Best movies like The Children Thief
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The Children Thief? Contribute your expertise to help others toward films and tv series you've viewed before that may also consume them. Help enlarge the circle of people referring videos between each other. We welcome your engagement!
Plot Summary:
Although he was once a colonel in Argentina, the principal character in this film is now a wealthy exile living in Paris with his beloved wife, who has been unable to bear children. To fill this void in their lives, he feeds and clothes abandoned children, raising them in his mansion as if they were his own. As would never be the case in real life today, in this fantasized story set in 1925, no one objects to this behavior, and they live pleasantly and enjoyably together. Things grow considerably more animated when a stage magician places his very attractive daughter in the colonel's household, which stirs a lively romantic interest from his boys and from the great man himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Spain
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The Children Thief (1991):
Similar in 88%
Strange Affair (1981)
Plot Summary:
A young Parisian advertising executive becomes so captivated by the unsettling charm of his mysterious new employer that he eventually abandons his family and friends, viewing it a privilege to let the ubiquitous employer take over his home, his life, his desire. Only his wife remains suspicious, recognizing both the pathos and the evil in the man’s soul-stealing power.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 576
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Happy Times Will Come Soon (2016)
Plot Summary:
Tommaso and Arturo are on the run in a remote forest. They hunt for food, trying to survive and find their way through the lush nature. It’s quiet, almost peaceful, until the sound of gunshots… Many years later, this forest has a wolf problem. It’s here where Ariane discovers a strange hole in the ground. Could she be the woman referred to in the valley’s legends?.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 157
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Spoiled Children (1977)
Plot Summary:
Account of a film director's brief affair with a young neighbour, and his involvement in the social and political ramifications of a tenancy dispute in an apartment block. Filmmaker Bernard (Michel Piccoli), who is suffering a creative block, enters into an affair with the much-younger Anne (Christine Pascal).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 328
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Vincent, Fran?ois, Paul and the Others (1974)
Plot Summary:
Three friends face mid-life crises. Paul is a writer who's blocked. François has lost his ideals and practices medicine for the money; his wife grows distant, even hostile. The charming Vincent, everyone's favorite, faces bankruptcy, his mistress leaves him, and his wife, from whom he's separated, wants a divorce. The strains on the men begin to show particularly in François and Paul's friendship and in Vincent's health. A younger man, Jack, becomes attractive to Lucie, François's wife. Another young friend, the boxer Jean, who's like a son to Vincent and whose girlfriend is pregnant, has taken a bout with a merciless slugger. Has happiness eluded this circle of friends?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, touching, emotional, realistic, contemplative, semi serious, feel good
Similar in 83%
Perfect Education 3 (2002)
Plot Summary:
A lonely young Japanese student, Ai Narushima (Kana Ito) goes on a field trip with her school. At night she decides to take a taxi into the city. The Chinese taxi driver, Bo Tony Ho, is also a lonely soul and on a whim, decides to kidnap the young student. He takes her to the countryside and confines her in a room for days. The taxi driver doesn't abuse the student, but at night attempts to cuddle next to her. Eventually the lonely young Japanese student realizes he is as lonely as she is.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Eyes, the Mouth (1982)
Plot Summary:
A rich Italian's shocking suicide means different things to his twin brother (Lou Castel), mother (Emmanuelle Riva) and pregnant lover (Angela Molina).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 87%
Eva & Leon (2015)
Plot Summary:
A privileged woman and an orphan boy meet and somehow become friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, light, feel good, unusual plot structure
Similar in 79%
Partner (1968)
Plot Summary:
In PARTNER, Bernardo Bertolucci conflated his interests in psychoanalysis, nonlinear narrative, and Godard to create a uniquely avant-garde work unlike anything in his ouevre. The film is loosely based on Dostoyevsky's novel THE DOUBLE and concerns an alienated, puckish young man named Jacob (Pierre Clementi) who confronts his own double. Jacob allows his doppelganger to take over his life; the second Jacob commandeers his predecessor's theater class in the hopes of creating living theater--as a violent act of social revolution. The idea of students wreaking havoc was not an unfamiliar one in 1968, and Bertolucci refuses to take Jacob's dangerous intellectual posturing lightly. The second Jacob is a handsome killer, the first a handsome weakling who must find the courage to resist his baser self. Bertolucci matches inspired plot points with arresting images, including visual film references and the bright color schemes that would later become his trademark.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 921
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film, avant garde, art house, weird
Similar in 77%
The Beekeeper (1986)
Plot Summary:
A bee keeper, Spiros, travels from the north to the south of Greece with his bees to meet the spring.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, France, Italy
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: road movie, art house, slow cinema, contemplative, aesthetic, avant garde
Similar in 88%
The Game Is Over (1966)
Plot Summary:
Renee Saccard is a pampered, selfish young wife of a middle-aged Parisian businessman who falls in love with her stepson but is driven to the point of madness when her husband tricks the stepson into betraying her.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 84%
Down the Ancient Stairs (1975)
Plot Summary:
A mental hospital somewhere in Tuscany during the thirties. Far away from fascism, this closed world is rules over by Dr. Bonaccorsi, a passionate benevolent psychiatrist whose dream is to isolate the germ of madness. He is also a very active ladies'man and makes three women benefit from his sexual itch: Francesca the hospital manager's wife, Bianca, his devoted nurse and Carla, a nymphomaniac doctor's wife. His well-ordered universe starts being challenged with the coming of Anna, a trainee psychiatrist, who disapproves of his theory on the origin of madness. Worse, she resists his advances. As Bonaccorsi is more insecure than he looks, what will become of him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
As Long as One Is Intoxicated (1974)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: erotic, period piece
Similar in 89%
Lovers Are Wet (1973)
Plot Summary:
Katsu, a fugitive youth on the run from the yakuza, returns to his birthplace and begins an affair with the cinema owner.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 84%
Honey (1981)
Plot Summary:
A surreal erotic fantasy about a young woman who checks into a bizarre, labyrinthine hotel.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Spain
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 88%
Diving (2017)
Plot Summary:
A restless photographer leaves her family to "find herself" and takes up deep-sea diving.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 607
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Playing with Fire (1975)
Plot Summary:
Philippe Noiret plays a rich, Parisian banker whose daughter Carolina, (Anicee Alvine) is kidnapped by a ruthless organization. They threaten to have her abused by the sadistic clients of a brothel they run if Father doesn’t pay the ransom on time.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 625
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: erotic, postmodern
Similar in 84%
Game of Seduction (1976)
Plot Summary:
In this modern retelling of the classic Dangerous Liaisons, a virtuous young woman becomes the target of the schemes of an amoral womanizer who is in the habit of wooing women and killing their lovers and husbands in duels. When she finally succumbs to him, she discovers his true nature, and her newly awakened joy in passion turns to dust.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 85%
Aloa: Festivity of the Whores (1988)
Plot Summary:
A married couple from Germany, middle-aged Manfred and his much younger wife Meyra, who are originally from Zagreb, spend their vacation on the island Hvar. They are staying at Ms. Marija's house. Ms. Marija's son and Meyra feel an erotic attraction to each other. After some time, a tension develops between the young man, Meyra and Manfred. Nobody knows Meyra's secret, or her true reason for coming to Hvar.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tension, sexual, sexy, suspense
Similar in 89%
The Last Woman (1976)
Plot Summary:
Gerard and his 9-month-old son have been left by his wife for feminist reasons. The custody of his son is being threatened by his next romance.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 83%
Goto, Island of Love (1969)
Plot Summary:
In an isolated community on a mythical island, a pompous dictator holds public executions and lets criminals fight in the streets.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 928
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, fairy tale, avant garde, crying, mad, cult film
Similar in 89%
The Stranger (1967)
Plot Summary:
The Stranger is a literal (but still very cinematic) adaptation of the novel by Albert Camus. Marcello Mastrioanni stars as Meursault, a man who feels utterly isolated from everyone and everything around him. This alienation results in sudden, inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder. The subsequent trial of Meursault manages to convey the oppressive heat of its Algerian setting with director Luchino Visconti's usual veneer of elegant decadence. Though set in the 1930s, the sensibilities of the film were very much attuned to the 1960s: the problem was that Camus' sentiments had been adopted by so many other filmmakers of the period that The Stranger seemed rather commonplace. The film was originally released in Italy as Lo Staniero.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Algeria
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: philosophical, neo noir, neorealism, existential, psychological, sincere, thought provoking, clever, bleak, serious
Similar in 81%
Sensuous Doll (1973)
Plot Summary:
Witness of a murder, a young prostitute is tailed by a detective who is paid by the killer.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: erotic, road movie
Similar in 75%
1914 the Glorious Summer (1996)
Plot Summary:
An old aristocrat, short of money, who does not accept the new world ruled by the bourgeois class ,epitomized by the industrialist and by the doctor who finally grabs the the aristocrat's castle which soon will be turned into a hospital.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Bitches (1973)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy bourgeois, bored in her immense property, to pass the time engages a gigolo to answer all her wishes, from the most unfulfilled to the most hidden ... But when the young man takes an interest in the sister of his boss, the latter becomes very jealous.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 83%
Justine de Sade (1972)
Plot Summary:
Therese, a beautiful but naive young girl, who finds herself being passed around from depraved pervert to depraved pervert, enduring just about every kind of sexual degradation there is while still believing that some kind stranger will eventually help her.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 454
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: erotic, suspense, controversial, sensual, bleak, serious, realistic, sexual, grindhouse, sexy
Similar in 79%
The Night (1961)
Plot Summary:
A married couple attend a bourgeois party and wade through the stifling strain that long-term marriage has imposed upon them.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: cerebral, art house, erotic, black and white, neorealism, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, stylized, sexual
Similar in 90%
Games of Desire (1991)
Plot Summary:
Florentine is a young, beautiful and passionate woman with a desire for love. Feeling abandoned by her husband's impotency, she searches for outside affection and seduction within brief, but often passionate encounters. During this web of desire she encounters Dorothy. Unknown to Florentine she is her husband's accomplice. In this twisted, frenzied fantasy her husband Jake becomes excited and aroused by the seduction of his wife. With his secret darkrooms and two-way mirrors he begins to desire his wife once more. Florentine, with the help of their adopted son, discovers his world of distorted fantasy. Amazed, but realising that Jake still loves her, she must act.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
My Lover, My Son (1970)
Plot Summary:
A woman deals with an unhappy marriage, the death of her lover, and her son's involvement in a crime.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 368
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: erotic, offbeat
Similar in 77%
The Big Feast (1973)
Plot Summary:
A group of men hire some prostitutes and go to a villa in the countryside. There, they engage in group sex and resolve to eat themselves to death.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, art house, surreal, humorous, controversial, atmospheric, black comedy, dark comedy, sexual
Similar in 76%
Eight and a Half (1963)
Plot Summary:
With 8 ½ Frederico Fellini leaves a self-portrait where dreams and reality are a mix. With help from a most excellent cast and unique scenery this self reflecting film is one of his master works.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 124000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, surreal, philosophical, cerebral, stylized, black and white, atmospheric, postmodern, visual