Best movies like The Elegant Criminal
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Best tv shows and movies like The Elegant Criminal (1990):
Similar in 85%
The Silence of Joan (2011)
Plot Summary:
In 1430, Joan of Arc, the prisoner of a powerful lord of the north of France is sold to the English. As a captive awaiting her death, she is approached by different men for whom she is believed to be the embodiment of the infinite.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Biography
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, captivating, emotional, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Blood from a Stone (2011)
Plot Summary:
The day his bank refuses to finance him, Georges will do everything he can to save his shipyard and his employees.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, cynical, captivating, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
A Woman's Revenge (2012)
Plot Summary:
Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 343
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, atmospheric, stylized
Similar in 84%
Life Love Death (1969)
Plot Summary:
François Toledo, married businessman and father, falls head-over-heels in love with Janine, a work colleague. However, he is soon found out: after three dates, he strangles some prostitutes, when, the victim of blackmail, he becomes dishonored. He is taken to court, and sentenced to be killed by a guillotine.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: neo noir, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Day Break (2005)
Plot Summary:
Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break - based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison - revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour's execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, suspenseful, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, surprise ending
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Omar Killed Me (2011)
Plot Summary:
In the summer of 1991 an elderly woman Ghislaine Marchal is found murdered in the basement of her home with the message "Omar M'a Tuer" (Omar has kill me) written beside in her own blood. Despite a lack of forensic or DNA evidence, her Moroccan gardener Omar Raddad is found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in a French prison. Shocked by the case, and convinced of his innocence, journalist Pierre-Emmanuel Vaugrenard moves to Nice to investigate, and uncover the truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: France, Morocco
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 77%
My Name Is Bernadette (2011)
Plot Summary:
Between February and July 1858, in the Massabielle cave, the Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a miserable little girl from Lourdes. A true revolution in the heart of the Second Empire that shakes the established order by his universal message of love and prayer.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, biblical, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Anatomy of a Hate Crime (2001)
Plot Summary:
This MTV film dramatizes the horrific hate-crime killing of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard (Cy Carter) in Wyoming. In 1998, Shepard, a gay college student, was savagely beaten by Russell Henderson (Ian Somerhalder) and Aaron McKinney (Brendan Fletcher), who left their victim to die. Flashbacks paint a picture of Shepard's life and provide insight into why the killers, who initially set out to rob the young man, would commit such a brutal murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, emotional, bleak, serious, realistic, controversial, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Chattahoochee (1989)
Plot Summary:
In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, independent film, bleak
Similar in 76%
Jump! (2007)
Plot Summary:
JUMP is a psychological drama revealing for the first time the extraordinary circumstances behind the unjust murder trial of the young Jew, Philippe Halsman, who would later become the most sought after celebrity portrait photographer of his generation.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, contemplative, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, political
Similar in 82%
Sade (2000)
Plot Summary:
A man prepares himself to be transferred to a detention center and rest home where he will relive one more time the highlights of his youth.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, realistic, sexy, sexual, melancholic, sensual, tense, erotic, independent film
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The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000)
Plot Summary:
In 1850, on the isolated French island of Saint-Pierre, a murder shocks the natives. Two fishermen are arrested. One of them, Louis Ollivier, dies in custody. The other, Neel Auguste, is sentenced to death by the guillotine. The island is so small that it has neither a guillotine nor an executioner. While those are sent for Auguste is placed under the supervision of army Captain.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, compassionate, atmospheric, sincere, touching, intense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Mothers (2010)
Plot Summary:
Two nine-year-old girls report a flasher to the police even though they never saw him. Three filmmakers meet the only residents of a deserted village - an elderly brother and sister who have not spoken to each other in 16 years. Retired cleaning women are found raped and strangled in a small town. The fiction slowly turns into a documentary.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 804
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Bulgaria
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, disturbing, psychological, thought provoking, serious, anthology, emotional, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 88%
Crossed Over (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on the book Crossed Over: A Murder/A Memoir by Beverly Lowry, Crossed Over tells the true story of a woman, Beverly Lowry, who after the tragic hit-and-run death of her teenage son, sinks into a deep depression. Lowry and her supportive husband struggle to cope with this devastating loss. Lowry forms an unusual friendship with the first and only woman executed while on death row in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker, a friendship that puts great pressure on her marriage. Through this friendship, she is able to come to terms with unresolved personal issues and rediscover the simple joy in living and her marriage.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, thought provoking, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Executioner's Song (1982)
Plot Summary:
In this fact-based film, Gary Gilmore, an Indiana man who just finished serving a lengthy stay in prison, tries to start anew by moving to Utah. Before long, Gary begins an ill-advised romance with the troubled Nicole Baker, a teenage single mother. As their relationship quickly deteriorates, Gary goes on a murderous rampage, leaving two dead. During his trial, he demands capital punishment; a media circus ensues and outsiders look to profit from his story.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 76%
Lepke (1975)
Plot Summary:
Tony Curtis stars as the feared leader of "Murder Incorporated" in this underworld drama based on the life of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Lepke began his criminal career as a petty thief in his teens; a stretch in prison taught him the finer points of life on the wrong side of the law. After getting out of jail, Lepke and his pal Gurrah Shapiro (Warren Berlinger) join a gang who hire themselves out as strikebreakers, and the vicious but clever Lepke soon rises through the ranks.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Israel, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
The Conquest (2011)
Plot Summary:
A look at French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, realistic, serious, captivating, political, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)
Plot Summary:
A reconstruction of the trial of Joan of Arc based entirely on the transcripts of the real-life trial, concerning Joan's imprisonment, interrogation and final execution at the hands of the English.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: contemplative, spiritual, fairy tale, depressing, powerful, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
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Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (2008)
Plot Summary:
A light hearted look at future Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers rise from research chemist in 1949 to becoming MP for Finchley in 1959 encompassing her early relationship and marriage to Oil Millionaire Denis Thatcher.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 447
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, emotional, realistic, political, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 83%
Polanski Unauthorized (2009)
Plot Summary:
An unauthorized chronicle of the life of Roman Polanski.
IMDB Rating: 2.7
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, captivating, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 82%
Margot (2009)
Plot Summary:
At the age of forty Dame Margot Fonteyn is considered to be past her best as a prima ballerina and Ninette de Valois is reducing her roles at the Royal Ballet. Then the exciting young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, a recent defector to the West, comes into her life and her bed and revitalizes her career. Frederick Aashton creates a new ballet for them and they become the golden couple of the ballet world. However, Margot is married to Roberto 'Tito' Arias, a Panamanian politician of dubious repute who is not sympathetic to her calling and is probably faithless. When he is shot and paralyzed for life Margot must carry on dancing well into her sixties in order to pay for his costly treatment though she still collaborates with Rudolf in the occasional ballet.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 77%
Anna Nicole (2013)
Plot Summary:
Voluptuous beauty Anna Nicole Smith marries an elderly millionaire and poses for Playboy, but after her husband's death, her excessive drinking, pill-popping and weight fluctuations take their toll.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, thought provoking, captivating, sexy
Similar in 77%
The Last Mitterrand (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young journalist (Lespert) helps the French President compile his memoirs.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, talky, political, contemplative, factual
Similar in 87%
I Want to Live (1983)
Plot Summary:
The movie tells the story of a woman who struggles and fights to escape the gas chamber being condemned with capital punishment because of her participation in a hold up in which a person was killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 196
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Trial by Fire (2018)
Plot Summary:
The tragic and controversial story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas for killing his three children after scientific evidence and expert testimony that bolstered his claims of innocence were suppressed.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, realistic, thought provoking, disturbing, factual, compassionate, dark
Similar in 77%
The Wronged Man (2010)
Plot Summary:
Janet Gregory, a single mother with a haunting past, is a paralegal struggling to overcome doubts about Calvin Willis, an African-American husband and father wrongfully accused of raping a neighborhood girl. Eventually convinced of his innocence, Janet takes Calvin's pro bono case and wages a dramatic and stormy 22-year battle with the justice system that ultimately redeems an unjustly accused man and cements a life-long friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, captivating, realistic, sincere, rough, bleak, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Bless You, Prison (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on Nicole Valery-Grossu's European best seller autobiographic novel "Bless you, prison", the film is a true story, with real events and characters. A young intellectual woman, Nicole is arrested. There follow three months of exhausting interrogation and isolation. Alone in a cell, she undergoes a spiritual experience similar to that of the great mystics.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 543
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, thought provoking, disturbing, captivating, bleak, serious, realistic
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Guilty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Investigates the corrupt judicial system under which Alain Mar'caux and his wife Edith were arrested on accusations of pedophilia horrific acts they never committed- and the years he spent fighting to get out of prison, clear his name and keep his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, touching, sincere, serious, realistic, factual, social, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Act of Vengeance (1986)
Plot Summary:
In 1969, an administrator runs against the corrupt president of the United Coal Miners Union, and becomes the target of a murder plot.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 797
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
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VIPs (2010)
Plot Summary:
A human look on the life of one of the biggest frauds in the world happened by important people in Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Brazil, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized