You’ve steamed up your television screens in January with a group of Distinguished Gentlemen and now it’s time to really heat things up for the month of February. From torrid affairs to epic love stories and everything in between, Sundays in February couldn’t generate any more heat than with the films of Viva’s Sin & Seduction month. Every Sunday this month Viva Cinema presents back-to-back films about the affairs of the heart and the seduction of the body.
These aren’t your average perfect boy-meets-perfect girl movies. There’s the subversive humour of Alexander Payne’s award-winning Sideways the first weekend in February and the torrid passion between Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas the following week in Random Hearts. And back when Cher was mainly composed out of actual human cells, she starred in a classic romantic comedy about two not-so-conventional adults living in New York City in the fantastic Moonstruck. A little Cher mixed in with former real-life couple Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins starring in Bull Durham is a guaranteed way to get your romance fix without your teeth rotting on excess sweetness. The month of temperature-escalating films finishes off with a mix of sin and seduction joined together into one night of timeless tales of love: Bridges Of Madison County and the ultimate romantic epic, Titanic.
This is what I like best about the mix of films in February. Sure Kate and Leo are attractive people but the movies this month don’t feature cookie-cutter romantic characters. If they’re too pretty, a giant iceberg is there to interrupt the happy ending. Take Miles and Jack in Alexander Payne’s award-winning Sideways. You’ve got a pair of wine-guzzling, womanizing average-guys who, trapped in their own respective failures at life and love, inadvertently find adventure and companionship at the bottom of a barrel of wine. There is no magical makeover scene where Paul Giamatti shaves his scruff, puts on a new suit and is transformed into the man of your dreams. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy romantic comedies where you know what you’re getting at every turn but it is nice to change it up every once in awhile. This month, the movies of Sin & Seduction are teeming with lover’s quarrels, frustrations and sometimes insurmountable obstacles. There are happy endings but there is often also a long and winding road to get there. And to keep things interesting, it is a road riddled with passion.
Stay tuned to Viva Cinema for Sin & Seduction all month-long to catch our selection of great movie romances but what’s your favourite movie romance? Titanic is at the top of my ‘epic’ romance list but am I missing an obvoius choice? And I know I’ll be watching Susan Sarandon’s relationship with Tim Robbins with a new set of eyes this time around in the steamy Bull Durham, but does the news of their split change the movie for you? In my books, she always belonged with Crash anyway.
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Tags: Filed under: viva, viva cinema, movies, blog, Reel Take, Titanic, romance
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Love is a Battlefield: Sin & Seduction Month on Viva Cinema