Best movies like The American Letters
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Bio-pic about Czech composer Antonin Dvoraák at the height of his career. Dvorák learns that his love and lifelong muse is ill and must return to her side.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 52
Genere: Biography, Music, Romance
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The American Letters (2015):
Similar in 78%
Ring of Fire (2013)
Plot Summary:
“Ring of Fire” recounts June’s meteoric rise to fame with The Carter Family, considered the First Family of country music, before breaking out on her own to perform, when she would become a legend in her own right. Taking a personal look at June’s first two marriages, life with her daughters and touching relationship with her son, the movie showcases her infamous courtship with Cash and June’s heroic role in saving his life during his battles with substance abuse, as well as how her unwavering faith in God, confidence and talent has taught lessons to generations.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 660
Genere: Biography, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Gundermann (2018)
Plot Summary:
The real life story of East German singer and writer Gerhard Gundermann and his struggles with music, life as a coal miner and his dealings with the secret police (STASI) of the GDR.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Germany
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 85%
Four White Shirts (1987)
Plot Summary:
In his free time, phone technician Cezars Kalnins writes songs and plays in a band he has started with friends. The band has a long road to travel in order to receive a permit and make its public debut. A member of the Culture Committee superficially listens to the songs and criticises them but later is powerless to stop the grindstone of public debate, which she has herself initiated.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 323
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Latvia, Soviet Union
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion (2000)
Plot Summary:
The film tells the story of an intuitive, adventurous man who loved his country and being Brazilian. This man fought to be loyal to himself. His music is a transparent portrait of his genius, intuition, freedom, adventure and passion for Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Brazil
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Passion (1999)
Plot Summary:
Passion concentrates on Grainger's unusual relationship with his mother and his sexual peculiarities (especially his obsessive self-flagellation, though homosexuality is also hinted at) which affect his relationship with a woman who comes to love him. It is set mainly in London in 1914, when Grainger's mother Rose was ill (she would later jump to her death in New York, upset by ill-founded rumours of incest with her son).
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
The Way to Mandalay (2018)
Plot Summary:
The Way to Mandalay tells the story of one of Denmark's greatest and most beloved musicians. The film takes us on a journey from Mogenson's childhood to manhood and throughout his career which spanned more than twenty years, first with great success in a popular vocal group and later as a successful solo artist. There is a long period that John Mogensen can never be satisfied and he is confused by what are the things he truely loves and is willing to do everything for. Is it the music, the stage, the fame or his family?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Denmark
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, melancholic, sentimental, thought provoking, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
The Bohemian (2022)
Plot Summary:
The year is 1764. For over a year, Josef has been leading a precarious life in Venice. He hopes to become an opera composer. The city, full of talented and already-established composers, seems closed to him. Looking for work as a violinist, he comes into the orbit of a rich young woman. Thanks to her, he gets the opportunity to play at salons. But his real opportunity arises when he becomes the lover of a libertine marquise. She teaches him worldly manners, rids him of signs of a provincial upbringing and introduces him to a hedonistic existence free from religious intolerance. Thus transformed, Josef gets an incan incredible commission: to write an opera for the San Carlo, Europe's largest theatre.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 448
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Touch (1992)
Plot Summary:
Henry Kesdi is a silenced classical composer and a survivor of the Holocaust. He is coaxed out from retirement by an inspired musicologist, Stefan, who convinces him to compose a complex symphony on his neglected piano. As a help Kesdi gets his new musical secretary. His loyal wife reluctantly accepts her as his young lover.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 307
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Poland, UK, Denmark
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Leto (2018)
Plot Summary:
Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties. Smuggling LP’s by Lou Reed and David Bowie, the underground rock scene is boiling ahead of the Perestroika. Mike and his beautiful wife Natasha meet with young Viktor Tsoï. Together with friends, they will change the destiny of rock’n’roll in the Soviet Union.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music, Romance
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: inspirational, romantic, art house, art film, black and white, atmospheric, independent film, light, breathtaking, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Blue Note (1991)
Plot Summary:
If you’re a fan of Ken Russell’s particular brand of stylistically dizzy biographies covering the lives of old-school classical composers, then you’re going to love The Blue Note, Zulawski’s outré ode to Frédéric Chopin (played here by concert pianist/first-time actor Janusz Olejniczak.) Simultaneously achieveing wistful and surrealistic tones, the film covers the last few days of fragile Chopin’s professional life, as well as the (ahem!) overzealous behavior from the phalanx of Chopin’s celebrity admirers. Set at a lush countryside estate, The Blue Note expertly drifts back and forth from tender “love triangle” mode to hyper-imaginary dream-like sequences, all aided by a near-constant beautiful stream of Chopin’s piano music on the soundtrack. As well, the film is one of Zulawski’s most personal projects, as Chopin’s Polish exile in France within the confines of the narrative mirrors Zulawski’s own similar post-’70s exile.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 697
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: experimental, avant garde
Similar in 85%
Muslum (2018)
Plot Summary:
The movie is about the legendary Turkish "soul singer" Müslüm Gürses. Born into a poor family, Muslum found his redemption in music from the initial trauma that lingered over his musical and personal life as internalizing the grief. He rose through his ashes of shattered dreams like a phoenix. He walked in darkness, sang songs filled with sorrow which stirred people's souls and created a cult following. They were calling him "Baba" (The Father).
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating
Similar in 82%
Testimony (1987)
Plot Summary:
The story of the great Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his life and career during the rule of Stalin.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 282
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Netherlands, UK, Denmark, West Germany, Sweden
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: black and white, independent film
Similar in 86%
Impromptu (1991)
Plot Summary:
In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Music, Romance
Country: USA, UK, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, cult classic, humorous, witty, historical drama, offbeat, intellectual, spiritual, sentimental
Similar in 79%
Concert at the End of Summer (1980)
Plot Summary:
A docudrama about four weeks in the life of famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. The drama - filled with many of Dvorak's compositions - begins when the composer suddenly decides to cut a concert in London and return home. While on the train, flashbacks reveal his relationship to his wife Anna and her sister Josefina. Both women gave him inspiration, yet Dvorak is clearly troubled in some way as musical excerpts come and go in his creative mind.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Biography
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Interlude in Prague (2017)
Plot Summary:
The incredible tale of Mozart's Prague years.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama, History, Music, Romance
Country: Czech Republic, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, romantic, captivating, stylized, period piece, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 85%
Verdi (1982)
Plot Summary:
Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 and lived until 1901, his life spanning nearly a century of political turmoil and considerable personal turmoil. This 1982 biographical television miniseries, as seen on PBS's Great Performances, dramatizes the life of this classic Italian composer known for operas including La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Aida and his Requiem.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Italy, France, West Germany, UK, Sweden
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 87%
Spring Symphony (1983)
Plot Summary:
"Spring Symphony" is the story of Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. Both were music entities. Robert Schumann turns out to have been a second tier composer, if that, never rising to the heights of a Beethoven or Mozart. In contrast, Clara Wieck was a master technician in the playing of the piano, a composer (probably not at Schumann's level), and was a child prodigy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 358
Genere: Biography, Music
Country: West Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 77%
Maestro (2023)
Plot Summary:
This fearless love story chronicles the complicated lifelong relationship between music legend Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Dreams of Love - Liszt (1970)
Plot Summary:
This is a romantic biographical film about Franz Liszt. In a distinguished saloon of Paris, the unknown composer, Liszt, defeats the renown Thalberg at a piano competition. Through his playing, he wins the favours and later the hand of the countess D'Agoult. A daughter is born in their marriage, Cosima. Liszt is better and better known, Marie introduces him to the circle of artists.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 190
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music, Romance
Country: Hungary, Soviet Union
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: period piece
Similar in 83%
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)
Plot Summary:
Using letters Anna Magdalena Bach wrote to her husband, seminal composer Johann Sebastian, filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet created one of the most precise, rewarding biopics ever put to screen. CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH's intense emotional pull can be understood by its status as a musical film in the most thorough sense: its performances – staged as extended sequences set within the very spaces once occupied by Bach himself, with trained performers both donning and playing items accurate to the period – are immense, bringing us closer to the sound than was ever thought possible. Immaculately restored on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, CHRONICLE OF ANNA MAGDALENA BACH invites viewers to experience a bygone age.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: West Germany, Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: contemplative, spiritual, atmospheric, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, baroque, concert film
Similar in 79%
Monstrum (2017)
Plot Summary:
Movie about a sculptor Otakar Svec who is building a statue of Stalin in Prague.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: retro
Similar in 85%
I Saw the Light (2015)
Plot Summary:
Singer and songwriter Hank Williams rises to fame in the 1940s, but alcohol abuse and infidelity take a toll on his career and marriage to fellow musician Audrey Mae Williams.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, stylized, romantic, sad, anamorphic, historical drama
Similar in 87%
Song of Norway (1970)
Plot Summary:
Like the play from which it derived, the film tells of the early struggles of composer Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. It stars Toralv Maurstad as Grieg and features an international cast including Florence Henderson, Christina Schollin, Robert Morley, Harry Secombe, Oskar Homolka, Edward G. Robinson and Frank Porretta (as Rikard Nordraak). Filmed in Super Panavision 70 by Davis Boulton and presented in single-camera Cinerama in some countries, it was an attempt to capitalise on the success of The Sound of Music.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Biography, Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, 70mm film
Similar in 88%
John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985)
Plot Summary:
Details the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, from before their first meeting to their rise to stardom.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, avant garde, rockumentary
Similar in 87%
La Vie en Rose (2007)
Plot Summary:
A swirling, impressionistic portrait of an artist who regretted nothing, writer-director Olivier Dahan's La Vie en Rose stars Marion Cotillard in a blazing performance as the legendary French icon Edith Piaf. From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu), who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th Century.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 90000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: France, UK, Czech Republic
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: touching, disturbing, atmospheric, gloomy, inspirational, depressing, melancholic, serious, period piece, sincere
Similar in 76%
The Linda McCartney Story (2000)
Plot Summary:
In a dramatization of her life, Linda Eastman, takes a job snapping pictures for Rolling Stone Magazine, despite the objections of her straight-laced father, Lee Eastman. As Linda rubs elbows with music royalty, she bumps into rock star Paul McCartney, and they soon fall in love. Although not only her father but also Paul's band mates disapprove of the romance, Linda and Paul wed while relations between the Beatles begin to disintegrate.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 690
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, captivating, suspenseful, crying
Similar in 79%
Chopin: Desire for Love (2002)
Plot Summary:
The biography of world famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 794
Genere: Drama, Romance, Music
Country: Poland
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, emotional, period drama
Similar in 76%
Backbeat (1994)
Plot Summary:
Chronicles the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany. The film focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (played by Ian Hart), and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (played by Sheryl Lee).
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, sincere, rough, serious, realistic, inspirational, clever, enigmatic, melancholic
Similar in 79%
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 76%
Miles Ahead (2015)
Plot Summary:
An exploration of the life and music of Miles Davis.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, tense, captivating, historical drama, rockumentary