99 Fun Facts About Romance Movies

Which famous line is closely associated with Casablanca but never actually spoken in it?

'Play it again, Sam' is a misquote: Ilsa says 'Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By', and Rick later snaps, 'You played it for her, you can play it for me.'

Which 1934 screwball comedy was first to win the 'Big Five' Oscars?

It Happened One Night took Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay, a sweep not repeated until 1975. Claudette Colbert had only signed on for double her usual fee and a four-week shoot.

Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar for which 1939 film?

Gone with the Wind won her Best Supporting Actress as Mammy, yet she sat at a small table against the far wall: the hotel had a no-blacks policy and admitted her only as a favour to the producer.

Audrey Hepburn won her Best Actress Oscar for playing a runaway princess in which 1953 film?

Roman Holiday's story Oscar went to Ian McLellan Hunter, a front for the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. The Academy finally presented the award to Trumbo's widow in 1993.

In An Affair to Remember, which star waits in vain atop the Empire State Building for Deborah Kerr?

Cary Grant's playboy waits for hours, unaware that she has been hit by a car on her way to meet him. Director Leo McCarey was remaking his own 1939 film, Love Affair.

Which composer wrote the music for Breakfast at Tiffany's, including 'Moon River'?

Henry Mancini wrote 'Moon River' to suit Audrey Hepburn's narrow vocal range. When a Paramount executive wanted it cut after a preview, she is said to have answered, 'Over my dead body.'

Which star of The Way We Were also sang its chart-topping title song?

Barbra Streisand's recording was Billboard's top single of 1974. Writer Arthur Laurents said he based her character, Katie, on a campus radical he knew at Cornell.

Which 1970 tearjerker gave the world the line 'never having to say you're sorry'?

Love Story's line was sent up two years later in the comedy What's Up, Doc?, where Ryan O'Neal, Love Story's own leading man, hears it and calls it the dumbest thing he ever heard.

Dirty Dancing is set at a resort in which region during the summer of 1963?

The Borscht Belt was the nickname for the Jewish summer resorts of New York's Catskills, though the film itself was shot at a mountain hotel in Virginia and at Lake Lure, North Carolina.

Which Dirty Dancing song won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

(I've Had) The Time of My Life nearly lost its singer: Bill Medley turned it down for months because his wife was about to give birth, and said yes once Jennifer Warnes agreed to the duet.

Which 1955 song, sung by the Righteous Brothers, became inseparable from Ghost's pottery-wheel scene?

Unchained Melody takes its odd title from Unchained, the prison film it was written for. Ghost sent the Righteous Brothers' 1965 recording back into the charts a quarter of a century later.

Which Julia Roberts hit began as a bleak script titled 3000?

Pretty Woman began as 3000, the fee Vivian agrees for the week, and that gritty draft had no happy ending: it closed with Vivian and her friend Kit on a bus to Disneyland.

Who delivers the line 'I'll have what she's having' in When Harry Met Sally?

Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle, delivers it as a customer at Katz's Delicatessen, where a sign now marks the table: 'Where Harry met Sally... hope you have what she had!'

Sleepless in Seattle's Annie proposes meeting Sam atop the Empire State Building on which holiday?

Valentine's Day, in a letter that borrows its rendezvous from An Affair to Remember. Annie decides against sending it, so her friend Becky posts it behind her back.

Which film first paired Tom Hanks with Meg Ryan, three years before Sleepless in Seattle?

Joe Versus the Volcano has Hanks agree to leap into a volcano because he believes a 'brain cloud' is killing him. Meg Ryan plays all three women he meets along the way.

Which writer-director made Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail after writing When Harry Met Sally?

Nora Ephron had already turned the collapse of her marriage to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein into a novel, Heartburn, and then wrote the screenplay for its film version herself.

Titanic tied which 1959 epic for the record of eleven Academy Awards?

Ben-Hur won 11 of its 12 nominations, missing only for its screenplay amid a public row over who deserved the writing credit. Titanic matched the haul in 1998.

Why did James Horner write Titanic's 'My Heart Will Go On' behind James Cameron's back?

Cameron wanted no songs in his film, so Horner carried the demo cassette around for weeks, waiting to catch the director in a good mood before he dared to play it.

The Notebook is based on a novel by which author?

Nicholas Sparks took the story from his wife's grandparents, who had been married for more than 60 years when he met them, and wanted to capture a love that lasted that long.

In Notting Hill, William Thacker's shop is what kind of bookstore?

A travel bookshop, and it is there that film star Anna Scott finally makes her plea: 'I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.'

Which Wet Wet Wet cover from Four Weddings and a Funeral spent fifteen weeks at UK number one?

Love Is All Around was one week short of the UK chart record when the band had it withdrawn from sale. Richard Curtis later had Billy Mack butcher it as 'Christmas Is All Around' in Love Actually.

Whose poem 'Funeral Blues' is read at the funeral in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

W. H. Auden first wrote the poem for a 1936 play, The Ascent of F6, and later recast it as a cabaret song. After the film, a slim volume of ten of his poems sold in the hundreds of thousands.

Bridget Jones's Diary is a loose modern reworking of which Jane Austen novel?

Pride and Prejudice: Helen Fielding says she simply stole the plot while the BBC's 1995 serial was on air, and that serial's Mr Darcy, Colin Firth, was later cast as Mark Darcy.

10 Things I Hate About You updates which Shakespeare comedy to a Seattle-area high school?

The Taming of the Shrew supplies the scheme: Bianca may not date until her sharp-tongued sister Kat does, so a would-be suitor pays Patrick Verona to win Kat over.

Clueless is loosely adapted from which Jane Austen novel?

Emma: Amy Heckerling moved Austen's meddling matchmaker to Beverly Hills as Cher Horowitz, and sat in on classes at Beverly Hills High School to see how real students behaved.

(500) Days of Summer was the feature directing debut of which future Spider-Man director?

Marc Webb had spent a decade directing music videos for bands such as Green Day. With only this one feature to his name, Sony hired him to reboot its Spider-Man series with The Amazing Spider-Man.

La La Land infamously lost Best Picture to which film after the wrong envelope was read?

Moonlight was the real winner: the presenters had been handed the spare envelope for Best Actress, and La La Land's producers were already making their speeches when the mistake came out.

Which pair were in talks for La La Land's leads before Gosling and Stone were cast?

Miles Teller and Emma Watson were first in line. Watson left to make Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Teller moved on as well, which opened the way for Gosling and Stone.

Before Crazy Rich Asians, which 1993 drama was Hollywood's last studio film with a mostly Asian cast in a modern setting?

The Joy Luck Club came a quarter of a century earlier. To make sure their film opened in cinemas, Crazy Rich Asians' makers turned down a richer offer from Netflix and went with Warner Bros.

The 2023 hit Anyone but You, with Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, is based on which Shakespeare play?

Much Ado About Nothing gives Bea and Ben their names, after Beatrice and Benedick, and its matchmaking plot. This time the pair see through their friends' scheme and fake a romance instead.

In The Proposal, why does Sandra Bullock's character fake an engagement to her assistant?

To avoid deportation to Canada: editor Margaret Tate's visa has run out, so she strong-arms her assistant into an engagement, and then has to fool a suspicious immigration agent on a family weekend in Alaska.

Who plays Ben, the ad man opposite Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?

Matthew McConaughey's Ben has bet that he can make any woman fall for him in ten days, just as Hudson's Andie needs a man to lose in ten for her column in Composure magazine.

In Say Anything..., which Peter Gabriel song does Lloyd Dobler play on a boombox under Diane's window?

In Your Eyes was almost refused: Peter Gabriel objected to 'the overdose', having mixed the film up with Wired, a biopic of John Belushi, and said yes once he had seen the right one.

Cher won the Best Actress Oscar for playing an Italian-American widow in which 1987 film?

Moonstruck also won Oscars for Olympia Dukakis and writer John Patrick Shanley. When Nicolas Cage's Ronny declares his love, Cher's Loretta slaps him twice and orders, 'Snap out of it!'

Brokeback Mountain won Ang Lee the Best Director Oscar but lost Best Picture to which film?

Crash beat the heavy favourite in what the Hollywood Reporter later ranked as the biggest Best Picture upset on record. Presenter Jack Nicholson was caught mouthing 'whoa' as he read out the card.

In Before Sunrise, Jesse and Céline meet on a train and get off to spend one night in which city?

Vienna stands in for Philadelphia, where Richard Linklater once spent a whole night talking with Amy Lehrhaupt, a woman he had just met in a toy shop. The third film in the series is dedicated to her.

The title Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a quotation from a poem by whom?

Alexander Pope wrote the line in Eloisa to Abelard (1717), where Eloisa, shut in a convent, envies those who have forgotten the world. In the film, Kirsten Dunst's Mary recites the passage.

Which actress earned an Oscar nomination at 20 as Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright's 2005 Austen adaptation?

Keira Knightley nearly missed the part: Joe Wright had not pictured anyone so glamorous as Elizabeth, until he met her and decided she was 'really a tomboy' with a lively mind.

