Film

The Affair

Name: The Affair
Genre: Drama, Romance, TV Movie
Released: 1973
Cast: Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Bruce Davison, Jamie Smith-Jackson, Pat Harrington Jr.

Other titles called The Affair: the 2014 series (Paramount+ with Showtime).

A 1973 romantic drama built on an unlikely connection between a disabled woman composer and an older lawyer. Intimate, character-driven, and uninterested in easy resolutions, it's a quietly serious film about desire, vulnerability, and the friction between what we want and what the world permits us to have. For viewers drawn to nuanced romantic storytelling over plot.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like quiet, grown-up romances where two people circle each other slowly and the emotional stakes come from small, honest conversations rather than plot machinery.

Skip it if you need a tightly plotted story; this is a modest made-for-television film, so its pace stays unhurried and its drama remains small in scale.

What it asks of you: Little more than an hour, it sits with its characters in long unhurried scenes, so it rewards patience and a willingness to let quiet moments carry the weight.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Marty1955

A tender, unglamorous portrait of loneliness and unexpected tenderness between ordinary people. Focused entirely on character and the quiet joy of being truly seen by another person. Deeply moving without sentimentality.

But The pacing is deliberate and the stakes feel small by modern standards. If you need momentum or external conflict, you'll find it slow.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore1974

Ellen Burstyn plays a woman rebuilding her life after loss, with surprising romantic complexity and genuine sexual agency. Scorsese brings unflinching emotional honesty to a story about desire and autonomy that refuses easy answers.

But It's fragmented and messy by design—the narrative doesn't tie up neatly, and some viewers find that frustrating rather than liberating.

Summer of '421971

A wistful, beautifully shot film about the intensity of desire and the moment when fantasy collides with reality. It captures longing with rare tenderness and treats its young protagonist with genuine dignity.

But The age dynamic will make modern viewers uncomfortable, and the film doesn't interrogate it the way contemporary work would. It's a period piece in more ways than era.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Affair

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Notes on a Scandal2006

Both films center on relationships marked by power imbalance and social prohibition, and both insist on treating the desire itself as real and complicated rather than dismissing it. Neither offers redemption.

Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench in a film about desire that arrives late, arrives wrong, and refuses to offer moral comfort. It's a psychologically astute examination of forbidden attraction told with dark wit and real consequences.

But The transgressive content is deliberately uncomfortable. This is not a romance; it's an anatomy of how desire can become pathology. Approach with caution.

Barefoot in the Park1967

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda negotiate the gap between romance and reality in a marriage's first year. Funny, sensual, and surprisingly astute about what couples actually argue about beneath the surface.

But The New York apartment-comedy gloss means it's lighter in texture than serious romantic drama. Some find it slight.

Rachel, Rachel1968

Joanne Woodward as a woman experiencing her first love affair late in life, shot with genuine intimacy. The film honors her sexuality and agency without judgment, a radical move for its era.

But It's deliberately quiet and interior. The emotional payoffs require patience and attention to small moments.

Sunday Bloody Sunday1971

Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch navigate a love triangle with sophistication and adult realism. It's candid about desire, class, and the impossibility of getting everything you want. Genuinely bold for 1971.

But The lack of resolution bothers some viewers. There's no cathartic ending, just the ongoing ache of compromise.

The Pawnbroker1965

A masterclass in using emotional distance to convey trauma and loneliness. Rod Steiger gives a performance of devastating restraint. The film understands how grief erases romantic possibility.

But It's bleak and austere. The Holocaust context and themes of loss make it heavy going, not evening entertainment.

Shirley Valentine1989

Pauline Collins as a woman discovering desire and agency in middle age. Joyful and romantic without being naive about the costs of conformity. Funny and touching in equal measure.

But The tonal shift toward fantasy undercuts the realism some viewers came for. It's more feel-good than the earlier films on this list.

The Go-Between1971

Joseph Losey's lush, formally precise film about desire and class collision in Edwardian England. It's sensual and melancholic, aware that some loves are doomed by circumstance before they begin.

But The narrative framing and period distance make it less immediately engaging. Some find it more beautiful than moving.

Utamaro and His Five Women1946

A period romance structured around the impossibility of genuine connection despite mutual attraction. Both films suggest that some loves are beautiful precisely because they cannot be consummated.

Kenji Mizoguchi's exquisite Japanese film about art, longing, and the collision between aesthetic beauty and human cost. Visually sumptuous, emotionally precise, meditative on how we love across gaps of circumstance and status.

But It's in Japanese with subtitles, shot in black and white, and moves at a pace that demands surrender. The narrative is elliptical; plot synopsis misses the point entirely.

The Naked Civil Servant1975

Both use a romantic or sexual relationship as the vehicle for exploring what it means to be seen and accepted despite social interdiction. Both center on an older figure and treat their desire with surprising respect.

John Hurt's performance as Quentin Crisp is staggering—a portrait of a man insisting on desire and authenticity in a world determined to criminalize both. Tender, defiant, and utterly unsentimental about vulnerability and longing.

But It contains frank discussions of homosexuality and sex in a 1970s British context. Some scenes are deliberately confrontational. The tone shifts between comedy and genuine cruelty.