The Best Love Triangles In Movies

Love triangles have been a favorite storytelling device throughout history: Greek mythology features many triangles (Dionysus, Ariadne, and Theseus or Oedipus and his parents, according to Freud) as well as squares, pentagons, and octagons (the Greeks got around). Shakespeare popularized triangles in "Romeo and Juliet" (with Romeo, Juliet, and Paris), and who would the Knights of the Round Table be without the triangulated drama of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot?

It's only natural that film would follow suit, which it did from the beginning. For many viewers, love triangles have proven to be as captivating and alluring — if not more so — than a two-person love story. After all, when adjusted for inflation, some of the highest-grossing movies of all time center around love triangles, including "Gone With the Wind," "Titanic," and "Doctor Zhivago." The power of love triangles is the tension as they combine envy, desire, and longing; they're often pulsating with anticipation as the relationship between looking and being looked at changes based on the subject. They can be sources of comedy and hijinks as much as sadness and drama, so read on to find out the best love triangles in film.

George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story" turned Katharine Hepburn from "box office poison" into a bona fide star and queen of the love triangle. Based on Philip Barry's 1939 play, the film follows Tracy (Hepburn), a socialite whose wedding hits a snag when her ex-husband Dex (Cary Grant) and a nosy tabloid reporter, Mike (Jimmy Stewart), both show up for the event. Tracy finds herself caught between two (well, really three) men who all represent something different: Dex is the past, Mike is the here and now present, and her fiance, George (John Howard) is the future.

While audiences were taken on the dizzying ride of the Katharine Hepburn-Cary Grant rollercoaster in 1938's "Bringing Up Baby," "The Philadelphia Story" gives these two greats a new type of dynamic and energy as Hepburn alternates between Grant and Stewart. Ultimately, she's the linchpin of the film as Tracy — an independent, fierce woman with a tightly-fashioned social mask –- becomes the focal point for the other characters. At one point, Tracy declares, "I don't want to be worshiped. I want to be loved," and this sentiment drives the film forward. Tracy is caught between men who look at her constantly but the question is, do they actually see her and who might they find under that mask? In Hepburn, Grant and Stewart's brilliant hands, the answer to this question becomes at once hilarious and heartbreaking, making this one of the best love triangles in film history.

While for many, Audrey Hepburn has become an image of high class and elegance, some of her most famous characters are from a lower social echelon and make their way up, as seen in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "My Fair Lady." Such is the case with Sabrina Fairchild in Billy Wilder's "Sabrina," a film about a woman caught between two entitled brothers. Hepburn plays Sabrina, the daughter of the chauffeur of the wealthy Larrabee brothers, Linus (Humphrey Bogart) and David (William Holden). Playboy David has a thing for Sabrina, particularly after she goes off to Paris and returns a "changed" woman, but her working class status isn't desirable to Linus and David's father. So Linus is enlisted to keep Sabrina from David long enough for him to marry a woman of a more "acceptable" social standing, and a love triangle is born.

Billy Wilder, known for comedies like "Sunset Boulevard" and "Some Like It Hot," brings his magic touch to "Sabrina," a film filled with charm, wit, and commentary on class disparities. Of course, much of the magic lies in the power of Audrey Hepburn, who navigates this romance and the obstacles in her way as deftly and charmingly as only she can. While Sabrina initially only has eyes for David, she finds herself drawn towards the closed-off Linus; the two learn to open up together, which makes for one of the more delightful rom-com love triangles on the big screen.

Since its 1967 release, Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" has become a cultural touchstone, spawning endless spoofs, fantasies, and echoes of its often misquoted central question: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" The film tells the story of Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman in his breakout role), a lost 21-year-old college graduate who's searching for guidance. He finds it in the form of Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), who's married to his father's business partner and introduces Benjamin into the ways of the adult world. Things get complicated when Benjamin falls for Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), and finds himself torn between the two.

"The Graduate" was an immediate success, becoming the highest-grossing film worldwide of 1967. Dustin Hoffman became a star, millions still sing along to Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," and it ushered in a new era of American filmmaking by combining the European arthouse style with a Hollywood commercial appeal. Benjamin marks a moment of transition in American history –- the shedding of the old to let in the new, as seen in the civil rights movement and sexual revolution –- and this is at the heart of his dilemma. Mrs. Robinson is from the past while Elaine represents the future. This is the choice that Benjamin must make, one that resonated with audiences across the board and continues to do so today.

Jane Campion's 1993 classic "The Piano" is a 1880s period piece that focuses on Ada (Holly Hunter), a Scottish woman who's sold into marriage with Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill), a violent New Zealand frontiersman. Mute for reasons that aren't even clear to her, Ada deploys her young daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin), as her interpreter as Ada communicates both with sign language and through playing the piano. Ada meets George Baines (Harvey Keitel), a free spirit who enlists her help in learning the piano. Ada gets caught between these two men, both of whom threaten her independence and sense of self in various ways, and struggles to hold onto herself and her piano in the wilderness of this new land.

"The Piano" launched Jane Campion to international recognition, as she became the first woman to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and only the second woman in history to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar (and currently the only one to be nominated twice). The film stands out for its beauty, silence, and space as it brings viewers into Ada's world. It's not a world defined by the men in it; the more they try to take control, the more she has to find a space for herself between them, making this one of the more powerful love triangles on screen. 

While love triangles certainly lend themselves to a dramatic space, they also fit right into the world of rom-coms as they can be a source of love, hijinks, and misunderstandings. Sharon Maguire's "Bridget Jones's Diary," based on Helen Fielding's novel of the same name (and loosely adapted from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"), centers around Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger), who's either powerlessly chaotic or powerfully anti-establishment (regarding femininity at least), depending on who you ask. Bridget loves to drink and smoke and also struggles both with her weight and loneliness as she pines for her promiscuous and sexist boss, Daniel (Hugh Grant), while also developing feelings for the condescending but somewhat kinder Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

"Bridget Jones's Diary" was a critical and commercial success, garnering an Oscar nomination for Zellweger and grossing $282 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. It spawned a franchise as viewers were anxious to see what, exactly, Bridget would be documenting in her diary about her funny, messy life. Daniel and Mark seem to be total opposites -– one is a careless playboy while the other is a seeming "nice guy" — but they're both cut from the same misogynistic cloth as neither initially sees Bridget as a "good enough" woman by their standards. Luckily, this is really Bridget's movie, and Zellweger infuses her with enough compassion and humor to navigate the chaos around her (which, to be fair, she often creates).

Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Dreamers" takes place in Paris in 1968 and follows Matthew (Michael Pitt), an American student who crashes at the apartment of bohemian twins, Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green). Théo and Isabelle live in their own private world with secret games and languages, which they share with Matthew, who is surprised to find that the twins have few boundaries with each other. Matthew starts dating Isabelle, but gets caught in the politics of her and her brother and finds himself drawn to Théo as well. Their bubble gets burst with the return of Théo and Isabelle's parents, as well as the beginning of the Paris student protests, which ends their dream once and for all.

"The Dreamers" is classic Bertolucci in that it's both seductive and shocking. The film captures both the wistful beauty of a bygone time (in its dreamy cinematography and focus on the French New Wave films that bring the characters together) and the provocative nature of this homoerotic, incestuous love triangle that perhaps speaks to the revolutionary spirit of the time in which rules only existed to be broken. While the love triangle of this film is between Matthew, Isabelle and Théo, there's another presence as well: "The Dreamers" incorporates clips and sounds from all the films that these characters love and integrate into their fantasy lives — which often blur into reality. 

While Yorgos Lanthimos became known as an avant-garde director with films like "Dogtooth" and "The Lobster," his most commercial film, "The Favourite," takes a more classic storytelling approach with its focus on an 18th-century lesbian love triangle. At the center is Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), a sickly woman who is grieving the loss of her children. Sarah (Rachel Weisz) is the queen's secret paramour and also the secret driving force of political decisions, who finds herself suddenly in competition with her cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), who also vies for Queen Anne's affections and favoritism. Both women need the queen for their own political gain and struggle to out-scheme and out-manipulate each other — and Anne — to maintain their power.

Politics certainly lends itself to the complex machinations of a love triangle and "The Favourite" makes use of that as it follows the various shifts of the relationships between Anne and Sarah, Anne and Abigail, and Abigail and Sarah. Underneath the political intrigue lie deeper emotions -– Sarah's bossiness and hard social mask belie her feelings and love for Anne, while Abigail's calculated steps cover her loneliness and real need as a woman trying to find some freedom and power in a world that offers her limited options. The love triangle resonated with audiences and critics as the film was nominated for 10 Oscars, garnered a win for Olivia Colman (who gave one of the best Oscar speeches ever), and made $96 million worldwide off a $15 million budget.

Angela Robinson's "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" is surprising for many reasons, not least of which is its positive portrayal of a healthy, polyamorous love triangle. Based on a true story, this 2017 film centers around the psychologist William Moulton Marston, who created Wonder Woman. Any fan of Wonder Woman knows that the imagery around this character can read as BDSM-inspired, while her backstory of growing up in a land of women can seem surprisingly progressive and matriarchal. As told in "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women," all of these inspirations came from the real life of Moulton (Luke Evans), who is married to Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), also a psychologist and his colleague. The two of them start working with Olive (Bella Heathcote), a research assistant, and soon, both William and Elizabeth have fallen for Olive.

Robinson is an openly lesbian director whose earlier films like "D.E.B.S." explore queerness. In her hands, "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" paints a picture of a love triangle that is open and willing to find a space that fits. Oftentimes, the tension of love triangles comes from the fact that a triangle cannot fit in the space between two people but William, Elizabeth, and Olive decide to find a new space instead. It's all the more surprising considering that they begin this relationship in the 1920s, it continues on until the 1980s, and in the end, all three characters choose themselves and each other.