Best movies like The Life of Jesus
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Twenty-something Freddy is becalmed in a podunk French village where the only sign of life is the local amateur brass band and youth aimlessly roaming around the countryside on scooters. He has an intense sexual connection with his girlfriend but has no joy or passion to give her. When she falls for a handsome Arab youth a tragedy unfolds.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: erotic, art house, slow cinema, aesthetic, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like The Life of Jesus (1997):
Similar in 80%
Spetters (1980)
Plot Summary:
A Dutch film, post-Saturday Night Fever, which follows the lives of three young men who are amateur dirt-bike motorcycle racers. They each fall in love with a young woman who, with her brother, sells French fries and hot dogs at the races. Everyone is looking for a better life. She wants out of the business and away from her brother. The motocross racers want to make their marks as professional racers, like their hero, played by Rutger Hauer.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Sport
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, cult classic, art house, raunchy, tense, rough, clever, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Flanders (2006)
Plot Summary:
André Demester secretly and painfully loves Barbe, his childhood friend, accepting from her the little that she gives him. He leaves home to be a soldier in a war in a far off land. Barbarity, camaraderie and fear turn him into a warrior. As the seasons go by, Barbe, alone and wasting away, waits for the soldiers to return. Will Demester’s boundless love for Barbe save him?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, slow cinema, exciting, captivating, suspenseful, bleak, disturbing, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Humanity (1999)
Plot Summary:
When an 11-year-old girl is brutally raped and murdered in a quiet French village, a police detective who has forgotten how to feel emotions--because of the death of his own family in some kind of accident--investigates the crime, which turns out to ask more questions than it answers.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: contemplative, slow cinema, erotic, bleak, disturbing, detective, depressing, neo noir, captivating, controversial
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Similar in 80%
Or (My Treasure) (2004)
Plot Summary:
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, psychological, sincere, bleak, realistic, erotic, depressing, gloomy, crying
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Similar in 82%
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
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Similar in 87%
The Adventures of Felix (2000)
Plot Summary:
A charming comedy about going on a rather long walk. Félix is a laid-back guy living in the bleak northern coastal town of Dieppe. He lives happily with his lover Daniel and is a soap opera enthusiast and HIV-positive. After losing his job, Félix decides to find the father he never knew in Marseilles. Agreeing to meet Daniel in the southern port city in a week's time, Félix throws on his backpack and starts hiking. On his way, he discovers that family need not always be connected by blood.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: humorous, melancholic, sentimental, touching, lyrical, feel good, realistic, semi serious, crying, light
Similar in 87%
I Dreamt Under the Water (2008)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, a handsome boy in his 20s, falls for a straight best friend who does not reciprocate, and being a junkie exits the film quite early. Enter a girl, who seems to make him happy again, after he has tried living as a rent boy with men, having some familial, financial difficulties. But the girl is a junkie too.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sexy, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, freeze frame, queer cinema, hot
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Similar in 84%
Like a Brother (2005)
Plot Summary:
Sebastien is a small town boy who moves to Paris and begins to explore the gay night life there. When a friend from back home calls to announce he's coming to Paris, Sebastien confronts some unrequited feelings.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: homoerotic, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, touching, erotic, lgbt cinema, independent film, sexy
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Similar in 77%
36 fillette (1988)
Plot Summary:
Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third. The playboy's mix of depression and misogyny ends their unconsummated affair, so Lili has to hunt elsewhere.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sensual, erotic, controversial, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, sexual, sexy, masterpiece
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Similar in 87%
Lila Says (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on a controversial French novel, Lila Says tells the story of a quiet young poet named Chimo who develops a crush on the pretty, blond Lila, a girl who recently moved into his Arab ghetto with her aunt. When the leader of a rival gang also falls for Lila, the ensuing love triangle initiates a journey of sexual discovery -- and sets off a chain of devastating events.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: France, UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, emotional, artsy, non-linear, heartbreaking, art house, multicultural, sexual, psychological
Similar in 81%
Lola and Billy the Kid (1999)
Plot Summary:
When young Turkish talent Kutlug Ataman wanted to make a film about transvestites, the first location he had in mind was Istanbul. As he developed the script, his thought was to place these marginal characters, who are subject to societal prejudices in an environment where there is already discrimination, would add dramatic effect. Supported by funding from German sources, Ataman set his story in Berlin, inside the community of "guest workers" where Turkish transvestites are shunned not only by Germans, but by their own kind as well. The result is a strong film with moments of tenderness, emotion and laughter juxtaposed with the harsh realities of life for those who dare to be different. 16 year old Murat (Baki Davrak) is a Turk who is curious about gay life and eventually submerges himself in the gay hustler and transvestite subculture.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Turkey
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, psychological, sexual, crying, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Pola X (1999)
Plot Summary:
A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and her two friends.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Switzerland, Germany, Japan
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sexy, meditative, disturbing, psychological, serious, romantic, controversial, offbeat, mysterious, sensual
Similar in 86%
His Brother (2003)
Plot Summary:
Thomas has been estranged from his brother Luc for several years, due in part to his difficulties in dealing with Luc's homosexuality. But when Thomas is diagnosed with a rare blood disease, which is difficult to treat and impossible to cure, he decides he wants to bring Luc back into his life. The brothers soon become inseparable, with Luc constantly at Thomas' side as he vainly struggles against the disease and confronts the indignity of treatment. As Thomas and Luc become closer, their new relationship begins to alienate their significant others, and Thomas' father cannot understand why his son doesn't fight against his illness with great vehemence.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, serious, realistic, romantic, captivating, contemplative, gloomy, crying, entertaining
Similar in 83%
To Our Loves (1983)
Plot Summary:
A portrait of youth in bloom; a tale of one family's dissolution; a reflection upon the danger and the mystery in living. Sandrine Bonnaire plays Suzanne, a free spirit and the vessel for an almost Brontëan choler. She's 16, and men exist — diverse lovers, an overbearing brother, and the father portrayed by director Maurice Pialat himself in an unforgettable turn that displays the full magnitude of the cinema giant's tenderness, force-of-will, and presence of being.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: erotic, retro, anthology, art house, sensual, crying, psychological, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Cold Showers (2005)
Plot Summary:
Mickael's family is struggling (they don't have enough money to pay for hot water) however his life is full with Judo and his girlfriend Venessa. Then Mickael makes a decision to open up his relationship to include Clement his rich-kid Judo partner, starting a chain of events.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, erotic, serious, emotional, melancholic, captivating, sexual, art house, eros, sensual
Similar in 75%
Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998)
Plot Summary:
Friends of painter Jean-Baptiste Emmerich gather at a Paris railroad station for a four-hour journey to Limoges, where Emmerich wanted to be buried. The dozen travelers include art historian François and his lover Louis, who develops an interest in teenage Bruno. Traveling parallel with the train is a station wagon with Jean-Baptiste's body, and this vehicle is driven by Thierry, husband of Catherine, who's on the train with their daughter. François plays a taped interview with Jean-Baptiste, revealing his sexual appeal to both men and women. Lucie is convinced that she was his main love. Also on board is his nephew, Jean-Marie and Jean-Marie's estranged wife Claire. After the funeral in "Europe's largest cemetery," the story continues in the mansion of Jean-Baptiste's brother Lucien.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, psychological, realistic, talky, anthology, touching, serious, crying, romantic
Similar in 88%
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 80%
The Witnesses (2007)
Plot Summary:
Manu arrives in Paris, in the early days of AIDS, at the beginning of the 1980s. He strikes up a friendship with Adrien, a wealthy doctor in his early fifties, who introduces him to Sarah and Mehdi, a young couple.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, erotic, crying, clever, realistic, contemplative, detective
Similar in 88%
The Man I Love (1997)
Plot Summary:
This is a combination coming out and first love story. The swimmer and diver Lucard is interested in attractive Martin. The film follows the characters' coming out with all its difficulties, the bitter-sweet pleasures of first love and the dreadful moment when one comes down to reality and realizes that one's beloved friend has a hard way to go yet. The positive message the film tries to transmit is the somewhat common motto "Live each day of your life as if it were your last.".
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Sport
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, serious, sentimental, realistic, sexual, allegory, emotional, sexy, gay cinema
Similar in 87%
Head On (1998)
Plot Summary:
Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, lgbt cinema, terrifying, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, rough, sexy
Similar in 80%
Full Speed (1996)
Plot Summary:
A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema
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Similar in 78%
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Plot Summary:
Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: West Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: art house, atmospheric, political, emotional, stylized, serious, realistic, black and white, bleak, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Romance (1999)
Plot Summary:
Although deeply in love with her boyfriend - and indeed sleeping in the same bed with him - a schoolteacher cannot handle the almost complete lack of intimacy he will allow. Increasingly frustrated, she gradually finds her sexual appetites leading her into ever more risky situations, including a developing one with the headmaster.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sexual, disturbing, sensual, controversial, art house, surprise ending, romantic, social
Similar in 90%
Three Dancing Slaves (2004)
Plot Summary:
Annecy is no tourist destination for three working-class Algerian brothers and their father, in the months after their mother has died. Marc is deeply troubled: he tries to stiff drug dealers and then plots revenge. Christophe is released from jail, lands a job, and must overcome various temptations in order to keep it. Olivier, nearing 18, may be falling in love with Hicham.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, lgbt cinema, realistic, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Grande école (2004)
Plot Summary:
Paul and Agnes have been going out for quite a while and Agnes is shocked to learn that he'd rather live with two roommates on campus than move in with her. As soon as he meets one of his roommates, Louis-Anault, Paul's behavior changes - he is attracted to Louis without realizing so himself. Agnes, on the other hand, gets quite jealous and offers a bet: Whoever gets to have Louis-Anault first, wins... If she does, Paul will no longer explore his homosexual desires, if he does - she'll walk away. Meanwhile, Paul meets Mecir, a young Arab worker, who shows him there's more to life than elite colleges.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sexy, psychological, sincere, serious, erotic, art house, controversial, realistic, sexual, queer cinema
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Similar in 86%
You Are Not Alone (1978)
Plot Summary:
Young teenager Bo (Anders Agensø) is too sensitive for the hothouse atmosphere of a boarding school run by a cold, unfeeling would-be man of the cloth (an uncharacteristically grim Ove Sprogøe). Lonely and scared, he finds a soul mate in the headmaster's son (Peter Bjerg) and the two boys form a bond that slowly grows into a sexual relationship. Frank and unadorned, this Danish film concluded director Lasse Nielsen's youth-oriented trilogy that began with La' Os Være (1975) and continued with Måske Ku' Vi (1976). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Denmark
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, erotic, serious, realistic, sexy, art house, grindhouse, romantic drama, sexual
Similar in 85%
Come Undone (2000)
Plot Summary:
Story of two gorgeous, young French boys who begin a passionate relationship that boils over and threatens to destroy both their lives. Shy Mathieu is 18-years-old and on summer vacation in the south of France. He spends his days lazily sunning himself at the beach, until he spies the handsome Cédric and falls in love. The film, like a dream, flows back and forth between the past and present, often asking us to fill the deliberate jumps in time.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, meditative, lyrical, sentimental, contemplative, erotic, sexual, lgbt cinema, serious
Similar in 83%
Close to Leo (2002)
Plot Summary:
When 21 year-old Leo, the oldest of four brothers, announces to his rural French family that he's HIV+, his family quickly rallys around him. Leo travels to Paris with his youngst brother Marcel for treatment. When Leo tries to push his brother away to protect him, the love and loyalty of the two brothers is tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, sincere, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
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
Similar in 75%
The Dreamers (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 129000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, France, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, sexual, psychological, disturbing, sensual, serious, explicit, erotic drama, atmospheric