Best movies like Life and Nothing But
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families' descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of "the unknown soldier." Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Irène de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Irène makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: anthology, serious, realistic, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Life and Nothing But (1989):
Similar in 85%
See You Up There (2017)
Plot Summary:
November 1918. A few days before the Armistice, Édouard Péricourt saves Albert Maillard's life. These two men have nothing in common but the war. Lieutenant Pradelle, by ordering a senseless assault, destroys their lives while binding them as companions in misfortune. On the ruins of the carnage of WWI, condemned to live, the two attempt to survive. Thus, as Pradelle is about to make a fortune with the war victims' corpses, Albert and Édouard mount a monumental scam with the bereaved families' commemoration and with a nation's hero worship.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, War
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, tense, captivating, disturbing, fairy tale, dark, black comedy, period piece, dark comedy, visual
Similar in 90%
La France (2007)
Plot Summary:
During the First World War, Camille (Sylvie Testud), a young woman whose husband is away fighting at the front, receives a short letter of break-up from him. Distraught, she decides to go to join him, but is driven back by the rule of the time which forbids women to move around alone. She has no other recourse than to dress herself up as a man so as to be able to take to the road on foot. As she lives near the Western Fromt she hooks up with a passing group of French soldiers without too much trouble. But there's something a bit odd about these stragglers, and it's not just their habit of bursting into song at every opportunity.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 574
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, sexual
Similar in 79%
A Sunday in the Country (1984)
Plot Summary:
In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, intellectual, touching, serious, light, romantic, sexy, enigmatic, bleak
Similar in 82%
The Green Room (1978)
Plot Summary:
Based on the Henry James short story "The Altar of the Dead", in which a man becomes obsessed with the many dead people in his life and builds a memorial to honor them. This film is also based on other short story by Henry James, "The Beast of the Jungle". It would be the last film Truffaut would act in.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: spiritual, psychological, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 87%
The Fear (2015)
Plot Summary:
A young soldier testifies of his thoughts about the first world war, between disillusion, fear and hate, following his path through the letters he sends to his lover.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, rough, exciting
Similar in 89%
Snow and Fire (1991)
Plot Summary:
While the Nazis occupied most of France, Jacques (Vincent Perez) has been active in the liberation underground. Now that the Allies have freed a significant portion of their country from German control, he and his buddy Michel (Matthieu Roze) can join the Free French army and fight with them to help bring about the downfall of the German empire. Both of them are quite young men, and their first love turns out to be the same woman, a lovely nurse named Christiane (Geraldine Pailhas). Michel woos her first, and she becomes pregnant by him. However, she is much more interested in Jacques, even though she is considering marrying an American solely for practical reasons.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
The Veteran (2006)
Plot Summary:
Sidney J. Furie's The Veteran is a respectable straight-to-DVD movie that was headed for the "pleasant surprise" category before self-destructing with a terrible, out-of-the-blue ending.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 655
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, cult film
Similar in 82%
Alexandra (2007)
Plot Summary:
An elderly woman takes a train trip to visit her grandson at his army camp inside Chechnya.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, touching, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 81%
Coup de grâce (1976)
Plot Summary:
A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, stylized, realistic, bleak, philosophical, depressing, political, sad, art house, black and white
Similar in 86%
Forbidden Ground (2013)
Plot Summary:
Three British soldiers find themselves stranded in No Man's Land after a failed charge on the German Trenches. Set in France 1916.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, captivating, rough, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 79%
Captain Conan (1996)
Plot Summary:
Bulgaria near the end of World War I: Conan, warrior and wolf, leads a band of 50 ruthless French fighters who love hand-to-hand combat. Their motto: "We forgot to take prisoners, Captain." At war's end, the unit goes to Bucharest, where Conan tries to keep them out of trouble, defends them when they behave as warriors, and finds he's unsuited for peacetime. His friendship with Norbert, a teacher turned lieutenant, is tested when Norbert accepts a job as court-martial prosecutor because he's learned that Conan will be facing charges and he wants to protect his friend. When they are sent to the Russian border to fight Bolsheviks, Conan is back in his element and Norbert is off the hook.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspense
Similar in 78%
4 Days in May (2011)
Plot Summary:
A group of Russian soldiers are sent into Northern Germany at the tail-end of WWII, where they occupy a children's home in close proximity to a larger German unit. Against these odds, a friendship forms between a German orphan and a childless Soviet captain.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 819
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Russia, Ukraine
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, suspense
Similar in 79%
Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975)
Plot Summary:
France, 1719. Louis 14th died four years ago, Philippe d'Orleans is the regent. He is a liberal and a libertine. His right-hand man, Dubois, an atheistic and cupid priest, as libertine as Philippe, tries to take advantage of a little rebellion lead by a Breton squire (Pontallec) and of the famine to become archbishop... Description of the life of the court in this period of transition where the French Revolution smoulders.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: anthology, historical drama, serious, realistic, weird, period drama
Similar in 83%
Yanks (1979)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic, historical drama
Similar in 78%
Cet amour-l? (2001)
Plot Summary:
Cet Amour-là is an intimate portrait of a legendary love affair. Set against the beauty of the Breton seaside, it is also a film that revels in the insights that Marguerite Duras' writing affords.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, sentimental, sincere, serious, captivating, clever, realistic, talky, gloomy
Similar in 85%
A Soldier's Tale (1989)
Plot Summary:
In the days following the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, a British platoon leader named Saul (Gabriel Byrne) and his corporal (Paul Wyett) reach an isolated farmhouse and encounter a beautiful French girl named Belle (Marianne Basler). Love blooms between Saul and Belle, but the grim realities of war catch up with them when a French Resistance trio claims that Belle is a Nazi collaborator. Judge Reinhold appears briefly as the token Yank.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, emotional
Similar in 82%
The Officers' Ward (2001)
Plot Summary:
The first days of WWI. Adrien, a young and handsome lieutenant, is wounded by a piece of shrapnel. He will spend the entire wartime at the Val-de-Grâce Hospital, in Paris. Five long years, and his life will change forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, psychological, realistic, disturbing, romantic, contemplative, period drama
Similar in 80%
Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)
Plot Summary:
World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 969
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, historical drama, contemplative, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Our World War (2014)
Plot Summary:
During the First World War, British troops face the horrors of the Battle of Mons in 1914, internal strife in 1916 and innovative tank warfare in 1918.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, costume drama, stylized
Similar in 90%
Fort Saganne (1984)
Plot Summary:
In 1911, a willful and determined man from peasant stock named Charles Saganne enlists in the military and is assigned to the Sahara Desert under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Great War (2019)
Plot Summary:
In November of 1918 as World War I was ending, a unit of American soldiers goes behind enemy lines to find a lost platoon of African American soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating
Similar in 84%
The Passing Bells (2014)
Plot Summary:
At the outbreak of war, two teenage boys defy their parents to sign up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, Poland
Duration:
Plot tags: historical drama, epic, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, costume drama, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Company K (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the popular World War I novel by author William March, director Robert Clem's COMPANY K follows a veteran of the first great conflict as he finishes a book about his wartime experiences and reflects on how a man's true character is revealed through his actions on the battlefield. From the German soldier who visits him in dreams to the camaraderie that is forged by fighting together and the true gravity of laying down your life for a greater cause, World War I veteran Joe Delaney will attempt to exorcise his demons through writing while struggling to readjust to small-town life following the trauma of war.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, epic, serious, captivating, disturbing, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 87%
Defenders of Riga (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film dramatizes November 11, 1919- a crucial date in the battle for Latvian independence. A year after the end of the official hostilities of WWI, a renegade German general and troops remain outside the Latvian capital. Latvian riflemen, most of them inexperienced volunteers, somehow managed to defeat a larger, better-armed force of German and Russian mercenaries.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, War
Country: Latvia
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
The Trench (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Trench tells the story of a group of young British soldiers on the eve of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the worst defeat in British military history. Against this ill-fated backdrop, the movie depicts the soldiers' experience as a mixture of boredom, fear, panic, and restlessness, confined to a trench on the front lines.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, freeze frame
Similar in 87%
A Bear Named Winnie (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of a Canadian soldier, enroute to World War I from Winnipeg, who adopts an orphaned bear cub at White River Ontario. It is namned Winnie (for Winnipeg) and eventually ends up at the London Zoo where it became the inspiration for A.A.Milne's Winnie The Pooh stories.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: feel good, serious, touching, light, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 78%
The Lost Battalion (2001)
Plot Summary:
Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I. Based on a true story, The Lost Battalion is set in 1918 during the final months of WWI. Assigned to capture an enemy stronghold in Charlvaux at the height of the Argonne campaign, the men of the AEF 308th Battalion, 77th Division, are led by young American major Charles Whittlesey, an inexperienced but dedicated "citizen soldier." Totally cut off from the other allied troops, unaware of their vulnerability, and barraged by "friendly fire," the 500-plus men of the 308th bravely hold their position, suffering incredible losses and unspeakable deprivations in the process -- while the battalion's superior officers, far from the firing line, callously prepare to write off the men as expendable casualties.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, philosophical, political, historical drama, gloomy
Similar in 87%
All Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
Plot Summary:
At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: bleak, sad, suspenseful, historical drama, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, tragic ending
Similar in 85%
Murphy's War (1971)
Plot Summary:
Murphy is the sole survivor of his crew, that has been massacred by a German U-Boat in the closing days of World War II. He is rescued, and ends up at a forgotten mission station near the mouth of the Orinoco, and begins to plot his vengeance. He wishes to sink the U-Boat by means of any method imaginable to him, and sets about to make the courageous attempt, assisted by Louis, the local oil company Administrator.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, exciting, serious, suspenseful, independent film, psychological, tense, clever, intellectual, feel good
Similar in 90%
Aces High (1976)
Plot Summary:
The first World War is in its third year and aerial combat above the Western Front is consuming the nation's favored children at an appalling rate. By early 1917, the average life-span of a British pilot is less than a fortnight. Such losses place a fearsome strain on Gresham, commanding officer of the squadron. Aces High recreates the early days of the Royal Flying Corps with some magnificently staged aerial battles, and sensitive direction presents a moving portrayal of the futilities of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy