Fallen Angels and 4 Other Best Crime Melodramas That Mix Romance and Investigation
Works in which crime is intertwined with feelings and love.
It was believed that a real thriller or detective story should avoid a romantic line, because there is no place for love in a serious story. But courageous directors changed this idea.
Melodramatic detectives showed that many cases cannot be solved by the rational mind alone.
1. The Apartment, 1996
Two years ago, the love of Max's life suddenly disappeared without leaving a note or a new address. He tries to rebuild his life: finds a good job, and proposes to a new girlfriend.
On the eve of a business trip to Tokyo, Max recognizes in the stranger the features of his former love, but she eludes him again, just as she did several years ago. Forgetting both his flight and his fiancée, he sets out to find Lisa.
Instead of a criminal case – a runaway love, instead of a detective – a desperate romantic. The plot is built on the characters' elusive, unfulfilled encounters, ghostly hopes and distant memories.
2. Dream, 2008
Jin has very realistic dreams. In one of them, he gets into a car accident and when he wakes up, goes to the scene. There he sees a girl, Ran, who got into an accident due to a somnambulistic attack.
When the characters meet, it turns out that all the man's dreams are coming true in the woman's life. The wise psychic tells the two that the mystical curse can only be lifted if Jin and Ran fall in love.
3. Vertigo, 1958
Scottie Ferguson is a former detective who suffers from acrophobia, a pathological fear of heights accompanied by vertigo. Many years ago, his partner died after falling from a roof.
Although Scottie is innocent of what happened, the painful memories continue to haunt him. Now his former colleague Gavin hires him as a private investigator to track down his wife Madeleine.
According to Gavin, the woman is possessed by the ghost of her distant relative. The rational Scottie gradually begins to believe in the mystical story and tries to understand the nature of Madeleine's strange states.
4. Eyes Wide Shut, 1999
The head of the Harford family spends his days at a respectable job and his evenings at social events with his wife Alice. But behind this beautiful facade lie secret fantasies and painful fears that develop into paranoia.
Alice confesses her attraction to another man, which happened many years ago but still excites her. Stung by jealousy, Bill plunges into the world of his desires and finds himself caught up in a mystical cult.
Stanley Kubrick's last film experiments with a mix of detective and romance, hiding the intrigue in the relationship between the spouses. The detective and melodramatic plots are inseparable, their common denominator being the dark underbelly of a decent marriage.
5. Fallen Angels, 1995
The plot is based on two love stories. In the first, the killer's partner, who is covering his tracks, falls in love with her colleague and plunges into the torments of love.
In the second, a mute who has escaped from prison falls in love with a girl he meets by chance on the street. The first couple is associated with the impossibility of expressing feelings, their relationship is shrouded in tragedy because of this understatement.
The interactions of the characters of the second couple, on the other hand, become the basis of a subtle comedy, more touching than sad.