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Best Romance Movies of the 1970s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
90 romance films from the 1970s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Annie Hall (1977), at 7.9 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.6. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Badlands, 7.7 on IMDb against 94 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annie Hall '1977 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.9 | 97% | 92 | 7.7 | Woody Allen |
| 2 | The King of the Street Cleaners '1977 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 8.5 | - | - | 7.8 | Zeki Ökten |
| 3 | The Last Picture Show '1971 | Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 98% | 93 | 7.6 | Peter Bogdanovich |
| 4 | Fiddler on the Roof '1971 | Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 81% | 67 | 7.7 | Norman Jewison |
| 5 | Manhattan '1979 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 93% | 83 | 7.7 | Woody Allen |
| 6 | A Woman Under the Influence '1974 | Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 88% | 88 | 7.7 | John Cassavetes |
| 7 | Harold and Maude '1971 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 86% | 62 | 7.6 | Hal Ashby |
| 8 | Cabaret '1972 | Musical / Romance / Drama | 7.8 | 92% | 80 | 7.4 | Bob Fosse |
| 9 | Ali: Fear Eats the Soul '1974 | Romance / Drama | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.7 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| 10 | Badlands '1973 | Drama / Romance / Crime | 7.7 | 97% | 94 | 7.4 | Terrence Malick |
| 11 | Scenes from a Marriage '1974 | Drama / Romance | 8.3 | - | - | 8.1 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 12 | A Special Day '1977 | Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 100% | - | 8.1 | Ettore Scola |
| 13 | Days of Heaven '1978 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 93% | 94 | 7.5 | Terrence Malick |
| 14 | The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! '1976 | Comedy / Romance | 8.0 | - | - | 7.3 | Eldar Ryazanov |
| 15 | Love and Death '1975 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | 89 | 7.5 | Woody Allen |
| 16 | That Obscure Object of Desire '1977 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 97% | 84 | 7.4 | Luis Buñuel |
| 17 | Office Romance '1977 | Comedy / Romance | 8.2 | - | - | 7.8 | Eldar Ryazanov |
| 18 | Play It Again, Sam '1972 | Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 97% | 77 | 7.5 | Herbert Ross |
| 19 | What's Up, Doc? '1972 | Comedy / Crime / Romance | 7.6 | 88% | 73 | 7.4 | Peter Bogdanovich |
| 20 | Only Old Men Are Going to Battle '1974 | War / Drama / Comedy / Romance | 8.2 | - | - | 7.9 | Leonid Bykov |
| 21 | Three Wishes for Cinderella '1973 | Fantasy / Romance | 7.6 | - | - | 7.5 | Václav Vorlíček |
| 22 | The Mother and the Whore '1973 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 94% | 89 | 7.3 | Jean Eustache |
| 23 | Love in the Afternoon '1972 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 87% | - | 7.3 | Éric Rohmer |
| 24 | Claire's Knee '1970 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 96% | - | 7.3 | Éric Rohmer |
| 25 | The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant '1972 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 85% | 73 | 7.4 | Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
| 26 | Ryan's Daughter '1970 | Romance / Drama | 7.4 | 47% | - | 7.1 | David Lean |
| 27 | Bed and Board '1970 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 75% | - | 7.1 | François Truffaut |
| 28 | Afonya '1975 | Drama / Comedy / Romance | 7.7 | - | - | 7.7 | Georgiy Daneliya |
| 29 | Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore '1974 | Romance / Drama | 7.3 | 92% | 78 | 7.0 | Martin Scorsese |
| 30 | Grease '1978 | Romance / Comedy | 7.2 | 65% | 70 | 7.4 | Randal Kleiser |
| 31 | A New Leaf '1971 | Comedy / Romance | 7.3 | 94% | - | 7.3 | Elaine May |
| 32 | The Things of Life '1970 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | - | - | 7.1 | Claude Sautet |
| 33 | Swept Away '1974 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 62% | 68 | 7.4 | Lina Wertmüller |
| 34 | The Goodbye Girl '1977 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 77% | 64 | 7.0 | Herbert Ross |
| 35 | A Swedish Love Story '1970 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 7.0 | Roy Andersson |
| 36 | Summer of '42 '1971 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 77% | 59 | 6.7 | Robert Mulligan |
| 37 | Max and the Junkmen '1971 | Crime / Romance | 7.3 | - | - | 7.1 | Claude Sautet |
| 38 | Tess '1979 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 81% | 82 | 7.1 | Roman Polanski |
| 39 | The Go-Between '1971 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 100% | - | 6.8 | Joseph Losey |
| 40 | Two English Girls '1971 | Drama / Romance | 7.2 | 89% | - | 6.9 | François Truffaut |
| 41 | The Magnificent One '1973 | Comedy / Romance / Action | 7.1 | - | - | 7.0 | Philippe de Broca |
| 42 | Turkish Delight '1973 | Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 86% | - | 6.9 | Paul Verhoeven |
| 43 | The Three Musketeers '1973 | Action / Romance | 7.1 | 90% | 77 | 6.7 | Richard Lester |
| 44 | The Panic in Needle Park '1971 | Drama / Romance / Crime | 7.1 | 79% | 74 | 6.8 | Jerry Schatzberg |
| 45 | Breezy '1973 | Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 63% | 68 | 6.8 | Clint Eastwood |
| 46 | Cesar and Rosalie '1972 | Romance / Drama | 7.3 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Claude Sautet |
| 47 | Conversation Piece '1974 | Drama / Romance | 7.3 | 83% | 64 | 7.3 | Luchino Visconti |
| 48 | A Drama of Jealousy (and other things) '1970 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.1 | - | - | 7.2 | Ettore Scola |
| 49 | The Way We Were '1973 | Drama / Romance | 7.0 | 65% | 61 | 7.0 | Sydney Pollack |
| 50 | Avanti! '1972 | Comedy / Romance | 7.1 | 79% | - | 6.9 | Billy Wilder |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1970s
Action of the 1970s Animation of the 1970s Comedy of the 1970s Crime of the 1970s Drama of the 1970s Fantasy of the 1970s Horror of the 1970s Mystery of the 1970s Sci-Fi of the 1970s Thriller of the 1970s War of the 1970s Western of the 1970s
Directors on this list
Woody Allen Peter Bogdanovich Norman Jewison John Cassavetes Hal Ashby Bob Fosse Rainer Werner Fassbinder Terrence Malick Ingmar Bergman Ettore Scola Eldar Ryazanov Luis Buñuel
Actors on this list
Diane Keaton Woody Allen Gena Rowlands Michael York Martin Sheen Sissy Spacek Liv Ullmann Erland Josephson Sophia Loren Marcello Mastroianni Richard Gere Fernando Rey