Tragic Love Stories in Film

Shopping Guides

Movies

Published on Thursday, 15 January 2015 11:30

Last Updated on 12 January 2015

Monica Costa

0 Comments

From the moment Kate Winslet vowed to “never let go, Jack” to a love story spanning decades in The Notebook, we’ve shed more than a few tears at some of the heart-breaking scenes in our favourite on-screen love stories. Here, we take a look at some of the most tear-jerking moments in film: tissues at the ready… Here is a list of London Mums’s favourite Tragic Love Stories in Film. Note: for non-romance fans, this may contain spoilers!

TITANIC

They’d already survived so much: the class system, nearly drowning in the cabins, a jealous ex with a gun AND a sinking ship… but it was over when Jack decided to let Rose climb aboard the floating door to escape the freezing waters of the Pacific Ocean. After rooting for this couple who defied all odds, it’s heart-breaking to know how close they came to being saved together. Watching Rose tell Jack she’ll never let him go before releasing him into the murky water tops our list as one of the most tragic love-story scenes of all time.

 

THE NOTEBOOK

A story which follows the couple through their past and present, The Notebook easily represents one of the most well-known romantic films of all time. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as Noah and Allie, two childhood sweethearts who are bought back together when Allie becomes engaged to another man. Viewers slowly have the heart-breaking realisation that the elderly couple we are shown at the beginning is in fact a present-day Noah trying to save Allie from the grips of dementia. The film takes an even more tragic turn towards the end when Allie remembers Noah for a brief moment…before he loses her again.

 

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

Jumping between the honeymoon period of this young couple’s new relationship to the lows of the inevitable break-up, 500 Days of Summer was the romantic film without a happy ending- at least, not for our two protagonists, Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Summer doesn’t believe in true love, and so naturally, Tom falls head over heels for her- it can only end in tears. Most of which are shed during the brutal expectations vs. reality scene, in which a love-struck Tom believes he can win Summer back at her party… before realising that the party is a celebration of her engagement to another man.

 

P.S. I LOVE YOU

Love lasts long after death in this romantic film with a melancholy twist- a widow, Holly (played by Hilary Swank) is withdrawn and overcome with grief due to the sudden death of her husband, Gerry (Gerard Butler). That is, until she begins to receive letters from him which he arranged to have delivered after learning of his terminal illness. Slowly, the letters from beyond the grave help Holly to rebuild her life, though the film isn’t without its sad moments: particularly when the letters take Holly to Ireland, where Gerry grew up.

 

TESTAMENT OF YOUTH

Based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a women’s point of view, Testament of Youth follows a journey of hopes, dreams and terrible loss. Vera, played by Alicia Vikander, is over the moon to learn she has earned a place at Oxford University – but when Britain announces war with Germany and her lover, Roland (Kit Harington) signs up to fight, she leaves her education to become a nurse. A heartbreakingly bleak but truthful look at life in the First World War, Testament of Youth is a love story with a lesson on how to make sense of the darkest times.

Testament of Youth is out in cinemas on 16^thJanuary 2015.