Best movies like Mephisto
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, West Germany, Austria
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: political, art film, mind twisting, horror musical, tense, serious, realistic, disturbing, biting, expressionism
Best tv shows and movies like Mephisto (1981):
Similar in 76%
Man of Marble (1977)
Plot Summary:
Man of Marble is a Polish film about a student making a film about a bricklayer who was once idolized. She interviews people who knew him and finds old footage that lead to an unfolding mystery that causes her producer to cancel the project.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: emotional, meditative, compassionate, disturbing, talky, realistic, serious, political, sincere, thought provoking
Similar in 86%
'38 - Vienna Before the Fall (1986)
Plot Summary:
The film presents the political events surrounding the Anschluss in March of 1938 through the lives of Carola Hell, a popular young actress at the prestigious Theater in der Josefstadt, and Martin Hofmann, the Jewish journalist she plans to marry. When we encounter the couple in the lovely springtime weather their future is full of promise. They are determined to stay clear of politics. Yet in the climate of the time, nobody of her prominence or his religion can remain apolitical. Although Martin's journalist friend, Drechsler, calls to inform them that the Nazis plan to take over Austria soon, they concentrate on their work and their private happiness and dismiss the warnings.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, West Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Karamazov Brothers (2008)
Plot Summary:
Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic, Poland, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, captivating, serious, realistic, emotional, existential, contemplative, gloomy, metafiction
Similar in 87%
Spider's Web (1989)
Plot Summary:
Ulrich Mühe plays a German businessman who was born completely without scruples. This makes him an eminently suitable candidate for success in the chaotic years after World War I. The shameless man's story is contrasted with that of his polar opposite, a Jewish anarchist.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 196 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Soldiers of Salamina (2003)
Plot Summary:
Professor Lola Sánchez investigates the truth behind the events experienced by Rafael Sánchez Mazas, one of the founders of the Falange Española party, during the Spanish Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, suspenseful, political, art film, realistic
Similar in 81%
Burning Secret (1988)
Plot Summary:
Burning Secret is a 1988 drama film, based on the short story Brennendes Geheimnis by Stefan Zweig, about an American diplomat's son who befriends a mysterious baron while staying at an Austrian spa during the 1920s. The film was written and directed by Andrew Birkin.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 89%
Julia (1977)
Plot Summary:
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: factual, atmospheric, captivating, realistic, political, touching, visually stunning, historical drama, serious, contemplative
Similar in 81%
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 86%
Ivans xtc. (To Live and Die in Hollywood) (2000)
Plot Summary:
Update on Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," set in contemporary Hollywood.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, suspenseful, depressing, spiritual, art house, independent film
Similar in 83%
10,000 Black Men Named George (2002)
Plot Summary:
In the 1920s, the rights of American workers to join a labor union was still considered an open question, and African-Americans were routinely denied their civil and economic rights. 10,000 Black Men Named George, the title, refers to the fact Pullman porters were often called "George" by white passengers, which was considered a racial slur.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, tense, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 89%
Georg Elser – Einer aus Deutschland (1989)
Plot Summary:
A true story about Johann Georg Elser, a quiet carpenter who tried to assassinate Hitler with an explosive device in 1939.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: West Germany, Austria
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
Swing Kids (1993)
Plot Summary:
The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazi's begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, sentimental, touching, political, retro, depressing, breathtaking, sad
Similar in 83%
Cabaret (1972)
Plot Summary:
Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally Bowles and an impish emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside a certain political party grows into a brutal force.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Drama, Music, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: satirical, stylized, atmospheric, sentimental, serious, period piece, inspirational, spiritual, neo noir, entertaining
Similar in 90%
The Girl of Your Dreams (1998)
Plot Summary:
A company of Spanish movie makers leaves Franco's Spain and moves to Hitler's Germany to make a film in co-production. Soon some problems start to arise.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, light, captivating, entertaining, sexy, realistic, feel good, pre war
Similar in 81%
The Ogre (1996)
Plot Summary:
Frenchman Abel Tiffauges likes children, and wants to protect them against the grown-ups. Falsely suspected as child molester, he's recruited as a soldier in the 2nd World War, but very soon he is taken prisoner of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France, UK, Poland
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, sad, psychological, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, contemplative, erotic
Similar in 88%
Jew-Boy Levi (1999)
Plot Summary:
Benjamin Levi (Bruno Cathomas) is a Bavarian cattle dealer traveling to pre-World War II Germany on his annual trip to a remote farming village. Levi hopes to do some business and, more importantly, win the hand of the lovely Lisbeth (Caroline Ebner). But Nazi propaganda has gripped the small community and poisoned it forever. Now, Levi and Lisbeth are targets of hate in this provocative and shocking drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Switzerland, Austria
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Conformist (1970)
Plot Summary:
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: political, art house, breathtaking, visual, neo noir, philosophical, cerebral, psychological, atmospheric, bleak
Similar in 85%
The Rose Garden (1989)
Plot Summary:
In Germany, an old man attacks another old man and is arrested. The attacker refuses to speak. A female lawyer is appointed to him. She discovers that the attacker has numbers tattooed on his arm and the attacked man was a German officer.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 447
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, West Germany, Austria
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, psychological, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Jew Suss: Rise and Fall (2010)
Plot Summary:
This intricate historical drama tells the story of actor Ferdinand Marian (Tobias Moretti), who is ordered by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels to star in the 1940 anti-Semitic film Jew Suss. Despite his cooperation, Ferdinand's actions have unexpected costs. Ferdinand's Jewish wife, Anna (Martina Gedeck), is sent to a concentration camp, and as World War II intensifies, he rebels against the Nazis, leading to the destruction of his career.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, psychological, factual, sad, serious, contemplative, hot
Similar in 75%
Max (2002)
Plot Summary:
In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolph Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hungary, Canada, UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, avant garde, tense, clever, serious, talky, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (1985)
Plot Summary:
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl (John Shea), a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A." (storm troopers).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 857
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Hamsun (1996)
Plot Summary:
Knut Hamsun is Norway's most famous and admired author. Ever since he was young he has hated the English for the starvation they caused Norway during WWI. When the Germans occupy Norway 9 April 1940 he welcomes them and the protection they can give from Great Britain. He supports the national socialist ideals, but opposes the way these ideals are turned into action - that Norwegians are jailed and executed. His wife Marie travels in Germany during the war as a sign of support from Knut and herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: sad, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, period drama
Similar in 75%
Hanussen (1988)
Plot Summary:
A man's story parallels Hitler's rise. Austrian Klaus Schneider, wounded in World War I, recovers in the care of Dr. Emil Bettleheim. Bettleheim discovers that Schneider possesses powers of empathy and of clairvoyance, such that could aid suicidal patients. After the war, with one friend as his manager and another as his lover, Schneider changes his name to Eric Jan Hanussen and goes to Berlin, as a hypnotist and clairvoyant performing in halls and theaters. He always speaks the truth, which brings him to the attention of powerful Nazis. He predicts their rise (good propaganda for them) and their violence (not so good). He's in pain and at risk. What is Hanussen's future?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hungary, West Germany, Austria
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, sad, esoteric, intelligent, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Cradle Will Rock (1999)
Plot Summary:
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: talky, entertaining, intellectual, factual, serious, disturbing, realistic, clever, cult classic, sincere
Similar in 83%
Fuehrer Ex (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ingo Hasselbach, whose parents were Communist Party members in East Germany during his childhood, has lived at both ends of the political seesaw. The question of how people reach a change of heart is a profound one; Hasselbach describes the external forces that led to his founding Germany's first neo-Nazi political party and the internal ones that led him away from it five years later.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, rough, bleak, realistic
Similar in 82%
Rosenstrasse (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 86%
The Tin Drum (1979)
Plot Summary:
Oskar is born in Germany in 1924 with an advanced intellect. Repulsed by the hypocrisy of adults and the irresponsibility of society, he refuses to grow older after his third birthday.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France, Poland
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, disturbing, controversial, art house, harsh, talky, realistic, clever, epic, serious
Similar in 77%
The Final Solution: The Wannsee Conference (1984)
Plot Summary:
A real time recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which leading SS and Nazi Party officals gathered to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Led by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, the Wannsee Conference was the starting point for the Jewish Holcaust which led to the mass murder of six million people.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Austria, West Germany
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, talky
Similar in 82%
Out of the Ashes (2003)
Plot Summary:
The real-life story of Gisella Perl, a Jewish Hungarian doctor imprisoned in the notorious Auschwitz death camp of World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, bleak, captivating, emotional, contemplative, uplifting
Similar in 80%
Colonel Redl (1985)
Plot Summary:
Set during the fading glory of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the film tells of the rise and fall of Alfred Redl, an ambitious young officer who proceeds up the ladder to become head of the Secret Police only to become ensnared in political deception.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, West Germany
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: political, clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, biting, suspense, period drama, queer cinema