Best movies like A Half of Life
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
This tragic love story relates ten decisive years in the life of the great Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin, played by a young Ulrich Mühe.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: East Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like A Half of Life (1985):
Similar in 83%
Eclipse (1994)
Plot Summary:
A round of unerotic sexual couplings in Toronto, interspersed with interviews about an impending total eclipse.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 212
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, documentary filmmaking
Similar in 80%
Poet and Muse (1978)
Plot Summary:
Semi-fictitious biopic of Finnish poet Eino Leino, made with a large budget to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth. The film concentrates on his relationships with first wife Freya Schoultz and later muse, poetess L. Onerva. His friends include equally central figures of the Finnish cultural scene in the early 1900s, such as painters Halonen and Gallén-Kallela, and composer Sibelius.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 102
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
My Life and Times With Antonin Artaud (1993)
Plot Summary:
May, 1946, in Paris young poet Jacques Prevel meets Antonin Artaud, the actor, artist, and writer just released from a mental asylum. Over ten months, we follow the mad Artaud from his cruel coaching of an actress in his "theatre of cruelty" to his semi-friendship with Prevel who buys him drugs and hangs on his every word. Meanwhile, Prevel divides his time between Jany, his blond, young, drug-hazed mistress, and Rolande, his dark-haired, long-suffering wife, who has a child during this time. Cruelty, neglect, poverty, egoism, madness, and the pursuit of art mix on the Left Bank.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: black and white, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic, bleak, bloody, entertaining, melancholic, surreal, meditative
Similar in 85%
F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1975)
Plot Summary:
The story of author F. Scott Fitzgerald's two stays in Hollywood to write for films, once in 1927 at the height of his acclaim, and again in 1937 when he arrived with little money, enormous expenses and an ill wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 37
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
A Few People, a Little Time (2005)
Plot Summary:
The unusual bond between a blind female writer and an acclaimed poet changes their lives and forms an exceptional creative cooperation, free of politics and the complexities of mundane life.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 155
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Poland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
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 81%
Young Goethe in Love (2010)
Plot Summary:
After aspiring poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe fails his law exams, he's sent to a sleepy provincial court to reform. Instead, he falls for Lotte, a young woman who is promised to another man.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Romance
Country: Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, realistic, serious, captivating, emotional, costume drama, intellectual, historical drama, crying, period drama
Similar in 87%
Passion of Love (1981)
Plot Summary:
In the 1860's, Giorgio (Giraudeau), a young Italian soldier is sent to a remote post, far away from his lover, Clara (Antonelli). He is lodged in the house of the colonel (Girotti). He becames friends with the colonel and the local doctor (Trintignant). Among the inhabitants of the house, there is a strange young woman - Fosca (d'Obici) who is both unattractive and mad. However, she has a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 998
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: novela, offbeat, serious, realistic, witty, sexual, gothic, crying, sexy, period drama
Similar in 81%
I, the Worst of All (1990)
Plot Summary:
A viceroy and an archbishop take their posts in Mexico. A local nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), intrigues them. The viceroy and his wife find her brilliant and fascinating. The prelate finds her a symbol of European laxity. He engineers the election of a new abbess, severe and ascetic. The virreina visits Sor Juana often and inspires her to write passionate poetry that the archbishop finds scandalous. The viceroy protects her. After he is replaced and returns to Spain with his wife, Sor Juana faces envy and retribution. A bishop betrays her, her confessor humbles her. Plague, a tribunal, and her confession as "the worst of all" end the great poet's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 710
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Argentina
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: biblical, psychological, tense, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual, crying, erotic, light
Similar in 83%
Sade (2000)
Plot Summary:
A man prepares himself to be transferred to a detention center and rest home where he will relive one more time the highlights of his youth.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, realistic, sexy, sexual, melancholic, sensual, tense, erotic, independent film
Similar in 89%
Restoration (1995)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring young physician, Robert Merivel found himself in the service of King Charles II and saves the life of someone close to the King. Merivel joins the King's court and lives the high life provided to someone of his position. Merivel is ordered to marry his King's mistress in order to divert the queens suspicions. He is given one order by the king and that is not to fall in love. The situation worsens when Merivel finds himself in love with his new wife. Eventually, the King finds out and relieves Merivel of his position and wealth. His fall from grace leaves Merivel where he first started. And through his travels and reunions with an old friend, he rediscovers his love for true medicine and what it really means to be a physician.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: factual, costume drama, intense, serious, captivating, emotional, visually appealing, period piece, sexy, erotic
