Best movies like Despair
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Germany in the early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise, Hermann Hermann, a Russian émigré and chocolate magnate, goes slowly mad. It begins with his seating himself in a chair to observe himself making love to his wife, Lydia, a zaftig empty-headed siren who is also sleeping with her cousin. Hermann is soon given to intemperate outbursts at his workers, other businessmen, and strangers. Then, he meets Felix, an itinerant laborer, whom he delusionally believes looks exactly like himself. Armed with a new life insurance policy, he hatches an elaborate plot in the belief it will free him of all his worries.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, neo noir, surreal, avant garde, art house, aesthetic, psychological, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Despair (1978):
Similar in 80%
The Eternal Road (2017)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events an epic story of one man's struggle for survival. Jussi Ketola, returns to Finland from the great depression struck America only to face growing political unrest. One summer night of 1930, nationalist thugs violently abduct Ketola from his home. Beaten and forced to walk the Eternal Road towards a foreign Soviet Russia, where cruelty seems to know no end, his only dream is to return to his family cost it what it may. Hope dies last.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Finland, Estonia, Sweden
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, tense, rough, thought provoking, suspenseful, touching
Similar in 83%
The Gang of Oss (2011)
Plot Summary:
Johanna wants to change her life and quit the criminal gangs of the town of Oss in the 30ties of the 20th century. The harder she tries, the more she is involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, captivating, realistic
Similar in 76%
Signs of Life (1968)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, three German soldiers are withdrawn from combat when one of them, Stroszek, is wounded. They are assigned to a small coastal community on the Greek island of Kos while Stroszek recuperates. The men become increasingly stir crazy in their uneventful new assignment. Stroszek eventually goes mad.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, serious, realistic, black and white, avant garde
Similar in 80%
Heartbeat Detector (2007)
Plot Summary:
A psychologist discovers troubling links between Nazism and modern-day big business.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Music, War
Country: France
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surreal, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Effi Briest (1974)
Plot Summary:
A German-made film based on one of the most famous German novels by Theodor Fontane. Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla) is a socially ambitious, 17-year-old German girl who accepts a proposal of marriage from Baron Geert Von Instetten, a much older diplomat. Unfortunately, neither the Baron's family nor anyone in the secluded town she now calls home accept Effi as an equal. Starved for companionship, Effi begins an innocent friendship with a well-known womanizer that may jeopardize her position as the Baron's wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: art house, black and white, postmodern, costume drama, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Germany Pale Mother (1980)
Plot Summary:
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: art house, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, semi autobiographical, fairy tale, masterpiece
Similar in 90%
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
Plot Summary:
The American architect Kracklite arrives in Italy, supervising an exhibiton for a French architect, Boullée, famous for his oval structures. Tirelessly dedicated to the project, Kracklite's marriage quickly dissolves along with his health.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: art house, talky, sexual, aesthetic, psychological, mind bending, clever, offbeat, experimental, witty
Similar in 77%
Heart of Glass (1976)
Plot Summary:
A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house, disturbing, experimental, allegory, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, psychological, serious
Similar in 84%
The Stationmaster's Wife (1977)
Plot Summary:
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town's siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 780
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 201 min
Plot tags: avant garde, art house, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 81%
The Spectator (2004)
Plot Summary:
Valeria is a passive onlooker to her own life in Turin, and she grows so obsessed with the activities of her neighbor Massimo that when he moves to Rome she decides to follow him. There she meets and unexpectedly befriends Massimo's companion Flavia, and becomes enmeshed in both of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 495
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Servant (1963)
Plot Summary:
A decadent London aristocrat hires a man-servant to attend to his needs. However, the balance of power starts to shift.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, sexy, surreal, thought provoking, neo noir, noir, mind bending, psychedelic, experimental
Similar in 85%
From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)
Plot Summary:
Made during Bergman's tax-related exile in Germany, the film continues the story of Katarina and Peter Egermann, the feuding, childless, professional couple who appear in one episode of "Scenes From A Marriage." After Peter perpetrates a horrendous crime in its first scene, the rest of the film consists of a non-linear examination of his motivations, incorporating a police psychological investigation, scenes from the Egermanns' married life, and dream sequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, Austria
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: disturbing, art house, black and white, suspense thriller, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
Plot Summary:
Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. His wife pushes him to seek a promotion, which may be a long shot after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, controversial, existential, cult classic, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Fear of Fear (1975)
Plot Summary:
After having her second child, a German housewife suffers from post-partum depression before inexplicably falling into a continually misdiagnosed mental state, befuddling her relatives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: philosophical, depressing, art house, dread, psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, avant garde
Similar in 82%
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Plot Summary:
Near the end of World War II, Maria marries Hermann, who is immediately sent off to battle. When the war concludes, Maria believes that Hermann is dead. She starts working at an Allied bar, where she meets American soldier Bill. They start a relationship that is interrupted when Hermann returns alive. During a scuffle between the men, Maria accidentally kills Bill. Hermann takes the blame and goes to jail, while Maria begins a hard new life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, surreal, art house, thought provoking, retro, neo noir
Similar in 86%
Jew-Boy Levi (1999)
Plot Summary:
Benjamin Levi (Bruno Cathomas) is a Bavarian cattle dealer traveling to pre-World War II Germany on his annual trip to a remote farming village. Levi hopes to do some business and, more importantly, win the hand of the lovely Lisbeth (Caroline Ebner). But Nazi propaganda has gripped the small community and poisoned it forever. Now, Levi and Lisbeth are targets of hate in this provocative and shocking drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Switzerland, Austria
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Hotel Meina (2007)
Plot Summary:
How will the Germans react to the armistice of the 8th of September 1943, due to which Italy betrays them and sides with the allied forces? This is the distressing questions that a group of 16 Italian - Greek Jews evacuated at The Meina Hotel ask themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 124
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France, Serbia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Berlin '36 (2009)
Plot Summary:
Berlin 36 is a 2009 German film telling the fate of Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann in the 1936 Summer Olympics. She was replaced by the Nazi regime by an athlete later discovered to be a man. The film is based on a true story and was released in Germany on September 10, 2009. Reporters at Der Spiegel challenged the historical basis for many of the events in the film, pointing to arrest records and medical examinations indicating German authorities did not learn Dora Ratjen was male until 1938.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 944
Genere: Drama, History, Sport
Country: Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: uplifting, disturbing, serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 88%
Les Misérables (1995)
Plot Summary:
In France during World War II, a poor and illiterate man, Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), is introduced to Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Misérables and begins to see parallels between the book and his own life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: epic, emotional, fairy tale, anthology, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, sentimental, sexy
Similar in 80%
The Conference (2022)
Plot Summary:
On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference takes place in Berlin, a meeting that had only one item on the agenda: The Final Solution, the organization of the systematic mass murder of eleven million European Jews.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, tense, captivating
Similar in 79%
The Empty Mirror (1996)
Plot Summary:
Adolf Hitler faces himself and must come to terms with his infamous career in an imaginary post-war subterranean bunker where he reviews historical films, dictates his memoirs and encounters Eva Braun, Josef Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Sigmund Freud.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, surreal, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Hanussen (1988)
Plot Summary:
A man's story parallels Hitler's rise. Austrian Klaus Schneider, wounded in World War I, recovers in the care of Dr. Emil Bettleheim. Bettleheim discovers that Schneider possesses powers of empathy and of clairvoyance, such that could aid suicidal patients. After the war, with one friend as his manager and another as his lover, Schneider changes his name to Eric Jan Hanussen and goes to Berlin, as a hypnotist and clairvoyant performing in halls and theaters. He always speaks the truth, which brings him to the attention of powerful Nazis. He predicts their rise (good propaganda for them) and their violence (not so good). He's in pain and at risk. What is Hanussen's future?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hungary, West Germany, Austria
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, sad, esoteric, intelligent, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
The Night Porter (1974)
Plot Summary:
In this unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, a concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them. Operatic and disturbing, The Night Porter deftly examines the lasting social and psychological effects of the Nazi regime.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, controversial, disturbing, art house, sexy, bleak, sexual, erotic, cult classic
Similar in 90%
Aurora (2010)
Plot Summary:
An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping next room. Waste land on the city outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42 years old, his name - Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the city to a destination known only to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, France, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, realistic, enigmatic
Similar in 81%
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the young man Peter, who grew up during the economic miracle, bereft of parental care and love. Learning early on that interpersonal relationships are based on the principles of exchange or purchase, he abides by these rules and gives generous presents to his family and his wife Erika. But when he is unable to keep up this life-style, his story takes a horrendous turn.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Bas-fonds (2010)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of civilisation, three young women, Magalie, Marie-Steph and Barbara live a desperate life together. Drowning in alcohol, they both lust for and hate one another, coupling like animals. Yet gradually they become enmeshed in a complex game of love and domination. Magalie, the ringleader, subjugates through her male power, and bestial charisma. Simple Marie-Steph, her younger sister, remains in the background, and Barbara, unaware of her own prettiness, has joined the pack because she loves Magalie. One day, at Magalie’s instigation, and almost out of boredom, they hold up a bakery and kill the baker with a buckshot gun. Life gradually resumes, but nothing is the same.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, disturbing, surreal, offbeat, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Reunion (1989)
Plot Summary:
Two young boys from very different backgrounds become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. However, they don't realize how different they are until much later as one is the son of a well-to-do Jewish doctor and the other the son of a German aristocrat. After that summer and the election of Hitler, things change as antisemitism gains fervor. After the core of the film deals with that era, the film flashes to the present and the Jewish man now returns to his boyhood home and seeks his old friend with some surprises.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 557
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, West Germany, UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Saviors in the Night (2009)
Plot Summary:
Drama, based on the book "Retter in der Nacht", in which Marga Spiegel tells her memories: In Westfalia of 1943 Marga Spiegel, her husband and her daughter are about to be deported. Yet westfalian farmers help the jewish family, grant Marga and her daughter refuge under false names and hide her husband.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 77%
The Final Solution: The Wannsee Conference (1984)
Plot Summary:
A real time recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which leading SS and Nazi Party officals gathered to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Led by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, the Wannsee Conference was the starting point for the Jewish Holcaust which led to the mass murder of six million people.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Austria, West Germany
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, talky
Similar in 78%
Day One (1989)
Plot Summary:
Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to build an atomic bomb. The project is given to no-nonsense Gen. Leslie Groves who selects physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to head the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the bomb is built. As World War II draws to a close, Szilard has second thoughts about atomic weapons, and policy makers debate how and when to use the bomb.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic