Best movies like The Lacemaker
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The internationally produced The Lacemaker (La Dentelliere) stars Isabelle Huppert as Pomme, a meek and mild French beautician whose life takes a fateful turn during a vacation to Normandy. Here Huppert becomes the lover of middle-class literature-student Francois (Yves Beneyton). The relationship sours when Francois takes her home to meet his parents, thanks in no small part to their differing social backgrounds. The Lacemaker was the film that solidified the stardom of Isabelle Huppert; she was showered with awards, most notably the British Film Academy.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Switzerland, France, West Germany
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sad, art house, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, intellectual
Best tv shows and movies like The Lacemaker (1977):
Similar in 85%
The Trout (1982)
Plot Summary:
The sexual and social dysfunctional behaviour of the corporate elite are further aggravated when a naive married woman becomes the obsession of two wealthy suitors.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 852
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychological, clever, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, sexual, art deco
Similar in 90%
Heartbeat (1968)
Plot Summary:
The mistress (Catherine Deneuve) of a wealthy man misses material comforts when she leaves him for a younger lover.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 830
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 88%
Desire (1992)
Plot Summary:
A Scottish woman who attends school in Paris comes home for the summer and helps take in the straw, where she meets an attractive and simple man. They begin a torrid affair despite the differences in their lifestyles. He asks her to marry him but she refuses, and they continue their separate lives but also continue their affair through the years, loving each other despite their differences.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Canada, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, romantic, sentimental, independent film, serious, realistic, sexual
Similar in 87%
Someone I Loved (2009)
Plot Summary:
One night, Pierre decides to reveal his painful secret to his daughter-in-law, who's just been abandoned by her husband. Pierre's secret is about his secret love to Mathilde, the woman he left to instead follow an easier path in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy, Belgium, Hong Kong
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, captivating, melancholic, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 86%
Love on a Pillow (1962)
Plot Summary:
A young girl rescues a man from a suicide attempt. He turns out to be a sociopath, who begins to take over her life, abusing her both verbally and emotionally, yet she can't seem to tear herself away from him.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 714
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, touching, serious, emotional, erotic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Soft Skin (1964)
Plot Summary:
Pierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married with Franca and father of Sabine, around 10. He meets an air hostess, Nicole. They start a love affair, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stand staying away from her.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: depressing, neo noir, anthology, art house, black and white, psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Frontier of the Dawn (2008)
Plot Summary:
A celebrity is caught by her husband with a young lover. She ends the relationship, but slowly goes insane and kills herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, sentimental, black and white, touching, melancholic, erotic, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The Bridge (1999)
Plot Summary:
Actor Gerard Depardieu co-directed this drama about a married woman who falls in love with another man. Mina is a movie buff with a husband, Georges, who's out of work, and a 15-year-old son, Tommy. While Mina works part-time as a domestic for Claire Daboval, the family is terribly short on money, so when Georges is offered construction work on a massive bridge project, he immediately accepts, even though the job site is far enough away that he'll only be able to come home on weekends. One day, while taking in a matinee screening of West Side Story, Mina meets a man named Matthias, an engineer associated with the bridge project. It's love at first sight for the both of them, and while Mina has no desire to hurt Georges, who is a good and decent man, she has found another good and decent man whom she loves even more. Tommy, on the other hand, has to deal with this crisis in his parents' marriage while he's sorting out his own infatuation with Ms. Daboval's daughter, Lisbeth.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi autobiographical
Similar in 88%
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 85%
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 78%
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 85%
Sentimental Destinies (2000)
Plot Summary:
In late nineteenth century Charante, Protestant minister Jean Barnery causes local disquiet when he arranges a separation from his obsessive wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Switzerland
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 80%
Wuthering Heights (2003)
Plot Summary:
A musical version of the classic story set in the modern day.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 80%
Perfect Love (1996)
Plot Summary:
A teenage girl helps investigators reconstruct her mother's (Isabelle Renauld) murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 539
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: controversial, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 76%
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 75%
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 81%
I Love You Too (2001)
Plot Summary:
While camping in France, Eric and Eddy fall in with two women. Eric talks to Silke, a Ugandan studying medicine in Holland. She tells him about her life and asks about the book he's writing: it's the story of his love affair with Reza. He tells her the story and we see it in flashbacks: Reza explodes into his boring life, she's unpredictable and their relationship becomes intense.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching, suspenseful, sexual, erotic, exciting, sexy
Similar in 76%
A Minute's Silence (2016)
Plot Summary:
A minute's silence is being observed in the grammar school of Hirtshafen, a small fishing town on the Baltic shore - in memory of Stella Petersen, the school's young English teacher. For one of her students, however, Stella was more than a teacher: She was his first love. From 18-year-old Christian's point of view, we relive a magical summer affair between two young people that ends abruptly and tragically, but is transformed, through death, to immortality.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 907
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Denmark
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating
Similar in 80%
Kung-Fu Master (1988)
Plot Summary:
Veteran French director Agnes Varda's Le Petit Amour is based on a short story by actress/songstress Jane Birkin. Birkin herself plays the main character, a loving but lonely 40-year-old divorcee. Her life is brightened a bit by the presence of a handsome 15-year-old, played by Mathieu Demy. Their romance forms the basis of this "petit" Varda effort, which is also known as Kung Fu Master (now you'll have to see it for yourself!). Shortly after the release of Le Petit Amour, Agnes Varda directed a documentary centering upon Jane Birkin, Jane B par Agnes V.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: art house, aesthetic, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, eighties
Similar in 82%
Faithless (2000)
Plot Summary:
Scripted by Ingmar Bergman, this very personal film is about a destructive affair which wrecks the marriage of an actress (Marianne) and musician (Markus). Wanting to continue the affair, Marianne moves in with her lover. But she is tormented by Markus' decision not to let her have custody of their daughter. Finally Markus announces he may have a solution to the stalemate, but this leads to deception, lies and ultimately, tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Sweden, Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, lyrical, tense, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, depressing, erotic
Similar in 77%
Dancing at the Harvest Moon (2002)
Plot Summary:
A betrayed wife, whose husband leaves her after 25 years, returns to the lake where she first fell in love and begins an affair with the son of her first love.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 401
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
G (2002)
Plot Summary:
A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 778
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, modern day adaptation
Similar in 75%
My First Time (2012)
Plot Summary:
Zachary is 20 years old. Dark and independent, he collects amorous conquests and school failure. Sarah is 18 years old. First class, fragile, she fills her emotional gaps with perfect control of his life. Nothing should close and yet, the year of the tank, for six months, they will live a love against which nothing can be, the true, the big one that marks a life forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, emotional, sentimental, realistic, serious, feel good
Similar in 87%
The Classic (2003)
Plot Summary:
Shy Ji-hae's friend is having problems expressing her feelings to the boy she loves, so she asks Ji-hae to write e-mails to him in her name. As the boy falls in love with her letters, Ji-hae discovers the story of her mother's romance which is remarkably similar to her own circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sad, sexy, feel good, romantic comedy, non-linear, tear jerker
Similar in 82%
Heavenly Forest (2006)
Plot Summary:
The story begins with Makoto Segawa, a freshman at Meikei University. On the day of his university entrance ceremony, Makoto meets a fresh-faced, quirky girl named Shizuru. Makoto has a complex which causes him to shy away from contact with other people, but she succeeds in getting him to open up to her naturally. All Shizuru wants is to be with Makoto, so she takes up a camera too. The two spend their days together taking photos in the forest behind the campus. However, Makoto has feelings for another student named Miyuki. Shizuru decides that if Makoto likes Miyuki, she wants to like her too. She wants to like everything that he does. One day, she tells Makoto that she wants to take a photo of them kissing in the forest as a present for 'her birthday'. He obliges for her sake, and they kiss in the forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, romantic, sad, shoujo, romantic drama
Similar in 87%
Those Who Love (1998)
Plot Summary:
A secret and deep passion marks the life of a young doctor, and threatens the existence of those around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 75%
Mademoiselle Chambon (2009)
Plot Summary:
Véronique Chambon (Sandrine Kiberlain), a single schoolteacher and Jean (Vincent Lindon), discover an unexpected bond that causes them to question the direction of their lives. They move in different social circles but their relationship develops and their lives begin gradually to unravel.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, sentimental, captivating, sincere, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Nuts for Love (2000)
Plot Summary:
En 1975, unos meses antes del comienzo de la dictadura militar argentina, Alicia y Marcelo se conocen en un concierto de Sui Géneris. El amor surge inmediatamente entre ellos, pero el retorno del novio de Alicia provoca la separación. En 1982, en Madrid, sus caminos vuelven a cruzarse. Tras el encuentro, se dan cuenta de que, a pesar de que el amor sigue latente, sus destinos discurren por rumbos separados. Años después, en 1990, tras otro encuentro casual, Marcelo decide hacer frente a sus sentimientos por Alicia: ambos quieren hacer realidad su sueño postergado desde la adolescencia.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Argentina, Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Endless Love (1981)
Plot Summary:
Two young kids fall in love with each other. But the passion is too consuming for the parents of Jade. The parents try to stop them from seeing each other. But when this doesn't work, David burns down the house and is sent away. This doesn't stop him from seeing her. When he gets out he goes to look for her. But the passion for his first love is too strong and she has to leave.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: intense, erotic, sentimental, touching, emotional, romantic, sexual, dark, sensual, romantic drama
Similar in 81%
The School of Flesh (1998)
Plot Summary:
In Paris, Dominique, a middle-aged fashion professional, solicits the services of the handsome Quentin , a bisexual bartender and prostitute who is 15 years her junior. After they first sleep together, their business transaction becomes transformed into a passionate love affair. However, the couple's romance becomes an ugly power struggle when social class and age distinctions begin to bubble toward the surface.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: France, Luxembourg, Belgium
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sexy, enigmatic, serious, psychological, touching, erotic, sexual, disturbing, sincere, realistic