Best movies like Karl May
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
This ethereal, three-hour biopic is the middle film in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s “German Trilogy” on the mythological foundations of the Third Reich. By fusing theater, music, and cinema, Syberberg conjures up Karl May (1842-1912), the immensely popular German author, who set many of his adventure novels in an idealized version of the American Wild West. His tales of the cowboy and the Ubermensch alike were beloved by many, including (Our) Hitler, who supposedly ordered his generals to read May works after defeats in the Russian campaign.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 166
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: West Germany
Duration: 187 min
Plot tags: surreal, visual, avant garde
Best tv shows and movies like Karl May (1974):
Similar in 84%
Shadow of a Hero (2015)
Plot Summary:
A grandchild sets out to discover how the death of his grandfather in the Spanish Civil War could split up the entire family for three generations.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Denmark, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 76%
The Pact (2021)
Plot Summary:
Aged 63, Karen Blixen is at the pinnacle of her fame and next in line to win the Nobel Prize for literature. It has been 17 years since she gave up her famous farm in Africa, only to return to Denmark with her life in ruins. Devastated by syphilis and having lost the love of her life, she has reinvented herself as a literary sensation. She is an isolated genius, however, until the day she meets a talented 30-year-old poet. She promises him literary stardom if he in return will obey her unconditionally – even at the cost of him losing everything else in his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Finland
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Lev Tolstoy (1984)
Plot Summary:
The film consists of two parts: “Insomnia” and “Departure”. We shall meet Lev Tolstoy in the final years of his life at Yasnaya Polyana. We shall see him surrounded by his family, friends, acquaintances and absolute strangers who were coming to the great man and artist from all over the world. We shall hear “the voice of his thoughts”. In his sleepless nights, we shall follow his memory of the happy youthful years and the crucial, hard ones. We shall witness Tolstoy’s tragic departure from Yasnaya Polyana and his death at an obscure little station of Astapovo.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 168 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Jean Galmot, Adventurer (1990)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 128
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Hitler: A Film from Germany (1977)
Plot Summary:
Documentary film that examines the rise and fall of the Third Reich, incorporating puppetry, rear-screen projection, and a Wagnerian score into a singular epic vision. The director, who grew up under Nazi tyranny, ruminates on good and evil and the rest of humanity's complicity in the horrors of the holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 891
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: West Germany, France, UK
Duration: 442 min
Plot tags: spiritual, political, surreal, art house, visual, experimental, rough, thought provoking, clever, offbeat
Similar in 88%
Becoming Colette (1991)
Plot Summary:
Erotic French author Colette during her formative years in Paris at the turn of the century, married to a hedonistic bounder who publishes her writings under his name until she leaves him to embark on her own career.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany, UK, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Young Schiller (2005)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 400
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
A Season in Hell (1971)
Plot Summary:
Biopic about the life of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Last Road (1986)
Plot Summary:
About the death and the 'last road' of Aleksandr Pushkin, the leading poet and writer of Russia, who was shot on a duel at age 37. Pushkin was defending the reputation of his wife and mother of his four children - Nataly. She was a center of public attention because of her stunning beauty, and she was accused of infidelity. Pushkin reacted by calling the accuser baron Dantes to fight a duel with guns. A deadly gunshot caused Pushkin's death after the duel. Around the dead poet gathered all the leading intellectuals and writers of St. Petersburg. They were helpless to undo the tragedy. Pushkin's home in St. Petersburg was the site where thousands came to see Pushkin on his 'last road'.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Ludwig - Requiem for a Virgin King (1972)
Plot Summary:
Reflected in an artificial and bombastically staged illusory world with Wagnerian compositions, glossy and satirical time references, 19th century German figures and traditions are stripped of their mythology and interpreted by the Germany of 1972.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 330
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: West Germany, Austria
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: visual, avant garde, historical drama
Similar in 83%
Antonia. (2015)
Plot Summary:
Distinguished Italian poet Antonia Pozzi (1912–1938) was among those women who were at odds with the times in which they lived. Her poems record her inability to adapt to social norms and her desire to live fully, and in poetry she sought an escape from reality and from her own complex soul and emotional life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy, Greece
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Plot Summary:
The life of revered the 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova (Vilen Galstyan). Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse (Sofiko Chiaureli). The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating an impressionistic work.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: surreal, poetic, atmospheric, avant garde, psychedelic, mind bending, experimental, contemplative, scenic, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Zelda (1993)
Plot Summary:
Biopic about Zelda Fitzgerald, as played by Natasha Richardson.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
August (2007)
Plot Summary:
A portrait of Swedish writer August Strindberg.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Butterfly's Dream (2013)
Plot Summary:
In a small Turkish town, two young tuberculous poets try to survive while publishing their poems. As they both fall in love, their life would never be the same.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, touching, captivating, realistic, stylized, romantic, educational, sad, epic
Similar in 84%
Molière (1978)
Plot Summary:
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is raised by his father and his grandfather because his mother dies when he's still very little. He works as a handyman, studies the law at a university and travels the country as an actor before he becomes the celebrated playwright Molière who impresses firstly the Duke of Orleans and then even King Louis XIV.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 260 min
Plot tags: weird, period drama
Similar in 81%
Brecht (2019)
Plot Summary:
Bertolt Brecht, a theatre revolutionary, poet of the state, outsider, looks back on his life in 1956, the year of his death, in East Berlin: adolescent provocations in Augsburg during the First World War, early poetic and amorous flights of fancy in the Munich and Berlin of the 1920s, his escape from Hitler, returning from the US exile, followed by his later years caught in a dilemma between timeless classic and a failing GDR class fighter, an indefatigable free spirit and compromised artist.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 388
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic
Duration: 187 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, disturbing, humorous, visually appealing, fun
Similar in 78%
Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (2016)
Plot Summary:
Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Austria, Germany, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: exciting, thought provoking, captivating, sincere, touching, visually appealing
Similar in 84%
Becoming Astrid (2018)
Plot Summary:
When Astrid Lindgren was very young something happened that affected her profoundly, and this combination of both miracle and calamity came to shape her entire life. It was an event that transformed her into one of the most inspiring women of our age and the storyteller a whole world would come to love. This is the story of when a young Astrid, despite the expectations of her time and religious upbringing, decided to break free from society's norms and follow her heart.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: romantic, thought provoking, touching, captivating, retro
Similar in 86%
Young Andersen (2005)
Plot Summary:
A powerful modern film narrative, set in a historical framework, about the crucial encounter between vulnerable eighteen-year-old Hans Christian Andersen, who rates himself so highly, and Mr. Meisling, the cynical school principal. An encounter that fundamentally transforms Hans Christian's life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 533
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: period piece
Similar in 79%
The Demons of St. Petersburg (2008)
Plot Summary:
St. Petersburg, 1860. A member of the imperial family is assassinated. A few days later, the writer Fëdor Michajlovic Dostoevskij meets with Gusiev, a young man committed to a psychiatric hospital. Gusiev confesses that he took part in the terrorist plot and reveals that his fellow conspirators are planning to kill another of the Tsar’s relatives. The young man also gives Dostoevsky the address of Alexandra, their leader. The writer must find her and convince her to call off the new assassination attempt.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, historical drama
Similar in 83%
The Bronte Sisters (1979)
Plot Summary:
In a small presbytery in Yorkshire, England, living under the watchful eyes of their aunt and father, a strict Anglican pastor, the Bronte sisters write their first works and quickly become literary sensations.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, period drama, gay cinema, beautiful
Similar in 90%
Leopardi (2014)
Plot Summary:
A luminously beautiful biopic of the celebrated eighteenth-century Italian poet, essayist and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi, who created immortal verse whilst struggling with a debilitating illness.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, captivating, historical drama
Similar in 85%
Anton Chekhov 1890 (2015)
Plot Summary:
Summer 1890. In order to make some money to feed his family, Anton Chekhov, modest physician, wrote short stories for newspapers to sign Antosha Tchékhonté. Important characters, writer and editor, just make him aware of his talent. His situation is improving and Anton Chekhov gets the Pushkin prices and admiration of Tolstoy. But when one of his brothers died of tuberculosis, Anton saw it as a personal failure and wants to escape his fame and his love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 297
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, gloomy, costume drama
Similar in 85%
Set Fire to the Stars (2014)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring poet in 1950s New York has his ordered world shaken when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hell raising hero, Dylan Thomas.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, captivating, black and white, serious, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Mirror (1975)
Plot Summary:
A dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, cerebral, atmospheric, avant garde, art house, enigmatic, serious, philosophical, psychological, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Kaspar Hauser (Bruno S.), who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man who wears a black overcoat and top hat who feeds him.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, melancholic, harsh, talky, touching, serious, realistic, philosophical, dramatic
Similar in 88%
Genius (2016)
Plot Summary:
New York in the 1920s. Max Perkins, literary editor at Scribner’s Sons is the first to sign such subsequent literary greats as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When a sprawling, chaotic 1,000-page manuscript by an unknown writer named Thomas Wolfe falls into his hands, Perkins is convinced he has discovered a literary genius. Together the two men set out to work on a version for publication and a seemingly endless struggle over every single phrase ensues. During this process, Perkins the gentle family man and Wolfe the eccentric author become close – a relationship eyed with suspicion by their wives. When ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ becomes a resounding success, the writer grows increasingly paranoid.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: period piece, talky, touching, intellectual, informative, inspirational, melancholic, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 84%
The Professor and the Madman (2019)
Plot Summary:
Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, Mexico, UK, France, Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Hong Kong
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing, thought provoking, inspirational, philosophical, gothic, depressing, entertaining, factual, costume drama
Similar in 89%
To Walk Invisible (2016)
Plot Summary:
To Walk Invisible takes a new look at the extraordinary Brontë family, telling the story of these remarkable women who, despite the obstacles they faced, came from obscurity to produce some of the greatest novels in the English language.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: captivating, dark, cult classic, historical drama, gothic, period drama