At 89, screenwriter James Ivory became the oldest competitive Oscar winner for which 2017 romance?

Call Me by Your Name brought Ivory his first Oscar, for writing, after he had lost three times as a director, with A Room with a View, Howards End and The Remains of the Day.

Richard Curtis's 2013 film About Time gives its hero what special ability?

Travelling into his past: at 21, Tim learns from his father that the men of the family can revisit any moment they have lived. His first trip is to redo a dismal New Year's Eve party.

Silver Linings Playbook earned nominations in all four Oscar acting categories, but which of its stars actually won?

Jennifer Lawrence, then 22, fell on her way up to the stage and told the applauding crowd: 'You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell.'

Groundhog Day was filmed almost entirely in which Illinois town standing in for Punxsutawney?

Woodstock got the part because the real Punxsutawney was too remote to house a film crew and had few usable locations. A scout remembered the town from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Which Jerry Maguire catchphrase belongs to Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar-winning football player?

'Show me the money' is Rod Tidwell's family motto, and he makes Jerry bellow it down the phone, over and over, before he agrees to stay on as his client.

In The Princess Bride, farmhand Westley answers Buttercup's every order with which phrase, meaning 'I love you'?

'As you wish' later unmasks him: shoved into a ravine, the Man in Black shouts it and Buttercup knows he is Westley. Cary Elwes used the phrase as the title of his memoir about the film.

Which Burt Bacharach song, covered by Diana King, features heavily in My Best Friend's Wedding?

I Say a Little Prayer was written for Dionne Warwick, who took it into the US top five in 1967. Thirty years on, Diana King's cover for the film carried the song back into the Top 40.

Which British actress swaps her Surrey cottage for Cameron Diaz's Los Angeles mansion in The Holiday?

Kate Winslet's Iris was written for her, line by line, by Nancy Meyers. The cottage was not real, though: its exterior was built in a field in the Surrey village of Shere for the shoot.

Which actress plays Samantha, whose family forgets her birthday in Sixteen Candles?

Molly Ringwald inspired the film before she was cast in it: John Hughes pinned her headshot above his desk and wrote the script over a weekend with her in mind.

The Big Sick is based on the real-life courtship of Kumail Nanjiani and which co-writer?

Emily V. Gordon really was put into a medically induced coma months into their courtship, and the couple wrote the script together after they married. Zoe Kazan plays her on screen.

In Love Actually, how does Mark finally confess his love to his best friend's new bride?

With a set of cue cards, shown in silence at her door. Juliet already knew: the wedding video he shot for the couple turned out to focus almost entirely on her.

Which country singer wrote The Bodyguard's chart-topping Whitney Houston ballad as a farewell to mentor Porter Wagoner?

Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as she parted from Porter Wagoner to pursue a solo career. Whitney Houston's version later held number one in the US for 14 weeks, a record at the time.

In Titanic, how does poor wandering artist Jack Dawson come by his third-class ticket for the maiden voyage?

Winning a poker game hands Jack two third-class tickets, so his Italian friend Fabrizio comes aboard with him.

Fifty Shades of Grey began as online fan fiction about the two lovers of which bestselling book series?

Twilight supplied the couple: the story first ran online as Master of the Universe, starring Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, before its author reworked it with new names.

Which girl's name surged in popularity after Daryl Hannah's mermaid chose it from a street sign in Splash?

Madison was almost unknown as a first name before the film, where the mermaid borrows it from a Madison Avenue sign. By 2001 it was the second most popular girl's name in the US.

Which actress won an Oscar for about eight minutes on screen as Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love?

Judi Dench shared the ceremony with a rival Tudor queen: Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress for playing the same monarch in Elizabeth, a first for two films in one year.

Woody Allen's romantic comedy Annie Hall beat which blockbuster, the year's top earner, to the Best Picture Oscar?

Star Wars still won six Oscars at that ceremony, the most of any film, while Annie Hall took Best Picture, Director, Actress and Original Screenplay.

Which Disney fairy-tale romance became the first animated film ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

Beauty and the Beast lost that Best Picture race to The Silence of the Lambs, having already become the first animated film to win the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy.

You've Got Mail takes its title from the new-email greeting of which dial-up era online service?

AOL greeted its users with the phrase whenever new email arrived, and in the film Kathleen writes from her AOL account under the screen name Shopgirl.

In My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toula's father Gus treats every ailment with which household cleaning product?

Windex is Gus's cure for everything from pimples to warts. Made for about $5 million, the film grossed over $368 million without ever topping a weekend box-office chart.

Which actor played both dance instructor Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing and murdered banker Sam Wheat in Ghost?

Patrick Swayze finished his dance training at the Harkness and Joffrey ballet schools in New York, and he co-wrote and sang a top-three hit for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

Which Swedish actress played Ilsa Lund, the lost love of Humphrey Bogart's Rick, in Casablanca?

Ingrid Bergman had made a well-received Hollywood debut in Intermezzo, but her films since had not been major successes until Casablanca made Ilsa one of her best-known roles.

Which comedian won an Oscar as Oda Mae Brown, the con-artist psychic who can hear Sam in Ghost?

Whoopi Goldberg nearly missed the part: the director and the writer were not interested in casting her until the film's leading man argued for her.

Which actress played Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet?

Claire Danes took over the part from Natalie Portman, who was 14 and judged too young beside the 21-year-old DiCaprio once rehearsals began.

In The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel and Gus fly to which European city to meet a reclusive novelist?

Amsterdam is where Gus declares his love over a romantic dinner, on a trip arranged through a charity. Most of the film, even some Amsterdam interiors, was shot in Pittsburgh.

In The Proposal, Ryan Reynolds's Andrew takes his boss home to meet his family in which US state?

Alaska supplies the setting, Andrew's hometown of Sitka, but shooting began on the opposite coast, in Rockport, Massachusetts.

In Crazy Rich Asians, a New York professor flies to which country to meet boyfriend Nick Young's wealthy family?

Singapore is the setting, but the Young family's ancestral home was filmed in Malaysia, in two abandoned mansions the crew found in disrepair.

Which Texas-born actress worked as a trainee at a London publisher to prepare for playing Bridget Jones?

Renée Zellweger joined the publicity department at Picador and gained 20 pounds for the part, after the casting of an American as so British a heroine had stirred controversy.

Which actor plays Jamie, the writer who falls for his Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia, in Love Actually?

Colin Firth's storyline started out as a film of its own: the writer-director first planned two separate features before folding both plots into one ensemble.

Which folk-rock duo recorded the soundtrack of The Graduate, including a hit named after Anne Bancroft's character?

Simon & Garfunkel gained a higher profile from the film, even though Paul Simon, busy touring, had written only one new song by the time editing was nearly finished.

Which actress plays Donna, the hotel owner whose daughter invites three possible fathers, in Mamma Mia!?

Meryl Streep took opera singing lessons as a child and had already sung in several films, among them Postcards from the Edge and Silkwood.

Out of Africa, the Best Picture winner about Danish writer Karen Blixen's coffee farm, is set in which country?

Kenya is where Blixen ran the farm before going home to Denmark; she told the story in her 1937 memoir, sold in America under the pen name Isak Dinesen.

In Brokeback Mountain, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist meet while herding sheep one summer in which US state?

Wyoming is the setting of Annie Proulx's short story, yet the film was shot almost entirely in the Canadian Rockies of southern Alberta.

In Lost in Translation, Bill Murray's fading star befriends a disillusioned young graduate at a hotel in which city?

Tokyo's Park Hyatt is where Sofia Coppola had stayed while promoting her first feature. She shot the film in 27 days and won the Oscar for its screenplay.

Which actress voices Samantha, the operating system a lonely writer falls in love with, in Spike Jonze's Her?

Scarlett Johansson recorded the voice after shooting ended, replacing Samantha Morton, who had performed the role on set from inside a soundproof booth.

Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar for playing which singer, Johnny Cash's great love, in Walk the Line?

June Carter gets her proposal on stage in the film: Cash stops their duet mid-song and refuses to carry on until she agrees to marry him.

Which actress beat Britney Spears to the role of Allie opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook?

Rachel McAdams won the role once the choice had narrowed to her and the pop star. Jessica Biel and Amy Adams were among the others who auditioned or were considered.

Which actor, as Navy flight candidate Zack Mayo, carries Debra Winger out of a factory in An Officer and a Gentleman?

Richard Gere's Zack was drawn from experience: screenwriter Douglas Day Stewart had been a naval aviation officer candidate himself and based Paula on a factory worker he had dated.

Which Australian actress plays Satine, the cabaret star a penniless poet falls for, in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!?

Nicole Kidman broke a rib twice during the shoot, and a recurring knee injury from it made her drop out of the lead role in Panic Room.

Which star plays Alex Hitchens, a New York date doctor who coaches shy men in wooing women, in Hitch?

Will Smith's comedy had the working title The Last First Kiss, taken from a line his character says to a nervous client.

