Romance from the 1970s: the best movies
24 romance films from the 1970s, ranked by audience rating. The best of the decade, and it still holds up tonight. Updated 25 September 2026
A Special Day leads with 8.1 out of 10, ahead of Scenes from a Marriage (8). Ratings range from 7.4 to 8.1. All were released between 1971 and 1979.
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A Special Day
Two neighbours — a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife — forge a strong bond on the day of Adolf Hitler's historic 1938 visit to Rome.
Scenes from a Marriage
Johan and Marianne are married and seem to have it all. Their happiness, however, is a façade for a troubled relationship, which becomes even rockier when Johan admits that he's having an affair. Before long, the spouses separate and move towards finalizing their divorce, but they make attempts at reconciling. Even as they pursue other relationships, Johan and Marianne realize that they have a significant bond, but also many issues that hinder that connection.
Office Romance
Anatoly Novoseltsev is a mousy single father and office stumblebum working at a statistics bureau in Moscow. In the hopes of being promoted, he is coaxed into charming his disagreeable and seemingly unfeeling boss, Ludmila Kalugina, or "Meany" as she's otherwise known by her subordinates. Helped by his colleagues Olya and Yura, Anatoly attempts to ease the yoke of Ms. Kalugina, and what follows in the wake of his graceless manoeuvres is completely unforeseen, as he awakens a side to her not yet known, even to herself..
A Woman Under the Influence
Mabel Longhetti, desperate and lonely, is married to a Los Angeles municipal construction worker, Nick. Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile behavior convinces Nick that she poses a danger to their family and decides to commit her to an institution for six months. Alone with a trio of kids to raise on his own, he awaits her return, which holds more than a few surprises.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.
Fiddler on the Roof
In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.
Afonya
Afonya Borshev is a plumber who drinks a lot, flirts a lot and doesn't care too much about tomorrow. His wife left him, his boss placed him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. When Afonya met Katya at a dance club he didn't pay her much attention, yet she may be the only one who can help him.
Annie Hall
New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.
Manhattan
Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
The Last Picture Show
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
Harold and Maude
A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.
Indian Summer
In Italy, the gambler and professor of poetry Daniele Dominici arrives in the seaside town of Rimini and is hired to teach for four months in the local high school replacing another teacher. His relationship with his partner Monica is in crisis and he spends most of the time with his new acquaintances and gamblers Giorgio, Marcello and Gerardo. In classroom, he meets the gorgeous nineteen years old student Vanina Abati, who is Gerardo's girlfriend.
Days of Heaven
In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.
Three Wishes for Cinderella
Popelka, a resourceful and independent young girl, is a servant in her stepmother's house and confides in her closest friend the owl. When she comes across three magical acorns, she's granted a single wish for each one of them.
Badlands
An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.
Love and Death
In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
That Obscure Object of Desire
After dumping a bucket of water on a beautiful young woman from the window of a train car, wealthy Frenchman Mathieu, regales his fellow passengers with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between himself and the young woman in question, a fiery 19-year-old flamenco dancer named Conchita. What follows is a tale of cruelty, depravity and lies -- the very building blocks of love.
Play It Again, Sam
A neurotic film critic obsessed with the movie Casablanca attempts to get over his wife leaving him by dating again with the help of a married couple and his illusory idol, Humphrey Bogart.
Cabaret
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.
Swept Away
A wealthy woman's yachting holiday with friends in the Mediterranean Sea takes an unexpected turn when she and one of the boat's crew are stranded on a desert island. Her capitalist beliefs and his communist convictions clash, but during their struggle to survive, social roles are reversed and heated passions come alive.
What's Up, Doc?
The accidental mix-up of four identical plaid overnight bags leads to a series of increasingly wild and wacky situations.
Grease
Australian good girl Sandy and greaser Danny fell in love over the summer. But when they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance despite their eccentric friends?
Conversation Piece
A retired professor of American origin lives a solitary life in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. He is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her lover, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, and forced to rent to them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. From this point on his quiet routine is turned into chaos by his tenants' machinations, and everybody's life takes an unexpected but inevitable turn.
What to know before choosing
Romance is the genre most dependent on mood: the same film on two different evenings does not give the same evening. That is exactly what the Taro eira questionnaire is for, and why the by-mood list often beats this one. Ratings in the genre cluster towards the middle — romance divides few people and pleases many moderately, which is information in itself.
The 1970s are the most densely well-rated decade in the catalogue, and that owes less to the genius of the era than to the sieve of time: only films that survived fifty years are still offered and still rated. What you see here is not the cinema of the 1970s, it is what remains of it — which is exactly what you want when choosing a film for tonight.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalogue, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
A Special Day (1977), with 8.1 out of 10 from 791 audience votes.
Where can I watch these films?
Taro eira shows, film by film, which platforms carry it in the UK and at what price — subscription, rental or purchase. The per-platform lists are further down this page.
How often does this list change?
It is recomputed every day. Ratings move slowly, catalogues move fast: availability is what mostly pushes titles in and out.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- Romance
- Romance from the 2020s
- Romance from the 2010s
- Romance from the 2000s
- Romance from the 1990s
- Romance from the 1980s
- Romance before 1970
- Action from the 1970s
- Adventure from the 1970s
- Animation from the 1970s
- Comedy from the 1970s
- Crime from the 1970s
- Documentary from the 1970s
- Drama from the 1970s
- Family from the 1970s
- Fantasy from the 1970s
- Biopic from the 1970s
- Horror from the 1970s
- Musical from the 1970s
- Sci-fi from the 1970s
- Thriller from the 1970s
- War from the 1970s
- Western from the 1970s
How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalogue, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.