Best movies like Almost a Man
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Jacques Perrin was awarded Best Actor at the 1966 Venice Film Festival for his gripping portrayal of a young writer's descent into madness. Alienated, neurotic, and plagued by guilt, Perrin retreats from reality, loses interest in work, and comes to the brink of suicide before being sent to an asylum for shock therapy. Escaping from the asylum, Perrin returns to his boyhood home, where he learns the reasons for his present mental state. The strong supporting cast, including Lea Padovani and Pier Paolo Capponi, bring credence to their roles, but it is De Seta's direction, Perrin's controlled performance, and a relatively subtle score by Ennio Morricone which keep this film from becoming as overwrought as it might have become in other hands.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: existential
Best tv shows and movies like Almost a Man (1966):
Similar in 78%
The Condemned of Altona (1962)
Plot Summary:
A dying German magnate invites his youngest son and daughter-in-law home to discuss the future of the family's shipbuilding empire. There, the daughter-in-law stumbles upon a secret of the family's Nazi past.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 630
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: neorealism, existential
Similar in 81%
With the Girl of Black Soil (2007)
Plot Summary:
A small village in the Kanwondo region, a 9 year old girl, her brother Tong-gu - who is mentally handicapped - and their father Hyegon. Hyegon has an accident in the mines, loses his job and receives no compensation. It becomes increasingly difficult to hold onto hope, to find another job and to cope with his children. Nine-year-old Yeong-lim (Yu) has a slightly older brother, Dong-gu (Park Hyeon-woo), who's mentally handicapped, and a father, Hye-geon (Jo Yung-jin), who's lost his job in the mines and received no compensation. Add to that the family's simple home is skedded for demolition and neighbors are moving away. While dad sits around drinking and looking depressed, Yeong-lim tries to keep the family going by stealing food and arranging for Dong-gu to attend a specialist school. But her solution for her father's health problems has deadly consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: France, South Korea
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: depressing
Similar in 90%
Bandits of Orgosolo (1961)
Plot Summary:
A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial. He leaves for the mountains with his brother but life is difficult and his flock dies. Returning to the town he discovers his family in abject poverty. He procures a gun and, forced by his social predicament, resorts to banditry.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 693
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 84%
I Knew Her Well (1965)
Plot Summary:
Adriana, a young woman from the provinces, moves to Rome in order to become a celebrity.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: depressing
Similar in 84%
Wheel of Ashes (1968)
Plot Summary:
After being heralded by Jean-Luc Godard as the great hope of the New American Cinema, Peter Emanuel Goldman relocated to Paris just in time for 1968. Social dissolution permeates WHEEL OF ASHES, a stripped-down account of a young man's existential reckoning. "As dust hides a mirror, lust hides the self," reads one of the film's Vedanta-sourced intertitles. And indeed, while the Pierre Clementi protagonist's inner life remains obscure, the Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood that offers his temptations appears in harrowing detail. In its nearly clinical treatment of spiritual withdrawal, WHEEL OF ASHES belongs with post-New Wave films by the likes of Jean Eustache and Philippe Garrel. - Max Goldberg.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 126
Genere: Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: existential
Similar in 89%
The Wind Blows Round (2005)
Plot Summary:
The aging, conservative population of a small, sleepy village in the Italian Alps are surprised to see that a former French professor has settled there with his young wife and their three children to produce goat cheese, in order to escape the wrongs of civilization. At first they are suspicious of his unconventional ideas and lifestyle, then are conquered by the enthusiasm, kindness, helpfulness of the young family and start to see in them a possible rebirth of the place. But little by little misunderstandings, envy and conflicts take over.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
How to Be Loved (1963)
Plot Summary:
An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator. He is weak and a bit cowardly, but suffers most from not having any audience for his vanity, ego and supposed bravery. After the war he leaves her but finds out that he has been accused of cowardice. He finally commits suicide and she clears herself of a collaboration charge and eventually becomes a popular actress.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 720
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: road movie
Similar in 76%
Phantom (2013)
Plot Summary:
In Tokyo, a girl and her boyfriend spend a night talking about their life, their precarious condition and their difficulties to earn a living, their place in the world, if ever they have one.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: existential, experimental, avant garde, independent film, minimal cast, postmodern
Similar in 76%
The Scavengers (1969)
Plot Summary:
Via the Chicago Reader: "After World War II an Italian soldier returns to his hometown near the Alps and, unable to find a job, hooks up with a crotchety hermit who scavenges buried shells and bombs for scrap metal.".
