Best movies like Preludes to Ecstasy
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Sten Lehtoja, a married, middle-aged businessman, picks up a young hitchhiker, Elsie, while driving to his summer home. Elsie spends the night and becomes his mistress. Later during the summer, Elsie also begins an affair with Reino, the teenage son of a local storekeeper. Sten offers to divorce his wife, and Elsie, attracted by the prospect of a secure social position, agrees to marry him when the divorce becomes final. One night when the couple are in bed, Reino climbs a ladder and attempts to force his way into their room; he falls and breaks his neck, and to avoid scandal Sten hides the body. But the strain of guilt ruins the romance, and Elsie contacts the police, who arrest her lover.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: black and white
Best tv shows and movies like Preludes to Ecstasy (1961):
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Dama de Noche (1993)
Plot Summary:
Bruno, a novelist with no luck goes to call for help from his love always sofia, who is in Veracruz desolate without knowing what to do with the corpse of her boyfriend who died because of a heart attack while they made love.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Scarlet Dove (1961)
Plot Summary:
Doctor Aitamaa is spending holiday with his family at their summer villa. He accidentally reads a letter that was meant to his wife. The letter is from another man. Aitamaa fallows his wife to the city and finds out that she has a lover. Later the wife is found killed and Aitamaa becomes the prime suspect.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological thriller, black and white, cult film
Similar in 75%
No Coffee, No TV, No Sex (1999)
Plot Summary:
Two-guys-one-girl thing in a squatted house in Geneva.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Switzerland
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
This Summer at Five (1963)
Plot Summary:
This Finnish romance tells of a young couple who vacation by the ocean. While there, the unsatisfied man decides he wants to end their relationship. Upon their return home, he has an overnight fling with another woman while his recently dumped girlfriend calmly waits outside his home. When the jilted woman begins to walk alone to her own apartment, she is struck by a passing car, and only then does the young man realize that he truly loves her.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: black and white
Similar in 79%
A Few Hours of Sunlight (1971)
Plot Summary:
Gilles Lantier, a young reporter on the AFP newspaper, is suffering from a nervous breakdown. Realising that neither his friend Jean nor his girlfriend Eloïse can help him, he decides to stay with his sister Odile, who lives near Limoges. At a party one evening he meets a wealthy bourgeois woman named Nathalie Sylvener. It is love at first sight, and on his return to Paris, Gilles tells Eloïse that he is now devotedly attached to another woman. Although Nathalie agrees to live with him in Paris, she rejects Gilles' offer of marriage. It is not long before the couple have settled into a routine and their passion begins to cool. Then Nathalie suddenly disappears from Gilles' life.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Devil Angel (1995)
Plot Summary:
Chi Kit worked in a stock company. One day, the stock market crashed and Chi Kit ran into bankruptcy. He called his girlfriend Siu Suen and told her everything. Siu Suen loved Chi Kit so much that she took all her savings and ran away with him to Singapore to hide away from their debts. Unfortunately, Chi Kit met a wealthy woman with an interesting proposal, and it changed everything.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Taiwan, Hong Kong
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: erotic
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The Buttercup Chain (1970)
Plot Summary:
Born to twin sisters on the same day in London, France and Margaret are more like brother and sister than cousins. The close relationship between the cousins is suspended when Margaret is sent abroad for schooling. Now a young woman, Margaret returns to London and resumes her intimate connection with France.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Romance for Bugle (1967)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Collector (1997)
Plot Summary:
Eevi's life isn't going the way she would want it to, so she runs away, leaving destruction in her wake. No one will ever say no to her again.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 488
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Finland
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Poet and Muse (1978)
Plot Summary:
Semi-fictitious biopic of Finnish poet Eino Leino, made with a large budget to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth. The film concentrates on his relationships with first wife Freya Schoultz and later muse, poetess L. Onerva. His friends include equally central figures of the Finnish cultural scene in the early 1900s, such as painters Halonen and Gallén-Kallela, and composer Sibelius.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 102
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Hamlet Goes Business (1987)
Plot Summary:
A bizarre black-and-white film noir reworking of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, neo noir, black and white, surprise ending, avant garde
Similar in 81%
The Asphalt Lambs (1968)
Plot Summary:
The story of a doomed young love in a small, narrow-minded town.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Pamela Principle (1992)
Plot Summary:
Pamela is a young actress who has moved into New York City from the midwest. She meets up with Carl who is middle-aged tailor of women's clothings and is going through a "mid-life crisis". He sees his son's amourous escapades and longs for better relationship with his wife Anne who is distant at times. He has an affair with Pamela. But Pamela's lifestyle does not go well with him.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Dark Side of Genius (1994)
Plot Summary:
Julian Jons is a talented but troubled young artist. He has just been released from an asylum, where he has spent the last seven years for the murder of Anna, his girlfriend/model. Attempting to start painting again, he is pursued by journalist Jennifer Cole, who is intrigued by this complex, brooding man. Against the backdrop of the modern art world, she begins to dig into the past, fully aware that it holds painful memories for Julian, and perhaps danger for herself.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
Take Care (1991)
Plot Summary:
A young man just released from the army is making great dreams for his life. Finally he gets a job in a butcher's shop and gains the confidence of the owner. After the butcher's death he falls in love with his daughter but also has an affair with the widow and cannot decide between them.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Greece
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Body (1974)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful woman who lives on an island with her abusive husband, entices a young man into a murder-for-money plot.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, Trinidad and Tobago
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Girl and the Echo (1964)
Plot Summary:
The movie, based on a story by Yuri Nagibin, depicts a young girl Vika enjoying the last days of summer vacations in a sea resort somewhere in the south.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 400
Genere: Drama, Family, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags: black and white
Similar in 85%
Both Sides of the Blade (2022)
Plot Summary:
Jean and Sara have been living together for 10 years. When they first met, Sara was living with François, Jean’s best friend and an admirer from back when he played rugby. Jean and Sara love each other. One day, Sara sees François in the street. He does not notice her, but she is overtaken by the sensation that her life could suddenly change. François gets back in touch with Jean. For the first time in years. He suggests they start working together again. From here on, things spiral out of control.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Play It All (1994)
Plot Summary:
A film group is making a movie in a small village. The story is based on true events that has happened in the the same village a few decades ago. A dis-liked writer Pentti Töysä arrives in the middle of a press conference and claims that he is the true writer of the film. He has made some changes in the script and these changes will bring an old crime to light. But in the following night Töysä is being killed and the final draft of the script is missing.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 211
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: romantic
Similar in 78%
Cold Heart Canyon (2008)
Plot Summary:
In L.A.'s Laurel Canyon, Karen has a dream that her sister Heather is in danger, but Heather seems safe enough, having just moved to a remote spur of the canyon to distance herself from her ex-husband. She's a writer, and she's soon met several men - Marcus, who helps her the day she moves in, neighbors Daniel and Marisa for whom she cooks dinner, and Michael her landlord who cleans her pool weekly. Daniel warns her away from Marcus even as he makes a play for her and invites her to participate in sexual escapades - some enjoyable, some not. Then it becomes clear that Karen's anxiety dream was prescient. Who can Heather trust, and does she figure it out too late?.
IMDB Rating: 2.3
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, erotic, realistic, sexual, independent film, light
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The Other Side of Midnight (1977)
Plot Summary:
When French beauty Noelle Page falls in love with American pilot Larry Douglas, she believes he'll marry her. Instead, he returns to the U.S and marries the sweet but naive Catherine. Even though Noelle has found a new lover, an affluent Greek named Constantin, and has started a great career as an actress, she vows revenge on her onetime lover. But once her plan is in motion, she and Larry fall in love and plot Catherine's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, touching, surprise ending, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, sexual, twist ending
Similar in 77%
Laguna Heat (1987)
Plot Summary:
Tom Shepard returns to his home town of Laguna Beach to escape his turbulent past. But the tranquility is shattered when he gets involved in the investigation of a series of grisly and bizarre murders.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Girl (1987)
Plot Summary:
Pat Carlsson is a 14-year-old Swedish schoolgirl who though very young is very streetwise as she offers sex, for a price, to middle-aged attorney John Berg who can not resist the young girl. What starts as an immoral sexual escape, becomes a nightmare of tragedy and deception involving blackmail, kidnapping and murder.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, Italy, Sweden
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film, detective
Similar in 88%
Girl with Green Eyes (1964)
Plot Summary:
Catholic-Irish farm girl Kate, along with her gregarious best friend Baba, moves to Dublin to pursue a more exciting life.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, romantic drama, independent film
Similar in 76%
Contempt (1963)
Plot Summary:
A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of "The Odyssey," but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: art house, philosophical, erotic, grindhouse, visual, psychological, clever, witty, talky, cynical
Similar in 84%
Often (2006)
Plot Summary:
Ricky (Emraan Hashmi) is a leading fashion photographer, who carries his heart on his sleeve. He's an absolute womanizer. The film begins with Ricky getting a call from Sheena (Udita Goswami), who asks him to meet her in a gym. Once there, the two have a showdown since Ricky had used and dumped Sheena's friend Nisha (Tara Sharma). A heartbroken Nisha had even contemplated attempting suicide. Three years later, Ricky is about to hold an exhibition of his creations when a millionaire walks in and buys the entire lot even before the exhibition has begun. The millionaire, Rajveer aka Raj (Dino Morea), has a pre-condition: Ricky should make Raj's wife Sheena fall in love with him (Ricky). Ricky is perplexed, for he fails to understand why a husband would hire someone to have an affair with his wife. But Raj explains that he wants Sheena to divorce him and this would be possible only if she fell in love with another man.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, sexy, suspense, sexual, surprise ending, detective
Similar in 87%
The Hot Spot (1990)
Plot Summary:
A loner moves in to a small Texas town, finds himself a job, and sets about plotting to rob the local bank.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: neo noir, sexy, atmospheric, suspense, suspenseful, psychosexual thriller, psychological, slasher, sensual, visually stunning
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The Wait (2021)
Plot Summary:
The idyllic and secluded Finnish archipelago. The pandemic soars across the world. Elli’s world trembles as her husband’s old friend arrives at the island.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 787
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
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Inner Sanctum (1991)
Plot Summary:
A woman attempts suicide when she suspects her husband doesn't love her and is having an affair. Now she's wheelchair-bound, and her husband, who indeed doesn't love her and is having an affair, hires a private nurse to look after his wife. The nurse begins to suspect that she was hired because of unproven allegations that she murdered someone's wife in a similar situation, that the husband wants her to murder his wife.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 835
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, captivating, absurd, sexual, erotic, tension, realistic, sexy, serious, suspense
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Lovin' Molly (1974)
Plot Summary:
Spanning nearly 40 years from 1925 to 1964, two Texas farm boys; straight-arrow Gid and laid-back Johnny fight over the affections of the beautiful and headstrong Molly Taylor, who consistently refuses to marry either of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 590
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic