Best movies like A Special Day
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The film is set during the late 1930s: the occasion is the first meeting between Mussolini and Hitler. Left alone in her tenement home when her fascist husband runs off to attend the historic event, Sophia Loren strikes up a friendship with her homosexual neighbor Mastroianni. As the day segues into night, Loren and Mastroianni develop a very special relationship that will radically alter both of their outlooks on life.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, minimal cast, cerebral, poetic, touching, emotional, realistic, talky, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like A Special Day (1977):
Similar in 79%
Fontamara (1980)
Plot Summary:
Fontamara is a village in the Marsica, forgotten by all but God and its inhabitants are called 'cafoni' (boors). Berardo Viola wants to marry Elvira but only after gaining enough money to buy some land and in order to reach his aim he has the idea of going to a great city. When Maria Grazia is raped by the fascists, Berardo and Antonio decide to leave Fontamara and go to Rome. Here they are swindled by a lawyer and afterwards they are invited by an antifascist to a restaurant where they are arrested by the police because of some subversive papers they had.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 69
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Family Portrait (1962)
Plot Summary:
Marcello Mastroianni gives a sensitive, finely judged performance as Enrico, a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. He receives a phone call informing him that his younger brother Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin) has died. Enrico recalls their long and difficult relationship; he was brought up by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother (Sylvie), Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoilt brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves. Beautifully photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, this austere, deeply-felt masterwork has been acclaimed as one of Zurlini's greatest achievements.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 76%
Days (2001)
Plot Summary:
Homosexual story between 2 guys, Claudio and Dario.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 572
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy, gay cinema
Similar in 88%
Method (2017)
Plot Summary:
A seasoned actor and a pop star are cast as leads in a gay romantic play. As the actor teaches the pop star method acting, the line between fiction and reality is blurred and they become drawn to each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: romantic, psychological, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, erotic, controversial, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
East Palace West Palace (1996)
Plot Summary:
In China, homosexuality isn't illegal, but homosexuals are routinely persecuted by police and arrested for "hooliganism". The film focuses on a young gay writer A-Lan who, being attracted to a young policeman, manages to have himself interrogated for a whole night. His life-story which he tells during the interrogation reflects the general repression of the Chinese society. The policeman's attitude shifts from the initial revulsion to fascination and, finally, to attraction.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, bleak, serious, realistic, talky, gloomy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
La león (2007)
Plot Summary:
Deep in the lush river jungles of Argentina, Alvaro lives a solitary existence fishing and harvesting reeds. What sets him apart from the rest of his village is that he is gay. There are no other gay men in his world, his only means of expression is with the occasional outsider who passes through. Most of these men come via the river taxi El León, whose captain El Turu is a mean man with a homophobic streak and a secret. When illegal loggers appear in the jungle El Turu accuses Alvaro of aiding them, a dispute which leads both men towards confrontation.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 418
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, suspense, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
Love Forbidden (2002)
Plot Summary:
Rodolphe Marconi writes, directs, and stars in the coming-out drama Défense d'Aimer (Love Forbidden). Marconi plays Bruce, a young student from Paris who accepts a fellowship in Rome. He takes a flat at the Villa Medicis and writes full time. He eventually meets Italian native Matteo (Andrea Necci) and develops feelings for the man. However, Bruce is confused because Matteo also seems interested in the American student Irene (Irene D'Agostino). Love Forbidden premiered in the U.S. at the 2003 New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, sexy, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 89%
The Yacoubian Building (2006)
Plot Summary:
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor's son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone's lips, and corruption is in their hearts.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, France
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, sad, multicultural, islamic, iconic
Similar in 84%
Mass Appeal (1984)
Plot Summary:
A young seminarian rattles the established order at a Catholic parish run by an older pastor. (TCM.com).
