Best movies like The Night Watch
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set against the turbulent backdrop of London in the 1940s, this adaptation of Sarah Waters' bestselling novel, The Night Watch, follows four young Londoners inextricably linked by their wartime experiences. In a time when the barriers of sexual morality and social convention have been broken down, Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan enjoy a freedom never experienced before. Moving back in time through the 1940s into the maelstrom of the Blitz, the lives, loves and losses of these four central characters are unravelled. For them, the post-war victory is bittersweet, for it returns them to the margins of society, from which they hoped they had been liberated. In order to build their future they must each make peace with their past.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, stylized, deep, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Best tv shows and movies like The Night Watch (2011):
Similar in 88%
Arch of Triumph (1984)
Plot Summary:
Arch of Triumph is a 1985 British made-for-television film based on the novel Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, which was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Dr. Ravic (Anthony Hopkins) is an Austrian doctor who helps Jews escape from the Nazis. In 1939, he meets Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down), a woman he saves from suicide, and their relationship flourishes until he is arrested as a refugee without documentation and realizes he has some unfinished business with the Nazis. After a prolonged separation, without explanation, the two are finally reunited and struggle to put their relationship back on the right course as mayhem breaks out all around them.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: noir, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, eighties
Similar in 85%
Housewife, 49 (2005)
Plot Summary:
Downtrodden wife and mother Nella's life takes an unexpected turn for the better after she joins the Women's Voluntary Service office in Barrow-in-Furness during the Second World War. However, her new-found happiness is shattered when her son Cliff leaves to join the troops - provoking a painful confrontation with her husband Will.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 788
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, emotional, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Regarding Billy (2005)
Plot Summary:
After Billy's parents are killed he moves home to care for his little brother Johnny, who is mentally challenged. Together the two struggle through the loss of their parents. Meanwhile, Billy's best friend from childhood, Dean, has moved back to town having been injured from the war in Iraq. Over time, Billy's childhood feelings toward Dean resurface, feelings that he fears may end their friendship if discovered. Both men discover hidden secrets that will change their lives forever. These three people must come together to rebuild friendships and family in a time where everything in their world seems unsure. Written by Jeff London.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 544
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
For a Lost Soldier (1992)
Plot Summary:
The story of a romantic relationship between a Canadian soldier and a child set in the Netherlands near the end of WWII. Told in flashback from the present day, the child, now a man, is still seeking his lost soldier.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, serious, contemplative, crying, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 75%
Between Two Women (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set in Northern England, this powerful tale of suppressed sexuality offers poignant and sharply observant social commentary, interlaced with a tender romance. Vetern actress Barbara Marten tugs at the heart as Ellen Hardy, a working-class mother unhappily married to Geoff and struggling with her feelings for another woman - her 10-year-old son's vivacious teacher, Kathy Thompson.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 727
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, touching, emotional, period piece, deep, independent film, realistic, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 89%
Doubt (2003)
Plot Summary:
A gaggle of friends and observers ponder the fate of a relationship as they watch it collapse in this independent drama from the Philippines. Cris (Andoy Ranay) is a documentary filmmaker with a well-regarded body of work and a large community of friends and admirers. Cris is also gay, and possesses a voracious sexual appetite, claiming to have had sex with over 4,000 men during his years of frequent cruising. But Cris has fallen for Eric (Paolo Gabriel), and has sworn off meaningless sex for the pleasures of monogamy. However, while Cris wants Eric and Eric alone, Eric himself isn't so sure he feels exactly the same way, and is both puzzled and annoyed with Cris' rather ironic jealousy. The tensions between the two take a heavy toll on Cris, leading to a suicide attempt, and as his friends watch from a distance, any number of them speculate on what's going on between Cris and Eric. Duda was screened at part of the 2004 New York Asian-American Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, sentimental, captivating, serious, sexual, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
November Moon (1985)
Plot Summary:
"November Moon" is a timeless and compelling love story set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France. On the brink of war and in the face of escalating anti-Jewish activity, November has fled her native Germany for the relative safety of Paris. There, she meets and falls in love with Ferial, a fiercely patriotic young French woman. Amid a series of life-changing wartime events, they are challenged by their extraordinary circumstances to realize their truest selves and to live - or die - by those choices.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 215
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
Forever Nevermore (2014)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic novel that presents the submission in a relationship between an Italian settler and a Brazilian woman in 1932. Luiza is a generation of women who were sent to convents to be educated, many of the high cost of permanency option ran out and became nuns ... Luiza was about to be forced to make this decision when it was delivered to marry with Domingos, who she would learn to live and love. For two years she suffer mistreatment and abuse from her husband. Living in a place away virtually inaccessible, she could not call for help. Her solitude was her most frequent company until they receive a visit from an official warning about the Constitutional Revolution, saying the Paulists approached that region to combat invading Minas Gerais, causing a reversal of their.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Brazil
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 85%
Closing the Ring (2007)
Plot Summary:
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, suspenseful, realistic, romantic, period piece, romantic drama, independent film, feel good
Similar in 89%
Head in the Clouds (2004)
Plot Summary:
A romantic drama set in 1930's England, Paris, and Spain. Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sexy, romantic, sentimental, captivating, stylized, cult classic, romantic drama, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Land Girls (1998)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, the organisation "The Women's Land Army" recruited women to work on British farms while the men were off to war. Three such "land girls" of different social backgrounds - quiet Stella, young hairdresser Prue, and Cambridge graduate Ag - become best friends in spite of their different backgrounds.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: period piece, sentimental, touching, realistic, retro, anamorphic, historical drama, sincere, serious, crying
Similar in 78%
A Love to Hide (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young Jewish girl, Sarah, is looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain by a smuggler who betrayed them while attempting to escape to England. Terrified, she is sheltered by her childhood friend Jean, a homosexual in a clandestine relationship with his lover Philippe.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, sad, lgbt cinema, captivating, realistic, gloomy, sincere, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Pornography (2003)
Plot Summary:
Two intellectuals, a writer and a director, begin to play a mysterious psychological game in a peaceful countryside manor house during the Nazi occupation.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 998
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, gloomy, biting, erotic, suspense
Similar in 79%
Brideshead Revisited (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 classic British novel, Brideshead Revisited is a poignant story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in England prior to the Second World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, Morocco, USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, sincere, serious, period piece, touching, costume drama, intense, clever, epic
Similar in 81%
Yanks (1979)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic, historical drama
Similar in 78%
Sword of Honour (2001)
Plot Summary:
Guy Crouchback joins the war effort during World War 2, an idealistic quest to join the forces of good in the fight against evil. But his efforts is not rewarded, he never has any chance to join any real fighting, circumstances always prevent it. Instead he finds himself in the middle of an army full of cowards, incompetents and a few outright evil men. They of course reap the fortunes of war, promotions and fame, but never Crouchback. His war is just an endless list of transfers and an hopeless but noble quest for righteousness.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 918
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 208 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, touching, semi autobiographical, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Sonny Boy (2011)
Plot Summary:
Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, meets the older Dutch woman Rika van der Lans and they fall in love. In pre-WWII Netherlands they could not be more different. The one black, the other white, 17 years between them and on top of that Rika already has four children with another man. They love each other, but then Rika appears to be pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, sentimental, captivating, emotional, costume drama, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Every Time We Say Goodbye (1986)
Plot Summary:
An American flyer who joined the RAF before his country was in the war is recovering from a leg injury in Jerusalem. Through an English friend he meets a quiet Jewish girl whose close-knit family originally came from Spain. The two are attracted to each other but she is convinced their diverse backgrounds mean it could never work.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Israel, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, entertaining, cult classic
Similar in 81%
In Tranzit (2008)
Plot Summary:
Nazi POWs suspected of heinous acts are locked up in a Soviet women's prison run by vengeful female guards. To weed out the guilty, the innocent must pay. Can supposed enemies turn into great loves? Based on a true post-World War II story, this drama stars Thomas Kretschmann, John Malkovich and Vera Farmiga in a bitter game of cat and mouse and a battle between hate and humanity, mercy and revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Russia
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, realistic, captivating, period piece, serious, emotional
Similar in 80%
Dresden (2006)
Plot Summary:
At a Dresden hospital in 1945, nurse Anna Mauth (Felicitas Woll) cares for badly injured British pilot Robert Newman (John Light), whom Anna believes to be a German deserter. As Allied forces close in, Anna grows close to Robert despite her engagement to Dr. Alexander Wenninger (Benjamin Sadler). The gripping historical romance won a 2006 German Television Award.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: tense, touching, serious, captivating, political thriller, period piece, realistic, tragic
Similar in 82%
A Village Affair (1995)
Plot Summary:
Based on the bestselling novel by Joanna Trollope Recently returned to England from New York City, vivacious heiress Clodagh Unwin befriends a couple new to her village. The husband is entranced by the young aristocrat, but Clodagh has eyes for someone else: his wife, Alice. Alice has a gilded life--beautiful children, a handsome husband, and a stately home. Secretly, she’s depressed after the birth of her third child and unhappy in her marriage. Clodagh proves irresistible. But when tongues start wagging, the women learn that love might not be enough.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 582
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, sincere, touching, melancholic, sensual, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 82%
Summerland (2020)
Plot Summary:
A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, sincere, melancholic, romantic, entertaining, period piece, costume drama, deep
Similar in 77%
Drifting Flowers (2008)
Plot Summary:
Three poetic tales of seeking the true identity. In the first story, Jing, a blind singer, falls in love with her band's tomboy accordionist Diego. In another time and place, Lily, an elderly lesbian and Yen, her gay friend, create an unexpected bond and support each other in a time of crisis. Finally, we see Diego before she joined the band, when as a teenager she came to grips with her gender identity.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Therese and Isabelle (1968)
Plot Summary:
Two young girls experience awakening sexuality in the heated atmosphere of a Swiss girls' boarding school.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 633
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands, France, West Germany, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sensual, black and white, erotic, sentimental, sincere, sexy, touching, serious, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Tipping the Velvet (2002)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1890s, Tipping the Velvet tells the lesbian love affair between male impersonator music hall star Kitty Butler and Nan Astley.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: costume drama, touching, sexy, serious, realistic, stylized, erotic, historical drama, romantic, emotional
Similar in 79%
Claire of the Moon (1992)
Plot Summary:
Claire of the Moon is set in the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest. Claire Jabrowski, a famous heterosexual author, decides to attend a retreat for all-female writers. Claire's rommate at the retreat is Dr. Noel Benedict, author of a book called The Naked Truth. The movie culminates in a sexual encounter between the two authors.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sexual, independent film, erotic, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
Anatomy of a Love Seen (2014)
Plot Summary:
From Writer/Director Marina Rice Bader (Executive Producer Elena Undone, A Perfect Ending) comes this film within a film that explores love in all its painful and messy glory. Six months ago Zoe and Mal fell for each other while filming a love scene, which led to an intense, whirlwind affair, followed by a devastating breakup. Soon after their split, things get complicated when the two have to meet on set once more to re-shoot that fateful sequence.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, captivating, erotic, sexy, independent film, deep, humorous, realistic, sincere
Similar in 78%
Elena Undone (2010)
Plot Summary:
The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, touching, sexual, sexy, erotic, romantic drama, steamy, independent film, serious
Similar in 79%
The World Unseen (2007)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on two women who engage in a dangerous relationship during South Africa's apartheid era.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Africa, UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, erotic, romantic, deep, historical drama, independent film, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 86%
A Perfect Ending (2012)
Plot Summary:
This intimate drama follows Rebecca, a woman who has kept her sexuality a secret from her friends but chooses to reveal it to a stranger. While Rebecca's revelations may not yield the results she expects, a perfect ending is still in reach.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, sexy, serious, realistic, sincere, erotic, deep, independent film, sexual, crying