Movies like A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets
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A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets (2005)
272
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
In 1609, William Shakespeare published a collection of 154 sonnets, creating what is arguably the greatest lyric sequence in English literature - and at the center of this masterpiece lies a mystery that has endured for centuries. What are the identities of “the young man” and “the dark lady” to whom all but two of the sonnets allude? This moving performance brings to life the gritty reality of Shakespeare’s England, bits of the Bard’s plays and poems, and the consummate poet and dramatist himself as it exposes these personages unseen but so keenly felt in Shakespeare’s sonnets and in his life. Rupert Graves, Tom Sturridge, Indira Varma, Anna Chancellor, and Zoë Wanamaker star. Contains mature themes and explicit language. Some content may be objectionable. Produced by the Open University.
Style:
period piece, historical drama, psychological, thought provoking, enigmatic, captivating, disturbing, atmospheric, intense, art house ...
Plot:
shakespeare, poetry, tudors, poet, countess, writers, literary, puzzle, research, secret, theater, young man, biopic, obsession, sexual relations, creative process, jealousy, infidelity, melancholy, gender roles, male friendship, art, playwright, class conflict, prostitute ...
Time:
17th century, 1600s
Place:
london
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out psychological, captivating, period drama and art house films with plots about character study, shakespeare, literary, obsession, betrayal, tragedy and theater mostly in Drama, Biography and History genres. Some movies like A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets: Hamlet (2024), Nerolio (1996), Lawrence: After Arabia (2021), Red (2018), Cyrano de Bergerac (1985). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
248
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
A tale of revenge that has stood the test of time, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy is reimagined for the modern day as a gripping psychological thriller! Transcending the confines of the stage, the film utilises nearly every room of the Theatre ...
Style:
psychological thriller, suspenseful, psychological, thrilling, captivating ...
Plot:
revenge, shakespeare, tragedy, problem, life is a bitch, madness, theater, betrayal, character study, literary, family conflict, obsession ...
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
This film depicts three episodes in the life of the highly eccentric, unabashedly homosexual Italian filmmaker Per Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini was best known to Americans for his film The Gospel According to St. Matthew. However, in his native Italy, ...
Style:
art house, independent film, intense, psychological, controversial ...
Plot:
gay, lgbtq, character study, biopic, homosexuality, murder, tragedy, seduction, sexual tension, poetry, social commentary, sexploitation ...
Time:
70s, 60s
Place:
rome italy, sicily
Similarity:
84%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
This film is the story of the last years of the life of T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - a scholar, writer, soldier and reluctant hero. Retiring to his cottage in Dorset he hopes to escape his past but is pulled into political intrigue. While ...
Style:
historical drama, captivating, thrilling, disturbing, period piece ...
Plot:
heroes, world war one, character study, biopic, political intrigue, troubled past, confronting the past, family drama, hidden identity, war, post war, social differences ...
Place:
middle east, britain
Similarity:
82%
207
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant, the artist Mark Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive series of paintings for the Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons restaurant in architect Mies van der Rohe’s iconic ...
Style:
captivating, psychological, disturbing, thought provoking, tense ...
Plot:
art, artist, character study, art teacher, painting, artists' life, social problems, drawing, painter, struggling artist, biopic, obsession ...
Time:
60s
Place:
new york
Similarity:
73%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 176 min.
Story:
As incomparable in swordplay and wordplay as he is, the gallant soldier, philosopher, and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is as timid as a schoolboy before the fair Roxanne. Derek Jacobi delivers an electrifying award-winning portrayal of Rostand's ...
Style:
romantic drama, period piece, melancholic, art house, period drama ...
Plot:
love triangle, self sacrifice, wooing, unrequited love, literary, physical appearance, swordplay, pun, poetry, insecurity, chivalry, honor ...
Time:
19th century
Similarity:
64%
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the ...
Style:
semi autobiographical, psychological, thrilling, captivating, melancholic ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
family relations, male female relationship, writers, female protagonist, alcoholism, marital strife, character study, man-woman relation, family problems, social problems, family life, dysfunctional family ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
japan, tokyo
Similarity:
63%
211
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 75 min.
Story:
'Duffer' (1971) is a rarely seen cult British movie that has languished in the vaults of the British Film Institute for the best part of forty years until they decided to release it on DVD/BluRay for the first time last month. It's a ...
Style:
surreal, psychological, atmospheric, tension, disturbing ...
Plot:
gay interest, abuse, obsession, adolescence, manipulation, sadism, male nudity, taboo, sexual awakening, sex worker, identity crisis, macabre ...
Time:
70s
Place:
london
Similarity:
62%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA, Germany
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Humble Maria, who outfits top London theater star Ned Kynaston, takes none of the credit for the male actor's success at playing women. And because this is the 17th century, Maria, like other females, is prohibited from pursuing her dream of ...
Style:
period piece, costume drama, stylized, sexual, humorous ...
Audience:
chick flick, girls' night, date night, teens
Plot:
gender bending, gender, mistaken identity, cross dressing, actor, mistress, actor's life, overnight success, lifestyle, monarch, life is a bitch, human nature ...
Time:
17th century, year 2004, victorian era, 18th century, 19th century
Place:
london, england, europe, egypt
Similarity:
62%
Movie in collections
443
Genre: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 62 min.
Story:
A Hungarian TV version of the play shot in just two takes.
Style:
art house, psychological, bleak, intense, experimental ...
Plot:
shakespeare, theater, tragedy, adaptation, minimalism, literary, power, guilt, ambition, madness, intimate, fate ...
Similarity:
58%
269
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
The sexual rivalries over a new, potentially great rock'n'roll singer between a nightclub owner and a local gangster cause unrest and eventually lead to murder.
Style:
dark, intense, atmospheric, noir, period piece ...
Plot:
singer, nightclub, gangster, nightlife, power struggle, showbiz, jealousy, murder, music industry, character study, manipulation, tragedy ...
Time:
1950s, 50s
Place:
london, east end london
Similarity:
58%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 217 min.
Story:
Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock, Doctor Strange) plays the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Now seen by over 900,000 people worldwide, the original broadcast returns to international cinemas to mark National Theatre Live’s 10th ...
Style:
entertaining, atmospheric, melancholic, intense, talky ...
Plot:
live performance, theater, shakespeare, royal court, theatre play, life & death, dealing with death, royal family, storytelling, love and romance, runaway, couples ...
Time:
middle ages
Place:
denmark, europe
Similarity:
58%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 210 min.
Story:
A 2010 broadcast of Hamlet returns to cinemas as part of the NT's 50th anniversary celebrations. Following his celebrated performances at the National Theatre in Burnt by the Sun, The Revenger's Tragedy, Philistines and The Man of Mode, ...
Style:
psychological, thrilling, captivating, dramatic, intense ...
Plot:
shakespeare, revenge, moral dilemma, prince, intrigue, stage play, shakespeare's hamlet, tragedy, hamlet, palace intrigue, murder, political intrigue ...
Place:
denmark, london
Similarity:
57%
Genre: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
On the eve of the Second World War, two of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud converge for their own personal battle over the existence of God. The film interweaves the lives of Freud and Lewis, past, present, ...
Style:
philosophical, thought provoking, psychological, captivating, thrilling ...
Plot:
belief in god, philosophy, existentialism, psychology, psychoanalysis, social problems, social issues, religion, intimate, doubt, character study, slow burn ...
Time:
1930s, 1940s
Place:
vienna, london
Similarity:
57%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 160 min.
Story:
Christopher, fifteen years old, has an extraordinary brain – exceptional at maths while ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion of killing Mrs Shears' dog Wellington, he records each fact about the event in the ...
Style:
psychological, captivating, disturbing, suspense, thought provoking ...
Plot:
investigation, theater, genius, mind, murder suspect, murder investigation, socially awkward, social issues, crime solving, suspect, social problems, problem ...
Place:
london
Similarity:
55%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 190 min.
Story:
Richard Armitage stars in Yael Farber's powerful production of Arthur Miller's timeless witch hunt parable.
Style:
period piece, historical drama, tense, grim, bleak ...
Plot:
witch hunt, salem witch trial, false accusation, jealousy, betrayal, social injustice, literary, revenge, small town, moral ambiguity, haunting, repressed sexuality ...
Time:
17th century
Place:
salem massachusetts
Similarity:
54%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 145 min.
Story:
On a distant island a man waits. Robbed of his position, power and wealth, his enemies have left him in isolation. But this is no ordinary man, and this no ordinary island. Prospero is a magician, able to control the very elements and bend nature to ...
Style:
captivating, psychological, thrilling, dramatic, reflective ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
magic, island, shipwreck, storm, revenge, remote island, shakespeare, theater, supernatural, supernatural power, literary, wizard ...
Similarity:
51%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 130 min.
Story:
The film starts with the veteran thespian Harish Mishra, he is gravely ill. The punishments of a film shoot have left the old man in a coma. His co-star, Shabnam, is wracked with worry, but their director, Siddharth, keeps strangely distant and ...
Style:
psychological, disturbing, captivating, bleak, poignant ...
Plot:
movie business, movie star, actor, character study, actor's life, relationship problems, husband wife relationship, society, spectacle, movie actor, filmmaking, relationships ...
Similarity:
49%
159
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
Mitsuko, a thirty-something Japanese secretary, lives a very simple life devoid of ambition. She has an affair with Eiji, a rich, arrogant and newly divorced businessman who is intrigued by her retiring personnality but she quickly breaks up as he ...
Style:
romantic, captivating, art house, psychological
Plot:
love triangle, relationships, romantic triangle, in love, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, romantic rivalry, romantic relationship, fall in love, male female relationship, rich and poor, love story, couple relations ...
Place:
japan
Similarity:
49%
Movie in collections
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
A look at the final days in the life of playwright William Shakespeare.
Style:
frightening, captivating, psychological, tense, touching ...
Audience:
date night, adult
Plot:
playwright, british history, shakespeare, historical figure, death of son, father daughter relationship, family secret, retirement, church, writers, biopic, society ...
Time:
ancient times, 17th century, medieval times
Place:
united kingdom
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min.
Story:
A monarch ordained by God to lead his people. But he is also a man of very human weakness. A man whose vanity threatens to divide the great houses of England and drag his people into a dynastic civil war that will last 100 years.
Style:
period piece, historical drama, disturbing, captivating, costume drama ...
Audience:
date night, adult
Plot:
monarchy, political intrigue, civil war, shakespeare, palace intrigue, monarch, medieval, power struggle, king, royalty, ruler, arrogance ...
Time:
14th century
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 140 min.
Story:
Performing from within the walls of a deconsecrated Manchester church, Kenneth Branagh takes the lead role in this ambitious production of William Shakespeare's tragic tale of ambition and treachery.
Style:
suspense, psychological, captivating, atmospheric, tense ...
Plot:
king, shakespeare, tragic hero, revenge, rise to power, assassination, femme fatale, medieval, ambition, prophecy, state affairs, throne ...
Time:
middle ages
Place:
scotland, united kingdom
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min.
Story:
A jealous king jeopardizes his family, friendships and succession.
Style:
psychological, thrilling, captivating, dramatic, bleak ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
shakespeare, royal court, palace intrigue, jealousy, problem, male female relationship, relationships, royal family, intrigue, king, husband wife relationship, life is a bitch ...
Place:
sicily
Similarity:
46%
417
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 148 min.
Story:
Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop there, and things supernatural combine to bring the Macbeths down.
Style:
dark, intense, psychological, bleak, atmospheric ...
Plot:
shakespeare, ambition, witch, medieval, murder, blood, guilt, power struggle, tragedy, regicide, prophecy, betrayal ...
Time:
medieval times, 11th century
Similarity:
46%
Movie in collections
252
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
A story about real life early 20th century British composer and music critic Philip Arnold Heseltine.
Style:
period piece, historical drama, reflective, melancholic, intellectual ...
Plot:
classical music, biopic, introspection, creative process, piano, isolation, legacy, composer, musician, obsession, mental health, male pubic hair ...
Time:
edwardian era
Place:
london
Similarity:
45%
185
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
A couple's bizarre romantic relationship is disrupted by the intrusion of a third person.
Style:
independent film, art house, psychological, erotic, erotic drama ...
Plot:
role playing, love triangle, identity, sexual tension, character study, obsession, voyeurism, intimacy, sexual exploration, domestic drama, jealousy, transformation ...
Time:
60s
Place:
london
Similarity:
45%
Genre: Drama
Country: Israel, West Germany
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
Yasha is a Jewish stage magician who tours through eastern Europe while destroying his career through personal problems. He has one more chance at theatrical success, but he needs to do a brand new trick in a Warsaw theater.
Style:
atmospheric, art house, independent film, period drama, moody
Plot:
magician, jewish culture, stage magic, european, theater, character study, ambition, obsession, moral ambiguity, midlife crisis, existential crisis, melancholy ...
Time:
year 1979, 1800s, 19th century
Place:
poland, warsaw poland, eastern europe
Similarity:
45%
127
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
VICTOIRE traces the story of Victoire Du Sault, founder of the shoemaking industry at the origin of the Dufresne fortune, better known for the castle that bears their name in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. Although the entrepreneurial spirit and ...
Style:
historical drama, thrilling, psychological, captivating, period piece ...
Plot:
family secret, love, secret, female protagonist, forbidden love, romantic triangle, relationship problems, love interest, love triangle, love affair, problem, love and romance ...
Place:
quebec
Similarity:
44%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
Story:
Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen is a 2009 television drama. It deals with Dr James Niven's attempts to deal with the 1918 flu pandemic in Manchester. Its screenplay was written by Peter Harness and it starred Bill Paterson as Niven, along ...
Style:
medical drama, historical drama, suspense, disturbing, captivating ...
Plot:
epidemic, illness, public health, deadly virus, historical event, virus, society, humanity in peril, against humanity, fate of humanity, mortality, biopic ...
Time:
post world war one
Place:
manchester
Similarity:
44%
2K
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico, USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
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Style:
captivating, realistic, serious, independent film
Plot:
beat generation, love triangle, infidelity, writers, lifestyle, writer's life, celebrity culture, drug abuse, addiction, adultery, rebellion, rebel ...
Time:
1940s, 1950s, 50s
Place:
new york, mexico, usa, latin america, mexico city
Similarity:
44%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
Tells the story of a woman who gets involved in politics with no previous contact with world events.
Style:
captivating, psychological, thought provoking, atmospheric, political ...
Plot:
riddles and clues, society, women, hardcore, propaganda, communism, morality, politician, politics, introspection, social differences, state affairs ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
42%
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