Best movies like In the White City
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A Swiss sailor jumps ship in Lisbon, tired of the noisy engine room, the ship "a floating factory of crazy people." He rents a room and does little. He writes letters to his lover, describing the whiteness of the city, the solitude and the silence. He sends his love and emptiness; she replies with love and confusion. He sends movies from his 8mm camera. Then he becomes friendly with Rosa, a chambermaid, and soon it's a love affair. He continues to send letters and movies home. His Swiss lover is hurt and angry; she sends an ultimatum. Written by jhailey.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, Portugal, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: road movie, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, surreal, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like In the White City (1983):
Similar in 78%
Knife in the Head (1978)
Plot Summary:
One night when seeking his estranged wife, Hoffmann goes to the youth center where she works. The police are there rounding up radicals who frequent the center - Hoffmann runs into the building and ends up being shot in the head. He awakens with brain trauma, partially paralyzed and unable to speak. The police accuse him of stabbing an officer; the radicals herald him as an innocent victim of police brutality. During his slow recovery at the hospital, Hoffmann must piece together his life and struggle to remember the events of that night.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 714
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: tense, mind bending, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 79%
Ploy (2007)
Plot Summary:
A husband and wife are locked inside a single hotel room with a stranger named Ploy. Subtle suspicions build up to jealousy as the young woman triggers devastating consequences for the couple.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Thailand
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, tense, mind bending, serious, contemplative, sexual, erotic
Similar in 85%
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976)
Plot Summary:
The European equivalent of "The Return of the Secaucus 7," this Swiss film looks at the lives of several men and women in their 30s as they confront the slim gains of the "revolutionary" sixties. Max, a dissatisfied copy editor; Myriam, a redhead into tantric sex; and Marie, a supermarket checker who gives unauthorized discounts to the elderly, search for renewed meaning on a communal farm. The title character, a six-year-old child, is the carrier of their hopes for the future.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: talky, thought provoking, clever, humorous, realistic, experimental, contemplative, semi serious, light, sexy
Similar in 82%
Strapless (1989)
Plot Summary:
An expatriate American doctor in London allows herself to lighten up when her freewheeling younger sister and a mysterious man enter her life. Her inhibitions released, the beautiful doctor learns that freedom has its own price.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 432
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, independent film, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
1001 Grams (2014)
Plot Summary:
When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief and, not least, love, that ends up on the scale. Finally Marie is forced to come to terms with how much a human life truly weighs and which measurements she intends to live by.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, serious, psychological, captivating, sexy, touching, gloomy
Similar in 87%
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
Similar in 78%
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 87%
Seventh Heaven (1997)
Plot Summary:
A bored, sexually frustrated woman's life improves when she begins hypnotherapy and tries feng shui, but her husband's life unravels.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexual, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, erotic, light, sexy, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
Exhibition (2013)
Plot Summary:
An intimate examination of a contemporary artist couple, whose living and working patterns are threatened by the imminent sale of their home.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, captivating, sincere, clever, serious, talky, stylized
Similar in 78%
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Plot Summary:
The study of a marriage. Jo has five children and husband number two when she meets writer Jake Armitage. She leaves this husband to marry Jake, and his career takes off. A few years and at least one child later, Jo is deeply depressed, breaking down in the middle of Harrods. After psychiatric care and the prospect of a new house in the country, she gets better; then, she is pregnant again, and this time Jake objects. Jo consents to an abortion and sterilization in the belief it will make her marriage happy again, but afterwards she learns ugly truths about Jake.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, clever, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 78%
Hip Moves (2012)
Plot Summary:
Hervé is a lonely man who lives only for his self-defense courses. Fired from the zoo where he works because he depresses the animals, he becomes a night watchman in a factory. To pass the time, he watches the comings and goings of a strange pair of lovers: his colleague and his wife who sells her body with her husband's blessing.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, offbeat, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
Betty (1992)
Plot Summary:
When Betty is caught en flagrante, her bourgeois in-laws and husband force a divorce settlement upon her and bar her from seeing her two daughters. She is rescued from an alcoholic stupor by Laure, a middle-aged woman who takes Betty to her hotel lodgings, extends friendship and care, and listens to her story. Laure's lover, Mario, the proprietor of the bar where Betty and Laure met, is first a friend, then Betty's next conquest.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 86%
7 Years (2006)
Plot Summary:
A devoted young woman becomes ensnared in a web of sexuality and betrayal in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s consistently unpredictable and finely wrought character study. A vividly realistic psychosexual drama, the film’s sharp emotional honesty heralds a distinct new voice from a promising young director. Hattu soon reveals that Maite’s husband Vincent is in prison for an unspecified crime, and that she has promised to wait for him and attend to his laundry (if not his conjugal needs) during his incarceration. On one of her weekly visits, Maite meets Jean, an oddly inquisitive and boldly flirtatious prison warden, and soon the two commence a joyless affair. Seemingly smitten with Maite, Jean, in a gesture of kindness to his lover, eases up on her husband behind bars; the two become pals and even engage in some homoerotic shower talk. —Robert O’Shaughnessy.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 297
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, realistic, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Les corps impatients (2003)
Plot Summary:
Paul and Charlotte are in love. Charlotte discovers she has a grave malady and Paul supports her. But Paul is also attracted to Ninon, another girl. Charlotte accepts Paul to have an affair with her, and the three start a difficult and ambiguous relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 613
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, sincere, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Late Bloomers (2011)
Plot Summary:
Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, psychological, captivating, humorous, serious
Similar in 85%
Those Who Remain (2007)
Plot Summary:
Bertrand (Vincent Lindon) dutifully visits his terminally ill wife every day, braving the long train and bus ride to and from the hospital. Lorraine (Emmanuelle Devos) not so willingly visits her boyfriend who was diagnosed with colon cancer. They bump into each other during one of their visits and begin to meet for coffee. Coffee turns into Lorraine offering to drive Bertrand to the train station and the two turn to each other in their time of grief and confusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 623
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Transylvania (2006)
Plot Summary:
Zingarina arrives in Transylavania, accompanied by her close friend Marie and her guide and interpreter Luminitsa. She is not there only to visit this region of Romania but to trace her lover Milan, a musician who has made her pregnant and who left her without a word of explanation. When she finds him back, he brutally rejects her and Zingarina is terribly upset. She leaves her two companions and having become a wreck she hardly survives by following a wandering little girl. Her destiny changes for the best when she meets Tchangalo, a traveling trader.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, captivating, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
Plans for Tomorrow (2010)
Plot Summary:
Three stories intertwined which occur in a single day. The day Ines discovers she is pregnant, Antonia decides to abandon her family and Marian realizes she is going to die.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Fire Within (1963)
Plot Summary:
Alain Leroy is a recovering alcoholic who decides to end his life, but first decides to visit his friends in Paris one last time, in an attempt at finding a reason to continue living.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: philosophical, depressing, art house, independent film, existential, bleak, touching, sad, anthology, powerful
Similar in 80%
Fraulein (2006)
Plot Summary:
Ruža left Serbia, her country, over 30 years ago and lives in Zurich. Her daily life is a string of repetitive moments until, one day, Ana arrives on the scene and upsets Ruža's painstakingly organized world. A subtle friendship develops between the two strong willed women.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 974
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, realistic, captivating, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
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 87%
A Single Girl (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young Parisian must make major decisions about pregnancy, a job and her boyfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexual, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, rough
Similar in 84%
In Praise of Love (2001)
Plot Summary:
Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: intellectual, meditative, enigmatic, stylized, psychological, philosophical, atmospheric, serious, realistic, surreal
Similar in 81%
Married/Unmarried (2001)
Plot Summary:
Obsession and doubt control four friends' relationship.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 126
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, serious, captivating, semi serious
Similar in 76%
The Meetings of Anna (1978)
Plot Summary:
Anna is a film director whose job takes her all over western Europe. In each place she either already has some intimate connection, or readily makes one. People seem drawn to her, but inevitably insist on sharing their inmost secrets and discontents with her, despite her obvious and profound lack of interest in these revelations. This does not deter Anna from continuing to meet people, and she genuinely connects with them occasionally, as when she sees her mother briefly in Brussels.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, West Germany
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, avant garde, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
Searching for the Elephant (2009)
Plot Summary:
A freelance photographer Hyun-woo seems to live an enviable life with a successful career. But his inside is torn apart from the sorrow of being deserted by his ex-girlfriend Mari. He even gets unclear about what’s really happening in reality and what’s delusion. One of Hyun-woo’s friend and a riding-high plastic surgeon, Min-seok is married to Soo-yeon, a sister of Hyun-woo. But he is always having affairs with the girls around him and doubts himself if he’s addicted to sex. Jin-hyuk, their longtime friend, is a financing specialist. And he is having a secret affair with Min-seok’s wife. He is willing to leave everything behind for the love. Three men, who look like the winners in life, are in fact struggling with their own sufferings that they desperately strive to keep undisclosed. The harder they try to get out of the agony, the more complicated and puzzled it gets.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, dark, mind bending, contemplative, gloomy, weird
Similar in 89%
Little Jerusalem (2005)
Plot Summary:
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 86%
Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995)
Plot Summary:
Nelly leaves her lazy, unemployed husband to work for retired judge Mr Arnaud, forty years her senior, after he offers to clear her bills for her. While she types his memoirs the two develop a close friendship, but Arnaud becomes jealous when Nelly begins dating his good-looking young publisher.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, light, atmospheric, sexy
Similar in 83%
The Dust of Time (2008)
Plot Summary:
A, an American film director of Greek ancestry, is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents. It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA. The main character is Eleni, who is claimed and claims the absoluteness of love. At the same time the film is a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century. The characters in the film move as though in a dream. The dust of time confuses memories. A searches for them and experiences them in the present.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, postmodern, slow cinema, aesthetic, epic, realistic
Similar in 85%
Hysterical Blindness (2002)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1980's, Debby Miller (Uma Thurman) goes out in New Jersey looking for a man after she is diagnosed with "hysterical blindness".
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, stylized, touching, serious, sincere, emotional, realistic, talky, scary, dark