We live in the era of innovation, a time in which every facet of our lives keeps evolving and improving all the time, phones are getting smarter, movies are now showing in 3D and most of the special effects and stunts are being done by computer as compared to the stunt doubles of yesteryear.

So who is to say that this column could not do with a little sprucing up? I have decided to launch the first of several top 10 editions, where I will be giving a run-down of the best movies from different genres or themes.

The first is a fan favourite and universal theme, which touches every genre of film whether it be science fiction, action, comedy or even drama.
So here are my Top 10 love stories in cinema.
10. When Harry Met Sally
Starting the countdown is the comedy classic, When Harry Met Sally, the film that seeks to explore the link between friendship and love. It tells the story of two completely opposite individuals, Harry and Sally, whose chance encounter on the road from Chicago to New York sets in motion a chain of events that sees the two go from complete strangers, friends to lovers.

Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again.
Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: “Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?” It stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystals and I would go as far as saying this film played a big role in my present day fascination with comedies. The power of this film lies in the lead actors’ powerful performances that managed to give an insight into the whole friends to lovers concept of relationship.
9. John Q

The general misconception about love in cinema is that most people believe that only the romantic type of love sells. However, the industry is full of stories of the love between families, friends and love for one’s neighbour or the Good Samaritan type of stories. Of the pack, John Q stands out for me as the story of John Quincy Archibald, the man who went to great lengths to ensure his son got the medical treatment, is a true testimony of the greatest love of them all (parental love).

John Quincy Archibald’s son Michael collapses while playing baseball and as a result is discovered to have had heart failure. John rushes Michael to a hospital emergency room where he is informed that Michael’s only hope is a transplant but he might not get it as his insurance won’t cover his son’s transplant.
Out of options, John Q takes the emergency room staff and patients hostage until hospital doctors agree to do the transplant. The power of this film lies in Denzel

Washington’s award-worthy performance as the title role, John Q, and most importantly how the film itself dramatised the loopholes within America health care system.
8. Notebook

No one ever forgets their first, that aspect is evident in both real life and the movies, but no film dramatises this aspect better than The Notebook, the story of a man whose love for his first saw him give up on life just to take care of her after she suffers from a memory lose caused by some unknown diseases.

The movie focuses on an old man reading a story to an old woman in a nursing home. The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who meet one evening at a carnival. But Allie’s parents, who disapprove of Noah’s poor family, and move Allie away, separate them.

After waiting for Noah to write her for several years, Allie meets and gets engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon. Allie, then, with her love for Noah still alive, stops by Noah’s 200-year-old home that he restored for her, “to see if he’s okay”. It is evident they still have feelings for each other, and Allie has to choose between her fiancé and her first love. — Movie synopses from IMBDb.
l To be continued