sound of Music peaks, beautifully, around the two-hour mark, when a reunited Maria and Georg sing the haunting "Something Good" in the gazebo. The scene ends as they agree they must ask if the children approve of them marrying. Hard cut to Maria in her wedding dress as a church organ thunders. It's practically a comedy cut. It's sweet, it's funny, it's touching. The big-budgeted and altogether magnificent The Sound of Music is a family film that will never age a minute.

6 'Notorious' (1946)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Though Alfred Hitchcock's greatest love story is best known for the sparkling, emotionally complex chemistry between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, it's important to remember Notorious is, in fact, about a love triangle. Bergman gives perhaps the best performance of her storied career as Alicia Huberman, daughter of a war criminal who's recruited by a dashing government agent to prove her patriotism via spying on an adversary (Claude Rains) who's always been in love with her. Both men are wild about Alicia: Grant's Devlin is terrible at expressing his feelings, at least at first, and Rains' Alexander couldn't be more upfront about his affections. Unfortunately, he's pretty evil aside from his authentic feelings for her.

These are three masterclass performances that shan't age, and Notorious is one of the sexiest movies ever made, most notably for an early scene where Hitchcock had a field day with the censors' bureaucratic rules about on-screen kisses. The final minutes of Notorious are heart-pounding, and profoundly romantic. Both men are humbled and taken aback by Alicia's commitment and heroism, and in their own way, both men commit daring acts of love.

Buy on Amazon

5 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989)

Directed by Rob Reiner

Hilarious and superbly performed, the most widely loved romantic comedy in all of history stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as frenemies who love to hate each other, at first at least. Can men and women really be friends? That's the central question posed early on in the Nora Ephron's most iconic screenplay.

We're always one step ahead of both Harry and Sally for the first 80 minutes or so of When Harry Met Sally; this isn't as much about the destination as the journey though. Along the way, When Harry Met Sally is perfectly performed (including scene-stealing supporting turns from Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby), and is easily one of the most quotable films ever made. Director Rob Reiner's mother, the late Estelle Reiner, delivered the film's greatest line: "I'll have what she's having."

4 'Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise

Few films, if any, are as timeless as the best of Disney animation. And there's a case to be made for this being the jewel in Disney's crown. Two years after The Little Mermaid wowed critics, made bank and jump-started the Disney Renaissance, the studio (and perhaps most crucially, songwriting team Howard Ashman and Alan Menken) returned with an even richer and more sophisticated romantic drama that takes many creative cues from 1946's La Belle et La Bête.

These earliest, best films of the Disney Renaissance were made with the kind of true genius and wall-to-wall invention of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, movies where the man behind the studio was proving himself as the greatest name in entertainment. Beauty and the Beast is a delight for children; adults can easily be moved by a romantic story that's full of choices and growth. This is Disney's greatest love story from over a century of filmmaking.

3 'Casablanca' (1942)

Directed by Michael Curtiz

It's hardly a hot take to say the Oscars don't always get Best Picture right, but there's never been a more deserving honoree than Michael Curtiz' swoon-inducing, exciting and quotable wartime drama about a love triangle in Morocco. Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart and Paul Henreid are at their most iconic in a landmark film that also won statuettes for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Over 80 years later, it's still simply just a hell of a lot of fun to watch Casablanca. This has long been the greatest and most quotable of all screenplays, and the fast-paced story has lost none of its ability to captivate. The best part of Casablanca is how proud we are of the tough choices the heroes make, all for the greater good.