My 150 Favorite Movies - #17

The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

The French Lieutenant's Woman takes a novel approach to adapting the metafictional novel, and brings it to the big screen by making it a movie within a movie. In line with the source material having two different endings, the screenplay, by Harold Pinter, adapted from the novel by John Fowles, intercuts between two love affairs, between the 19th-century characters in the novel, played by Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons at his most swoon-worthy, and the "actors" (also played by Streep and Irons) portraying these characters. A mesmerizing film, from beginning to end.

My 150 Favorite Movies - #18

Pillow Talk (1959)

The first and, arguably, the best in a series of classic romantic comedies starring one of the screen's most enduring couples, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Pillow Talk revolves around a shared party line, and a case of seduction by deception. Also starring Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter, the film proved to be so popular, that Day and Hudson were reteamed twice more (as different characters) in Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers.

My 150 Favorite Movies - #19

Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)

Based on the Ann Beattie novel, and originally called Head Over Heels (with a happier ending), this tale of obsessive love unrequited is both emotionally draining and exhilarating, if such things can co-exist in the same story. Starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, and Gloria Grahame (yes!) in the extreme latter part of her career, this movie is definitely worth seeking out and worth savoring.