Best movies like Francisca
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The life of a young man, son of an English officer who lets himself become a prisoner of love resulting in fatalism and disgrace.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 591
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 166 min
Plot tags: period drama
Best tv shows and movies like Francisca (1981):
Similar in 79%
Milena (1990)
Plot Summary:
Prague, 1920. Milena's father wants her to follow in his footsteps and be one of the first female doctors in Czechoslovakia, but she is determined to be a writer. She elopes to Vienna with the Jewish music critic Ernst Pollak, and starts a correspondence with Franz Kafka. She leaves Pollak and returns to Prague with her father, where she befriends and translates Kafka. As a journalist, Milena covers the 1923 Ruhr worker's strike and meets the communist architect Jaromir. They marry and have a daughter. Milena writes for a Marxist paper till her husband leaves for the Soviet Union. She then confronts the rise of Nazism in the years leading up to the Second World War, and ends up in a concentration camp.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, Germany, Canada
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 79%
Flame Top (1980)
Plot Summary:
This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 78%
Helene (2020)
Plot Summary:
Year 1915. Helene Schjerfbeck lives as a forgotten artist with her elderly mother in the countryside. It has been years since the last exhibit, and Helene continues to paint only because of her passion. Everything changes when art dealer finds Helen and her 159 wonderful paintings - and wants to organize a big private exhibit. However, Helen's turning point comes only when she is introduced to Einar Reuter. Young Einar is a forester, art enthusiast, and a passionate admirer of Helene's work. He becomes Helen's trusted and lover.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 744
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: beautiful, period drama
Similar in 84%
Hunger (1966)
Plot Summary:
In 1890, Pontus, the starving writer, wanders the streets of Christiania, in search of love and a chance to get his work published. All he meets is defeat and suffering while his sense of reality is withering. One moment he is delighted and the next he curses everybody. All the time he manages to maintain human dignity and pride.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: philosophical, neurotic, black and white, psychological, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, odd
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Similar in 83%
The Convent (1995)
Plot Summary:
The journey of Michael Padovic, an American professor who arrives with his wife, Helene, at a Portuguese convent where he expects to find the documents needed to prove his theory: Shakespeare was born in Spain; not in England.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, contemplative, atmospheric, sexy, thought provoking, intellectual, enigmatic, unusual plot structure
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Similar in 79%
Florbela (2012)
Plot Summary:
Shaken by a divorce in the 1920s, Portuguese poetess Florbela Espanca uses her writing to deal with her tumultuous relationship with men, eroticism and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 518
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 87%
Magic Mirror (2005)
Plot Summary:
Luciano, fresh out of jail, was taken by his brother, Flórido, to serve in the home of wealthy Alfreda. He was surprised when she told him that her greatest desire was to see the Virgin Mary. Now comes this rich land owner with her sublime pretensions. Isn't it enough for her to have an Aston Martin and a Jaguar in the garage and ten different dresses per season? It was all professor Heschel's fault. Or someone else's. Anyway, to go beyond the promise is heresy. Alfreda said that she wouldn't rest until she saw the Virgin and made her some questions. Filipe Quinta, the Forger, says he has a solution. Meanwhile, Bahia, her husband, listens do music.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 362
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Portugal
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, disturbing, offbeat
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Similar in 77%
Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (2009)
Plot Summary:
Macário spends an entire train journey to the Algarve talking to a woman he does not know about the trials and tribulations of his love life: straight after starting his first job as a book keeper at his Uncle Francisco's shop in Lisbon he falls madly in love with a young blonde, who lives across the road.No sooner does he meet her than he straightaway wants to marry her. His uncle, totally opposed to the match, fires him and kicks him out of the house. Macário departs for Cape Verde where he makes his fortune. When he finally wins his uncle’s approval to marry his beloved, he discovers the “singularity” of his fiancée’s character.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Portugal, Spain, France
Duration: 64 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, atmospheric, weird
Similar in 83%
The Letter (1999)
Plot Summary:
A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 730
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal, Spain
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
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Similar in 86%
Abraham's Valley (1993)
Plot Summary:
Ema is a very attractive but innocent girl, so pretty that cars crash in her presence. Young marries Dr. Carlo Paiva, who she is not attracted to, but is her father's friend. They move to the Valley of Abraham. Carlo loves her, but decides to sleep in a separate room, to avoid waking Ema when he has to return late at night. With time she begins to feel unhappy about her marriage so she finds a lover.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal, Switzerland
Duration: 187 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
A Time for Miracles (1980)
Plot Summary:
Elizabeth Bayley Seton, America's first native-born saint and founder of the Sisters of Charity, is the subject of this inspiring biopic. After the tragic death of her husband, Seton converts to Catholicism. Once again, she suffers terrible loss when two of her children die, but goes on to found the American Sisters of Charity and the first American Catholic schools. Seton died in 1826 and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 84%
Journey to Portugal (2011)
Plot Summary:
Maria, a Ukrainian doctor, comes to Portugal to spend a year with Greco, her husband who is also a doctor. Upon arrival at Faro airport she is the only person from Kiev approached by agents of Immigration and Customs that lead her to a room of interrogation, without any explanations. All this occurs because the authorities suspect that something illegal should be behind her trip, since she is from Eastern Europe and her husband is Senegalese.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 169
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Portugal
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, factual
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Similar in 75%
The Portuguese Nun (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 666
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, gloomy
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Similar in 77%
A Woman's Revenge (2012)
Plot Summary:
Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 343
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, atmospheric, stylized
Similar in 84%
The Uncertainty Principle (2002)
Plot Summary:
Having lost her place among the social elite, a widow remarries and starts a family.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 416
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, cynical, serious, talky, stylized, clever, offbeat, humorous
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Similar in 75%
The Girl (2012)
Plot Summary:
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, South Africa, USA, Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, stylized, realistic, metafiction, period drama
Similar in 75%
My Name Is Bernadette (2011)
Plot Summary:
Between February and July 1858, in the Massabielle cave, the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a miserable little girl from Lourdes. A true revolution in the heart of the Second Empire that shakes the established order by his universal message of love and prayer.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, biblical, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
We of the Never Never (1982)
Plot Summary:
Based on the well-loved Australian classic by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn, this is the remarkable true story of Jeannie Gunn, a woman who fought to overcome sexual and racial prejudice amid the harsh beauties of the outback. Leaving her Melbourne existence for a new life on her husband's isolated ranch, Jeannie's feisty, good-natured attitude soon wins over the misogynistic stockmen, but she faces a much tougher challenge in trying to change their racist attitudes towards the indigenous aboriginal population.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, crying, period piece, period drama
Similar in 90%
Nora (2000)
Plot Summary:
In 1904, in Dublin, James Joyce chats up Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid recently come from Galway. She enchants him with her frank, direct and uninhibited manner, and before long, he's convinced her to come with him to Trieste, where he has a job with Berlitz. Over time, Nora pulls him through phobias, tolerates his drinking, takes in his brother Stan, and bests Joyce at 'the writin' game' to bring him back to Italy from Dublin where he's gone to open a cinema. But his sexual jealousy threatens the relationship and sends her back to Galway with the children. Is there any way to tame Jim's green-eyed monster? And, will the lad ever get his stories published?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK, Italy, Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, serious, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 87%
A Quiet Passion (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Belgium, Canada, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: historical drama, costume drama, romantic drama, period drama, queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Bright Star (2009)
Plot Summary:
In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Australia, UK, France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: heartbreaking, period piece, romantic, touching, sad, costume drama, emotional, colorful, sentimental, witty
Similar in 85%
Vincent & Theo (1990)
Plot Summary:
The tragic story of Vincent van Gogh broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. Based on the letters written between the two.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, Netherlands, UK, Germany, Italy, USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, scenic, sexy, cult classic, independent film, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Marie Krøyer (2012)
Plot Summary:
Marie Krøyer is hailed as “the most beautiful woman in Europe” and leads a happy marriage life with her husband the great Danish painter P.S. Krøyer and an adorable daughter. However, not everything in her world is as perfect as it seems, and Marie’s life is crumbling as her dreams of a beloved wife, good mother and successful artist are unfulfilled. After hospitalizing her mentally ill husband Marie leaves for vacation, and in search for peace and comfort she finds herself falling in love with the young composer Hugo Alfven. Once again, internationally acclaimed Bille August exhibits the weaknesses of human beings in comparison to the ruthless nature. The grandeur scenery of deserted Scandinavian oceans speaks in volumes for the protagonists living in silence despite their lives being full of pains.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: captivating, emotional, stylized, costume drama, serious, realistic, gloomy, tragic, period drama
Similar in 81%
Genius (2016)
Plot Summary:
New York in the 1920s. Max Perkins, literary editor at Scribner’s Sons is the first to sign such subsequent literary greats as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When a sprawling, chaotic 1,000-page manuscript by an unknown writer named Thomas Wolfe falls into his hands, Perkins is convinced he has discovered a literary genius. Together the two men set out to work on a version for publication and a seemingly endless struggle over every single phrase ensues. During this process, Perkins the gentle family man and Wolfe the eccentric author become close – a relationship eyed with suspicion by their wives. When ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ becomes a resounding success, the writer grows increasingly paranoid.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: period piece, talky, touching, intellectual, informative, inspirational, melancholic, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 88%
My Left Foot (1989)
Plot Summary:
In this true story told through flashbacks, Christy Brown is born with crippling cerebral palsy into a poor, working-class Irish family. Able only to control movement in his left foot and to speak in guttural sounds, he is mistakenly believed to be retarded for the first ten years of his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sincere, unusual plot structure, dramatic, sentimental, motivational, sad, captivating, biting
Similar in 87%
Eat Pray Love (2010)
Plot Summary:
Liz Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having – a husband, a house and a successful career – yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused and searching for what she really wanted in life. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life, embarking on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Bali.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 104000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: inspirational, romantic, touching, road movie, sentimental, scenic, emotional, sweet, motivational, realistic
Similar in 85%
Porto of My Childhood (2001)
Plot Summary:
Manoel de Oliveira's autobiographical documentary about returning to his hometown.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 532
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags: semi documentary, atmospheric, touching, serious, offbeat, realistic, contemplative
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Similar in 75%
Gods and Monsters (1998)
Plot Summary:
It's 1957, and Whale's heyday as the director of "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" is long behind him. Retired and a semi-recluse, he lives his days accompanied only by images from his past. When his dour housekeeper, Hannah, hires a handsome young gardener, the flamboyant director and simple yard man develop an unlikely friendship, which will change them forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, melancholic, captivating, sentimental, cult classic, independent film, touching, witty, entertaining, costume drama
Similar in 77%
Christine (2016)
Plot Summary:
Christine is an ambitious 29-year-old news reporter, in Sarasota, FL, circa 1974. Relentlessly motivated to succeed, she knows she has talent, but being a driven career woman in the 1970s comes with its own challenges, especially when competition for a promotion, unrequited love for a coworker and a tumultuous home life lead to a dissolution of self. With ratings in the cellar, the station manager issues a mandate to deliver juicier and more exploitative stories, a story firmly at odds with Christine’s serious brand of issue-based journalism. To accomplish her goals, she must overcome her self-doubt and give the people what they want.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sad, bleak, melancholic, depressing, disturbing, independent film, psychological thriller, dark, mumblecore, controversial
Similar in 90%
Henry & June (1990)
Plot Summary:
While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller and his wife, June, meet Anais Nin, and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: sexy, sensual, controversial, erotic, melancholic, atmospheric, stylized, serious, realistic, intellectual