Katrina’s Saturday Six – Love Scenes

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re venturing into love scenes this week. Confession here, due to how this latest holiday contributed to squashing a budding relationship, it may just be my least favorite holiday at present. Too much pressure. Too much to go wrong. A co-worker pointed out it should really be called Single Awareness Day. So true.

Anyway, I’m letting it go. Moving on. Freely admitting that I still do love a good love scene. So here are my top six favorites. At least for today. Nearly all are quiet moments. Not necessarily steamy and electric, but subtle tender moments between two people.

OK, I know I keep citing Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie, in my top six picks, but I can’t help it. That first kiss between Cal and Min made me want to be her. She agrees to meet him at the park for a picnic and they’re sitting atop a table eating bratwurst. He’s mesmerized by how much she’s enjoying the forbidden delight. She balks when he tries to get her to eat a Krispy Kreme donut. She leans away and clamps her mouth shut when he tries to feed it to her. He pinches her nose (I know quite silly), and when she opens her mouth to protest he pops a piece of donut in. She shuts her eyes as the sugary treat melts in her mouth – frosting shimmers on her lips – and he can’t take it anymore. He leans in and kisses her. Of course, she kisses him back and there’s a moment where she asks for more and he thinks she means donut, but she means him. So fun. Jenny writes it so much more beautifully than my summation, but you get the idea.

From here I think I’m going to go to movies, because otherwise I’m going to mention more scenes from Crusie’s books and I think I should diversify a bit.

Do you remember that scene in Sound of Music, when Maria is outside on the patio with the children one evening? She’s trying to teach one of the boys a folk dance and the Captain comes out and cuts in. It’s a very quiet moment. It starts off somewhat platonic, but the movements are slow and the music soft. Romance descends on them. They’re both moved by it, neither one able to acknowledge what they feel. It gave me chills of the best kind.

I also love the scene in Jerry Maguire when Jerry takes Dorothy home after they’ve had an awkward dinner at a Mexican place. Anyway, he kisses her goodnight on her front porch. Soft and slow, then moves to brush a kiss on her neck, then lower. I just love that scene.

What about that moment from Say Anything when Lloyd is holding that boombox over his head outside her window? OK, so maybe that’s not a love scene, but I’m moved by his intensity every time I watch that scene.

In Notting Hill two scenes stand out to me. Anna goes to see Will in his shop, bringing him the original of a painting they both admired, and tries to apologize for how she’d treated him in the past. She reminds him that despite all the fame, she’s “really just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” Wow. Of course, he turns her down, which gives him the opportunity to have his own scene later. He crashes her press conference and makes a public confession in the form of a question in front of the entire British Press Corp, basically saying he was a “daft prick” and asking her to reconsider staying in London. I love the eye contact between the two in that scene. So much hope on both sides, then sweet relief as she agrees she’ll stay indefinitely.

Is that six yet? No? OK, I’m going to throw in another Crusie mention. In Getting Rid of Bradley, Lucy’s ex-husband left her for another woman, and Zack, a police officer, is protecting her while they track down someone who’s been shooting at her. I had to give you just a little background. The sexual tension has been building between them for days. He’s staying in her guest room in the attic and she’s trying to forget about him in her bedroom downstairs. Nothing works. Finally, quiet, proper, Lucy climbs the stairs dazed with desire for him. She’s afraid he’ll turn her down, but doesn’t care by this point. He hears the stairs creak and sits up, stunned. He tries to focus, as I recall, as she sits down on the bed and leans over to kiss him. It takes her two tries before he grabs on and kisses her back. The rest is, well a blur of sheets and passion and all sorts of fun stuff you’ll have to read on your own. I guess I love this scene because they’ve both been really drawn toward one another and fighting it for their own reasons, but underneath it all they need each other and definitely want each other and finally, with this scene, we’re all satisfied.

So, those are my six for this week. Not as thought provoking as Alyson’s picks, but they all give me a warm tingly feeling (among other things), and that’s always a good sign, right?

Katrina