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Are these really the '100 Greatest Love Stories of All Time'? So the American Film Institute would have us believe.

The American Film Institute (AFI) has revealed the 100 greatest love stories of all time, according to a poll carried out in conjunction with a television special.

Of all the films, Casablanca was the joint at number one. The 1942 wartime classic, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was followed by Gone With The Wind at number two, West Side Story in third position, Roman Holiday fourth and An Affair To Remember in fifth place.

The 100 most passionate films of all time were selected by a blue-ribbon panel from across the cinema industry, including directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, as well as critics, historians and film executives.

Classics

"Last year, AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills counted down America's most heart-pounding films and focused on how those films viscerally effect an audience," said AFI Director and CEO Jean Picker Firstenberg. "This year, AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions celebrates matters of the heart in a whole different way - more heartbreaks, heartaches and hearts bursting with love, rather than heart attacks and hearts in the throat. It's a wonderful and broad list of films and I hope this fifth instalment of AFI's centennial celebration of cinema will prompt people to watch these classics, either for the first time or the fortieth."

The final list of passionate films produced some interesting romantic movie facts:

Cary Grant is the most celebrated actor, starring in the six films in the top 100. Humphrey Bogart is next with five placings

The two Hepburns make up the stars of 11% of America's most loved love stories. Katharine stars in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, On Golden Pond, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year and The African Queen, while Audrey graces Two For The Road, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Breakfast At Tiffany's and My Fair Lady

Perhaps surprisingly, seven of AFI's top 10 greatest love stories feature couples that do not end up together in the end

The AFI countdown contains approximately 187 fights and 260 romantic clinches, proving that lovers quarrel, but more often than not – at least in the movies - they do make up!

So how does their list compare with your favourites?

And the winners are ...

1. Casablanca (1942)
2. Gone With The Wind (1939)
3. West Side Story (1961)
4. Roman Holiday (1953)
5. An Affair To Remember (1957)
6. The Way We Were (1973)
7. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
8. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
9. Love Story (1970)
10. City Lights (1931)
11. Annie Hall (1977)
12. My Fair Lady (1964)
13. Out Of Africa (1985)
14. The African Queen (1951)
15. Wuthering Heights (1939)
16. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
17. Moonstruck (1987)
18. Vertigo (1958)
19. Ghost (1990)
20. From Here To Eternity (1953)
21. Pretty Woman (1990)
22. On Golden Pond (1981)
23. Now, Voyager (1942)
24. King Kong (1933)
25. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
26. The Lady Eve (1941)
27. The Sound Of Music (1965)
28. The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
29. An Officer And A Gentleman (1982)
30. Swing Time (1936)
31. The King And I (1956)
32. Dark Victory (1939)
33. Camille (1937)
34. Beauty And The Beast (1991)
35. Gigi (1958)
36. Random Harvest (1942)
37. Titanic (1997)
38. It Happened One Night 1934
39. An American In Paris 1951
40. Ninotchka 1939
41. Funny Girl 1968
42. Anna Karenina 1935
43. A Star Is Born 1954
44. The Philadelphia Story 1940
45. Sleepless In Seattle 1993
46. To Catch A Thief 1955
47. Splendor In The Grass 1961
48. Last Tango In Paris 1972
49. The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946
50. Shakespeare In Love 1998
51. Bringing Up Baby 1938
52. The Graduate 1967
53. A Place In The Sun 1951
54. Sabrina 1954
55. Reds 1981
56. The English Patient 1996
57. Two For The Road 1967
58. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
59. Picnic 1955
60. To Have And Have Not 1944
61. Breakfast At Tiffany's 1961
62. The Apartment 1960
63. Sunrise 1927
64. Marty 1955
65. Bonnie And Clyde 1967
66. Manhattan 1979
67. A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
68. What's Up, Doc? 1972
69. Harold And Maude 1971
70. Sense And Sensibility 1995
71. Way Down East 1920
72. Roxanne 1987
73. The Ghost And Mrs. Muir 1947
74. Woman Of The Year 1942
75. The American President 1995
76. The Quiet Man 1952
77. The Awful Truth 1937
78. Coming Home 1978
79. Jezebel 1939
80. The Sheik 1921
81. The Goodbye Girl 1977
82. Witness 1985
83. Morocco (1930)
84. Double Indemnity (1944)
85. Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
86. Notorious (1946)
87. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (1988)
88. The Princess Bride (1987)
89. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
90. The Bridges Of Madison County (1995)
91. Working Girl (1988)
92. Porgy And Bess (1959)
93. Dirty Dancing (1987)
94. Body Heat (1981)
95. Lady And The Tramp (1955)
96. Barefoot In The Park (1967)
97. Grease (1978)
98. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1939)
99. Pillow Talk (1959)
100. Jerry Maguire (1996)

No A Matter of Life and Death though, Before Sunset/Before Sunrise or Cyrano De Bergerac come to that (despite the risible Steve Martin 'homage' Roxanne from 1987 showing up - and as for Jerry Maguire placing at all - a case of read them and weep from where we're sat...

See also on Lifestyle:

Best Music Biopics? - The top ten music biopics of all time - did your favourite make the list?

British Film Institute/Sight & Sound 'best films of all time' list.

Smooch In The Surf - From Here to Eternity boasts UK’s favourite on-screen kiss.

The Best of Battle? - Veterans have voted The Longest Day the best war film ever made.

The American Film Institute is an organisation dedicated to advancing and preserving the art of film, television and other forms of the moving image, it works to train the next generation of filmmakers, co-ordinates nationwide film preservation efforts and explores new technologies in movie making.

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