December Daily: romantic moments

[resonant]

exceptinsects -- favorite romantic moments...in books, movies, fic, real life?

I make no promises as to accuracy; I'm not looking these up on YouTube or whatever because if I'm misremembering something, I don't want to ruin it. Just accept it the way I retell it. It's like the accidental fanfiction of the mind.

I was in high school when HBO was new, and one of the movies they played over and over was "What's Up, Doc?" with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal. There's a kiss at a piano that was a formative influence on me. I don't remember what was going on, plotwise, but I do remember minute after minute of almost-kissing, surely-kissing-by-now, barely-not-kissing ...

There's an exchange in the Goldie Hawn/Steve Martin movie "Housesitter" where Goldie says, "... when you asked me to have sex with you," and Steve says, "I didn't ask you to have sex with me. I asked you [if you wanted a Coke, or something like that]," and Goldie says, "No, I distinctly heard you ask me to have sex with you," and Steve says, in this soft, wondering voice, "You said yes."

(I notice these are both screwball comedies. I think I'm a bit of a hard sell for romance in movies that are about romance -- I go in with my resistance high, possibly because the obstacles are personality obstacles and just make the characters look ill-matched. But if you let two people roll around in a completely absurd premise for a while, the romance will sneak up on me the same way it sneaks up on them.)

I fondly remember the ridiculous scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies where the heroine (I can't even remember which one) says, "Well, tell me where you don't hurt, and I'll kiss you there."

In books it's hard to do better than Peter Wimsey's "Placetne, Magistra?" marriage proposal in Gaudy Night, especially when contrasted with the first time he proposed marriage to Harriet Vane, which was more like, "I just thought you'd be an attractive sort of person to marry, that's all." The placetne proposal proves how well he knows her.

In real life I'm not much for standard romantic gestures. One time when the kidlet was about two, all three of us had rotovirus, one right after the other, over the course of about twelve hours, and then the spouse got up the next morning and cleaned both bathrooms and mopped both floors -- I always say that's the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for me.



Comment to leave me a prompt! Steal exceptinsects's prompt if you want to do the meme yourself!


10 -- pauraque -- your favorite movies as a kid (or favorite kids' movies as an adult)
11 -- mific -- a winter's tale. Anything wintry, good or bad.
12 -- runpunkrun -- advice you've found useful
13 -- terminally_underwhelmed -- things that change, things that don't.
14 -- watersword -- Tell me about a memorable meal.
15 -- anitac588 -- Chris Evans.
16 --
17 -- ride_4ever -- birthdays
18 -- muccamukk -- Dwarvish things in your everyday life. (Moved from the 17th so ride_4ever could get the birthday date.)
19 -- jesse_the_k -- advice you regret following
20 -- copracat -- memory.
21 -- rhi -- cats.
22 --
23 -- laurenthemself -- Something spooky that's happened to you
24 --
25 --
26 --
27 --
28 --
29 --
30 --
31 --

Comments

[nestra]

It's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that moment is for sure on the top of any list.

[lunabee34]

Ha! We went to the same school of romance.

[james]

I love and adore What's Up Doc and now I need to rewatch it again.

"Eunice? That's a person named Eunice?"

The sense of humor in that movie is EXACTLY everything that exists in my soul.

[watersword]

Placetne, Magistra oh my god I swoon every time even though swooning is contraindicated.

[stranger]

Oooh, screwball comedies. Bringing up Baby, where Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant have problems with a leopard and a dinosaur skeleton, and somehow there's romance. I always wince, because *that is not how to handle a leopard* *ever*, but the people in the storyline are confused but happy at the end. I think the problem with intentional romances is the smugness of the inevitable HEA.

[resonant]

Thanks! I remembered the important part but not the trivial things like the title of the movie or the name of the heroine.

[resonant]

If someone didn't know how old I was before reading that entry, they sure know now.

[resonant]

I do wonder whether it's actually a good movie, or even a good kiss scene. I just remember it the way you remember things that you saw ten times when you were in high school.

[resonant]

I remember that scene so vividly. Harriet was a great character.

Somewhere I read that someone said to Dorothy Sayers, "In the later books Peter lost his elfin charm," and she said, "Anyone who has elfin charm in his forties should be shot."

[resonant]

the smugness of the inevitable HEA.

I can see it. And also the fact that by the time the creators have kept these two characters apart for two-thirds of the movie, I'm convinced that they just aren't good for each other.

[adafrog]

I loved that part in Indiana Jones.

ITA. That was very romantic to clean the place.

[jesse_the_k]

Go Dorothy Go!

When I read the prompt my first thought was Placetne, Magistra as well. I'm waiting on an audio re-read of the canon to listen to the new podcast about the Lord Peter books -- "As My Wimsey Takes Me."

[resonant]

He also removed a horrible mouse that had half decayed behind the fridge. He wins.

[adafrog]

He totally wins.

[exceptinsects]

When I visited Oxford I made sure to find the place where that proposal happened.
I think it was probably responsible for me taking a year of Latin in college, which I do not at all regret.