Summertime: dir David Lean (1955)

David Lean’s lush love letter to Venice was his personal favourite among his own films. A sublimely bittersweet tale of romantic longing, it also has Katharine Hepburn at her best, portraying the conflicting emotions in a lonely, middle-aged American tourist forced to confront her insecurities when she is drawn into a seemingly impossible affair with a charming Italian shopkeeper (Rossano Brazzi); the result isan exquisitely tender evocation of the magic and melancholy of a fleeting, not-quite-fairytale romance. This is a classic Cinema Space pick, and very highly recommended.