"And to think... I couldn't see into this heart I knew so well, and see that it was sacrificing itself for me. No good can come to either of us without the other - I know that now."

When I was a kid, one of my favorite movies was Annie. There's this neat little scene towards the middle of the film where the fantastically wealthy Mr. Warbucks rents a Manhattan movie theater for a night and takes his charge, Annie (of "Little Orphan" fame), and his dedicated secretary, Grace Farrell (think Depression-era Pepper Potts), to a private showing of a new film. We're treated to the opening scene and then the climax of that movie-within-a-movie (for those of you keeping score, the term for this is an "embedded narrative"). In the shots that cut back to Annie's main characters, the little orphan is entranced, Grace is in tears, and Warbucks, the no-nonsense captain of industry, is flustered and embarrassed by all these shows of (*gasp*) emotion. He's particularly appalled that Grace weeps openly when the dashing movie hero's lover dies in his arms as he calls out, "Marguerite, come back! Come back!"
I just finished watching this movie, 1936's Camille, and I'm telling you what, if you don't go through at least three hankies when Robert Taylor cries over Dead Greta Garbo, you have no heart. I'm serious. Go to your doctor immediately, because there's a giant vacant place in your chest cavity. Greta Garbo is, of course, amazing; also, Robert Taylor?

Maybe I'm just old school, but I think he broods a hundred times more compellingly than Robert Pattinson does, and he's got much better hair.
Both Camille and another favorite of mine, La Traviata (the Verdi opera as filmed by Zeferelli), are based on the same source, Alexandre Dumas fils' La Dame aux Camélias . (Incidentally, Dumas fils was the illegitimate son of Alexendre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, etc.) A more recent adaptation is the visual smorgasbord that is Moulin Rouge!, the Baz Lurhmann flick with Nicole Kidman (one of her best roles, honestly) and Ewan McGregor (swoon) - and the "Come What May" scenes in Moulin Rouge! rival Camille for inducing tears in the female of the species (this one, at least).