Best movies like Milena
Last updated March 2024
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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:
Best tv shows and movies like Milena (1990):
Similar in 86%
Class Relations (1984)
Plot Summary:
A young man (Christian Heinisch), recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 748
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: political, contemplative, masterpiece
Similar in 76%
Diary for My Children (1984)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical story of a young woman's life in Budapest under Stalin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 981
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: art house, masterpiece, banned
Similar in 84%
Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison (1977)
Plot Summary:
Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison is a 1977 Italian drama directed by Lino Del Fra.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 68
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 82%
Zina (1985)
Plot Summary:
Zina, the daughter of Leon Trotsky by his first wife, is undergoing freudian analysis in Berlin in the 'thirties. Meanwhile Trotsky is in exile in Prinkipo having been driven from power by Stalin. The Nazis rise to power in Germany and Austria and Zina commits suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 124
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Just Like at Home (1978)
Plot Summary:
A man and a kid are discovering beauty in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
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 78%
Hefner: Unauthorized (1999)
Plot Summary:
The unauthorized biography of Hugh Hefner and the birth of the Playboy empire.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Scarred Hearts (2016)
Plot Summary:
During the summer of 1937, Emanuel, a young man in his early twenties, is committed to a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast for treatment of his bone tuberculosis. The treatment consists of painful spine punctures that confine him to a plaster on a stretcher-bed. Little by little, as Emanuel gets accustomed to the sadness of his new life, he discovers that inside the sanatorium there is still a life to be lived to the fullest.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Romania, Germany, Belgium, France
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, melancholic, disturbing
Similar in 78%
'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 81%
The Ideal Palace (2018)
Plot Summary:
At the end of the 19th century, Joseph Ferdinand Cheval (Jacques Gamblin), is a simple postman who travels every day along the Drôme, from village to village. Alone, he is upset when he meets the woman of his life, Philomena (Laetitia Casta). From their union Alice was born. For this child he loves more than anything, Cheval then throws himself into a crazy gamble: to build her with his own hands, an incredible palace. Never spared by the ordeals of life, this ordinary man will not give up and will devote 33 years to build an extraordinary work: "The Ideal Palace".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, psychological, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Jessica (2004)
Plot Summary:
The Bergman sisters could not be more different. Jessica is a feisty tomboy who loves to help her father work their farmland. Her beautiful sister Meg is eagerly being groomed by her mother Hester (Lisa Harrow) to be the perfect wife, so that she can marry her way out of poverty. However, when the man, Jack Thomas, who Meg has set her sights on falls in love with Jessica and gets her pregnant, Hester schemes to wrench the couple apart to claim Jessica's son, Joey for Meg. Later she commits Jessica to a mental asylum. It is here that Jessica receives news of her lover's death and almost loses hope, but after enlisting the help of Mr. Runche, a down and out lawyer battling alcoholism, she is eventually released. Years later, it is the reformed Runche who gives Jessica the courage to fight for the return of her child. Eventually Meg and Hester call an uneasy truce with Jessica, and allow her to play a role in Joey's life as his aunt.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 538
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 196 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
150 Milligrams (2016)
Plot Summary:
In the hospital where she works in Brest, France, a lung specialist discovers a direct link between suspicious deaths and state-approved medicine. She fights single-handedly for the truth to come out.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Antonia. (2015)
Plot Summary:
Distinguished Italian poet Antonia Pozzi (1912–1938) was among those women who were at odds with the times in which they lived. Her poems record her inability to adapt to social norms and her desire to live fully, and in poetry she sought an escape from reality and from her own complex soul and emotional life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy, Greece
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Nostradamus (1994)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic retelling of the life of Michel de Nostredame, from his early work as a plague doctor to his time at the court of Catherine de Medici, after he became famed for his prophetic almanacs. Stars Rutger Hauer and Julia Ormond.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, UK, Germany, Romania
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: spiritual, serious, independent film, period drama
Similar in 80%
Zelda (1993)
Plot Summary:
Biopic about Zelda Fitzgerald, as played by Natasha Richardson.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Story of Piera (1983)
Plot Summary:
This sometimes confusing erotic drama about the incestuous relationship of a mother and daughter is based on the autobiography of Italian theater actress Piera Degli Esposti though it focuses more on her mother Eugenia.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 821
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: erotic, neorealism, independent film, psycho sexual, grotesque
Similar in 85%
Alex: The Life of a Child (1986)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events, 'Alex: The Life of a Child' follows former 'Sports Illustrated' writer Frank Deford and his wife Carole when their happy, all-American family is rocked to the core when their baby daughter Alex is diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. While CF sufferers were almost certainly doomed to an early death in the Seventies, Alex grew into a child who showed remarkable courage and strength in face of her illness. Her loving family were quick to rally around her, determined to show the same bravery as the little girl as they supported and cherished her through life and struggled to move on after her death at the tragically young age of eight.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 239
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
The Wolf at the Door (1986)
Plot Summary:
This biographical film, based on the life of French artist Paul Gauguin, follows the painter as he returns to Paris after a long stay in Tahiti and must confront his wife, his children, and his former lover.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 459
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
Leonie (2010)
Plot Summary:
In the lush tradition of the glorious films of Merchant and Ivory, comes the true life story of Leonie Gilmour (Emily Mortimer), whose life crossed continents, wars and cultures, embodied with courage and passion in search of art and freedom. A tender and inspiring story of a remarkable woman who nurtures the amazing artistic talent of her son who has only one way to succeed and one person to guide him, as he grows into the world renown artist, Isamu Noguchi.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 573
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, UK, Australia, Germany, Belgium, USA, Japan, Netherlands
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, realistic, stylized, retro, crying, period piece, period drama
Similar in 87%
Prisoners of Auschwitz (2013)
Plot Summary:
Arnost Lustig was one of the world's most renowned literary authors of our times. Lustig's novel 'A girl from Antwerp' upon which our film Colette is based, draws on the author's personal Nazi Concentration Camp experience and his own recollection of several escape attempts from the hell of Auschwitz. The story of The Pulitzer Prize nominee Lustig is about the power of love under an extreme life circumstances. It is a story of young lovers and their vigorous determination to escape from a hopeless life condition and theirs courage to face death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 599
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, tense, touching
Similar in 87%
Luther (1974)
Plot Summary:
A man's view cause a rift between peasants and the church.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 474
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, period drama
Similar in 81%
Mark Twain and Me (1991)
Plot Summary:
Dorothy Quick, A young girl befriends the famous writer, Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemans during the final years of his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 191
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
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 88%
Papa Hemingway in Cuba (2015)
Plot Summary:
In 1959, a young journalist ventures to Havana, Cuba to meet his idol, the legendary Ernest Hemingway who helped him find his literary voice, while the Cuban Revolution comes to a boil around them.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Milada (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story of communist show-trial victim Milada Horáková. Horáková was one of the first victims of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. She opposed the communist coup in 1948 but did not leave the country. She was arrested and tried for treason on fabricated charges in a show trial that was broadcast on the radio and shown in film clips. The film focuses on the time from 1945 to 1950 when the communists took over, but also goes back a little further in Horáková's life into the late 1930s.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, tense, touching, captivating
Similar in 88%
Hannah Arendt (2012)
Plot Summary:
Hannah Arendt is a portrait of the genius that shook the world with her discovery of “the banality of evil.” After she attends the Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem, Arendt dares to write about the Holocaust in terms no one has ever heard before. Her work instantly provokes a furious scandal, and Arendt stands strong as she is attacked by friends and foes alike. But as the German-Jewish émigré also struggles to suppress her own painful associations with the past, the film exposes her beguiling blend of arrogance and vulnerability — revealing a soul defined and derailed by exile.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany, Luxembourg, France, Israel
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, realistic, philosophical, political, art house, anthropological, serious, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Klimt (2006)
Plot Summary:
A portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Austria, France, Germany, UK
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, stylized, cerebral, visual, visually stunning, serious, captivating, realistic, experimental, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Seraphine (2008)
Plot Summary:
The tragic story of French naïve painter Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (1864-1942), a humble servant who becomes a gifted self-taught painter. Discovered by prominent critic and collector William Uhde, she came to prominence between the wars grouped with other naïve painters like Henri Rouseau only to descend into madness and obscurity with the onset of Great Depression and World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, sentimental, surprise ending, heartbreaking, avant garde, independent film, art film, visual, visually stunning
Similar in 78%
Brain on Fire (2016)
Plot Summary:
Susannah Cahalan, an up-and-coming journalist at the New York Post becomes plagued by voices in her head and seizures, causing a rapid descent into insanity.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada, Ireland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: medical drama, thought provoking, realistic, suspenseful, neurotic, inspirational, touching, sad, cult classic
Similar in 76%
Noble (2014)
Plot Summary:
Christina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Vietnam
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, gloomy