Best movies like Prospero's Books
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK, Netherlands, France, Italy, Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: experimental, surreal, psychedelic, epic, art house, non-linear, psychotronic, postmodern, cult classic, atmospheric
Best tv shows and movies like Prospero's Books (1991):
Similar in 89%
The Tempest (1979)
Plot Summary:
Prospero, a potent magician, lives on a desolate isle with his virginal daughter, Miranda. He's in exile, banished from his duchy by his usurping brother and the King of Naples. Providence brings these enemies near; aided by his vassal the spirit Ariel, Prospero conjures a tempest to wreck the Italian ship. The king's son, thinking all others lost, becomes Prospero's prisoner, falling in love with Miranda and she with him. Prospero's brother and the king wander the island, as do a drunken cook and sailor, who conspire with Caliban, Prospero's beastly slave, to murder Prospero. Prospero wants reason to triumph, Ariel wants his freedom, Miranda a husband; the sailors want to dance.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: avant garde, independent film, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, experimental, surreal, stylized, sexual, sexy
Similar in 85%
Electra, My Love (1974)
Plot Summary:
Reminiscent of the latter works of Bela Tarr, Miklos Jancso's "Beloved Electra" is comprised of a series of extremely slow and extremely long takes (there are just eight principal shots, each lasting an entire reel of film). More contemplative music video than conventional film, "Beloved Electra" is based on "Oresteia", a Greek myth written by Aeschylus, an ancient tragedian. The film stars Mari Toriocsik as Electra, a tortured woman who serves as a kind of metaphor for the people of Hungary and their historic suffering. She roams Jancso's landscape with a melancholic face, angry at Aegisztosz for conspiring with her mother to kill Agamemnon, her father.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 86%
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1992)
Plot Summary:
After her boyfriend ends their relationship, the dreamself of a heartbroken woman floats through the air over an industrial wasteland singing ballads of love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: surreal, cult classic, experimental, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, stylized, gloomy, avant garde, weird
Similar in 79%
The Legend of Kaspar Hauser (2012)
Plot Summary:
Arriving on a deserted beach in the Mediterranean sea, in a time and a place unspecified, Kaspar Hauser is forced to confront the evil of a Grand Duchess who feels threatened by the power she exercises over the community.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, atmospheric, serious, stylized, captivating, psychedelic, realistic, aesthetic, informative
Similar in 90%
The Tempest (2010)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare. Prospera (a female version of Shakespeare's Prospero) is the usurped ruler of Milan who has been banished to a mysterious island with her daughter. Using her magical powers, she draws her enemies to the island to exact her revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized, mindfuck, novela, offbeat, independent film, weird
Similar in 88%
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 86%
Hamlet (2015)
Plot Summary:
From its sell-out run at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre comes a film version of this unique and critically acclaimed production of Hamlet with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground-breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange's fastest-selling show in a decade.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 184 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, captivating, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Medea (1969)
Plot Summary:
Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: spiritual, fairy tale, psychedelic, epic, surreal, neorealism, fantasy adventure, cult classic, serious, talky
Similar in 79%
Green Snake (1993)
Plot Summary:
A mischievous snake who assumes human form interferes with the romance between her reptilian sister and a hapless man.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, serious, stylized, cult classic, allegory, cult film
Similar in 88%
The Pillow Book (1995)
Plot Summary:
As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Nagiko grows up, obsessed with books, papers, and writing on bodies.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, UK, France, Luxembourg
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: erotic, art house, sexy, surreal, enigmatic, artsy, non-linear, absurd, experimental, stylized
Similar in 76%
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 78%
Leolo (1992)
Plot Summary:
The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, disturbing, art house, humorous, dark comedy, erotic, mind bending, psychedelic, epic, controversial
Similar in 86%
Goodbye to Language (2014)
Plot Summary:
About a man who’s angry at his wife because she’s met another man on a park bench and they no longer even speak the same language.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, stylized, avant garde, psychedelic, art house, erotic
Similar in 79%
City of Women (1980)
Plot Summary:
A businessman finds himself trapped at a hotel and threatened by women en masse.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: surreal, satirical, art house, cerebral, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, cult classic, clever, offbeat
Similar in 83%
The Dance of Reality (2013)
Plot Summary:
“Having broken away from my illusory self, I was desperately seeking a path and a meaning to life.” This phrase perfectly sums up Alejandro Jodorowsky’s biographical project: reconstituting the incredible adventure of his life. Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in Tocopilla, a coastal town on edge of the Chilean desert, where this film was shot. It was there where he discovered the fundamentals of reality, as he underwent an unhappy and alienated childhood as part of an uprooted family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Chile, France
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: art house, surreal, atmospheric, touching, realistic, serious, mind bending, psychedelic, mindfuck, funny
Similar in 80%
Cremaster 3 (2002)
Plot Summary:
CREMASTER 3 (2002) is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 182 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, atmospheric, stylized, serious, thought provoking, psychedelic, disturbing, independent film, avant garde
Similar in 76%
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)
Plot Summary:
Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave - the birthplace of his first life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Thailand, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, disturbing, art house, philosophical, meditative, visually appealing, cerebral, slow cinema, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Baby of Mâcon (1993)
Plot Summary:
A town cursed with barren women and famine is saved by a miracle birth to an old, ugly woman: the Mother. Immediately afterwards, the old woman's Daughter (Ormond) claims to have delivered the baby herself in a virgin birth. She imprisons the Mother and begins to exploit the Baby by selling blessings to the desperate townspeople of Mâcon.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Netherlands, France, UK, Germany
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: disturbing, avant garde, surreal, serious, atmospheric, rough, stylized, bleak, controversial, philosophical
Similar in 89%
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Plot Summary:
A series of disjointed mythical tales set in first century Rome.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychedelic, art house, sexual, cult classic, erotic, philosophical, absurd, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 88%
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
Plot Summary:
The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband's restaurant. Food, colour coding, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed but brutally uncompromising modern fable which has been interpreted as an allegory for Thatcherism.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Netherlands, UK, France
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: art house, dark comedy, allegory, surreal, black comedy, sexy, disturbing, mindfuck, visual, brutal
Similar in 89%
Hamlet (1996)
Plot Summary:
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 242 min
Plot tags: stylized, costume drama, atmospheric, captivating, serious, period piece, epic, fairy tale, sad, visually appealing
Similar in 84%
20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set 15 years after "Twentieth Century Boys," Kanna (Airi Taira) reunites with several main characters from the first film in an attempt to stop Friend's increasing influence over the world and continued plans to eliminate humanity, as detailed in the New Book of Prophecy.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, stylized, exciting, manga, anime, offbeat, weird
Similar in 76%
Holy Motors (2012)
Plot Summary:
We follow 24 hours in the life of a being moving from life to life like a cold and solitary assassin moving from hit to hit. In each of these interwoven lives, the being possesses an entirely distinct identity: sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes youthful, sometimes old. By turns murderer, beggar, company chairman, monstrous creature, worker, family man.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house, psychedelic, cerebral, mindfuck, enigmatic, disturbing, atmospheric, experimental, artsy
Similar in 75%
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
Plot Summary:
Set in pre- World War II era. A young man is on a strange train to see his dying father in a sanatorium. But the place is going to ruin and recalls a lot of memories from the past. He is beset by soldiers from the past, colonial black mercenaries, girls from his early life, and his parents. It is an interior adventure, with unusual atmospheric flair and extraordinary sets.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Poland
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychological, psychedelic, dark, mindfuck, disturbing, existential, philosophical, slasher
Similar in 80%
Paperhouse (1988)
Plot Summary:
Anna is becoming lost in the loneliness of her own world when she discovers she can visit another, a house she has drawn herself and occupied by a young disabled boy. But as she discovers more of the links between her fantasy world and the mundane present, she is drawn only deeper into a dream turning into a nightmare.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: scary, disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, surreal, tense, intense, serious, creepy
Similar in 81%
Mirrormask (2005)
Plot Summary:
In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a 15-year old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, surreal, offbeat, visually stunning, mindfuck, visually appealing, cerebral, visual, cult classic
Similar in 86%
The Fall (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 116000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA, South Africa, India
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: surreal, offbeat, fairy tale, visual, visually stunning, touching, visually appealing, mind bending, light, psychological
Similar in 77%
Knight of Cups (2015)
Plot Summary:
Rick is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles. While successful in his career, his life feels empty. Haunted and confused, he finds temporary solace in the decadent Hollywood excess that defines his existence. Women provide a distraction to his daily pain, and every encounter brings him closer to finding his place in the world.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: stylized, art house, philosophical, emotional, talky, meditative, touching, serious, surreal, non-linear
Similar in 78%
Enter the Void (2009)
Plot Summary:
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, art house, visually stunning, philosophical, atmospheric, meditative, disturbing, surreal, cerebral, mindfuck
Similar in 78%
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Plot Summary:
Living with her tyrannical stepfather in a new home with her pregnant mother, 10-year-old Ofelia feels alone until she explores a decaying labyrinth guarded by a mysterious faun who claims to know her destiny. If she wishes to return to her real father, Ofelia must complete three terrifying tasks.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 694000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, War
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, surreal, dark fantasy, atmospheric, gothic, stylized, serious, emotional, suspenseful, captivating