Love stories on screen are rarely simple. Sometimes they are tender and restrained. Sometimes they are obsessive, volatile, and destructive. And sometimes they are all of the above. This Valentine’s season, Kino Film Collection is celebrating love in every form, from sweeping romantic epics to cult nightmares where desire goes off the rails.
We are kicking off our Valentine’s playlist with The Kiss, a lush and emotionally charged period romance about compassion, guilt, and the thin line between love and pity. If your taste runs darker, you can also dive into our breakdown of Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, the ultimate toxic breakup movie, or surrender fully to the heat with our Cinematic Bodice Rippers collection, where sex and obsession take center stage.
Because on Kino Film Collection, love is never one-note. It is passionate, tragic, twisted, and, above all, unforgettable.
The Kiss (2022)
Based on Stefan Zweig's classic novel "Beware of Pity", The Kiss is set against the backdrop of 1913 Denmark on the eve of World War I. Cavalry officer in training Anton befriends the local Baron and meets his beautiful, wheelchair-bound daughter Edith. As they grow closer, Edith falls in love, while Anton questions whether his feelings are true or born of pity as the threat of war looms.
Possession (2020)
Banned upon its original release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s stunningly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other. Professional spy Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, in a role that earned her Best Actress at Cannes) insistent on a divorce. As Anna's frenzied behavior becomes ever more alarming, Mark discovers a truth far more sinister than his wildest suspicions. With its pulsating score, visceral imagery, and some of the most haunting performances ever captured on screen, Possession is cinematic delirium at its most intoxicating.
Camille Claudel (1988)
The biography of the iconic French sculptor Camille Claudel in a tale of love, betrayal and female empowerment. When her enthusiasm for the arts captures the attention of famed sculptor Auguste Rodin, he hires her as his assistant. Slowly, Camille develops sculpting proficiency of her own, but when her and Auguste's relationship becomes intimate, she struggles to escape from beneath his oppressive shadow. Starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu.
The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)
From Patrice Leconte, The Hairdresser’s Husband is a wildly erotic ode to wedded bliss. Starring the legendary Jean Rochefort and the incandescent Anna Galiena, it follows the life of young Antoine, who was obsessed with the bewitching beautician who cut his hair. As an adult, Antoine (Rochefort) meets a woman (Galiena) who seems to be the perfect incarnation of his childhood fantasies.
Yvonne's Perfume (1994)
From acclaimed director Patrice Leconte ("Girl on the Bridge"), Yvonne’s Perfume is a mysterious and romantic drama of desire. In the early 1950s, on the shores of a lake wedged between France and Switzerland, a trio of holiday travelers meet, clash, and fall in and out of friendship and love. Adapted from the novel "Ville Triste" by Nobel Prize-winner Patrick Modiano.
Swept Away (1974)
Set against the backdrop of the shimmering Mediterranean Sea, Swept Away is Lina Wertmüller’s (Seven Beauties) wildly controversial film about sex, love and politics. On an elegant yacht cruising off the coast of Sardinia, Raffaella (Mariangela Melato), a rich and stunning capitalist, enjoys tormenting Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini), a Communist sailor. Fate weaves a different scenario and roles become reversed when the two find themselves stranded together on a deserted island and Raffaella needs Gennarino’s survivalist skills in order to stay alive. Restored in 2024 from the original film negatives by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Minerva Pictures and Mediaset, carried out by L’Immagine Ritrovata.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959)
A provocative adaptation of the classic novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Updated to present-day France by director Roger Vadim, the film follows Valmont (Gérard Philipe) and Juliette (Jeanne Moreau) as they manipulate each other into having extra-marital affairs. Sex becomes sport in this deliciously backstabbing drama which notably features a score by jazz legend Thelonious Monk.
Whether you want romance that is soft and aching, or love that is obsessive and explosive, Kino Film Collection has it all. This Valentine’s season, start with The Kiss and explore the full spectrum of cinematic desire.