Similar in 80%
The Children of the Century (1999)
Plot Summary:
True tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset. But their affair falls apart during an excursion to Venice, Italy where Musset is distracted by drugs and Sand by a handsome doctor.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sexy, captivating, stylized, erotic, romantic, visual, visually stunning, serious, emotional
Similar in 84%
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 89%
Edvard Munch (1974)
Plot Summary:
A biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks, but subsequently gained an American theatrical release in a three-hour version in 1976. The film covers about thirty years of Munch's life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Mystery, Romance
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: expressionism, art film, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, intellectual, crying, dread
Similar in 88%
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 88%
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 89%
Mary Shelley (2017)
Plot Summary:
The love affair between poet Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin resulted in the creation of an immortal novel, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, Luxembourg, USA, Ireland, Australia
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, stylized, serious, costume drama, gothic, sweet, art house, period piece, independent film, touching
Similar in 78%
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 87%
Che Guevara (2005)
Plot Summary:
When he is captured in Bolivia, the "Che" is conducted to prission, when he remembers his life facts, the revolution and the women.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 726
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, disturbing, serious, contemplative, crying, uplifting
Similar in 80%
The Libertine (2004)
Plot Summary:
The story of John Wilmot, a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th century poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave, only to earn posthumous critical acclaim for his life's work.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, Australia
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, atmospheric, melancholic, surreal, stylized, serious, erotic, thought provoking, scenic
Similar in 76%
Lady Caroline Lamb (1972)
Plot Summary:
Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sexual, crying, sexy, period drama
Similar in 78%
Georgia O'Keeffe (2009)
Plot Summary:
Biopic of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 958
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, art film, stylized, crying
Similar in 77%
Total Eclipse (1995)
Plot Summary:
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France, Belgium
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, erotic, costume drama, cult classic, psychological, sexual, thought provoking, lgbt cinema, artsy, historical drama
Similar in 82%
Sylvia (2003)
Plot Summary:
Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, realistic, psychological, serious, heartbreaking, romantic, neurotic, art house, period piece
Similar in 81%
Mad Love (2001)
Plot Summary:
The love story who transformed Juana I de Castilla, Queen of Spain, into Juana "The mad". The tragic fate of a Queen madly in love to an unfaithful husband, Felipe el Hermoso, Archduke of Austria.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Spain, Italy, Portugal, France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: melancholic, costume drama, stylized, captivating, serious, historical drama, romantic drama, sexy, realistic, crying
Similar in 78%
Reaching for the Moon (2013)
Plot Summary:
In 1951 New York poet Elizabeth Bishop travels to Rio de Janeiro to visit Mary, a college friend. The shy Elizabeth is overwhelmed by Brazilian sensuality. She is the antithesis to Mary’s dashing partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Although frosty at first, the architect soon makes a play for Elizabeth and the poet finally succumbs to Lota’s advances. Mary is jealous, but unconventional Lota is determined to have both women at all costs. Their ménage à trois is thrown off balance when Lota starts work on her biggest project to date, designing Parque do Flamengo in Rio. Elizabeth accepts an academic teaching post in the USA and the women drift apart. Lota, at all other times brimming with self-confidence, is inconsolable. This eternal triangle plays out against the backdrop of the military coup of 1964. Bishop’s moving poems are at the core of a film which lushly illustrates a crucial phase in the life of this influential Pulitzer prize-winning poet.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Brazil
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, lgbt cinema, deep, romantic drama, historical drama, crying, inspirational
Similar in 84%
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Plot Summary:
The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 119000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA, France, Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, melancholic, visual, visually stunning, factual, colorful, historical drama, realistic, visually appealing
Similar in 76%
Little Ashes (2008)
Plot Summary:
About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, Spain
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, tense, factual, art film, sincere, suspenseful, intellectual, erotic, romantic
Similar in 83%
A Royal Affair (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young queen falls in love with her physician, and they start a revolution that changes their nation forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, realistic, stylized, atmospheric, factual, historical drama, captivating, romantic, political
Similar in 76%
The Whole Wide World (1996)
Plot Summary:
Based on her acclaimed autobiographical book, THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD tells the story of Novalyne Price, an attractive feisty West Texas schoolteacher and her bittersweet, romantic and turbulent relationship with Robert E. Howard, the great pulp fiction writer of the 1930's.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, period piece, cult classic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying