Best movies like Therese
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Therese? Leverage your insights to navigate others toward movies and tv shows you've viewed previously that they might like too. Help broaden the cohort of people suggesting videos to each other. We appreciate your engagement!
Plot Summary:
Thérèse is living in a provincial town, unhappily married to Bernard, a dull, pompous man whose only interest is preserving his family name and property. They live in an isolated country mansion surrounded by servants. Early in her marriage her only comforts are her fondness for Bernard's pine-tree forest, which was her primary reason for marrying him, and her love for her sister-in-law and Bernard's half-sister, Anne. The movie recounts in flashback the circumstances that led to her being charged with poisoning her husband.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: neo noir, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Therese (1962):
Similar in 79%
Desperate Characters (1971)
Plot Summary:
With wit and real wisdom, Desperate Characters brilliantly examines the life of two disillusioned New Yorkers as they struggle to come to grips with the "normal" life with which they can no longer cope. Featuring powerful performances by MacLaine, Kenneth Mars (The Producers) as her disenchanted husband, and a young Carol Kane (The Princess Bride).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Cat (1971)
Plot Summary:
Courbevoie (France), 1971. Julien Bouin, a former typographist, and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, soon to be demolished. His cat Greffier being the only one he still gives affection to, he becomes the object of Clemence's anger.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Therese (2012)
Plot Summary:
The unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures and her boring suburban setting.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sad, melancholic, period piece, costume drama, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Bonsai (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young writer recounts an earlier romance in hopes of attracting his new love interest.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 884
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, Argentina, Portugal, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Marius (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Marius" takes place in Marseilles' Old Port, at the La Marine Bar, owned by César and his son Marius. Marius' biggest dream is to embark on one of the boats passing by his dad's bar and to set off to a faraway land. Fanny, a young and pretty seafood peddler, has secretly been in love with Marius since her childhood; Marius, never admitting it, has always loved Fanny. One day, a sailor drops by La Marine and offers him a job on an exploratory ship. Trying to hold him off and to make him jealous, Fanny confesses his love to him and provokes a fight between Marius and one of César's old friends, Panisse, a boat merchant, who despite his old age, has been courting Fanny for a while. Torn between the call of the sea and his love for her, Marius abandons his dream to be with Fanny who gives herself to him. As César and Honorine, Fanny's mother, are getting ready for the wedding, Marius changes his mind, drawn back to the call of the sea.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, realistic, captivating, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Letter (1999)
Plot Summary:
A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 730
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal, Spain
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 84%
You Can't Write a Letter (2013)
Plot Summary:
Julien and Nina sign a pact with the universe: they must enjoy life, whatever the cost. Will that decision lead them to happiness, or to their disappearance?.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, offbeat
Similar in 89%
An Open Heart (2012)
Plot Summary:
Mila and Javier, both renowned surgeons and both passionate about their work, have been madly in love for the past 10 years. They have always taken great care to preserve their extraordinary love for each other and refuse to succumb to the routine of everyday living. But Mila’s unexpected pregnancy, combined with increasing pressure from work at the hospital, drives Javier to drink more heavily and he ends up being suspended. Faced with his demons, Javier drifts further and further away from Mila. Yet, when their relationship is under serious threat, Javier is ready to do whatever it takes to win Mila back.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 740
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Argentina
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, emotional, captivating, gloomy, entertaining
Similar in 80%
Fanny (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Fanny" is the second part of the "Marseille trilogy", made by Marcel Pagnol with the generic name of "Marius, Fanny and César". Fanny falls in love and is abandoned by Marius. Now she discovers she is pregnant. Her mother and Marius's father, César, persuade her to accept the romantic advances of a much older man. To save face, Fanny accepts to marry Honoré Panisse, a rich merchant of the Vieux Port, 30 years her senior who will recognize her son.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 88%
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 76%
Hip Moves (2012)
Plot Summary:
Hervé is a lonely man who lives only for his self-defense courses. Fired from the zoo where he works because he depresses the animals, he becomes a night watchman in a factory. To pass the time, he watches the comings and goings of a strange pair of lovers: his colleague and his wife who sells her body with her husband's blessing.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, offbeat, sexual, sexy
Similar in 81%
All Is Forgiven (2007)
Plot Summary:
Victor lives in Vienna with Annette, his beautiful Austrian wife and their daughter Pamela. It’s spring. Fleeing his work, Victor spends his days outside: he plays with Pamela, pays a visit to Annette’s parents, loiters in the park with the drug dealers. Very much in love, Annette is confident that he’ll get a hold of himself as soon as they return to Paris. But back in France, Victor relapses into his bad habits. After a violent dispute, Victor moves into the room of a junkie he has fallen in love with. Annette leaves Victor and disappears with Pamela. 11 years later: Pamela is 17. She lives in Paris with her mother. One day, she learns that her father lives in the same city. She decides to see him again. –Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Domestic Life (2013)
Plot Summary:
Juliette was simply not sure about coming to live in this residential suburb of the greater Paris metropolitan area. All the women here are in their forties, have children to raise, houses to keep and husbands who return home late at night.Today she has an appointment in Paris that is important for her career, but she also has to run errands and pick up the kids from school. During the course of her day, monopolized by petty, everyday tasks, Juliette can feel the noose of domestic obligations and household chores slowly tightening around her neck.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, suspenseful, psychological, captivating, contemplative, biting
Similar in 86%
Betty (1992)
Plot Summary:
When Betty is caught en flagrante, her bourgeois in-laws and husband force a divorce settlement upon her and bar her from seeing her two daughters. She is rescued from an alcoholic stupor by Laure, a middle-aged woman who takes Betty to her hotel lodgings, extends friendship and care, and listens to her story. Laure's lover, Mario, the proprietor of the bar where Betty and Laure met, is first a friend, then Betty's next conquest.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 90%
We Won't Grow Old Together (1972)
Plot Summary:
Jean has been married to Francoise for years, but his relationship with his wife has been all but over for a long time. She's hardly ever around, always traveling to Russia for work, and she drifts in and out of the film as well, reflecting the ephemeral nature of their marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 82%
Bad Girl (2012)
Plot Summary:
Louise simultaneously discovers that she is pregnant and that her mother is seriously ill. Happiness and guilt, euphoria and sadness, filial love and love, period. She'll need a good nine months to cope with all this.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, captivating, sexy, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Mouth Agape (1974)
Plot Summary:
The portrait of a woman going through a terminal illness and the tumorous lives of her husband and son.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
Those Who Remain (2007)
Plot Summary:
Bertrand (Vincent Lindon) dutifully visits his terminally ill wife every day, braving the long train and bus ride to and from the hospital. Lorraine (Emmanuelle Devos) not so willingly visits her boyfriend who was diagnosed with colon cancer. They bump into each other during one of their visits and begin to meet for coffee. Coffee turns into Lorraine offering to drive Bertrand to the train station and the two turn to each other in their time of grief and confusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 623
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Jewel (2001)
Plot Summary:
In the 1940s a 40-year-old woman with five healthy children gives birth to a girl with Down's syndrome.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
Blame It on Mum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mady Celliers, an attractive housewife of 60, he spends his life speaking ill of her two daughters and her husband, a man who shows a strange behavior since has retired. Antoine, the eldest son, company director, is unable to make a success of a business: out of a bankruptcy to get into another, her sister Alice madonnas obsessively paints sad. Annabelle, a nurse in an intensive care unit, tries desperately to save his family pronosticándole the future. When Alice meets by chance Jacques, a lonely police pessimistic explode all family neurosis.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 84%
The Happy Ending (1969)
Plot Summary:
The triumphs and failures of middle age as seen through the eyes of runaway American housewife Mary Wilson (Jean Simmons), a woman who believes that ultimate reality exists above and beyond the routine procedures of conscious, uninspired, everyday life. She feels cheated by an older generation that taught her to settle for nothing less than storybook finales, people who are disillusioned and restless and don't know why, people for whom life holds no easy answers. Great supporting cast includes John Forsythe, Teresa Wright, Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Jones, Bobby Darin, Tina Louise, Dick Shawn, and Nanette Fabray.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, serious, touching, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Plot Summary:
Under the influence of signs and premonitions, a man allows himself to veer in and out of a love affair with his colleague.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, psychological, talky, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
The Fire Within (1963)
Plot Summary:
Alain Leroy is a recovering alcoholic who decides to end his life, but first decides to visit his friends in Paris one last time, in an attempt at finding a reason to continue living.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: philosophical, depressing, art house, independent film, existential, bleak, touching, sad, anthology, powerful
Similar in 88%
A Quiet Little Marriage (2008)
Plot Summary:
A Quiet Little Marriage is the love story of Dax and Olive, who manage to find harmony even as they juggle family, romance and intimacy, but that all changes the night she asks him for a baby. Writer/director Mo Perkins’ intense and profound, raw feature debut is laced with sly humor, exquisitely rendered characters, and a pitch-perfect emotional honesty.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, captivating, sincere, serious, talky, independent film
Similar in 86%
Little Jerusalem (2005)
Plot Summary:
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 88%
Belleville-Tokyo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Un couple se dirige vers un train en partance pour Venise. Sur le quai, Julien annonce à Marie qu’il part en rejoindre une autre et s’en va, la laissant seule à Paris, enceinte. Bouleversée, Marie se refuse à être victime de cette situation. Elle trouve du réconfort dans son travail auprès de ses deux « cow-boys » de patrons, Jean-Jacques et Jean-Loup, qui dirigent un cinéma du quartier latin spécialisé dans les films classiques américains….
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 80%
One Day You'll Understand (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man endeavors to collect memories of his grandparents who died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany, Israel
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
And Then There Was One (1994)
Plot Summary:
And Then There Was One - The tragic and true story of a family dealing with AIDS is re-told in this heart-wrenching drama. Amy Madigan and Dennis Boutsikaris star as Roxy and Vinnie Ventola, a successful television writing couple. After struggling and finally conceiving a child, the couple learns that their newborn has AIDS. Soon afterward, the two parents are also diagnosed with the fatal virus.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 262
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
All Around Us (2008)
Plot Summary:
Kanao, a courtroom portrait artist, observes crimes, scandals and the decline of Japanese values without passing judgement. As he and his wife endure the tragedy of their first child’s death, hope slowly unfolds and their love story flickers to life once again.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 890
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, psychological, serious, gloomy
Similar in 88%
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the young man Peter, who grew up during the economic miracle, bereft of parental care and love. Learning early on that interpersonal relationships are based on the principles of exchange or purchase, he abides by these rules and gives generous presents to his family and his wife Erika. But when he is unable to keep up this life-style, his story takes a horrendous turn.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy