4. Before Sunrise (1995)
Go ahead, name the best on-screen romances of the 90's. Claire Danes and Leo in Romeo + Juliet? please. Kate and Leo in Titanic?, keep going. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise, we have a winner! Richard Linklater's tale of two wayward European travelers only share one Kiss on-screen but convey the chemistry of two people that have known each other for decades. In any other Hollywood romance the two leads would share a few exchanges and innuendos, and then be in the sack together in the next shot. Here the two share an hour and forty minute conversation about life, thoughts and ideas akin to two friends meeting together for the first time in ages, as it should be. For this is a meeting of minds, in addition to two ships passing in the night. We want these two kids to be together, but we also realize the ending is bittersweet and appropriate. Perhaps it was too bittersweet and real for general audiences.