Movies like The Death of Empedocles
If you like "The Death of Empedocles" you are looking for philosophical, art house and intellectual movies about / with literary, symbolism, mythology, minimalism, isolation, ritual and sacrifice themes of Drama genre shot in West Germany or France.
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The Death of Empedocles (1987)
267
Original name: Der Tod des Empedokles
Genre: Drama
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 132 min.
Story:
Film adaptation by Straub and Huillot of Hölderlin's 1798 tragedy on the symbolic death of Empedoclus, the legislator in Ancient Greece.
Style:
philosophical, art house, intellectual, bleak, experimental, meditative, art film, existential, slow cinema, poetic ...
Plot:
literary, symbolism, mythology, minimalism, isolation, ritual, sacrifice, voice over narration, time machine, prophecy, death, utopia, communism, filmed play, female director
Place:
ancient greece
Most similar movies to The Death of Empedocles
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out art house, experimental, meditative and existential films with plots about minimalism, symbolism, ritual, isolation, memory, intimate and alienation mostly in Drama and Musical genres. Some movies like The Death of Empedocles: Class Relations (1984), The Grave Digger (2010), Prometheus Bound (2021), The Corridor (1995), Wheel of Ashes (1968). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, West Germany, UK, France
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
'Dalla nube alla resistenza (From the Cloud to the Resistance ) (1978), based on two works by Cesare Pavese, falls into the category of History Lessons and Too Early, Too Late as well. It, too, has two parts—a twentieth-century text and a ...
Style:
experimental, intellectual, art house, reflective, poetic ...
Plot:
mythology, post war, literary, loss, adaptation, memory, anti fascist, minimalism, alienation, symbolism, mourning, village life ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
ancient greece, italy
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 126 min.
Story:
A young man (Christian Heinisch), recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.
Style:
contemplative, political, black and white, black comedy, masterpiece
Plot:
alienation, ship, young man, communism, woman, family relations, train, labor, class struggle, domination, young woman, 16 year old ...
Time:
year 1984
Place:
usa, new york
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Ever since I started making films it has bothered me in a certain sense that film images are far too concrete, because technically they try to imitate the sense of space characteristic of everyday life. So the story ignites the imagination only to ...
Style:
experimental, existential, philosophical, slow cinema, avant garde ...
Plot:
death, plague, cemetery, mourning, symbolism, isolation, alienation, minimalism, haunting, adaptation, literary, obsession ...
Similarity:
63%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 61 min.
Story:
The Titan Prometheus is punished by Zeus for attempting to steal fire for humankind.
Style:
intense, philosophical, art house, experimental, intellectual ...
Plot:
greek mythology, mythology, sacrifice, rebellion, ethical dilemma, ritual, authoritarianism, confined space, power struggle, tyranny, punishment, spectacle ...
Place:
ancient greece
Similarity:
56%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany, Lithuania, France, Netherlands
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
The atmosphere of a corridor between yesterday and tomorrow, where many doors open into the unknown ... A series of faces, gestures and images both real and imagined time. (A fragmentary narrative without dialogue and depicts several people in ...
Style:
poetic, avant garde, slow cinema, atmospheric, art film ...
Plot:
post soviet, children, symbolism, national identity, dance, minimalism, haunting, ritual, alienation, underground, poetry, folklore ...
Place:
lithuania
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
After being heralded by Jean-Luc Godard as the great hope of the New American Cinema, Peter Emanuel Goldman relocated to Paris just in time for 1968. Social dissolution permeates WHEEL OF ASHES, a stripped-down account of a young man's ...
Style:
existential, avant garde, art film, philosophical, art house ...
Plot:
existential crisis, alienation, introspection, religion, hallucination, surrealism, symbolism, isolation, a vision, psychological torment, male protagonist, urban ...
Time:
60s
Place:
paris france
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland
Duration: 70 min.
Story:
Jean-Marie Straub pushes this musicality of blocks to a paroxysmal extreme, mixing blocks of time (40 years separate the various extracts that are going to be used, and what is to be filmed), blocks of text (Malraux, Fortini, Vittorini, Hölderlin) ...
Style:
experimental, political, realistic, serious, atmospheric ...
Plot:
communism, working class, state affairs, politics, social differences, society, class struggle, utopia, communist, resistance, revolution, adaptation ...