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: talky, psychological, captivating, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, light, inspirational, sexy, touching
Similar in 76%
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 81%
Querelle (1982)
Plot Summary:
Here is the story of a beautiful, proud and tough loner, a sailor named Querelle, whose commanding officer Seblon worships and desires him from afar. Querelle turns on his drugs-smuggling partner and murders him. He then goes to a notorious brothel run by the rapacious Lysiane, who leads Querelle into his first homosexual encounter. Then, Querelle has become vulnerable and soft, and soon the once powerful object of passion comes to belong to Seblon.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sexual, controversial, erotic, sexy, art house, stylized, emotional, twist ending, sensual, erotic drama
Similar in 82%
A Few Days of Respite (2010)
Plot Summary:
Mohsen teaches French at the University of Tehran, and Hassan is a photographer. Mohsen and Hassan are also lovers, and in Iran they live in fear, as homosexuality is punishable by death. Tired of denying their love, Mohsen and Hassan flee Iran to head to Paris, where they'll be illegal aliens but can at least live openly as a couple. To avoid arousing suspicion until they arrive in Paris, Mohsen and Hassan keep their distance while traveling, and during a train stop, Mohsen helps a sixty-ish women, Yolande, with her luggage. The two strike up a conversation and she clearly enjoys his company; over dinner, she offers to help him find work in town and let him stay at her apartment. It's clear to Yolande that Mohsen is an illegal immigrant, but she doesn't realize that he's gay, and he finds himself wondering if he should stay with Hassan or live with Yolande, where he would not have love but would enjoy safety, security and could easily become a French citizen through marriage.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Algeria
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Sebastian (1995)
Plot Summary:
In this thoughtful Scandinavian drama, a teenage boy wrestles with his sexuality and learns that most of his deepest fears were unfounded. Sebastian is almost 17 when he figures out that he is a homosexual. Though he lives with wonderful, stable parents and has a good-hearted sister, he finds himself wracked with turmoil and suddenly withdraws from them all. The more they try to understand why, the more distant Sebastian becomes. Things get worse when he falls in love with the handsome Ulf, who comes from an unstable, tempestuous home. Sebastian realizes he is lucky, but still can't help but become irritated when he brings Ulf home for dinner. His parents are too nice and this quietly infuriates their son. Eventually they leave the two boys alone in the house. Sebastian have great fun doing teenage guy stuff, but then they take a bath together and it is then that Sebastian tries to kiss Ulf.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Nasty Baby (2015)
Plot Summary:
Nasty Baby centers around a Brooklyn couple, Freddy and his boyfriend Mo, who are trying to have a baby with the help of their best friend, Polly. Freddy is an artist, and his latest work is all about babies – it’s clear he’s dying to be a father. Polly is a family practitioner who is more interested in having a baby than having a man. Mo is hesitant about the entire idea, especially when Polly isn’t having success with Freddyʼs sperm and the donor responsibility shifts to him. Set almost entirely in the multicultural vibrancy of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the trio navigates the idea of creating life, when they are confronted by unexpected harassment from particularly aggressive neighborhood man, nicknamed The Bishop. The Bishop is bothersome in small, yet persistent ways, with a hint of danger. As their clashes become increasingly aggressive, someone is bound to get hurt.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, semi serious, captivating, psychological, emotional, mumblecore, cult classic, indie film, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Everybody's Fine (1990)
Plot Summary:
Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat, a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, sentimental, clever, serious, emotional, tragicomedy, realistic, contemplative, road movie
Similar in 89%
The Night (1961)
Plot Summary:
A married couple attend a bourgeois party and wade through the stifling strain that long-term marriage has imposed upon them.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: cerebral, art house, erotic, black and white, neorealism, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, stylized, sexual
Similar in 77%
Don't Tell Anyone (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the alleged autobiography of gay peruvian talk show host Jaime Bailey. Joaquin, a young man from the high class of Lima, deals with problems concerning his sexual identity as a child, then as a teenager pressured by his macho snobbish father, then as an independent lazy pot-smoking college student, and later as a cocaine addict in Lima and Miami.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Peru, Spain
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, clever, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
Summertime (2016)
Plot Summary:
A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, light, feel good, unusual plot structure, captivating, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Boys Life 2 (1997)
Plot Summary:
Compilation of four short films about homoerotic situations involving young men. In "Trevor", by Peggy Rajski, a teenager faces homophobia and falls in love for the first time. Tom DeCerchio directed "Nunzio's Second Cousin", telling the story of a gay cop who forces a gay-basher to come to his house and have dinner with his family. In "Alkali, Iowa", by Mark Christopher, a young gay man finds out some of his father's past secrets. And "Must Be the Music", by Nickolas Perry, follows four teenagers looking for love in nightclubs.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: independent film, anthology, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sketch comedy, sexy, unusual plot structure, sweet
Similar in 80%
Boys Life: Three Stories of Love, Lust, and Liberation (1994)
Plot Summary:
Each of the three short films in this collection presents a young gay man at the threshold of adulthood. In "Pool Days," Justin is a 17-year old Bethesda lad, hired as the evening life guard at a fitness center. In the course of the summer, he realizes and embraces that he's gay. In "A Friend of Dorothy," Winston arrives from upstate for his freshman year at NYU. He has to figure out, with some help from Anne, a hometown friend, how to build a social life as a young gay man in the city. In "The Disco Years," Tom looks back on 1978, the year in high school that he came out of the closet after one joyful and several painful encounters.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 531
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: anthology, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexy, feel good, sweet
Similar in 80%
Making Love (1982)
Plot Summary:
A perfect typical LA couple find their happily-ever-after life broken when Zach confronts his long-repressed attraction for other men.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, talky, semi serious, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
Nighthawks (1978)
Plot Summary:
A gay man is forced to hide his sexuality by day while living his secret life by night. A respectable geography teacher by day; by night, hanging out in London's gay bars, looking for a long-term relationship, but usually encountering only one-night stands. Ron Peck later talks about his experiences of growing up as a gay man, the attitudes to homosexuality in Britain, and his journey towards making this film in the 1991 movie "Strip Jack Naked: Nighthawks II".
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Tattoo (2013)
Plot Summary:
Brazil, 1978. The military dictatorship that resulted from a coup in 1964 begins to stumble. In a cabaret-like theater located on the periphery between two cities in the northeast of Brazil, a group of artists challenges power and conventional morality with theater plays and public interferences. Led by Clécio Wanderley, the troupe Chão de Estrelas, strongly supported by its homosexual audience, along with intellectuals and other artists, practices political resistance through anarchy and mockery.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, disturbing, captivating, realistic, period piece, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 82%
Brother to Brother (2004)
Plot Summary:
A drama that looks back on the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of an elderly, black writer who meets a gay teenager in a New York homeless shelter.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, touching, realistic, captivating, social, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Children of God (2010)
Plot Summary:
Johnny (Johnny Ferro) is an art student in Nassau whose technique is perfect, but he’s creatively blocked. His teacher sends him off to the rural island of Eleuthera where he meets Romeo (Stephen Tyrone Williams), a hot musician. They begin a clumsy dance of attraction and romance. Romeo has a fiancé and is identified as straight, but he’s been known to play with the boys on the side secretly. The Bahamas are bound by religious traditions that discourage homosexuality and end up forcing gay men into the closet. Lena is a pastor’s wife. Her husband demonizes homosexuality to further his career, yet he’s on the DL as well. When Lena discovers that her husband has infected her with VD, he accuses her of infidelities. These characters are all bound together in this intense drama of love, family and secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bahamas
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized, lgbt cinema, gloomy, crying, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 86%
The Conformist (1970)
Plot Summary:
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: political, art house, breathtaking, visual, neo noir, philosophical, cerebral, psychological, atmospheric, bleak
Similar in 90%
Unfair Competition (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two linen fabric dealers with their shops close to one another, battle against each other for more and more costumers. Umberto constantly loses clients because of the tough competition brought by Leone, who offers the best prices in the neighborhood. But they leave differences aside when the rise of Fascism places Anti-Semitic politics which rigidly control business like the one conducted by the Jewish Leone, and those new regulations are viewed by Umberto as completely unfair. The long rivalry soon becomes a great friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, historical drama
Similar in 90%
The Last Year (2002)
Plot Summary:
Paul's homosexual affair at Bible College with a new student named Alex sets tongues wagging, mostly with un-Christian reactions. The dean, himself a closet case, threatens to expel Paul, and the football jocks have their eye on Alex. The church confessional is sure to be busy as spirituality and sexuality clash in this movie based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 83%
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
Plot Summary:
Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison. Luis, a homosexual, is found guilty of immoral behaviour and Valentin is a political prisoner. To escape reality Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on the situation he's in. During the time they spend together, the two men come to understand and respect one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, sincere, touching, captivating, clever, emotional, talky, sexy, erotic
Similar in 82%
Eight and a Half (1963)
Plot Summary:
With 8 ½ Frederico Fellini leaves a self-portrait where dreams and reality are a mix. With help from a most excellent cast and unique scenery this self reflecting film is one of his master works.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 124000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, surreal, philosophical, cerebral, stylized, black and white, atmospheric, postmodern, visual