For all of Hollywood’s twinkling romanticism and sentimentality, there were directors who saw amorousness differently. Talents such as Billy Wilder managed to create twisted traditional love stories and occasionally found painful truths buried within. See Wilder’s hugely inventive and mischievous “Some Like It Hot” (1959) or the blackly comic “The Apartment” (1960). Hal Ashby’s cult oddity, “Harold and Maude” (1971), has, at its heart, a very unusual and sweet love story cemented by a twenty-something, who has an unhealthy obsession with death, and the free-spirited 79-year-old he falls for. The suppression of Harold and Maude’s intergenerational relationship— and their fight to overthrow it—raised eyebrows and makes the film compelling.

After viewing “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), the mere mention o f butter will probably make you think twice about spreading KCC on your toast. The film is Bernado Bertolluci’s ferociously erotic essay on scopophilia and the failings of desire and casual sex. Notable for its X-rating in a decade not short of breaking new boundaries, “Tango” is not for the faint hearted, and carries with it a bitter aftertaste.

Fast forward to Paul Thomas Anderson’s slice of lemon and lime that is “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002)—a divisive, irritating but beautifully-crafted look at the emotional tornado that is falling in love. Adam Sandler has never been better than when he plays Barry Egan, a shy, introverted man, whose love for the leading lady unleashes a hidden rage and passion that he had no idea existed. Anderson is his usual virtuoso self, forging unexpected plot twists, deliciously-dark writing, and characters who possess human frailties in droves.