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Humans (2021)
Plot Summary:
Erik Blake has gathered three generations of his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the group’s deepest fears are laid bare.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, independent film, existential, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 87%
The Dupes (1972)
Plot Summary:
Set in Iraq (but shot in Syria), this is the story of three men who try to leave their impoverished and hopeless lives to get work in Kuwait. They hire a water-truck driver to transport them illegally across the border in the tank of his truck.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: Syria
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: road movie
Similar in 85%
The Sting of Death (1990)
Plot Summary:
Miho and Toshio, putting their children and household at stake, duel for control in their degrading, middle-aged marriage.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 341
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Long Silence (1993)
Plot Summary:
Marco is a judge investigating a case of arms trafficking, one of the judges fight against corruption of Italian political life. Carla, his wife, lives dominated by the fear that her husband is murdered and, unfortunately, their fears are realized. Then she decides to join a group of widows of judges to break the silence that has always protected the crimes of the Mafia, who always acts in collusion with influential public figures. With the help of the group and the notes and documents of her husband, Carla produces a television documentary that endangers the lives of many people.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Germany, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
His Days Are Numbered (1962)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged plumber quits his job and questions his life after seeing somebody his own age suddenly die from a heart attack on his way to work.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 577
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: existential
Similar in 86%
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)
Plot Summary:
A surreal look at the schizophrenia of a group of girls in a therapy session.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, weird, cult film
Similar in 88%
Brothers Three: An American Gothic (2007)
Plot Summary:
Three brothers reunite at a remote cabin in the woods, when beckoned by their father. The brothers are left to deal with the dark secrets and demons that have haunted them their whole lives. The resulting truths they must face, end in an explosive tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 210
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: gothic, independent film
Similar in 75%
Splendor (1989)
Plot Summary:
Splendor is the name of an old movie theater managed by Jordan (Mastroianni), who inherited it from his father. The theater is in decay and only generates debts and trouble, but Jordan gets aid in his almost quixotian quest from projectionist Luigi (Troisi) and ushurette Chantale (Vlady). However, Jordan is finally forced to sell the Splendor to businessman Lo Fazio (Piperno), which plans to transform it in some kind of furniture store. When Jordan leaves the theater for the last time (the very first scene), he recalls the glorious days of Splendor and movies in general.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional
Similar in 80%
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 88%
Tender Is the Night (1962)
Plot Summary:
Director Henry King's 1962 film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel stars Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards Jr., Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell, Paul Lukas and Jill St. John.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 868
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: retro
Similar in 77%
Down the Ancient Stairs (1975)
Plot Summary:
A mental hospital somewhere in Tuscany during the thirties. Far away from fascism, this closed world is rules over by Dr. Bonaccorsi, a passionate benevolent psychiatrist whose dream is to isolate the germ of madness. He is also a very active ladies'man and makes three women benefit from his sexual itch: Francesca the hospital manager's wife, Bianca, his devoted nurse and Carla, a nymphomaniac doctor's wife. His well-ordered universe starts being challenged with the coming of Anna, a trainee psychiatrist, who disapproves of his theory on the origin of madness. Worse, she resists his advances. As Bonaccorsi is more insecure than he looks, what will become of him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Return of the Prodigal Son (1967)
Plot Summary:
Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 357
Genere: Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Conviction (1991)
Plot Summary:
A girl and her art professor get trapped inside a castle-museum after it closes at night. After a little resistance she agrees to have sex with him, but then she sues the professor for rape. The professor will have to prove his innocence.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Switzerland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: controversial
Similar in 75%
The Sea and Poison (1986)
Plot Summary:
Downed American fliers in WW II are vivisected by Japanese surgeons in medical experiments.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: retro
Similar in 88%
From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979)
Plot Summary:
'Dalla nube alla resistenza (From the Cloud to the Resistance ) (1978), based on two works by Cesare Pavese, falls into the category of History Lessons and Too Early, Too Late as well. It, too, has two parts—a twentieth-century text and a text regarding the myths of antiquity, each set in the appropriate landscape. Pavese's The Moon and the Bonfires looks back on the violent deaths of Italian anti-Fascist resistance fighters; Dialogues with Leucò is a series of dialogues between heroes and gods, connecting myth and history and returning to an ambiguous stage in the creation of distinctions, such as that between animal and human, which are fundamental to grammar and language itself. Such a juxtaposition of political engagement with profoundly contemplative issues such as myth, nature, and meaning points to the characters of Empedocles and Antigone in the Hölderlin films.' (From "Landscapes of resistance. The German Films of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub" by Barton Byg).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 471
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, West Germany, UK, France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: experimental
Similar in 88%
Gruber's Journey (2008)
Plot Summary:
On 22 June 1941, Germany and Romania attack Soviet Russia. Several days later, Curzio Malaparte, the Italian writer who would one day pen the novel « Kaputt », a war correspondent for « Corriere de la Sera », arrives in Iasi, in the north of Moldova, on his way to the front, which is nearby. He is incapacitated by a severe allergy and his only chance of recovery is to find a Jewish doctor, an allergologist who had studied in Florence, called Josef Gruber. All his attempts to find him are unsuccessful. While looking for him, Curzio discovers that in Iasi, several days prior to his arrival, a violent anti-Semitic pogrom took place and that a large number of the Jewish citizens of Iasi were deported by train and that Dr Gruber may be among them. In order to find him, Curzio, aided by Guido Sartori, the Italian consul in Iasi, tries to obtain an official warrant to bring Josef Gruber back. He confronts indifference, rudeness and the desire by the Romanian authorities to hide something.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Romania
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
La grande quercia (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1943, Vincenzio and Maria take their children to his father's Tuscan farm. Vincenzio commutes to Rome where he's a physician and, in the hospital basement, prints an anti-Fascist paper. His brother is in the Resistance; his father supplies food to a local monastery where 12 fugitives hide. All is seen through the eyes of the oldest child, Paulo, who's about 7 and the only lad at school who doesn't wear a Fascist Youth uniform. For Paulo and his siblings, it's great fun playing with their nonno, finding herbs in the fields, watching a maid's tryst with a soldier, teasing a silent monk. Then the war reaches the farm when Italy surrenders and the Germans exact revenge.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Save the Tiger (1973)
Plot Summary:
A businessman's professional struggles begin to conflict with his personal life over the course of two days.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: philosophical, existential, depressing, disturbing, controversial, poignant, psychological, tense, clever, serious
Similar in 75%
Me and You (2012)
Plot Summary:
An introverted teenager tells his parents he is going on a ski trip, but instead spends his time alone in a basement.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, stylized, psychological, existential, freeze frame, realistic, extraordinary
Similar in 79%
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%
The Son's Room (2001)
Plot Summary:
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, emotional, depressing, sad, meditative, lyrical, psychological, realistic, philosophical