The best love song of the year 1986:
Berlin – Take My Breath Away

The complete list of the best love songs is here.

If your favourite love song isn’t on the list, let us know in the comments!

The film You’ve got mail captures the thrill and romance of internet dating really well, even if it’s a bit unrealistic in places (like, what are the chances…). This Internet Dating quote from the film nails the feeling every single gets when they check their internet dating profile:

“I turn on my computer. I wait patiently as it connects. I go online. My breath catches in my chest until I hear 3 little words, “You’ve got mail.” I hear nothing…. Just the beat of my own heart. I have mail…from you.”

- Meg Ryan, from the film You’ve got mail

The only thing that surprises me is that no one has thought of making this film before.

It’s like a licence to print money, right?

We haven‘t written about Twilight before. That is because we are not teenage girls. At least that‘s what I thought until friends, adults I know to be perfectly reasonable human beings, began to confess to being Twilight fans. And some adults who aren‘t Twilight fans at least take an interest because they have kids who are Twilight fans.

Between the huge hype about the Twilight novels, and more recently, about the films based on those books, it‘s time for an adult‘s quick guide to Twilight:
In 2003 the mormon housewife Stephenie Meyer had a dream about a girl and a vampire. The dream lead to the writing of the first book in the vampire saga Twilight. There are four books in the Twilight series to date:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
The first book, Twilight, tells of a young girl and a vampire that meet at an American high school and fall in love with each other desperately. The idea of the love story is not brand new, but it has struck a chord with teenagers worldwide.

Each of the books is influenced by literary classics: Jane Austen‘s “Pride and Prejudice” influenced Twilight, Shakespeare‘s “Romeo and Juliet ” provided a Leitmotif for New moon, Eclipse mentions Emily Brontë‘s “Wuthering Heights ” and Breaking Dawn draws on Shakespeare‘s “The Merchant of Venice” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

The Twilight novels have been criticised, amongst other things, for being overly conservative, demonising physical relationships, being anti-feminist and condoning domestic violence.

Twilight Plot summary

Isabella Swan (who prefers to be called Bella) moves to live with her father in the small town Forks. She learns about the strange Cullen family from her new classmates. Edward Cullen arouses her interest the most. His strange attractiveness and seeming loneliness draw her towards him. She learns from the local Indians, who are old friends of her father‘s, that the Cullens are the “cold ones” who made a treaty with the Indians a long time ago. The treaty forbids them to hunt humans on the Indian territory. However, unlike the other vampires, the Cullens are “vegetarians” – they prefer to hunt animals and to live in civilized society.

Edward confesses to Bella that he is a vampire and that he can read the thoughts of other people but that her thoughts remain unreadable to him. Edward understands the danger that his love for Bella poses.The casting and setting of the „Twilight“ films builds up a strong contrast between the human world and that of the vampires.

When another vampire family comes to Forks and finds out that Bella knows their secret, they want to kill her. The Cullens do their best to keep Bella safe, but a vampire from the hostile clan finds a way to attack Bella and bites her. The Cullens come just in time to kill James and to suck the venom from Bella’s blood to prevent her from becoming a vampire.

The official site of the author of the Twilight series.

Twilight soundtrack

Romantic Comedies - we’ve established that they don’t mirror reality, we know they’re formulaic and unrealistic, but it really takes a sarcastic rundown of a woman’s life as seen through romantic comedies to realise: Watch romantic comedies, laugh and cry at them all you like, but – pretty please – do NOT base your plans, ambitions and dreams as a woman on romantic comedies or your life will be a bad romantic comedy joke!

See for yourself what a woman’s life in romantic comedies would look like….

This short lovefilm doesn’t have an exciting plot, no dialogue, no tearsome happy ending. It’s only about 7 minutes long, but nevertheless, it’s a beautiful, touching lovefilm, bound to put a smile on every viewer’s face and guaranteed to make you look forward to summer and dream of a Roman Holiday. Rome is where the young girl at the centre of the story misses her train, allowing a young man to grab the chance and show her his city at night…. but see for yourself:

Notte Sento (English subtitles) from napdan on Vimeo

The line between passion and madness can be quite fine, and easily crossed. The romantic poets knew this and the following video illustrates it. Well, not the video but the different reactions to the video. But first, see for yourself what you think of this little love story:

A friend sent me the link to this video saying: “it will touch you – sooo beautiful!” To her, it was heartwarmingly romantic.

My first thought wasn’t of passion, but rather of madness. A woman who keeps secretly taking pictures of a guy on a train? Even when he’s asleep? Creepy! A guy who goes through her personal photos? Stalking! (And why does she keep taking pictures of herself? How vain!)

See how fine the line between passion and madness can be? And it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Maybe you’ve read about the study that “proves” romantic comedies harm real romances, because they encourage unrealistic expectations. On the one hand, that’s true. On the other hand, we didn’t need a study to tell us that romantic comedies are pretty unrealistic. But admittedly, some romantic comedies do prompt unrealistic romantic phantasies. For instance?

- Wouldn’t it be totally romantic to have accident-induced amnesia, so your boyfriend has to make you fall in love with him again every day, like in 50 First Dates?

- Wouldn’t it be totally romantic to fall in love with the auditor checking your bookkeeping due to tax evasion, like in Stranger than Fiction?

- Wouldn’t it be totally romantic if your boyfriend always had to fear for his life because every other man in the world is so jealous, like in Something about Mary?

- Wouldn’t it be totally romantic if he or she or both died at the end, like in Romeo and Juliet and numerous other…. oh wait, that isn’t a romantic comedy and that kind of thing doesn’t happen in romantic comedies.

Anyway, the answers are: No, no, no and no – they are only films, we know they’re unrealistic and we don’t want reality to turn into these films. We just want to be entertained, distracted and get a few laughs. Then we’ll return to reality, to real romance, real relationships and real love.

>>>Find the love of your life – romantic AND real – at be2!

A love story can be told in many words – or in a beautiful short film. Love at first sight, the first kiss, starting a family together and growing old together in just over 3 minutes. In all its banality, this story of a lifetime of love is touching thanks to stunning animation and fantastic music!

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.