Which actress plays waitress Julia Sullivan, engaged to a man named Glenn Gulia, in The Wedding Singer?

Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler teamed up here for the first time, then reunited for 50 First Dates and Blended.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is based on a 1958 novella by which author, who later wrote In Cold Blood?

Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly Golightly, but she declined the part and it went to Audrey Hepburn.

My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, is a musical version of which George Bernard Shaw play?

Pygmalion became a musical whose star was dubbed for nearly every number: Marni Nixon supplied Eliza's singing voice without a screen credit.

In the screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, what kind of animal is Baby, the pet minded by Katharine Hepburn's heiress?

A leopard named Nissa played Baby, and the animal's trainer stood just off-screen with a whip for every one of its scenes.

Which dancer partnered Fred Astaire in 1930s RKO musicals such as Top Hat and Swing Time?

Ginger Rogers made nine films with Astaire in the 1930s, then turned to drama and comedy and won the Best Actress Oscar for Kitty Foyle.

Adam Sandler moved the setting of 50 First Dates from Seattle to which US state, also home to Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Hawaii was Sandler's own change to a script first set in Seattle, and most of the film was shot on location on the island of Oahu.

Which comedy star plays Joel Barish, who has his ex erased from memory, in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

Jim Carrey was cast against type for his everyday looks and his comic gifts. The director's first choice, Nicolas Cage, was unavailable.

Which actor plays Lloyd Dobler, the underachiever who courts class valedictorian Diane Court, in Say Anything...?

John Cusack at first refused to film the boombox scene, feeling Lloyd would never do anything so theatrical. Robert Downey Jr. had already turned the role down.

Which Mexican director won Best Picture for The Shape of Water, about a mute cleaner who loves an amphibian creature?

Guillermo del Toro was inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon, and his film became the second fantasy to win Best Picture, after The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Which actor plays Jesse opposite Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise and its two sequels, made nine years apart?

Ethan Hawke nearly missed the part: the director first thought him too young, then reconsidered after seeing him in a play in New York and talking with him.

Which period romance, adapted by its own leading lady, did Ang Lee direct a decade before Brokeback Mountain?

Sense and Sensibility won its star the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the first person to win Academy Awards for both acting and screenwriting.

In Amélie, Audrey Tautou's shy waitress works at the Café des 2 Moulins in which hilltop district of Paris?

Montmartre really does have a Café des 2 Moulins: the place where Amélie waits tables is a real café at 15 Rue Lepic.

Which Lawrence of Arabia actor played the poet-physician Yuri in David Lean's epic romance Doctor Zhivago?

Omar Sharif had asked for the smaller part of Pasha and was surprised when Lean offered him the lead. The Russian epic was filmed mostly in Spain.

Which Bollywood star plays Raj in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which ran at one Mumbai cinema for over 25 years?

Shah Rukh Khan's Raj falls for Simran on a trip through Europe. The film opened in October 1995, and Mumbai's Maratha Mandir went on screening it daily for decades.

In A Room with a View, Lucy Honeychurch meets George Emerson while visiting which Italian city with her chaperone?

Florence is where E. M. Forster opens the 1908 novel behind the film, a book he began on his own trip to Italy at the age of twenty-two.

Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love follows two neighbours with unfaithful spouses in which city in 1962?

Hong Kong was still under British rule in the film's 1962. Its leading man, Tony Leung, became the first Hong Kong actor to win Best Actor at Cannes.

Which actress plays Fran Kubelik, the elevator operator Jack Lemmon falls for, in Billy Wilder's The Apartment?

Shirley MacLaine's film was the last black-and-white movie to win Best Picture until Schindler's List, more than thirty years later.

Carol, with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, adapts The Price of Salt by which crime novelist, creator of Tom Ripley?

Patricia Highsmith first published the novel under a pseudonym after her own publisher rejected it, and put her real name to it only when it was reissued almost forty years later.

Which French musical romance starring Catherine Deneuve has every line of its dialogue sung?

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and introduced Deneuve to an international audience.

City of Angels, with Nicolas Cage as an angel who falls for a surgeon, remakes which German director's 1987 film?

Wim Wenders set Wings of Desire among angels over Berlin in the time of the Wall. The remake moved them to Los Angeles and gave the story a more tragic ending.

Which romance about a lonely Bronx butcher won both the Best Picture Oscar and the first Palme d'Or ever awarded?

Marty grew out of a 1953 live television play by Paddy Chayefsky, and its star Ernest Borgnine won the Best Actor Oscar.