Pbenjay's Blog

Elizabeth Taylor

If you been with me for a while then you know, last Thursday I listed TEN TOP Romantic movies of all times.  And there are 20 more to come before we’re out of this American Heart Month filled with red hearts, chocolate and love.

However, there is a dark side to some love affairs and these 5 movies are some of the BEST in that category:

1. Who’ Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? (1966) Starring Richard Burton and Liz Taylor whose off-screen romance had as many pitfalls as their portrayals of George and Martha.   Boozy and bickering, George and Martha needle and humiliate each other in front of their guests, clearly seen as a sick yet symbiotic couple.  Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as the needy but castrating Martha.
2. Closer (2004)Also directed Mike Nichols and adapted from a London stage production, it is filled with raw emotion and intense performances.  Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts are all beautiful people who do ugly things to one another and ultimately themselves.  Not your romantic first date night flick.
3. Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch (you’re not surprised are you?) creates a sordid underworld of sexual slavery, addiction, depravity, voyeurism and crime beneath a typically suburban setting.  Disturbing and twisted romance involves, Roy Orbison, Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan and beautiful Isabella Rossalini.   Lynch darkly explores hidden fears and desires and adds unexpected satire along the way.
4. Natural Born Killers(1994) Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are lovers and killers who as they fall deeper in love, their thirst for killing intensifies.  Oliver Stone utilizes a variety of cinematic ploys as he unfolds this story of undeserved fame and all that comes with it;  frenetic camera angles, chopped up editing and the use of various film stocks.  Blood thirsty and scandalous, the public loves them.
5. Fatal Attraction (1987) Michael Douglas and Glenn Close filled the big screen with steamy, sexual scenes and equally scary suspenseful moments.  Fatal Attraction quickly entered our lexicon as the universal term for a “crazy”  stalker or ex-lover who just couldn’t take no for an answer.  By the end of the movie, the one you are holding hands with will probably turn to you, shake their head and smile knowingly – clearly conveying the probable demise you can expect should you ever try…..

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