You have a very narrow understand of love. Yes it involves romance, it also involves togetherness, understand, compliance, faith, pleasure, gratitude, pride, awe and yes. it involves lust (despite your mockery of lust... It is not "mere*, it is a powerful aspect of love).
Love is not just the simplified, over romanticised emotion as depicted in old movies. Todays movies are far more representative of reality by not giving people false impressions and expectations.
Yeah?
So show me a movie (not rated G) that does NOT have the protagonists sexually involved with each other within three seconds of meeting?
Or for that matter, a "romance novel' that is only a short story if you skip the porn?
Unless you buy YA novels, and then you only have to skip one scene, but they talk about it all the time.
Unless you have someone going out to fight dragons in chain mail and faery swords....and even then you get it (or talk about it) if there are two protagonists, of whichever sex.
REAL LIFE is about more than lust, Christine. Really. It is. Today's movies are about as representative of 'reality' as unicorns.
The greeks had several different words for 'love,' and they all described different kinds of love....at least six (some say seven) and ONLY ONE OF THEM referred to sexual love, or lust. "eros." Then there is "philia,' or love of a friend...no sex. "Luda," or innocent playfulness...dancing, flirting...again, no actual sex, This would be, I think, where 'romance' comes in, in relationships (and old romance novels). "agape," spiritual love...love of everybody. "Pragma," or the sort of love that has 'stood the test of time.' The kind couples celebrating their 72nd wedding anniversary have. The kind of love that people have when they have made love 'work.' 'pilauta,' basically, self-esteem.
Please note: of all these forms of love (which most of us can recognize in our lives, I think,) only one involves sweaty bodies and stained sheets.
And I, for one, am sick and tired of the movies of today focusing only on 'eros' pretty much to the exclusion of all else.
Unless, of course, the movie is all about FX and blowing things up, and even then one can't get entirely away from it.
OK., you can all call me a prude now. Not that I AM, entirely, mind you. No fig leafs on statues for me. However, nobody can call today's movies classical....or even decent...art, and since they don't reflect reality, either...
Scuse me. I'm going to look for a movie where they don't do ANYTHING but blow things up. Or find a Disney princess and sing "I see the light" from Tangled. (that's 'luda,' btw)