Best movies like The American
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After the horror of the Civil War, 'ignorant' Christopher Newman made his fortune. He travels to France is search of cultural treasures. He won't get past the Paris nightlife. After an affair with a haughty painter, he falls in love with the daughter of the late marquis de Bellegarde. She was married off and traumatized by her abusive late husband for the family's sake. Her elder brother supports their ruthless mother, but junior Valentin is besotted with the artist and strikes a partnership with Christopher.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA, Ireland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, period drama
Best tv shows and movies like The American (1998):
Similar in 88%
Passion's Way (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in early 1900's France, a widow renews a former romantic interest until it is discovered that he has had a past fling with one of her new employees, a nanny. This sets the two women into many well-mannered accusations and conversations, but no modern brawling, and puts him in the middle or possibly on the outside.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: historical drama, independent film, period drama
Similar in 87%
Camille (1984)
Plot Summary:
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: period drama, beautiful
Similar in 90%
Blue Rodeo (1996)
Plot Summary:
Maggie Yearwood moves to a new town to be near her son, Peter, who has gone deaf as the result of an accident and is now attending a special school. She moves into a small house next door to Owen Whister and soon falls in love with the cowboy, who harbors a dark secret.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990)
Plot Summary:
A chance meeting between British nobleman and lovely young Mistral foils a plot by her manipulating Aunt Emilie to avenge the death of her sister, Mistral's mother, who died in childbirth. But when an unscrupulous blackmailer and a rapacious Rajah enter the plot, the growing attraction between Lord and convent girl becomes yet more fraught with Danger.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Austria, Italy, USA, West Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: gothic, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 89%
Zoya (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young Russian countess escapes the 1917 revolution and, despite hardship, makes a new life for herself in America.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 81%
Mrs. Soffel (1984)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, Mrs. Soffel is set in Pittsburgh near the dawn of the 20th century. Peter Soffel (Edward Herrmann) is the warden of a top security prison, and his wife Kate (Diane Keaton) often comes by to read the Bible aloud to the inmates, despite her fragile health. While making her rounds, she makes the acquaintance of the Biddle Brothers, Ed (Mel Gibson) and Jack (Matthew Modine), who are sentenced to death for murder and robbery. Ed has become something of a celebrity thanks to his letter-writing campaign, in which he appeals in the letter-to-the-editor columns of the popular press to stay the execution of his brother and himself. His good looks, intelligence, and charm make a strong impression on Kate, whose marriage offers her little excitement. In time, Kate finds herself falling in love with Ed, and she discovers that she's unexpectedly receptive to his suggestion that she help him escape.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: melancholic, light, sweet, realistic, romantic, tense, serious, gloomy, romantic drama, sexy
Similar in 83%
Sons & Lovers (2003)
Plot Summary:
Filmmaker Stephen Whittaker adapts author D.H. Lawrence's simmering tale of sex, love, and family. In the years leading up to World War I, the problems faced by many families were uncannily similar to the issues that mankind would still be struggling with nearly a century later. Human relationships remain as fragile as ever, and the only constant in life seems to be a humbling sense of uncertainty. Sarah Lancashire stars in a drama detailing the anguish of first love, and the awkward confusion of first sex.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 217
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 192 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, romantic, period drama
Similar in 79%
Wide Sargasso Sea (2006)
Plot Summary:
Dramatisation of Jean Rhys's novel set in 19th-century Jamaica. The tragic story of the first Mrs Rochester from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre centres on an arranged marriage between a white Creole heiress and a brooding Englishman, who fall in love only to be torn apart by rumours, paranoia and a cultural divide.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 727
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: erotic, period piece, period drama
Similar in 89%
The Accidental Tourist (1988)
Plot Summary:
After the death of his son, Macon Leary, a travel writer, seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon's wife, seems to be having trouble too, and thinks it would be best if the two would just split up. After the break up, Macon meets a strange outgoing woman, who seems to bring him back down to earth. After starting a relationship with the outgoing woman, Macon's wife seems to think that their marriage is still worth a try. Macon is then forced to deal many decisions.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, depressing, humorous, melancholic, sincere, realistic, talky, offbeat
Similar in 80%
A Hazard of Hearts (1987)
Plot Summary:
When compulsive gambler Sir Giles Staverley has lost his estate and all his money playing dice, he realises that he only has one thing left of value: his daughter Serena. In a final game, he stakes his daughter's hand in marriage, convinced that this time he will not lose. Unfortunately, however, he does lose; to the evil Lord Wrotham. Unable to return home and tell his daughter that he has lost her in a game of dice, Sir Giles kills himself there and then. Lord Vulcan, who has witnessed the events, takes pity on Serena Staverley, although they have never met. He challenges Lord Wrotham to a game of dice in which the winner takes both Staverley Court and Miss Serena.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: gothic, period piece, sweet, cult classic, romantic drama, atmospheric, captivating, realistic, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Up at the Villa (2000)
Plot Summary:
Superficial people are revealed and drastically changed by circumstance or luck in this a tale of death, seduction, blackmail and theft among British and Americans in Florence in the turbulent days just before World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, suspenseful, stylized, romantic, realistic, crying, independent film, fairy tale, sentimental
Similar in 77%
The Europeans (1979)
Plot Summary:
Based on Henry James' novel with the same title. It's the fall of 1850, a few miles outside Boston. The household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe, Eugenia and Felix, the daughter and son of his half sister. Gertrude, one of Wentworth's two daughters, is instantly infatuated with her cousins, thinking them sophisticated and worldly. She turns her back on the local Unitarian minister, Mr. Brand, who has been calling on her, to delight in the pleasure and amusement Felix offers. Another wealthy neighbor, Mr. Acton, is attracted to Eugenia, who is going through a divorce with a European aristocrat. Are the Americans being used by the penniless Europeans? Or is there real affection?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic drama, historical drama, realistic, stylized, semi serious, biting, independent film, costume drama, suspense, period drama
Similar in 78%
Washington Square (1997)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1870's New York, a spinster heiress is courted by a much younger, penniless man, much to the chagrin of her over-protective father, and must decide whether to spend the rest of her life alone, or marry a man who is interested in her only because of her inheritence.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: costume drama, romantic, stylized, sex comedy, romantic drama, historical drama, psychological, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Angels and Insects (1995)
Plot Summary:
In Victorian England, wealthy patriarch Sir Harald Alabaster invites an impoverished biologist, William Adamson, into his home. There, William tries to continue his work, but is distracted by Alabaster's seductive daughter, Eugenia. William and Eugenia begin a torrid romance, but as the couple become closer, the young scientist begins to realize that dark, disturbing things are happening behind the closed doors of the Alabaster manor.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: costume drama, erotic, period piece, stylized, thought provoking, offbeat, historical drama, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 81%
Valmont (1989)
Plot Summary:
Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love. Based on the same novel as "Dangerous Liaisons.".
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, UK
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: stylized, period piece, sensual, costume drama, sexy, realistic, erotic, historical drama, independent film, captivating
Similar in 87%
Bobby Deerfield (1977)
Plot Summary:
Bobby Deerfield, a famous American race car driver on the European circuit, falls in love with the enigmatic Lillian Morelli, who is terminally ill.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, France
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sincere, serious, realistic, sad, crying, stylized
Similar in 87%
Evening (2007)
Plot Summary:
As Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette) gather at the deathbed of their mother, Ann (Vanessa Redgrave), they learn for the first time that their mother lived an entire other lifetime during one evening 50 years ago. In vivid flashbacks, the young Ann (Claire Daines) spends one night with a man named Harris (Patrick Wilson), who was the love of her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, romantic, intense, realistic, heartbreaking, tear jerker, epic, cult classic
Similar in 90%
Basil (1998)
Plot Summary:
A lonely young aristocrat in turn-of the century England struggles to meet the approval of his over-bearing, class-conscious father while trying to please the selfish woman he loves.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, light, sincere, period piece, gothic, crying, independent film, period drama
Similar in 77%
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
Plot Summary:
Kate is secretly betrothed to a struggling journalist, Merton Densher. But she knows her Aunt Maude will never approve of the match, since Kate's deceased mother has lost all her money in a marriage to a degenerate opium addict. When Kate meets a terminally ill American heiress named Millie traveling through Europe, she comes up with a conniving plan to have both love and wealth.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sexy, atmospheric, period piece, serious, costume drama, romantic, visual, visually stunning, stylized, retro
Similar in 75%
Crooked Hearts (1991)
Plot Summary:
The father of a family has a an affair. This affects every member of the family.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, clever, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 87%
The Bostonians (1984)
Plot Summary:
Based on Henry James's novel of the same name. This bittersweet tragicomedy centers on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin and a Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty, young protégée of Olive's in the feminist movement. The storyline concerns the struggle between Ransom and Olive for Verena's allegiance and affection, though the film also includes a wide panorama of political activists, newspaper people, and quirky eccentrics.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: serious, stylized, realistic, talky, political, romantic drama, historical drama, clever, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Golden Bowl (2000)
Plot Summary:
An intricately plotted tale of thwarted love and betrayal, "The Golden Bowl" tells the story of an extravagantly rich American widower and his sheltered daughter, both of whom marry only to discover that their respective mates, a beautiful American expatriate and an impoverished Italian aristocrat, are entangled with one another in a romantic intrigue of seduction and deceit.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, France, UK
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: period piece, serious, stylized, realistic, costume drama, suspense, romantic drama, historical drama, clever, biting
Similar in 85%
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 classic British novel, Brideshead Revisited is a poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in England prior to the Second World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, Morocco, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, sincere, serious, period piece, touching, costume drama, intense, clever, epic
Similar in 79%
The Great Gatsby (2000)
Plot Summary:
Stock broker Nick Carraway consents to play Cupid for his rich married first cousin Daisy Buchanen and her former love, successful bootlegger and forger Jay Gatsby.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, captivating, stylized, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 78%
Circle of Friends (1995)
Plot Summary:
'Circle Of Friends' is set in 1950's Ireland. The movie focuses on Benny Hogan and her best friend, Eve Malone. The story centers around Benny and Eve as they enter student life at University College, Dublin. Here Benny and Eve reunite with their childhood friend, the ice-cool Nan Mahon, the 'college belle'. They also encounter the handsome and charming Jack Foley, whom Benny quickly falls for.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Ireland, USA, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: emotional, period piece, sentimental, realistic, sweet, captivating, sincere, feel good, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 90%
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Plot Summary:
A rule bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, emotional, romantic, breathtaking, sad, sincere, touching, depressing, romantic drama
Similar in 87%
Mansfield Park (2007)
Plot Summary:
In Mansfield Park, poverty-stricken Fanny Price is sent away to live with her wealthy uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. As she struggles to adapt to her new lifestyle she begins to attract the attentions of suitors, learning about the sexual politics of high society along the way.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, realistic, witty, stylized, romantic, historical drama, touching, gloomy, semi serious
Similar in 79%
Howards End (1992)
Plot Summary:
A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Japan, USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: romantic, costume drama, emotional, period piece, stylized, light, melancholic, talky, compassionate, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Plot Summary:
Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: psychological, intellectual, period piece, costume drama, talky, atmospheric, serious, romantic, stylized, historical drama
Similar in 89%
Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005)
Plot Summary:
A drama set in the 1920s, where free-spirited Janie Crawford's search for happiness leads her through several different marriages, challenging the morals of her small town. Based on the novel by Zora Neale Hurston.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, uplifting, serious, realistic, gothic, breathtaking, heartbreaking, black cinema