Best movies like Those Wonderful Movie Cranks
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Plot Summary:
Returning home to Prague, the magician Pasparte, an owner of a circus caravan, meets his dying colleague who entrusts his beautiful daughter Aloisie to his care. In Prague they all take up their lodgings at the house At Blue Fish in which they intend to arrange the programs. The firm is owned by widow Evzenie with whom Pasparte shares flat and bed. Evzenie is jealous of Aloisie therefore Pasparte sends Aloisie as a housewife to the single man Jakub Kolenatý who earns his living by photographing and wants to record the revived pictures of Prague. Pasparte wants to found in Prague the first permanent Czech movie theatre in which there would be projected also the original Czech films.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surreal, metafiction
Best tv shows and movies like Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979):
Similar in 86%
The Beggar's Opera (1991)
Plot Summary:
Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned variations on it ever since. The most famous of these was A Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Some things these compositions share in common is their setting among the poor and criminal classes, and the roguish character Macheath. This production is based on an adaptation of Gay's original by Vaclav Havel the freedom-fighter, writer and philosopher who became the first (and only) president of the united post-communist country of Czechoslovakia, and it retains many traces of its theatrical origins. Film reviewers were not too tolerant of what they called "slavish adherence" to the noted Czech writer's stage production, but theater, philosophy and history buffs may feel otherwise.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Very Late Afternoon of a Faun (1983)
Plot Summary:
A bachelor named Faun with a Don Juan complex, seized with a hypochondriac's fear of the ineluctable approach of death, enters a race against time's passage. Faun's sexual love is imbued with the narcissistic vanity of a self-satisfied bacchant who even towards old age can't manage to forgo his lifelong pose as an irresistable seducer of women. He desperatly searches in superficial, fleeting sex.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 287
Genere: Comedy
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: black comedy
Similar in 89%
A Hoof Here, a Hoof There (1989)
Plot Summary:
Two friends have sex just for fun. One day they make a blood test, just for fun, and they discover that one of them has AIDS, not knowing who.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Capricious Summer (1968)
Plot Summary:
Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It just seems to be that sort of summer. Antonin runs the swimming bath with his portly wife Katherine... A man appears with his horse-drawn caravan. He lays a striped pole across the river and walks over. With a handstand and a magic trick, Ernie the Conjuror invites everyone to that evening's performance... Ernie is a tightrope walker of only modest skill, but with a slim and beautiful assistant, Anna. Antonin speaks to her. The two spend the night in the change room by the river, Antonin massaging her feet all night long. Katherine decides to move into the caravan with Ernie. But now the major and even the canon sense Anna's attractiveness.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: sentimental, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, metafiction
Similar in 85%
Honor and Glory (1969)
Plot Summary:
This historical film by Hynek Bočan touches upon the indecisiveness of the Czech nation, ready to bend the backbone in face of foreign rule. Situating the story at the close of the Thirty Year War enabled the depiction of the misery of the people that affects even an impoverished aristocratic milieu. Rudolf Hrušínský appears here in the role of an indecisive knight, persuaded for a long time and in vain to join the anti-Habsburg movement. The story does not only captivate through the depiction of manifold human characters, intrigues and sycophancy, but also through the circumstances ruling over the devastated farmstead, sunk in mud and crudeness. One of the best films with an updating tendency has come into being here, rightly being named along the such greats as Kladivo na čarodějnice (Witches' Hammer).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Barrier (1966)
Plot Summary:
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Traps (1998)
Plot Summary:
After two troubled but powerful men rape a young hitchhiker who happens to be a vet, she drugs them and remove their testicles.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 488
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, dark comedy
Similar in 88%
It's Better to Be Healthy and Wealthy than Poor and Sick (1992)
Plot Summary:
A satiric tragi-comedy about two women and their lover Robert who is an emigrant that keeps coming back. This film shows chaotic post-communist Europe after the fall of totalitarianism. Two opposite characters, women, meet during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. Intellectual dissident Nona and a Communist secret police boss’ mistress Ester. They meet at an anti-regime demonstration and become friends. They don’t want anything to do with politics, both want to get married and have kids, but also get rich. Crazy plans and risky attempts to realize their shared dreams land them in many sticky situations in the post-revolution chaos. Too much money gets in the way of the power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Cremator (1969)
Plot Summary:
Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead, and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, black comedy, gothic, scary, psychological, atmospheric, mind bending, disturbing, grindhouse
Similar in 79%
Everything for Sale (1969)
Plot Summary:
Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 82%
Larks on a String (1969)
Plot Summary:
Set in the late 1940s, the film concerns the treatment of suspect "bourgeois elements", a professor, a saxophonist, and a milkman, who are put to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, intellectual, black comedy, banned
Similar in 78%
Shortcuts (1981)
Plot Summary:
Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed reports by Maryska, who has organized a pig-killing feast and is ably assisting the butcher. When she invites the old curmudgeons on the board to enjoy the fresh pork, they are too happy to agree. Francin doesn't know whether he is going to get a permanent contract. To make things worse his brother Pepin - eccentric, noisy and garrulous - turns up on an indefinite visit.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022)
Plot Summary:
Silverio, a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: visual, mind bending, thought provoking, surreal, existential, metafiction, visually stunning, semi autobiographical, epic, political
Similar in 90%
Death of a President (1977)
Plot Summary:
After Poland won freedom from of its long overlordship by Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, it took a further four years for its National Assembly to elect Gabriel Narutowicz as its first president. Narutowicz was a professor who until his election had been living in Switzerland. Those were chaotic times, and shortly after his election, he was assassinated by right-wing fanatics. This epic Polish film chronicles the circumstances of Narutowicz's election and assassination.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Fever (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema (1990)
Plot Summary:
The film is set just before Poland's communist regime came to an end, and the central character is a provincial censor (Janusz Gajos), a tired, sloppy, lonely man, whose wife has long since left him. For him, censorship is both an art and a game, but he does not enjoy it. During a screening of a sentimental Polish melodrama called "Daybreak" at the Liberty cinema across the road from the censor's office, the actors start to rebel and refuse to speak their lines. There is anarchy and when the censor is unable to control the situation, senior party officials are called in. Eventually a film critic notes that the situation reminds of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" by Woody Allen and brings a reel of the film to demonstrate. The officials watch the film with amusement until another mix-up occurs: the second projector is turned on accidentally and superimposes "Daybreak" over "Purple Rose".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual
Similar in 84%
Secluded, Near Woods (1976)
Plot Summary:
The Lavicka's, a Czech family from the city, rents a house in the country with the option to buy. However, old Mr Komarek seems reluctant to sell the house as they agreed.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Pearls of the Deep (1965)
Plot Summary:
A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement’s directors. Based on stories by the legendary writer Bohumil Hrabal, the shorts range from the surreally chilling to the caustically observant to the casually romantic, but all have a cutting, wily view of the world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 776
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: anthology, avant garde, tragicomedy, fairy tale
Similar in 76%
Once Upon a Time, Cinema (1992)
Plot Summary:
This film was made in Iran. The protagonist looks almost like Charlie Chaplain. He is given a chance to make films for the emperor. There are many scenes of people running on and off of movie screens, and in and out of old kinetiscope projectors. Some people might find this erratic, and tedious, but it helps project an idea of fantasy, or forgetting about ones problems, becoming engrossed in a film.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, History
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, witty, cynical, clever, offbeat, biting, experimental, suspense
Similar in 76%
The Most Beautiful Age (1969)
Plot Summary:
An artist's studio is descended upon by a group of retired men and a young mother who agree to model in the nude for money. Comedy ensues as the students and the local bureaucracy react to the models, all in need of extra money. Several running gags border on slapstick as the officials and the students don't know what to do with the nude models.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
My Sweet Little Village (1985)
Plot Summary:
The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a mentally retarded young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík's inability to perform even the simplest tasks. Pávek demands that Otík be transferred to assist another driver, who happens to be a choleric and suspicious man named Turek (Turk in Czech). Rather than work with Turek, Otík decides to accept an offer of employment in Prague, but finds he does not fit in to the city life. After discovering that the transfer of Otík to Prague was a trick by a crooked politician to get a deal on Otík's large inherited house, Pávek agrees to give Otík a second chance and retrieves him from the city to resume their work together.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Bolivar Is Me (2002)
Plot Summary:
Santiago Miranda¸ an actor representing Bolivar in a television series¸ leaves furious recording because it disagrees with the scripts they oblige die Bolívar¸ against the wall. Between the lucidity and the madness¸ Miranda really acts as a Bolívar prepared to perform any act that allows to conclude the unifying of the Liberator task and as an actor which seeks to rewrite reality to make it look to the dreams of Simón Bolívar.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Colombia, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, semi serious, realistic, metafiction, soap opera, biting, parody, suspense
Similar in 82%
The Magnate (1987)
Plot Summary:
This Polish historical drama film traces the fascinating saga of a wealthy, princely Polish dynasty in years 1900-1935.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 155
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: family saga
Similar in 80%
A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966)
Plot Summary:
In Jan Němec’s surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up. This allegory about oppression and conformity was banned in its home country but became an international success after it premiered at the New York Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, cult classic, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, surreal, crying, allegory, weird
Similar in 76%
Judy Berlin (1999)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic comedy where a the relationship of a teacher and married principal goes much worse than that of their children.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, independent film, sentimental, thought provoking, touching, humorous, surreal, contemplative, semi serious, light
Similar in 84%
To Each His Own Cinema (2007)
Plot Summary:
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: anthology, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, contemplative, stylized, semi serious, art house, cult classic, experimental
Similar in 75%
Sweet Dreams (1981)
Plot Summary:
Michele Apicella is a young film and theater director, who lives his troubles as an artist. In Italy reach the Eighties, and Michele, who was contestant in the Sixties, now finds himself in a new era full of crisis of values and ignorance. So Michele, with his works, meants to represent the typical outcast and left indifferent intellectual outcast who establishes a breach between him and the world of ordinary people.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 81%
Of Freaks and Men (1998)
Plot Summary:
Dariya the maid getting a boy to touch her large breast is just one incident that occurs when Yohan and Victor infiltrate two families, forcing young Liza and blind Ekaterina to appear in porn, but they are not so innocent themselves.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Russia
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, disturbing, sexual, sexy, surreal, controversial, sex comedy, cult classic, heartfelt
Similar in 85%
Living in Oblivion (1995)
Plot Summary:
Nick is the director of a low-budget indie film. He tries to keep everything together as his production is plagued with an insecure actress, a megalomaniac star, a pretentious, beret-wearing director of photography and lousy catering. Divided in three acts, each representing a different scene to shoot, this film is an essential for amateur filmmakers.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surreal, independent film, humorous, funny, atmospheric, talky, light, art house, semi serious, cult classic
Similar in 84%
Babylon (2022)
Plot Summary:
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films and to sound films in the late 1920s.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 155000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: visual, costume drama, meta, family comedy, comedy drama, crying, postmodern, masterpiece, period drama