Best movies like Effi Briest
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A German-made film based on one of the most famous German novels by Theodor Fontane. Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla) is a socially ambitious, 17-year-old German girl who accepts a proposal of marriage from Baron Geert Von Instetten, a much older diplomat. Unfortunately, neither the Baron's family nor anyone in the secluded town she now calls home accept Effi as an equal. Starved for companionship, Effi begins an innocent friendship with a well-known womanizer that may jeopardize her position as the Baron's wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: art house, black and white, postmodern, costume drama, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Effi Briest (1974):
Similar in 90%
Wrong Move (1975)
Plot Summary:
Six days in the life of Wilhelm: a detached man without qualities. He wants to write, so his mother gives him a ticket to Bonn, telling him to live. On the train he meets an older man, an athlete in the 1936 Olympics, and his mute teen companion, Mignon. She's an acrobat in market squares for spare change.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: road movie, spiritual, manga, art house, postmodern, cult classic, clever, humorous, realistic, talky
Similar in 83%
Whity (1971)
Plot Summary:
"Whity" is the mulatto butler of the dysfunctional Nicholson family in the American southwest in 1878. The father, Ben Nicholson, has an attractive young wife Katherine, and two sons by a previous marriage; the homosexual Frank, and the retarded Davy. Whity tries to carry out all their orders, however demeaning, until various of the family members ask him to kill some of the others.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: West Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: art house, thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 87%
The Marquise of O (1976)
Plot Summary:
A German Marquise has to deal with a pregnancy she cannot explain and an infatuated Russian Count.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: spiritual, romantic, serious, realistic, period piece, period drama
Similar in 81%
The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014)
Plot Summary:
The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 885
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: Portugal, Brazil
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, romantic, saga, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Anton Chekhov's The Duel (2010)
Plot Summary:
Set in a seaside resort in the Caucasus, the story centers on n'er do well, Laevsky (Andrew Scott) and his illicit relationship with his mistress Nadya (Fiona Glascott). Laevsky has convinced Nadya to leave her husband for him, but now wants to abandon her.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 718
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, captivating, realistic, psychological, period piece, serious, stylized, period drama
Similar in 82%
The Stationmaster's Wife (1977)
Plot Summary:
The lackluster and plodding Bolweiser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town's siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 780
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 201 min
Plot tags: avant garde, art house, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 83%
Anna Karenina (2000)
Plot Summary:
To help her brother mend his failing marriage, young Russian beauty Anna Karenina - who's married to eminent nobleman Alexei Karenin - leaves St. Petersburg for Moscow, where she meets the dashing Count Vronsky. They soon fall madly in love, but the scandal of their illicit affair and Alexei's vengeance give rise to tragedy in this faithful adaptation of author Leo Tolstoy's immortal novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 598
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, historical romance, epic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 89%
A Doll's House (1973)
Plot Summary:
Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed lives in fear of her husband's finding out and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, talky, sincere, clever, independent film, period drama
Similar in 80%
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
Plot Summary:
Hans is a street fruit peddler and born-loser. His choice of career upsets his bourgeois family, causing him to turn to drinking and violence. After recovering from a debilitating heart attack, his business finally begins to take off. However the more he becomes a credit to his family, the more depressed he becomes.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, philosophical, depressing, neo noir, sad, sincere, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Katzelmacher (1969)
Plot Summary:
In this unflinching German drama by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a group of young slackers, including the couple Erich and Marie, spend most of their time hanging out in front of a Munich apartment building. When a Greek immigrant named Jorgos, moves in, however, their aimless lives are shaken up. Soon new tensions arise both within the group and with Jorgos, particularly when Marie threatens to leave Erich for the outsider.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, contemplative, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, biting
Similar in 79%
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
Plot Summary:
Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. His wife pushes him to seek a promotion, which may be a long shot after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, controversial, existential, cult classic, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Fear of Fear (1975)
Plot Summary:
After having her second child, a German housewife suffers from post-partum depression before inexplicably falling into a continually misdiagnosed mental state, befuddling her relatives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: philosophical, depressing, art house, dread, psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, avant garde
Similar in 85%
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 75%
Sofie (1992)
Plot Summary:
From 1886 to 1907 in the life of Sofie, a Jew in Copenhagen who is nearly 29, with no marital prospects, living with her loving parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, masterpiece
Similar in 78%
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Plot Summary:
Under the influence of signs and premonitions, a man allows himself to veer in and out of a love affair with his colleague.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, psychological, talky, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
Daybreak (2003)
Plot Summary:
Sweden, shortly before Christmas. Surgeon Rickard is told the job he expected goes to a Dane, because of his substance abuse. It's too late to cancel dinner with his in-laws. The guest couple announces their in-vitro is a success. Then Richard's wife learns he cheated her with Sofie. Meanwhile ugly hag Anita trades drugs to afford a taser to use on her ex Olof and his former physiotherapist. Workaholic builder Anders is disgusted by his grieve-deranged client Knut's plan and decides to spend time on his family, not just money.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, bleak, realistic, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Gilles' Wife (2004)
Plot Summary:
Gilles' wife, Elise, who smiles when she thinks of him, cooks and scrubs and cheerfully makes love to him, suspects during her third pregnancy that he is having an affair with her coquettish younger sister, Victorine. Elise suffers, usually in silence. She listens to her husband rave; she asks her priest; she breaks picture frames; she weeps. She decides on a strategy to keep him. Will she succeed?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 887
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, crying, sexy
Similar in 80%
The Last September (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1920s Ireland, an elderly couple reside over a tired country estate. Living with them are their high-spirited niece, their Oxford student nephew, and married house guests, who are trying to cover up that they are presently homeless. The niece enjoys romantic frolics with a soldier and a hidden guerrilla fighter. All of the principals are thrown into turmoil when one more guest arrives with considerable wit and unwanted advice.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 938
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: France, UK, Ireland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: period piece, psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film, period drama
Similar in 79%
The Scarlet Letter (1973)
Plot Summary:
In 17th-century Salem, Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A because she is an adulteress, with a child out of wedlock. For seven years, she has refused to name the father. A vigorous older stranger arrives, recognized by Hester but unknown to others as her missing husband. He poses as Chillingworth, a doctor, watching Hester and searching out the identity of her lover. His eye soon rests on Dimmesdale, a young overwrought pastor. Enmity grows between the two men; Chillingworth applies psychological pressure, and the pastor begins to crack. A ship stops in Salem, and Hester sees it as a providential refuge for her daughter, herself, and her lover. But will Dimmesdale flee with her?.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, masterpiece
Similar in 89%
Mayerling (1968)
Plot Summary:
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (Omar Sharif) clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (James Mason), over implementing progressive policies for their country. Ava Gardner plays his mother Empress Elisabeth. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that does not realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales (James Robertson Justice), later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides comic relief. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie (Andréa Parisy) by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera (Catherine Deneuve). Their untimely demise at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery, but the film's ending suggests the two lovers made a suicide pact when they decided they could not live in a world without love or prospects for peace.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, France
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 87%
Lili Marleen (1981)
Plot Summary:
Lili Marleen is the story of a German singer named Wilkie who while working in Switzerland falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert who’s family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Roberts family is skeptical of Walkie thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing Lili Marleen.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: clever, witty, stylized, art house, romantic drama, sincere, serious, realistic, cynical, light
Similar in 87%
Despair (1978)
Plot Summary:
Germany in the early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Nazis' rise, Hermann Hermann, a Russian émigré and chocolate magnate, goes slowly mad. It begins with his seating himself in a chair to observe himself making love to his wife, Lydia, a zaftig empty-headed siren who is also sleeping with her cousin. Hermann is soon given to intemperate outbursts at his workers, other businessmen, and strangers. Then, he meets Felix, an itinerant laborer, whom he delusionally believes looks exactly like himself. Armed with a new life insurance policy, he hatches an elaborate plot in the belief it will free him of all his worries.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, neo noir, surreal, avant garde, art house, aesthetic, psychological, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Leopard (1963)
Plot Summary:
As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi, to marry Angelica, the beautiful daughter of gauche, bourgeois Don Calogero, in order to maintain the family's accustomed level of comfort and political clout.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: epic, political, visual, visually appealing, period piece, cerebral, stylized, romantic, retro, philosophical
Similar in 82%
That Night in Varennes (1982)
Plot Summary:
In June of 1791, a group of passengers in a stagecoach find themselves caught up in the events of the French Revolution, when they find themselves in the city of Varennes when revolutionists arrest the fleeing King Louis.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: historical drama, road movie, costume drama, serious, realistic, surprise ending, period drama, baroque, eighties, masterpiece
Similar in 78%
Bel Ami (2012)
Plot Summary:
Georges Duroy travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: stylized, realistic, serious, captivating, period piece, costume drama, romantic, gothic, sexual, romantic drama
Similar in 75%
Anna Karenina (1997)
Plot Summary:
Anna (Marceau) is a wife and mother who has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky (Bean). Based on the novel by Tolstoy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Russia, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: costume drama, romantic, psychological, atmospheric, emotional, romantic drama, sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 76%
Buddenbrooks (2008)
Plot Summary:
Mid-19th-century, Baltic Sea port city of Lubeck, Germany. Follows the fourth generation of the Buddenbrook mercantile family as Tony and Thomas reach the age of marriage. Fatefully impeded every step of the way, the Buddenbrooks struggle as economic hardship and personal defeats weigh down family relations.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: saga, realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, political, family saga, sad, costume drama, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Wuthering Heights (1992)
Plot Summary:
Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: romantic, gothic, atmospheric, emotional, period piece, heartbreaking, touching, melancholic, costume drama, romantic drama
Similar in 81%
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Plot Summary:
Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: West Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: art house, sexual, erotic, philosophical, sexy, depressing, surreal, avant garde, stylized, postmodern
Similar in 81%
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the young man Peter, who grew up during the economic miracle, bereft of parental care and love. Learning early on that interpersonal relationships are based on the principles of exchange or purchase, he abides by these rules and gives generous presents to his family and his wife Erika. But when he is unable to keep up this life-style, his story takes a horrendous turn.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy