What is love? Now, baby, don’t hurt me when I say this, but this writer doesn’t believe there’s any one definition suitable for all romance. And neither does Austin Film Society, if we’re going by programmers Jazmyne Moreno and Lars Nilsen’s picks for their Love Month series.
The six-movie-long series goes beyond just Feb. 14, stretching out from the 3rd to 24th. Moreno and Nilsen emphasize their cinematic choices as nontraditional and connected to Austin – and arthouse – sensibilities. “Love should never be greeting-card love” was Nilsen’s reasoning behind the series’ more off-kilter picks, which includes the throuple theatre of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (Feb. 12-19). Likening romance overall to being “punched in the face over and over again,” Nilsen remarked that even if it is a strange date-night pick, this Dreamers screening is a new restoration. How better to impress your lover than a high-quality picture? “[That’s] a love that’s going to last,” Moreno remarked. Bringing fresh films to the Valentine’s movie-date canon brought out in both programmers a playful if passionate side – such as their inclusion of Michael Haneke’s harrowing Isabelle Huppert vehicle The Piano Teacher (Feb. 22 & 23). Initially, Nilsen suggested New Zealander Jane Campion’s The Piano but when Moreno bounced back Piano Teacher, he jumped right on board. “A funny gag,” Nilsen recalled saying before landing on “Actually? Yeah!”
“If you watch a film on a first date,” Nilsen said, “the act of going together is romantic.”
But not everyone wants to go off the cinematic deep end for their romantic endeavors. Not necessarily mainstream but definitely more amenable to most people’s taste is Jûzô Itami’s ramen romance Tampopo (Feb. 10-16), which featured on Everything Everywhere All at Once co-director Daniel Scheinert’s 2022 Sight & Sound list. Viewers can also find love courtside in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s debut film Love & Basketball (in 35mm, Jan. 31 & Feb. 3), an as-of-2023 addition to the U.S. National Film Registry. Moreno also declared sapphic coming-of-age classic The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love (Feb. 20 & 23) to be “sweet as can be” – although, fun fact, its writer/director confessed to Cineaste after the movie’s premiere that she’d first written it as a dark teen drama.
Perhaps the most normal film on the lineup, according to Nilsen, is 1942’s I Married a Witch (Feb. 22-24). French-born filmmaker René Clair’s fantasy flick stars the beautiful Veronica Lake lightly torturing her love interest Fredric March after his ancestors burned her spell-casting foremothers at the stake. Perhaps not the “greeting-card love” the programmer derided, but there’s much comfort to be taken in a classic romantic comedy that’ll please a persnickety partner.
“These are all films that are romantic to someone,” Moreno said of Love Month’s offerings. Though she doesn’t admit to her and Nilsen’s picks following any thematic through line, Moreno does consider most good romance to have a central “longing for something.” These pictures, then, epitomize “reaching beyond yourself for love,” she said, and having romantic success be “tangible for a fleeting moment.”
Both Nilsen and Moreno are clear about one overarching Love Month truth: It’s for everyone, even single people. “It takes all kinds,” Nielsen said. “You’re welcome to come by yourself.”
Love Month
February 3 – 24, AFS Cinema
austinfilm.org/series/love-month
This article appears in January 31 • 2025.
