Best movies like Down the Ancient Stairs
Last updated March 2024
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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:
Best tv shows and movies like Down the Ancient Stairs (1975):
Similar in 76%
The Children Thief (1991)
Plot Summary:
Although he was once a colonel in Argentina, the principal character in this film is now a wealthy exile living in Paris with his beloved wife, who has been unable to bear children. To fill this void in their lives, he feeds and clothes abandoned children, raising them in his mansion as if they were his own. As would never be the case in real life today, in this fantasized story set in 1925, no one objects to this behavior, and they live pleasantly and enjoyably together. Things grow considerably more animated when a stage magician places his very attractive daughter in the colonel's household, which stirs a lively romantic interest from his boys and from the great man himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Spain
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Lilian's Story (1996)
Plot Summary:
For forty years Lilian Singer has been locked up in a 'loony bin' by her father. Her release is eventually secured by her eccentric Aunt Kitty and her brother, John. Lilian starts to carve out a place for herself. As she explores Sydney and the people who live and work around her she sees others looking for love. Lilian shows us it is never too late to change your life and that even unusual choices can bring contentment.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
Madame Bovary (1969)
Plot Summary:
Emma Bovary is bored by her country doctor husband and gives in to the affections of several rich suitors as well as the temptation of living beyond her husband's means.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 257
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, Italy
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexy
Similar in 83%
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 80%
The Divine Nymph (1975)
Plot Summary:
In the decadent Roaring Twenties, a beautiful woman engages in affairs with two men, playing them against each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 402
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: avant garde
Similar in 81%
The Game Is Over (1966)
Plot Summary:
Renee Saccard is a pampered, selfish young wife of a middle-aged Parisian businessman who falls in love with her stepson but is driven to the point of madness when her husband tricks the stepson into betraying her.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 80%
No Light and No Land Anywhere (2016)
Plot Summary:
Grieving her mother’s death and her own failing marriage, Lexi boards a plane from London to Los Angeles in search of the estranged father who abandoned her when she was three years old. Based out of a seedy Hollywood motel, she follows a tenuous trail of breadcrumbs, collecting numbers and addresses in the hopes that one will lead to her father, while establishing unexpected connections along the way.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Tattoo Bar (2000)
Plot Summary:
Although she's still hung up on the man who broke her heart (Miguel Molina), club dancer Simona (Mercedes Ortega) pledges to eradicate all memories of him by removing the tattoos he put on her body. Complicating matters is Mariel (Alexis Valdes), the owner of a Barcelona tattoo shop whose obsession with Simona's undulating form leads him to steal the money to help her pay for the necessary laser treatments.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 49
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Dama de Noche (1998)
Plot Summary:
A woman who was maltreated during her younger years gets revenge on the people who abused her.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
As Long as One Is Intoxicated (1974)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: erotic, period piece
Similar in 86%
Game of Seduction (1976)
Plot Summary:
In this modern retelling of the classic Dangerous Liaisons, a virtuous young woman becomes the target of the schemes of an amoral womanizer who is in the habit of wooing women and killing their lovers and husbands in duels. When she finally succumbs to him, she discovers his true nature, and her newly awakened joy in passion turns to dust.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 84%
Simona (1974)
Plot Summary:
While at a bullfight Simona begins flashing back to a torrid sexual relationship she had with George. Her relationship with George was one of open sexual discoveries which eventually led to revenge and murder.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Belgium
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: erotic, romantic, sexy
Similar in 90%
Hindsight (1996)
Plot Summary:
Things heat up when a promising young actor begins an affair with a glamorous model in order to advance his career.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, erotic
Similar in 76%
Marsha: The Erotic Housewife (1970)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful housewife discovers that her husband is having an affair, so while he's away on business she decides to embark on some erotic sexcapades of her own.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 62
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film
Similar in 79%
Red Bikini (2017)
Plot Summary:
A couples' trip to Pattaya turns into hell when each others' secrets come out into the open! Soo-jeong and Tae-hyeon decide to go abroad with Sang-jin and Ji-hyeon to celebrate Ji-hyeon's birthday. However, Ji-hyeon can't make it last minute and the three set off. However the local tour guide tricks them into losing everything they've got. Then they meet Lizzie, who Sang-jin falls for right away. They cross the line and Soo-jeong who secretly had a crush on Sang-jin, films them quietly. She then threatens Sang-jin to tell Ji-hyeon with the video of their affair and demands he takes her in. Tae-hyeon finds out about everything and the dreamy vacation turns into hell.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 28
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 76%
The Cricket (1980)
Plot Summary:
An impressionable young woman's relationship with an aging prostitute leads to a job as a maid at a brothel.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 79%
Madame Olga's Pupils (1981)
Plot Summary:
Madame Olga is the owner of a luxurious brothel in London, England. One of the brothel's new clients, a young man, falls in love with her. He wishes to have more than sexual relationships with the woman.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: sexploitation film
Similar in 89%
The Inheritance (1976)
Plot Summary:
Rome, 1880. Gregorio Ferramonti (Anthony Quinn) has decided to close his bakery, the family business. Then he tells his sons Pippo (Gigi Proietti), Mario (Fabio Testi) and Teta that they will have to fend for themselves. But Irene (Dominique Sanda), the wife of Pippo, a beautiful, calculating and ambitious young woman, wants to take over the inheritance. Acting on intelligence, weighing every step and its consequences, she manages to convince the brothers that they must prevent at all costs that his father falls in love again to avoid the risk of losing their inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 993
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 81%
Brotherly Love (1970)
Plot Summary:
In this British tragi-comedy taking place among emotionally bankrupt upper-class Scottish countrymen, Peter O'Toole plays Sir Charles Henry Arbuthnot Pinkerton Ferguson, a mentally disturbed Scotsman, living on his uncared-for farm, who also harbors an incestuous yearning for his sister Hilary (Susannah York), who is staying with Sir Charles after a fight with her husband Douglas (Michael Craig). An adaptation of James Kennaway's novel Household Ghosts.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 376
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Bitches (1973)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy bourgeois, bored in her immense property, to pass the time engages a gigolo to answer all her wishes, from the most unfulfilled to the most hidden ... But when the young man takes an interest in the sister of his boss, the latter becomes very jealous.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 75%
Joy (1983)
Plot Summary:
This is the story about Joy who falls in love with an older man (she has been looking for her missing father all her life), and then travels around Paris with him and his other female companion, experiencing a broad range of sexual encounters.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sensual, erotic, independent film
Similar in 89%
Intrigo d'amore (1988)
Plot Summary:
Billy - young photographer engaged spicy photo shoot. Its main customers - women who want to revive the feelings and desires in their husbands. Three girlfriends are asked to photograph them: first - Janet, the wife of a police officer, the second - Lauren, a banker's wife, and the third - Evelyn is married to a lawyer. During operation Billy seduces three women, and one begins to blackmail them. Photographer Janet asks her husband to investigate. As a result, the blackmailers are, but Evelyn's husband kills her and Billy. I do not know if you can not satisfy a woman, give her love, kindness, warm heat - shot himself, IMHO, and his wife let him be happy.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 58
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film, erotic drama, sexploitation film
Similar in 75%
O Gosto do Pecado (1980)
Plot Summary:
After his wife leaves him, Júlio starts an affair with his secretary.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 64
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Inhibition (1976)
Plot Summary:
After years of sexual humiliation at the hands of her sadistic husband and his friends, a wealthy heiress struggles to regain her sense of identity. To that end, not only does she become ruthless in business, but also delights in sexually dominating her young secretary, Anna. When she attempts to exert her sexual power over a blythe traveler, Peter Smart, he turns the tables on her, and she finds herself at the mercy of an unfamiliar emotion: Love.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexploitation film
Similar in 90%
Candido erotico (1978)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl falls in love with a man who works in live sex shows, and who just happens to be having an affair with the girl's stepmother--with her father's knowledge.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 318
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sexual, sensual, erotic drama, sexploitation film
Similar in 76%
Young Casanova (1974)
Plot Summary:
Gerard Casanova is the man that all the rich and beautiful women call when they need a little more then the husbands to give them. He's always on call to satisfy their every sexual urge.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
I, a Woman, Part II (1968)
Plot Summary:
Newly married to a sexually perverted German millionaire, Siv submits herself to endless degradation before discovering that her husband harbors a diabolical secret.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 118
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Libido (1973)
Plot Summary:
Scripted by four of Australia’s greatest authors (David Williamson, Thomas Keneally, Hal Porter and Craig McGregor), this quartet of carnal desires explores adultery and jealous fantasies, the end of innocence, the moral and spiritual conflicts of a priest and a nun in love. The stories define the exploration of women and the cultural upheaval of the early 70s.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: anthology, erotic, independent film
Similar in 90%
Two Goes Into Two, Once (1970)
Plot Summary:
Sexual therapist watches sex to correct problems.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Quiet Days in Clichy (1990)
Plot Summary:
Expatriate Henry Miller indulges in a variety of sexual escapades while struggling to establish himself as a serious writer in Paris.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 743
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sexy, manga, explicit, atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, sexual, erotic