Time:
20th century
Place:
egypt, italy, switzerland, tuscany
Similarity:
45%

Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
Four mythical stories in a contemporary way.
Style:
anthology, surreal, allegory, independent film, art house ...
Plot:
mythology, folklore, legend, symbolism, ritual, transformation, magic realism, identity, urban, woman, cult
Similarity:
43%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, Musical
Country: West Germany
Duration: 82 min.
Story:
Sebastian, Chief Archer in the Roman Army, converts to Christianity. A favorite of Emperor Augustus, Sebastian's devotion to Christ eventually drives him to reject the Emperor's love, causing the Emperor to angrily order Sebastian to be ...
Style:
art house, historical drama, experimental, allegory, poetic ...
Plot:
martyrdom, sacrifice, christianity, religious, homoeroticism, roman empire, ancient rome, persecution, symbolism, christian, ritual, forbidden love ...
Similarity:
43%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
An eternal landscape from the Yesilcam.
Style:
atmospheric, contemplative, heavy, meditative, art house ...
Plot:
memory, isolation, loneliness, reflection, symbolism, character study, minimalism, women's issues, absurdism, landscape
Similarity:
42%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Video registration of Carmelo Bene's play 'Lorenzaccio, al di là di de Musset e Benedetto Varchi', performed in Florence in 1986.
Style:
avant garde, poetic, intellectual, dramatic, intense ...
Plot:
theater, performance art, adaptation, literary, monologue, corruption, political intrigue, power, identity, betrayal, revenge, historical figure ...
Place:
florence
Similarity:
42%
Genre: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 78 min.
Story:
Happy Days is an adaptation of Samuel Beckett's challenging absurdist drama, a play most would deem unfilmable. Faithfully adhering to Beckett's minimalist original, a black parody of love, marriage, and our search for meaning in an ...
Style:
art house, philosophical, surreal, psychological, bleak ...
Plot:
absurdism, existentialism, isolation, alienation, monologue, rehearsal, entrapment, minimalism, ritual, dark humor, desperation, retiring ...
Place:
ireland
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, UK, Germany, Finland, China, USA, Japan, Canada
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
Ten Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films entitled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. ...
Style:
anthology, captivating, contemplative, experimental, art house ...
Plot:
multiple storylines, life, life & death, fate, memory, symbolism, mortality, experimental narrative, college, forest, minimalism, ritual ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
A cinematographic essay, without dialogues, about the months Nietszche spent in Turin, Italy, with narration quoted by his original writings.
Style:
philosophical, experimental, existential, art house, silent ...
Plot:
philosophy, philosopher, symbolism, solitude, reflection, literary, european, memory, nihilism, research, voice over narration, urban decay ...
Time:
19th century, turn of the century
Place:
italy, turin italy
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by ...
Style:
avant garde, independent film, experimental, surreal, poetic ...
Plot:
bisexuality, underground, muse, surrealism, sexuality, odyssey, counterculture, brooklyn bridge, journey, mature, ritual, adaptation ...
Time:
60s
Place:
ancient greece
Similarity:
38%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Little Fish Eat Big Fish is a Kolkata based group of no-budget film makers. The latest venture of the group is the 5 no-budget short films produced in 2009-10. They opted for a direct to DVD release in the last Kolkata Book Fair. Details for the ...
Style:
independent film, experimental, anthology, art house, psychological ...
Plot:
underground, minimalism, adaptation, experimental narrative, paranoia, social commentary, absurdism, urban, ideology, literary, improv, intimate ...
Place:
kolkata
Similarity:
36%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Sweden
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
This enigmatic, mysterious minimalist feature, a collaboration between CalArts graduate C.W. Winter and photographer Anders Edström, combines elements of narrative fiction, documentary, and even installation art in depicting the daily routine of ...
Style:
art film, contemplative, experimental, slow cinema, art house ...
Plot:
isolation, island, solitude, minimalism, forest, silence, character study, female protagonist, portrait, wind, ritual, weather ...
Similarity:
36%
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
A collection of 24 short four-and-a-half minutes films inspired by still images, including paintings and photographs. An experimental project made by filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in the last three years of his life.
Style:
experimental, anthology, slow cinema, poetic, philosophical ...
Plot:
painting, minimalism, reflection, photography, meditation, filmmaker, director, photographer, meaning of life, film industry, memory, life & death ...
Time:
year 2017
Place:
middle east, iran
Similarity:
35%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min.
Story:
This film consists of 75 minutes and 6 seconds of blue screen.
Style:
avant garde, experimental, captivating, disturbing, psychological ...
Plot:
abstract art, surrealism, minimalism, entrapment, absurdism, weirdo, eccentric, hypnotic, cult
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
An intimate portrait of a woman's mental confrontation and drifting between dream and reality after experiencing loss.
Style:
psychological, melancholic, contemplative, emotional, art house ...
Plot:
mental health, grief, character study, intimate, female protagonist, loss, loneliness, memory, isolation, confrontation, identity, minimalism ...
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Germany
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
In August 1961, speleologists from Italy’s booming North arrive on a Calabrian plateau where time stands still. The intruders discover one of the world’s deepest caves, the Bifurto Abyss, under the gaze of an old shepherd, the only witness of ...
Style:
slow cinema, disturbing, captivating, tense, art house ...
Plot:
cave, underground, search party, escapades, explorer, research, silence, minimalism, isolation, outsider, nostalgia, european ...
Time:
60s, year 1961
Place:
southern italy
Similarity:
33%
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:
33%
164

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
Praxis peels away the layers of narrative even as Brian, the film's axis, struggles to create his true self. Brian, a writer on the verge of a breakdown, is aided by Joe and an Elusive Woman as he sifts through the fragments of his persona to ...
Style:
psychological, existential, philosophical, art film, surreal ...
Plot:
male pubic hair, male nudity, gay interest, gay, lgbt, lgbtq, self discovery, identity, identity crisis, mental breakdown, character study, alienation ...
Similarity:
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 70 min.
Story:
A contemporary evocation of Judas Iscariot trying to escape from his own guilt after betraying his best friend. He wanders into a forest and lost in himself, meets a mysterious young man. The young companion will accompany him on this path of ...
Style:
religious drama, meditative, reflective, psychological, avant garde ...
Plot:
gay, remorse, redemption, guilt, religion, spiritual journey, forest, penance, forgiveness, ethical dilemma, character study, confession ...
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Portrays the universe of an eternal being that exists within a lifecycle filled with disappointments and hopelessness. It's the chronicle about the search for love and the fight against oblivion.
Style:
existential, reflective, melancholic, emotional, dramatic ...
Plot:
loneliness, character study, loss, hopelessness, memory, frustration, identity crisis, alienation, intimate, lgbt, gay, redemption ...
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Divergent factions within the Catholic Church are plagued by internal ideological quarrels.
Style:
philosophical, art house, intellectual, avant garde, existential ...
Plot:
catholic church, religious conflict, clergy, moral ambiguity, moral dilemma, bureaucracy, symbolism, ambiguity, satire, absurdism, art, catholic priest ...
Similarity:
30%
128
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Their men went to the North in search of their destiny, while they stayed.
Style:
sincere, serious, touching, realistic, psychological thriller ...
Plot:
immigrant, social relations, bittersweet, gender, village life, family problems, strong female presence, family in crisis, homecoming, society, isolation, intimate ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, 21st century
Place:
mexico, latin america
Similarity:
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.
Style:
reflective, existential, melancholic, bleak, philosophical ...
Plot:
suicide, memory, existential crisis, symbolism, loss, midlife crisis, self discovery, guilt, flashback, mature, regret, isolation ...
Place:
poland
Similarity:
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: San Marino
Duration: 46 min.
Story:
Vague moving shapes framing the black screen could be anything, but what they depict is nothing.
Style:
experimental, art house, avant garde, contemplative, meditative ...
Plot:
minimalism, silence, experimental narrative, surrealism, dream, nihilism, perception, debut, video art, no dialogue
Similarity:
28%
Genre: Drama
Country: Thailand, France, China
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
Near a coastal village of Thailand, a local fisherman rescues a stranger, who does not speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. When the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his ...
Style:
art house, slow cinema, atmospheric, independent film, existential ...
Plot:
sea, identity, loss, migration, moral ambiguity, impersonation, village life, haunting, isolation, friendship, grief, minimalism ...
Place:
thailand, poetic realism
Similarity:
28%
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