The 1942 classic film " Casablanca" has been chosen by the American Film Institute (AFI) as the greatest romantic film in the past 100 years, the AFI website said on Wednesday.
Casablanca was followed by another classic film "Gone With the Wind" on the list of "100 Years, 100 Passions," which was compiled by the institute as the fifth list of its 100 Greatest Films series for its centennial celebration.
The top five included "West Side Story," "Roman Holiday," and " An Affair to Remember." The No. 6 film, "The Way We Are," starring Hollywood star Robert Redford Barbra in 1973, is the most recent film in the top 10.
The 1965 film "Doctor Zhivago" ranked No. 7, while the holiday classic, "A Wonderful Life," came in at No. 8. The popular 1970 film "Love Story" took up No. 9, and was followed by the 1931 release "City Lights."
The top romantic film from the 1980s was the 1985 Oscar winner "Out of Africa," which ranked No. 13. The 1990 supernatural romance "Ghost," the highest placing film from the 1990s, came in at No. 19.
Other famous top 100 entries included the 1997 Oscar winning blockbuster "Titanic," which placed No. 37, and the most recent film on the list, the 1998 Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," which ranked No. 50.
"It's a wonderful and broad list of films and I hope this fifth installment of the AFI's centennial celebration of cinema will prompt people to watch these classics, either for the first time or the fortieth," said AFI director Jean Picker Firstenberg.
Firstenberg said this year's list "celebrates matters of the heart in a whole different way--more heartbreaks, heartaches and hearts bursting with love, rather than heart attacks and hearts in the throat." He was referring to last year's list of "100 Years, 100 Thrills."
(People?s Daily June 13, 2002)
