More Affairs To Remember: 10 Favorite Euro-Romance Movies
Travel Blog • Eva Holland • 07.31.08 | 10:55 AM ET
Countless single travelers hope to realize the romance of a foreign fling. Hollywood knows it, offering audiences a wide variety of flicks with a European affair for almost any taste. Eva Holland sifts through the classics, along with a few more recent releases, and offers up her favorites:
1) Before Sunrise
A young American backpacker meets a French girl on a train. Sparks fly, and they both hop off the train for one magical night in Vienna.
2) Before Sunset
Nine years later, our couple reunites in Paris for—you guessed it—one magical afternoon.
3) Roman Holiday
A princess of ambiguous European nationality sneaks out of her embassy digs in Rome and gets swept off her feet by a dashing American journalist.
4) Chasing Liberty
The president’s daughter sneaks out of her embassy digs in Prague and runs off with a dashing British photographer (sound familiar so far?) who is actually (gasp) Secret Service.
5) An Affair To Remember
A playboy and a nightclub singer meet and fall in love on a cruise from Europe to New York. Both engaged to other people, they arrange to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building.
6) L’Auberge Espagnol
This one breaks the mold a bit. A group of European students room together during an exchange year in Barcelona. Lessons in love and life ensue.
7) The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
A middle-aged actress—according to the critics, past her prime—is widowed while on a flight to Rome. She continues the trip, and is introduced to a young Italian man by a slightly sinister matchmaker.
8) What A Girl Wants
A New York City wild child goes to Britain to meet her biological father, a Lord, and tries to learn to fit in with courtly life. Along the way, a cute British boy reminds her to just be herself.
9) Shirley Valentine
A holiday in Greece gets a middle-aged British housewife thinking about the important things in life—and, of course, a Greek man she meets along the way helps, too.
10) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Four best friends spend the summer holidays apart for the first time ever. One—shy, quiet Lena—goes to Greece to stay with relatives, and meets a young Greek man who brings her out of her shell.
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Paul Brady 07.31.08 | 1:29 PM ET
I watched L’Auberge Espagnol right after getting back to the US from a study abroad program—and recognized every single one of the characters. Great film.
TambourineMan 07.31.08 | 3:03 PM ET
Mandy Moore? Colin Firth?! You forgot Under The Tuscan Sun.
Oh, Eva, what are we going to do with you? Here are a few to add to your Netflix queue:
“Summertime” (1955) with Katherine Hepburn.
“Rome Adventure” (1962) with Angie Dickinson.
These two don’t fit your foreign fling genre to a “t” but they’re close enough:
Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief” (1955)
Godard’s “Breathless” (1960)
Zenyatta 07.31.08 | 8:27 PM ET
What about Two for the Road with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn.
Leticia Valdes 08.01.08 | 10:50 AM ET
What about remembering that beautiful young romance of the 60’s with Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette “Rome Adventure”, where she is a librarian fired for letting students read a love story and she goes to Rome to find romance; it was beautiful as well as the music and the scenery.