Best movies like Cowards Bend the Knee
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Story of Guy Maddin, hockey player for the Maroons, and son of a local hairdresser/abortion doctor. Guy tries to overcome his own cowardice (and multiple head-knocks) as he navigates through a dream-like Winnipeg.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: surreal, romantic, psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, mind bending, dark comedy, black and white, psychedelic, cerebral
Best tv shows and movies like Cowards Bend the Knee (2003):
Similar in 76%
Archangel (1990)
Plot Summary:
A surrealistic film in which a strangely assorted group of people come together in the Russian Arctic at the height of the revolution and World War One.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: black and white, mindfuck, art house, visual, cult classic, experimental, expressionism, silent, atmospheric, offbeat
Similar in 76%
Another Life (2001)
Plot Summary:
A woman is wrongly accused of murdering her husband in Edwardian London. Just before the outbreak of World War I, Edith Graydon married her boyfriend Percy Thomson. He survives the war but theirs is not a happy marriage. She doesn't really love him and he feels it every day. He's also possessive and their daily life is a constant battle. She meets and falls in love with Frederick Bywaters, her sister's one-time boyfriend. They have a long affair and her desperate attempts to get either a formal separation of divorce from her husband falls on deaf ears. They are at their wits end and Bywaters decides to do something about it. On a dark evening when Edith is walking with her husband, Bywaters stabs him to death. Edith is charged with murder along with Bywaters and both are found guilty. She claims her innocence right up until the day they are both executed by hanging in 1923. Base on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 676
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, romantic, captivating, independent film, historical drama, tense, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Sun Kissed (2006)
Plot Summary:
Teddy, a young writer, ventures to an isolated desert house to complete his first novel, where he meets and seduces the mysterious caretaker, Leo. Layers of memory and hallucination unfold that intertwine the two men.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 479
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, surreal, sexy, serious, sexual, experimental, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Beloved/Friend (1999)
Plot Summary:
Based on a work of Josep Maria Benet i Jornet entitled "Testament", the film tells the story of an aging professor of medieval literature with the dilemma of deciding who will inherit his essay on "The Book of friend and loved" by Ramon Llull. Feeling near death as a result of illness, he discovers that the ideal person is a young and intelligent student he is in love with and who is dedicated to male prostitution.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 468
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 75%
Jules and Jim (1962)
Plot Summary:
In Paris, before WWI, two friends, Jules (Austrian) and Jim (French) fall in love with the same woman, Catherine. But Catherine loves and marries Jules. After the war, when they meet again in Germany, Catherine starts to love Jim... This is the story of three people in love, a love which does not affect their friendship, and about how their relationship evolves with the years.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 44000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: art house, black and white, philosophical, lyrical, atmospheric, sexy, talky, psychedelic, depressing, social
Similar in 85%
Sound of the Sea (2001)
Plot Summary:
Son de Mar (English: "Sound of the Sea") is a 2001 Spanish drama / erotic film directed by Juan José Bigas Luna based on the novel of the same title by Manuel Vicent. It revolves around Ulises (Jordi Mollà), who comes to a fishing village to teach literature at a local high school. During his stay he falls in love with Martina (Leonor Watling), the daughter of his landlord. Sierra (Eduard Fernández), a rich businessman, also falls in love with her and fruitlessly tries to win her heart.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, serious, realistic, erotic, art film, sensual, sexual, sexy
Similar in 79%
Swann in Love (1984)
Plot Summary:
Swann (Jeremy Irons), an eligible bachelor in the best circles of fin-de-siècle Paris, has also some more vulgar but rich friends, the Verdurins. Through them he meets Odette (Ornella Muti), a courtesan, with whom he falls hopelessly in love. She seems to enjoy his company, for which he pays, but considers herself free to socialise and sleep where she pleases, particularly with a rival called de Forcheville. Swann’s passion turns to consuming jealousy, which leads him eventually to accept the social stigma of marrying her. One old friend, the overtly gay Charlus (Alain Delon), stays sympathetic.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, neurotic, sexy, period drama
Similar in 81%
Perfect Love (1996)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl helps investigators reconstruct her mother's (Isabelle Renauld) murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 539
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: controversial, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 77%
