Best movies like Muriel, or The Time of Return
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A chamber drama about a widow and her son who live in an antique shop in Boulogne. The widow invites a man whom she loved twenty-two years earlier to visit. Her son is haunted by Muriel, a young woman whose death he may have caused while serving as a soldier in Algeria. As in Resnais' earlier films, memory is deflected, fragmented, enshrined, and imagined.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, anthology, psychological, tense, atmospheric, thought provoking, clever, touching
Best tv shows and movies like Muriel, or The Time of Return (1963):
Similar in 87%
The Fiances (1963)
Plot Summary:
A young man has a renewed interest in his girlfriend when he takes a job that separates the two.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: contemplative, neorealism, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Mark of an Angel (2008)
Plot Summary:
Elsa, a woman with a long history of depression in the midst of a divorce from her husband of 12 years develops an obsession with a seven year old girl she sees at a birthday party when she comes to pick up her son Thomas. Determined to find out more about the girl, Elsa uses Thomas as a way into the girl's family by aiding to develop a friendship between Thomas and the girl's brother Jeremy so that in turn Elsa can then befriend the girl's mother Claire. She uses Thomas more and more in her pursuit of this obsession telling her employer and fellow employees that Thomas is seriously ill so that she can run off watch the girl (Lola) wherever she goes. Elsa even tells her parents lies that she is going out with a friend so they will baby-sit so Elsa can even go as far as hiding in the bushes outside of Lola's house and watching her at night.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 899
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, emotional, suspenseful, tense, mind bending, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 89%
The Immortal Story (1968)
Plot Summary:
An aged, wealthy trader plots with his servant to recreate a maritime tall tale, using a local woman and an unknown sailor as actors.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 58 min
Plot tags: art house, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Plenty (1985)
Plot Summary:
David Hare's account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, tense, thought provoking, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexy
Similar in 80%
Irene (2009)
Plot Summary:
A video diary shot and recorded by the filmmaker, using little more than his imagination and the happenstance and flow of the everyday, finally layering in a lifetime of memories.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, factual
Similar in 84%
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 84%
The High Pressures (2014)
Plot Summary:
Miguel travels to Pontevedra, his hometown, with the request of serching for some locations for a movie. His trip takes him back to the place where he grew up, meeting up with some old friends, but also leads him to the possibility of a new relationship: Alicia, a young nurse who will get to calm him down. Miguel will try to finish his work even though he mostly prefers to film the natives he meets, the movements and faces of his friends, the trains coming or the sea. A journey around the uprooting (the cinema) and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Love Unto Death (1984)
Plot Summary:
Elisabeth and Simon have been deeply in love for two months when Simon momentarily dies, but comes back to life. Simon does not want any further medical tests, but the couple are forced to grapple with the possibility of his death. They eventually tell their close friends Jérôme and Judith Martignac about the event. The Martignacs are both clerics, and Judith has just been giving a funeral service for a villager who committed suicide, though Jérôme would have nothing to do with suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, emotional, surreal, contemplative, eros, avant garde
Similar in 77%
The Soft Skin (1964)
Plot Summary:
Pierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married with Franca and father of Sabine, around 10. He meets an air hostess, Nicole. They start a love affair, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stand staying away from her.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: depressing, neo noir, anthology, art house, black and white, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Sweet Rush (2009)
Plot Summary:
As an aging woman married to a workaholic doctor by chance meets a young man who makes her feel young again. All of this is films by a director making a film about her which cuts in and out of the on camera and off camera drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, sincere, serious, emotional, offbeat, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Exit: A personal history (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young man travels to Holland for an assisted suicide. The young man was convinced that this was his only way of ending an existence that he considered to lack any dignity.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: experimental, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, surreal, gloomy
Similar in 79%
One Night (2012)
Plot Summary:
In the harbor city of Le Havre, France, a woman is stabbed during the night, just below the windows of her neighborhood. Pierre (Yvan Attal) has witnessed the murder, and heard the wails of the women crying for help. So have the neighbors, certainly. But at the end, nobody called the police. Nevertheless, sorrows are too heavy for Pierre, which feel the needs to tell everything to his wife (Sophie Quinton), and to the police. During the investigation, it appears that 38 people witnessed the murdering, and none reacted.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, tense, atmospheric, bleak, realistic
Similar in 75%
Life Love Death (1969)
Plot Summary:
François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work colleague. However, he is soon found out: after three dates, he strangles some prostitutes, when, the victim of blackmail, he becomes dishonored. He is taken to court, and sentenced to be killed by a guillotine.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: neo noir, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Girlfriends (1968)
Plot Summary:
Architect Paul Thomas insinuates himself into the relationship of two bisexual women living in a St. Tropez villa with tragic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychological, atmospheric, sexy, serious, realistic, stylized, sexual, lgbt cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
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 85%
A Very Private Affair (1962)
Plot Summary:
A gorgeous teen, Jill, resides in Switzerland with her mother and harbors feelings for the handsome Fabio, an older man who is married to one of her friends. Growing restless, Jill moves to Paris to pursue ballet, but instead finds success and fame as a model and actress. When Jill, now a celebrity, seeks to retreat from the limelight and returns home to Switzerland, she begins a romance with the newly divorced Fabio, leading to an unwelcome media circus.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, mind bending, realistic, witty, contemplative, stylized
Similar in 75%
The Mouth Agape (1974)
Plot Summary:
The portrait of a woman going through a terminal illness and the tumorous lives of her husband and son.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
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 79%
After the Rehearsal (1984)
Plot Summary:
Rational, exacting, and self-controlled theater director, Henrik Vogler, often stays after rehearsal to think and plan. On this day, Anna comes back, ostensibly looking for a bracelet. She is the lead in his new production of Stindberg's "A Dream Play." She talks of her hatred for her mother, now dead, an alcoholic actress, who was Vogler's star and lover. Vogler falls into a reverie, remembering a day Anna's mother, Rakel, late in life, came after rehearsal to beg him to come to her apartment. He awakes and Anna reveals the reason she has returned: she jolts him into an emotional response, rare for him, and the feelings of a young woman and an older man play out.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, West Germany
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, art house, psychological, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 90%
A Few Days of Respite (2010)
Plot Summary:
Mohsen teaches French at the University of Tehran, and Hassan is a photographer. Mohsen and Hassan are also lovers, and in Iran they live in fear, as homosexuality is punishable by death. Tired of denying their love, Mohsen and Hassan flee Iran to head to Paris, where they'll be illegal aliens but can at least live openly as a couple. To avoid arousing suspicion until they arrive in Paris, Mohsen and Hassan keep their distance while traveling, and during a train stop, Mohsen helps a sixty-ish women, Yolande, with her luggage. The two strike up a conversation and she clearly enjoys his company; over dinner, she offers to help him find work in town and let him stay at her apartment. It's clear to Yolande that Mohsen is an illegal immigrant, but she doesn't realize that he's gay, and he finds himself wondering if he should stay with Hassan or live with Yolande, where he would not have love but would enjoy safety, security and could easily become a French citizen through marriage.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Algeria
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Almayer's Folly (2011)
Plot Summary:
A tale of an occidental merchant, Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 808
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, bleak, serious, emotional
Similar in 77%
Family Tree (2010)
Plot Summary:
When Frédérick, the patriarch of the Alsatian Muller family, is conspicuously absent from his son Charles' funeral, Frédérick's surviving son and his granddaughter, raw from their loss, await an explanation. Once revealed, Frédérick's reasons and the painful secret Charles harbored for years threaten the foundations of the entire family.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
L'Immortelle (1963)
Plot Summary:
A sad man meets a beautiful, secretive woman who may or may not be involved in some conspiracy ring dealing in kidnapped women used as prostitutes. After several days of their sadly passionate relationship she disappears. The sad man is unable to locate her as all the local Turkish people pretend not to remember any such woman. He suddenly finds her again (she finds him?) and before she can explain her disappearance she is killed in a car crash while he is in the passenger seat. He replays the accident over and over in his mind trying to remember how she died if he caused the accident himself by grabbing the wheel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France, Italy, Turkey
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, experimental, avant garde, psychological, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Red Desert (1964)
Plot Summary:
Amid the modern wastelands and toxic factories of Italy, wife and mother Giuliana (Monica Vitti) desperately tries to conceal her tenuous grip on reality from those around her, especially her successful yet neglectful husband, Ugo (Carlo Chionetti). Ugo's old pal, Corrado (Richard Harris), shows up in town on a business trip and is more sensitive to Giuliana's anxieties. They begin an affair, but it does little to quell Giuliana's existential fears, and her mental state rapidly deteriorates.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, atmospheric, realistic, serious, poetic, philosophical, neorealism, existential, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Plot Summary:
Under the influence of signs and premonitions, a man allows himself to veer in and out of a love affair with his colleague.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, psychological, talky, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 83%
Providence (1977)
Plot Summary:
Clive Langham (Sir John Gielgud) spends one tormenting night in his bed suffering from health problems and thinking up a story based on his relatives. He is a bitter man and he shows, through flashbacks, how spiteful, conniving and treacherous his family is. But is this how they really are or is it his own vindictive slant on things?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, thought provoking, serious, emotional, philosophical, anthology, black comedy, metafiction, contemplative
Similar in 81%
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 78%
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975)
Plot Summary:
A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores, takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 202 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, experimental, sentimental, serious, realistic, avant garde, contemplative, tense, inspirational, art house
Similar in 83%
Bas-fonds (2010)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of civilisation, three young women, Magalie, Marie-Steph and Barbara live a desperate life together. Drowning in alcohol, they both lust for and hate one another, coupling like animals. Yet gradually they become enmeshed in a complex game of love and domination. Magalie, the ringleader, subjugates through her male power, and bestial charisma. Simple Marie-Steph, her younger sister, remains in the background, and Barbara, unaware of her own prettiness, has joined the pack because she loves Magalie. One day, at Magalie’s instigation, and almost out of boredom, they hold up a bakery and kill the baker with a buckshot gun. Life gradually resumes, but nothing is the same.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, disturbing, surreal, offbeat, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Plot Summary:
Takes place in a chateau, an ambiguous story of a man and a woman who may or may not have met last year at Marienbad.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychological, atmospheric, philosophical, visual, experimental, non-linear, talky, black and white