Best movies like The Discreet
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
There is an author who has been dumped by his girlfriend and has no inspiration for a next novel. In an attempt to find a solution to both crises, he, along with his publisher friend, decides to seduce a young woman with the singular purpose of keeping a diary of the seduction and then dump her before publishing the book about it. Unfortunately he falls in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: anthology, sexy, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, contemplative, talky, stylized, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like The Discreet (1990):
Similar in 85%
Eva (1962)
Plot Summary:
Best-selling author Tyvian Jones has a life of leisure in Venice, Italy, until he has a chance encounter with sultry Frenchwoman Eva Olivier. He falls for her instantly, despite already having wedding plans with Francesca Ferrara. Winning Eva's affection proves elusive; she's more interested in money than in love. But Tyvian remain steadfast in his obsession, going after Eva with a fervor that threatens to destroy his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: noir, neo noir, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 87%
Love on the Run (1979)
Plot Summary:
Beginning with "The 400 Blows," director Francois Truffaut made a series of films about the impetuous Antoine Doinel, in which this is the last. Antoine is now 30, working as a proofreader and getting divorced from his his wife. It being the first "no-fault" divorce in France, a media circus erupts, dredging up Antoine's past. Indecisive about his new love with a store clerk, he impulsively takes off with an old flame.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, sincere, clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious, non-linear, romantic drama
Similar in 81%
The Banned Woman (1997)
Plot Summary:
This movie is foremost distinguished by the use of a subjective camera, and nearly 100 % of the time consists of close-up of the young girl's face. She is capable of changing her facial mimic so much that she never looks artificial or inappropriate. 39-year-old François meets 22-year-old Muriel, who is a virgin. Several times he invites her to fine restaurants. She agrees that on a certain day they will meet at a hotel and he will see her naked. He promises not to sleep with her at that occasion. He does not keep his promise. She is happy that he didn't. Both continue to be eager for sex.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 741
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: anthology, humorous, serious, realistic, contemplative, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
The New Eve (1999)
Plot Summary:
Camille is an emancipated 30-something woman who has no desire to settle down and have a family, preferring to coast along on a succession of ephemeral relationships and one-night stands. However, her lifestyle fails to satisfy her fully, and in a moment of depression she runs into a complete stranger, Alexis, whom she instantly falls in love with. Alexis, alas, is married, with two children, and works for the Socialist Party. None of this is going to deter Camille though….
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 654
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy
Similar in 81%
Flirt (1995)
Plot Summary:
The same situation is played out in different cities (New York, Berlin and Japan). A lover has to choose whether to commit to a partner who is returning home. In each case there are other people involved, an ex-partner and someone else in a "permanent" relationship, what do they choose to do?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Germany, Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: art house, clever, witty, talky, anthology, independent film, retro, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 75%
Gabrielle (2005)
Plot Summary:
A seemingly ideal marriage is thrown into embarrassing turmoil in Patrice Chéreau's period drama, based on the short story The Return by Joseph Conrad.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, clever, emotional, realistic, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, crying, beautiful
Similar in 83%
Swann in Love (1984)
Plot Summary:
Swann (Jeremy Irons), an eligible bachelor in the best circles of fin-de-siècle Paris, has also some more vulgar but rich friends, the Verdurins. Through them he meets Odette (Ornella Muti), a courtesan, with whom he falls hopelessly in love. She seems to enjoy his company, for which he pays, but considers herself free to socialise and sleep where she pleases, particularly with a rival called de Forcheville. Swann’s passion turns to consuming jealousy, which leads him eventually to accept the social stigma of marrying her. One old friend, the overtly gay Charlus (Alain Delon), stays sympathetic.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, neurotic, sexy, period drama
Similar in 75%
Loulou (1980)
Plot Summary:
This 1980 French film features Isabelle Huppert as a restless young woman who ditches her boring, tempramental boyfriend for a wild, leather-clad bad boy (played by an incandescent, youthful Gerard Depardieu).
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: erotic, romantic, psychological, sexy, serious, realistic, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 79%
Circle of Love (1964)
Plot Summary:
In a chain reaction of romantic adventures, various people play musical beds in a remake of Max Ophul's "La Ronde.".
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 639
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: art house, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, sexual, sexy, confusing
Similar in 75%
Full Moon in Paris (1984)
Plot Summary:
"He who has two women loses his soul, he who has two houses loses his mind." So it goes with Louise played by Pascale Ogier who is dissatisfied with her mundane life in a bleak Parisian new-town. She rents a pied-à-terre in the city so she can experience independence.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: anthology, clever, humorous, realistic, talky, semi serious, eighties
Similar in 90%
Intimate Strangers (2004)
Plot Summary:
Because she picked the wrong door, Anna ends up confessing her marriage problems to a financial adviser named William Faber. Touched by her distress, somewhat excited as well, Faber does not have the courage to tell her that he is not a psychiatrist. From appointment to appointment, a strange ritual is created between them. William is moved and fascinated to hear the secrets no man ever heard.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, sincere, touching, philosophical, suspense, clever, talky, romantic drama, humorous
Similar in 82%
La séparation (1994)
Plot Summary:
In Paris, Pierre and Anne have been living together for a couple of years and they have the eighteen months son Loulou, who stays with the nanny Laurence during the day while they work. Their best friends are the couple Victor and Claire, who also is not married but live together. Out of the blue, Pierre feels Anne estranged with him and sooner she discloses that she is in love with another man. Pierre seems to accept her affair but their relationship rapidly deteriorates, and Pierre becomes violent with her.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, light, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic, bleak, unusual plot structure
Similar in 76%
The Romantic Englishwoman (1975)
Plot Summary:
What is real and what is fiction? Faced with writer's block with his novel, Lewis Fielding turns to a film script about a woman finding herself after his wife Elizabeth returns from Baden Baden. She didn't quite find herself there but had a brief encounter in a lift with a German who says he is a poet. Now the German is in England, gets himself invited to tea where he claims he admires Fielding's books. Which one does he like the best? "Tom Jones." Amused at being confused with the other Fielding, the novelist works the German into the plot.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, light, thought provoking, humorous, captivating, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 90%
Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)
Plot Summary:
The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales. Frederic leads a bourgeois life; he is a partner in a small Paris office and is happily married to Helene, a teacher expecting her second child. In the afternoons, Frederic daydreams about other women, but has no intention of taking any action. One day, Chloe, who had been a mistress of an old friend, begins dropping by his office. They meet as friends, irregularly in the afternoons, till eventually Chloe decides to seduce Frederic, causing him a moral dilemma.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: clever, anthology, art house, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, stylized, sexual
Similar in 81%
A Tale of Winter (1992)
Plot Summary:
Felicie and Charles have a whirlwind holiday romance. Due to a mix-up on addresses they lose contact, and five years later at Christmas-time Felicie is living with her mother in a cold Paris with a daughter as a reminder of that long-ago summer. For male companionship she oscillates between hairdresser Maxence and the intellectual Loic, but seems unable to commit to either as the memory of Charles and what might have been hangs over everything.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, postmodern, sentimental, clever, realistic, contemplative, talky, semi serious, sexual
Similar in 87%
Sam the Man (2001)
Plot Summary:
Before he broke out with the J.D. Salinger-esque Tadpole in 2002, producer-turned-director Gary Winick filmed this little-seen relationship drama. Fisher Stevens stars as the title character, a writer with one novel under his belt who can't seem to deliver the follow-up. Instead, he spends his time compulsively cheating on his photographer girlfriend, Cass (Annabella Sciorra); giving the runaround to his agent, Richard (Ron Rifkin); and trying to keep his landlord, Murray (Luis Guzman), at bay.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 243
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sentimental, sincere, humorous, realistic, suspense, independent film, clever, talky, biting
Similar in 87%
Feelings (2003)
Plot Summary:
Two seemingly happily married French couples are forced to contend with a number of issues.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, erotic, sensitive, sexy
Similar in 85%
A Man in Love (1987)
Plot Summary:
An American film-star and an unknown British actress meet on set in Rome. She is angry when he refuses to speak to her journalist father, but later they have a passionate relationship.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 723
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy, UK, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sensual, independent film, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, sexual, soap opera
Similar in 82%
Charlotte Sometimes (2002)
Plot Summary:
Michael, a young mechanic, is forced to choose between a daring tryst with an alluring stranger and the habitual comfort of his bittersweet obsession: his beautiful young roommate.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, sexy, light, captivating, romantic, romantic drama, erotic, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Late August, Early September (1998)
Plot Summary:
