Best movies like Nightwatching
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting The Night Watch.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Mystery
Country: UK, Poland, Canada, Netherlands
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, disturbing, enigmatic, heartbreaking, art film, metafiction, avant garde, baroque
Best tv shows and movies like Nightwatching (2007):
Similar in 88%
Goltzius and The Pelican Company (2012)
Plot Summary:
Goltzius and the Pelican Company tells the story of Hendrik Goltzius, a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints. A contemporary of Rembrandt and, indeed, more celebrated during his life, Goltzius seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books. In return, he promises him an extraordinary book of pictures of illustrating the Old Testament’s biblical stories. Erotic tales of Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Deliah and John the Baptist and Salome. To tempt the Margrave further, Goltzius and his printing company will offer to perform dramatisations of these erotic stories for his court.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, History
Country: UK, Netherlands, France, Croatia, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, avant garde, art house, cult classic
Similar in 84%
The Belly of an Architect (1987)
Plot Summary:
The American architect Kracklite arrives in Italy, supervising an exhibiton for a French architect, Boullée, famous for his oval structures. Tirelessly dedicated to the project, Kracklite's marriage quickly dissolves along with his health.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: art house, talky, sexual, aesthetic, psychological, mind bending, clever, offbeat, experimental, witty
Similar in 78%
Egon Schiele: Excess and Punishment (1980)
Plot Summary:
In 1912, in Austria, the painter Egon Schiele is sent to jail accused of pornography with the nymphet Tatjana in his erotic paints. His mate, the model Vally, gets help from a famous lawyer to release him. Then he leaves Vally, marries with another woman and goes to the war.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: West Germany, France, Austria
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, heartbreaking
Similar in 88%
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 90%
The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
Plot Summary:
Peter Greenaway's first fiction feature (after the mock-documentary The Falls) made him immediately famous and was named one of the most original films of the 1980s by British critics. The action is set in the director's beloved 17th century. Ambitious young artist Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins) is invited by Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to make 12 elaborate sketches of her estate. Besides money, the contract includes sexual favors that Mrs. Herbert will offer to the draughtsman in the absence of Mr. Herbert. Entirely confident in his ability to weave a web of intrigues, Mr. Neville eventually becomes a victim of someone else's elaborate scheme. The film is structured as a sophisticated intellectual puzzle like the ones popular in the 17th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, talky, stylized, surreal, witty, humorous, semi serious, art house, cynical, sexual
Similar in 83%
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1978)
Plot Summary:
Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: experimental, realistic, serious, captivating, stylized, mindfuck, philosophical, black and white, cult classic, atmospheric
Similar in 79%
Caravaggio (1986)
Plot Summary:
As influential Italian artist Caravaggio dies in exile in 1610, he recalls his short life, from his childhood to his initial artistic failures to his later triumphs as he catches the eye of a sympathetic cardinal to his destructive relationship with a dashing gambler.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, factual, spiritual, heartbreaking, artsy, art film, postmodern
Similar in 88%
Bride of the Wind (2001)
Plot Summary:
A biopic of Alma Mahler, the wife of composer Gustav Mahler (as well as Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel), and the mistress of Oskar Kokoschka.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: UK, Germany, Austria
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, heartbreaking, visual, visually stunning, independent film, period drama
Similar in 82%
Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden (2016)
Plot Summary:
At the beginning of the 20th Century Egon Schiele is one of the most provocative artists in Vienna. His life and work are driven by beautiful women and an era that is coming to an end. Two women will have a lasting impact on him - his sister and first muse Gerti, and 17 year old Wally, arguably Schiele's one true love, immortalized in his famous painting 'Death and the Maiden'. Schiele's radical paintings scandalize Viennese society while daring artists like Gustav Klimt and art agents alike are sensing the exceptional. But Egon Schiele is also prepared to go beyond his own pain and to sacrifice Love and Life for his Art. Art that inspires us up to this day.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Austria, Luxembourg
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, artsy, art house, non-linear
Similar in 79%
A Harlot's Progress (2006)
Plot Summary:
Drama looking at artist William Hogarth and his relationship with the prostitute that inspired his most famous piece.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 336
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, historical drama, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 78%
Painted Fire (2002)
Plot Summary:
The struggles of an artist. Jang Seung-up (1843-1897), also called Owon, focusing on the years 1882 to 1897, when Korea was in political upheaval, caught between China and Japan, the conservative dynasty dying, and peasant revolt at hand. Jang, born poor, has genius; a merchant, Kim, becomes his patron, finding him a teacher. Jang must convince others that a commoner can have talent, then move beyond his ability to copy old masters and find his own style. He's bedeviled by a temper and alcohol, arguments with patrons as he seeks commissions, and relationships with kisaeng, particularly Mae-hyang, that start and stop. It's the life of a restless spirit producing great art.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: South Korea
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, sentimental, melancholic, sincere, art film, period drama
Similar in 90%
The Mill and the Cross (2011)
Plot Summary:
What would it be like to step inside a great work of art, have it come alive around you, and even observe the artist as he sketches the very reality you are experiencing? From Lech Majewski, one of Poland's most acclaimed filmmakers, The Mill and the Cross is a cinematic re-staging of Pieter Bruegel's masterpiece "Procession to Calvary," presented alongside the story of its creation.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland, Sweden
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, surreal, christian film, philosophical, spiritual, cerebral, offbeat
Similar in 80%
Modigliani (2004)
Plot Summary:
Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne's bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. Modigliani is distraught and.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Romania, France, Italy
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, sad, factual, melancholic, psychological, inspirational, romantic, epic
Similar in 83%
Renoir (2012)
Plot Summary:
The Côte d’Azur. 1915. In his twilight years, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is tormented by the loss of his wife, the pains of arthritic old age and the terrible news that his son Jean has been wounded in action. But when a young girl miraculously enters his world, the old painter is filled with a new, wholly unexpected energy. Blazing with life, radiantly beautiful, Andrée will become his last model, and the wellspring of a remarkable rejuvenation. Back at the family home to convalesce, Jean too falls under the spell of the new, redheaded star in the Renoir firmament. In their Mediterranean Eden - and in the face of his father's fierce opposition - he falls in love with this wild, untameable spirit... and as he does so, within weak-willed, battle-shaken Jean, a filmmaker begins to grow.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, scenic, sentimental, costume drama, historical drama, serious, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 84%
Artemisia (1997)
Plot Summary:
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was one of the first well-known female painters. The movie tells the story of her youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, the painter Orazio Gentileschi. Her professional curiosity about the male anatomy, forbidden for her eyes, led her to the knowledge of sexual pleasure. But she was also well known because in 1612 she had to appear in a courtroom because her teacher, Agostino Tassi, was suspected of raping her. She tried to protect him, but was put in the thumb screws.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: erotic, factual, sexual, spiritual, art film, historical drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 82%
Pirosmani (1969)
Plot Summary:
A dedicated artist from Russian Georgia struggles to get recognition.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Soviet Union, Georgia
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, spiritual, heartbreaking
Similar in 89%
A Real Vermeer (2016)
Plot Summary:
Young and talented Han van Meegeren is a rebel in the early 1920's Amsterdam art-scene. Because he paints in the style of his idols Rembrandt and Vermeer, critics find his work old-fashioned and they call him a copycat. Just to prove a point, he produces a fake Vermeer and tries to pass it off as a real one. It works. Instead of revealing the truth and thereby embarrassing the art world, he continues to make money off of his many forgeries. Soon he is caught in a web of lies and deceit, and his life spins out of control. Then one day, high ranking Nazi Hermann Göring knocks on his door, looking for a Vermeer for his private collection.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 572
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 75%
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 83%
Paradise Found (2003)
Plot Summary:
Paradise Found is a biography about the painter Paul Gauguin. Focusing on his personal conflict between citizen life and his family life and the art scene in Frane. In an incredible imagery montage Gauguin manages to make a successful living in the South Pacific, while being in opposition to France.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 670
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, France, Germany, Australia, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, scenic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
El Greco (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story of the uncompromising artist and fighter for freedom, Domenicos Theotokopoulos, known to the world as "El Greco".
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Greece, Spain, Hungary
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, stylized, captivating, disgusting, epic, realistic, non-linear, light, period piece
Similar in 80%
My Nikifor (2004)
Plot Summary:
From his birth in 1895 through his death in 1968, the gifted Polish naïve artist Nikifor Krynicki (AKA Epifan Drowniak) lived his life and eked out a career cloaked in obscurity - a casualty of both his extreme speech impediment (his tongue was attached to the roof of his mouth, which prompted others to errantly tag him as mentally incapacitated) and his self-effacing decision to sell the majority of his work for meager amounts. Krzysztof Krauze's biopic My Nikifor travels to the tail end of Krynicki's (Krystyna Feldman) life journey, dramatizing the period that surrounded his interaction with the well-established artist Marian Wlosinski (Roman Gancarczyk).
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
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 85%
Surviving Picasso (1996)
Plot Summary:
The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, intense, romantic, heartbreaking, art film, romantic drama, historical drama, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Camille Claudel (1988)
Plot Summary:
The life of Camille Claudel, a french scupltor who becomes the apprentice of Auguste Rodin and later his lover. Her passion for her art and Rodin drive her further away from reason and rationality.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, intense, touching, heartbreaking, serious, captivating, disturbing, atmospheric, romantic
Similar in 79%
Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)
Plot Summary:
Winter, 1915. Confined by her family to an asylum in the South of France - where she will never sculpt again - the chronicle of Camille Claudel's reclusive life, as she waits for a visit from her brother, Paul Claudel.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, realistic, factual, sexy, sad, art film, costume drama, visual, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 81%
Marie Krøyer (2012)
Plot Summary:
Marie Krøyer is hailed as “the most beautiful woman in Europe” and leads a happy marriage life with her husband the great Danish painter P.S. Krøyer and an adorable daughter. However, not everything in her world is as perfect as it seems, and Marie’s life is crumbling as her dreams of a beloved wife, good mother and successful artist are unfulfilled. After hospitalizing her mentally ill husband Marie leaves for vacation, and in search for peace and comfort she finds herself falling in love with the young composer Hugo Alfven. Once again, internationally acclaimed Bille August exhibits the weaknesses of human beings in comparison to the ruthless nature. The grandeur scenery of deserted Scandinavian oceans speaks in volumes for the protagonists living in silence despite their lives being full of pains.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: captivating, emotional, stylized, costume drama, serious, realistic, gloomy, tragic, period drama
Similar in 83%
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Plot Summary:
This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, period piece, costume drama, stylized, atmospheric, thought provoking, light, colorful, contemplative, serious
Similar in 80%
At Eternity's Gate (2018)
Plot Summary:
Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Ireland, Switzerland, UK, France, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: independent film, melancholic, psychological, rough, touching, art film, captivating, suspenseful, philosophical, atmospheric
Similar in 89%
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Plot Summary:
Charlton Heston stars as Renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), who begrudgingly paints the Sistine Chapel for imperious Pope Julius II in this epic adaptation of Irvine Stone's novel directed by Carol Reed. While the novel covers Michelangelo's life from birth to death, the film focuses on the battle of wills between the perfectionist artist and the impatient Pope who commissions (and eventually commands) him to paint the famed chapel.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: epic, inspirational, uplifting, serious, biblical, christian film, psychedelic, art film, technicolor, sincere
Similar in 77%
Mr. Turner (2014)
Plot Summary:
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, Germany, USA, Belgium
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, surreal, meditative, sincere, captivating, costume drama, visual, atmospheric, clever, stylized