The Most Beautiful Movie Women

These cannot be rated in a numerical hierarchy because each is in its own way a unique perfection, analogous to real women. I will merely recall, subjectively, what were for me the most breathtaking, dazzling, inspiring, ecstasy-producing, euphoria-inducing, heart-piercing, dizzying portrayals of feminine splendor. 

Audrey Hepburn in A Roman Holiday.

Sophia Loren in El Cid

Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.

Olga Kurylenko in Into the Wonder.

Grace Kelley in any performance.

Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man.

Mary Lynn Remmele Laracy in My So-Called Life with Annoying Matthew.

Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games.

Anna Magnani in Rome, Open City.

Ginger Rogers whenever she dances with Fred Astaire..

Felicity Jones in Rogue One.

Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life.

Nicoletta Braschi in Life is Beautiful.

Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz.

Penelope Cruz in any role.

Scarlett Johansson in any performance.

Robin Wright in Princess Bride.

Brigid Bardot in any photo in her prime.

Emily Blunt in Sicario.

Meryl Streep in any performance.

Cher in Moonstruck.

Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl.

Angelina Jolie in Girl Interrupted.

Claudette Cobert in It Happened One Night.

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Baker Boys.

Claire Forlani in a movie I cannot remember.

Kim Novak in Vertigo.

Debra Winger in Officer and a Gentleman. 

Jane Fonda in Klute

Tess Harper in Tender Mercies.

Natalie Wood in West Side Story.

Kim Basinger in LA Confidential.

Lilly James in Mama Mia, Here We Go Again.

This list does not pretend to be exhaustive or objective. It is, however, accurate and authoritative. It is unlikely there lives on this earth a man who exceeds its author in appreciation for women. This is because his own ordinary virility, flawed and sinful, has been influenced by So much love from So many fine women:  his wife, mother, daughters, granddaughters, sisters, grandmothers, daughters-in-law, aunts, cousins, nieces, friends, religious nuns, colleagues, the thousands of young women he has taught and the hundreds of women he has welcomed into Magnificat Home. He met and spoke with both Mother Theresa and Dorothy Day. When it comes to women, he knows what he is talking about!

God of infinite, absolute splendor! Thank you for Women, the most beautiful of all your creations! 

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