I Dreamt Under the Water (2008)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, a handsome boy in his 20s, falls for a straight best friend who does not reciprocate, and being a junkie exits the film quite early. Enter a girl, who seems to make him happy again, after he has tried living as a rent boy with men, having some familial, financial difficulties. But the girl is a junkie too.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sexy, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, freeze frame, queer cinema, hot
Similar in 84%
Careful (1992)
Plot Summary:
In the remote Alpine village of Tolzbad at the turn of the century, people talk quietly and restrain their movements lest avalanches come and kill them. This atmosphere lends itself to repressed emotions - shown through the parallel stories of butler student Johann lusting after his mother (an old flame of the mysterious Count Knotkers) and Klara's attraction to her father (who lusts after his other daughter), leading to duels and suicidal plunges galore. All this is shot in the style of an early German sound film, complete with intertitles, deliberately crackly soundtrack and 'hand-tinted' colour effects.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, cult classic, atmospheric, experimental, disturbing, stylized, mindfuck, avant garde, mind bending, psychedelic
Similar in 82%
Beauty of the Day (1967)
Plot Summary:
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sexual, psycho sexual, sexy, surreal, art house, ambiguous ending, sensual, erotic, visual, psychological thriller
Similar in 83%
L'Eclisse (1962)
Plot Summary:
A young woman meets a vital young man, but their love affair is doomed by the man's materialistic nature.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: art house, philosophical, black and white, surreal, neorealism, cerebral, visual, bleak, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Lola and Billy the Kid (1999)
Plot Summary:
When young Turkish talent Kutlug Ataman wanted to make a film about transvestites, the first location he had in mind was Istanbul. As he developed the script, his thought was to place these marginal characters, who are subject to societal prejudices in an environment where there is already discrimination, would add dramatic effect. Supported by funding from German sources, Ataman set his story in Berlin, inside the community of "guest workers" where Turkish transvestites are shunned not only by Germans, but by their own kind as well. The result is a strong film with moments of tenderness, emotion and laughter juxtaposed with the harsh realities of life for those who dare to be different. 16 year old Murat (Baki Davrak) is a Turk who is curious about gay life and eventually submerges himself in the gay hustler and transvestite subculture.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Turkey
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, psychological, sexual, crying, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Turkish Delight (1973)
Plot Summary:
Sort of a cross between "Love Story" and an earthy Rembrandt painting, this movie stars Rutger Hauer as a gifted Dutch sculptor who has a stormy, erotic, and star-crossed romance with a beautiful young girl. The story follows the arc of their relationship and his interaction with her family.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sensual, disturbing, controversial, cult classic, romantic, epic, experimental, manga, erotic drama, insightful
Similar in 90%
Red Dirt (2000)
Plot Summary:
Red Dirt offers the story of a young man's search to belong in this sublime expression of love and reconciliation. At only twenty, Griffith is struggling with the responsibilities of caring for his unwell aunt, grieving the loss of their family's matriarch, and his own dreams of leaving Pine Apple. With the arrival of a stranger, Griffith's carefully constructed walls of shame and silence begin to come down and his life takes an unexpected turn.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, art house, erotic, independent film, contemplative, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Julie Walking Home (2002)
Plot Summary:
Julie's son is dying of cancer and her marriage falling apart. She goes to Poland in search of a man who can heal using his hands. Julie finds not only a magical cure for her son, but also comes across a love so pure it begins to heal the aching in her heart.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Canada, Poland, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, erotic, spiritual, crying, allegory
Similar in 83%
Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998)
Plot Summary:
Friends of painter Jean-Baptiste Emmerich gather at a Paris railroad station for a four-hour journey to Limoges, where Emmerich wanted to be buried. The dozen travelers include art historian François and his lover Louis, who develops an interest in teenage Bruno. Traveling parallel with the train is a station wagon with Jean-Baptiste's body, and this vehicle is driven by Thierry, husband of Catherine, who's on the train with their daughter. François plays a taped interview with Jean-Baptiste, revealing his sexual appeal to both men and women. Lucie is convinced that she was his main love. Also on board is his nephew, Jean-Marie and Jean-Marie's estranged wife Claire. After the funeral in "Europe's largest cemetery," the story continues in the mansion of Jean-Baptiste's brother Lucien.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, psychological, realistic, talky, anthology, touching, serious, crying, romantic
Similar in 79%
The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Plot Summary:
In this sexually frank French drama, the aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. The dialogue-heavy film focuses intently on the love triangle, with Marie increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika. As the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 217 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, tense, realistic, talky, black and white, sexual, erotic, sexy
Similar in 79%
Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)
Plot Summary:
In Colombia just after the Great War, an old man falls from a ladder; dying, he professes great love for his wife. After the funeral, a man calls on the widow - she dismisses him angrily. Flash back more than 50 years to the day Florentino Ariza, a telegraph boy, falls in love with Fermina Daza, the daughter of a mule trader.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Mexico, UK, Colombia
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, romantic, costume drama, emotional, serious, sentimental, atmospheric, realistic, erotic
Similar in 89%
Candy (2006)
Plot Summary:
A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, romantic, touching, emotional, sexy, independent film, realistic, erotic, crying
Similar in 81%
Little Lili (2003)
Plot Summary:
This film, loosely inspired by Anton Chekov's The Seagull, weaves a story about sex, family and the business of making films. When the young and overly sensitive filmmaker Julien screens his new DV art-film starring his girlfriend Lili (Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) --a sexy young local girl--to his famous actress mother Mado, and her lover Brice, an accomplished film director, an unraveling of the delicate peace in their house begins. The graceful beauty Lili, who dreams of becoming a famous actress like Mado, is immediately fascinated by Brice, who gladly falls prey to her charms.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, clever, touching, erotic, contemplative, sexual, crying, sexy
Similar in 80%
Full Speed (1996)
Plot Summary:
A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Betty Blue (1986)
Plot Summary:
Betty Blue, a mentally unbalanced and sexually aggressive free spirit who becomes involved with Zorg, a repairman moonlighting as a writer. The two engage in a variety of sexual encounters, and grow more passionate toward each other. Betty finds Zorg’s book and is aggressively supportive; over time, her instability begin to catch up with her, leading to a grisly and shocking conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, atmospheric, sexual, romantic, breathtaking, talky, intense, serious, sensual
Similar in 85%
Two Moon Junction (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young Southern débutante temporarily abandons her posh lifestyle and upcoming, semi-arranged marriage to have a lustful and erotic fling with a rugged drifter who works at a local carnival.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sexual, sensual, melancholic, emotional, psychological, steamy, erotic drama, eros
Similar in 82%
Biutiful (2010)
Plot Summary:
This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 94000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, sad, sincere, emotional, gloomy, philosophical, surreal, touching, cerebral
Similar in 83%
Antares (2004)
Plot Summary:
A deadly car crash sets off three parallel stories of women at crisis points, faltering behind the doors of the same, plain Vienna apartment block.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Austria
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sensual, psychological, anthology, explicit, captivating, suspense, disturbing, romantic
Similar in 88%
Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
Plot Summary:
Tita is passionately in love with Pedro, but her controlling mother forbids her from marrying him. When Pedro marries her sister, Tita throws herself into her cooking and discovers she can transfer her emotions through the food she prepares, infecting all who eat it with her intense heartbreak.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, compassionate, romantic, sweet, emotional, melancholic, intense, atmospheric, sensual
Similar in 75%
The Heart of Me (2002)
Plot Summary:
Drama set in 1930s London with two sisters, Madeleine married to Rickie, and Dinah, who falls in love with him. Rickie and Dinah begin an affair which is to have repercussions throughout all their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, romantic drama, clever, erotic, romantic, spiritual, cult classic
Similar in 80%
Niagara, Niagara (1997)
Plot Summary:
"Niagra, Niagra" begins quietly in a drugstore in Poughkeepsie, where Marcie, the film's disarming heroine, likes to shoplift. She literally crashes into Seth, a quiet outsider, also on a shoplifting spree. Marcie invites Seth to accompany her to Canada to find a black hairstyling head. They set off in Seth's beat-up station wagon, destined for a toy store in Toronto. While on the road, Marcie confides to Seth that she has Tourette's syndrome, necessitating a series of detours to liquor stories and pharmacies along the roads of upstate New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: road movie, melancholic, disturbing, intense, independent film, touching, realistic, romantic, psychological, emotional
Similar in 80%
Damage (1992)
Plot Summary:
The life of a respected British politician at the height of his career crumbles when he becomes obsessed with his son's lover.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sexy, sexual, erotic, melancholic, psychological, sensual, emotional, realistic, non-linear, romantic