A story about the transition from late youth to early maturity, the film follows several friends and lovers as they come to make decisions on how to live their lives--getting a job more in harmony with ones ideals, committing to a lover, giving up a lover that no longer loves you: a film about grown-ups growing up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, talky, melancholic, ironic, meditative, lyrical, psychological, serious, depressing, tense
Similar in 75%
My Man (1996)
Plot Summary:
In Lyon, where many are unemployed, Marie is a prostitute who loves her work: she's thoughtful and exuberant toward clients old and young, slim or flabby. One night, a homeless man sleeps in the foyer of her apartment house; she gives him a hot meal, then a place on the floor to sleep by her radiator, then she offers herself. She falls in love, giving him new life, clothes, a place to live. When he grouses that he must bar hop while she uses the flat for her work, she finds them a larger flat. He grows restless, seducing a manicurist and pressing her to prostitution. He's arrested for procuring, so Marie must decide what to do; he, too, must face the consequences of his choices.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sexy, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, talky, cynical, semi serious, biting, sexual
Similar in 84%
The Man Who Loved Women (1977)
Plot Summary:
At Bertrand Morane's burial there are many of the women that the 40-year-old engineer loved. In flashback Bertrand's life and love affairs are told by himself while writing an autobiographical novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: erotic, controversial, anthology, art house, sex comedy, sexual, sexy, clever, touching, humorous
Similar in 90%
The Man from Elysian Fields (2001)
Plot Summary:
A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: witty, melancholic, clever, touching, sexy, entertaining, independent film, art house, humorous, realistic
Similar in 80%
Fling (2008)
Plot Summary:
An attractive young couple's open relationship is stretched to the breaking point when each partner finds themselves falling in love with other people.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sexy, realistic, sincere, disturbing, powerful, clever, offbeat, humorous, witty, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Angel (2007)
Plot Summary:
Edwardian England. A precocious girl from a poor background with aspirations to being a novelist finds herself swept to fame and fortune when her tasteless romances hit the best seller lists. Her life changes in unexpected ways when she encounters an aristocratic brother and sister, both of whom have cultural ambitions, and both of whom fall in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium, UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, witty, talky, period piece, romantic, costume drama, crying, period drama
Similar in 83%
The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Plot Summary:
In this sexually frank French drama, the aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. The dialogue-heavy film focuses intently on the love triangle, with Marie increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika. As the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 217 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, tense, realistic, talky, black and white, sexual, erotic, sexy
Similar in 75%
Little Lili (2003)
Plot Summary:
This film, loosely inspired by Anton Chekov's The Seagull, weaves a story about sex, family and the business of making films. When the young and overly sensitive filmmaker Julien screens his new DV art-film starring his girlfriend Lili (Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) --a sexy young local girl--to his famous actress mother Mado, and her lover Brice, an accomplished film director, an unraveling of the delicate peace in their house begins. The graceful beauty Lili, who dreams of becoming a famous actress like Mado, is immediately fascinated by Brice, who gladly falls prey to her charms.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, clever, touching, erotic, contemplative, sexual, crying, sexy
Similar in 78%
Fall (1997)
Plot Summary:
For Michael Shiver, life as an easy-going cab driver in New York suddenly changes when he picks up supermodel Sarah Easton and falls head over heels in love. But Sarah has more than just passion on her mind; she also has a husband and a glamorous lifestyle that she can't seem to leave behind. Torn between her feelings for Michael and the security of her marriage, Sarah is forced to make a realistic decision about the sacrifices that must be made to be truly and totally in love.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sexy, sentimental, romantic, sweet, melancholic, intense, inspirational, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 78%
Venus Beauty (1999)
Plot Summary:
Madam Nadine manages with pride the "Vénus Beauté" Salon which offers relaxation, massage and make-up services. The owner and her three beauticians: Samantha, Marianne and Angèle are pros. Contrary to her friend Marianne, who still dreams of the big day, Angèle no longer believes in love. Marie, the youngest of the three employees, discovers love in the hands of a sixty year-old former pilot, who risks everything.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, cult film
Similar in 88%
L'ennui (1998)
Plot Summary:
A philosophy teacher restless with the need to do something with his life meets a young woman suspected of driving an artist to his death. He finds the very simple Cecilia irritating but develops a sexual rapport with her. Obsessed with the need to own and tormented by her inability to respond to him, he becomes increasingly violent in a quest he can't name - a quest that slowly begins to undermine his certainties.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Romance, Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: erotic, psychological, sexy, emotional, sexual, psycho sexual, sensual, transgressive, serious, realistic