Best movies like Promise at Dawn
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Nina (Melina Mercouri) is a former silent-film star from Russia who abandons her career to care for her son. She is a single mother -- the boy's father is a famous actor who wants nothing to do with either Nina or her child. She joins an acting troupe where she impersonates a famous French fashion designer, but she leaves the group in Krakow, Poland, when her true identity is discovered. She travels to France, taking several odd jobs in Nice to support her son. When the boy grows to young adulthood, he is recruited to fight during World War II for the French and later the British. He is decorated for valor and returns to locate his estranged mother after two years have passed. Upon arriving home, he finds that his mother had died several years earlier but that she meticulously wrote over 250 letters to give her son moral support and encouragement in the years to come.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Promise at Dawn (1970):
Similar in 79%
Flame Top (1980)
Plot Summary:
This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Miss Julie (2009)
Plot Summary:
Miss Julie has power over Jean because she's an aristocrat but he has power over her because he's a man. On Midsummer Eve this power battle turns to love which is consummated. But as each one battles for power, Jean convinces Miss Julie that the only way out is to kill herself.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
To You, From Me (1994)
Plot Summary:
A failed writer given to plagiarism gets a buzz at the door from a bright young working girl with a highly original approach to life and sex and his life and work is totally thrown off balance.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Story of a Love Story (1973)
Plot Summary:
Harry is a married writer who has an affair with a woman whose husband knows that she is unfaithful. As a result of his work, Harry has trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality leaving us to wonder whether the affair is real or just a figment of Harry's imagination.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
Phaedra (1962)
Plot Summary:
A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, France, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 86%
All the Way Home (1981)
Plot Summary:
A wife and mother in 1915 Tennessee copes with the loss of her husband and the necessity of raising their children alone.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Emergency Kisses (1989)
Plot Summary:
The familiar conflicts of a film director planning to make a movie about his life and the confrontation he has with his wife, an actress who was turned down for such project in which she wanted to play herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 348
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Strange Case of Sherlock Holmes & Arthur Conan Doyle (2005)
Plot Summary:
What led Arthur Conan Doyle to create, and then destroy the world famous detective, Sherlock Holmes? This compelling drama explores the dark secrets that surround the author and his creation.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Pact (2021)
Plot Summary:
Aged 63, Karen Blixen is at the pinnacle of her fame and next in line to win the Nobel Prize for literature. It has been 17 years since she gave up her famous farm in Africa, only to return to Denmark with her life in ruins. Devastated by syphilis and having lost the love of her life, she has reinvented herself as a literary sensation. She is an isolated genius, however, until the day she meets a talented 30-year-old poet. She promises him literary stardom if he in return will obey her unconditionally – even at the cost of him losing everything else in his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Finland
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Consent (2023)
Plot Summary:
Vanessa Springora tells how she found herself under the influence of a famous writer. In 1986, she was 13; him, almost 50. She explains how she was the victim of a triple predation: sexual, literary and psychic. But beyond her individual story, she also questions the excesses of an era, and the complacency of an environment blinded by talent and celebrity.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Chicas (2010)
Plot Summary:
Pilar is a Spanish widow who has raised her three daughters in France. In love with Fernand, the manager of the building in which she lives, she organizes a lunch in her home with the intention of introducing him to the rest of the family. The reunion goes wildly wrong and the family's craziness overtakes.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Becoming Colette (1991)
Plot Summary:
Erotic French author Colette during her formative years in Paris at the turn of the century, married to a hedonistic bounder who publishes her writings under his name until she leaves him to embark on her own career.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany, UK, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film
Similar in 75%
The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Robert Elliot Burns, the prisoner who, after being sentenced to a Georgia chain gang, attempted two daring escapes.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 711
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
Plot Summary:
Based on writer Maya Angelou's childhood, this story is about a young girl in the South who is sent to live with her grandmother after her parents divorce.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983)
Plot Summary:
The life and times of silverscreen goddess Rita Hayworth.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Haywire (1980)
Plot Summary:
After fleeting marriages to Henry Fonda and William Wyler, Margaret Sullavan found contentment as the wife of producer Leland Hayward (Jason Robards) and as the mother of three. Or so it seemed, until the marriage crumbled, the children rebelled and she was found dead of an overdose at the age of 50.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Patricia Neal Story (1981)
Plot Summary:
The actress (Glenda Jackson) recovers from a 1966 stroke with help from friends and her husband, author Roald Dahl (Dirk Bogarde).
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
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 86%
Lovers of the Café Flore (2006)
Plot Summary:
In 1924, Simone de Beauvoir, a girl with polished appearance, prepares for her final examination in philosophy and meets Jean-Paul Sartre. He seems to know her true personality and considers her the only woman worthy of his intellect. Their chaotic love serves as the premise for her magnum opus The Second Sex.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, sexy, captivating, factual, sincere, serious, realistic, sexual
Similar in 83%
Tropic of Cancer (1970)
Plot Summary:
In contemporary Paris, expat American writer Henry Miller works his way through a series of amorous encounters while trying to find his literary voice.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, atmospheric, serious, erotic, clever, controversial, sexual, grindhouse, sexy
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Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995)
Plot Summary:
The story of the life of the actress Elizabeth Taylor.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Elephant Man (1982)
Plot Summary:
A taped version of the stage play about a hideously deformed 19th-century London man and how he managed to triumph over his disease.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, talky, psychotronic
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Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982)
Plot Summary:
Based on the autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy who spent 54 months in prison following the Watergate scandal.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
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Henry V (1979)
Plot Summary:
The life of King Henry the Fifth.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Cavalcade (2005)
Plot Summary:
An accomplished playboy Leo neglects his girlfriend and enjoys parties. His girlfriend parts from him and then, when he wants to see her once more, he has an accident. He survives, but his whole life is now to be changed. This film is about fetching through the problems of having reduced abilities. Fortunately, he's not alone and his friends are staunch. In the end, he becomes content wheelchair bound. He is grateful for what he has...and God has given to him.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 78%
Genius (2016)
Plot Summary:
New York in the 1920s. Max Perkins, literary editor at Scribner’s Sons is the first to sign such subsequent literary greats as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When a sprawling, chaotic 1,000-page manuscript by an unknown writer named Thomas Wolfe falls into his hands, Perkins is convinced he has discovered a literary genius. Together the two men set out to work on a version for publication and a seemingly endless struggle over every single phrase ensues. During this process, Perkins the gentle family man and Wolfe the eccentric author become close – a relationship eyed with suspicion by their wives. When ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ becomes a resounding success, the writer grows increasingly paranoid.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: period piece, talky, touching, intellectual, informative, inspirational, melancholic, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic
Similar in 86%
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story (2011)
Plot Summary:
Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story is a made-for-TV film starring Australian actress Poppy Montgomery. The film, which was shot in B.C. Canada locations altered to look like British locations, details the journey of struggling single mother J. K. Rowling, her bid to become a published author, and her rise to fame that followed the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The film aired on Lifetime on July 18th and was criticized for being too lacklustre (mainly down to the fiercely private author having no say in the production) but it also shed some light on her personal life and featured scenes such as her highly abusive first husband and the death of her mother. The eponymous J.K. Rowling is the world's first billionaire (in terms of US dollars) author and the films inspired by her books have been the highest grossing films of all time. Poppy Montgomery reportedly got blue contact lenses to play the role of the highly influential author.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, sincere, touching, realistic, inspirational, art film, ridiculous
Similar in 84%
Mommie Dearest (1981)
Plot Summary:
In this biographical film, glamorous yet lonely star Joan Crawford takes in two orphans, and at first their unconventional family seems happy. But after Joan's attempts at romantic fulfillment go sour and she is fired from her contract with MGM studios, her callous and abusive behavior towards her daughter Christina becomes even more pronounced. Christina leaves home and takes her first acting role, only to find her mother's presence still overshadowing her.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, factual, talky, intense, psychological, tense, serious, rough, emotional
Similar in 75%
Henry & June (1990)
Plot Summary:
While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller and his wife, June, meet Anais Nin, and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: sexy, sensual, controversial, erotic, melancholic, atmospheric, stylized, serious, realistic, intellectual
Similar in 76%
The Diary of Anne Frank (1980)
Plot Summary:
The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy