Movies like Balzac: A Passionate Life

If you like "Balzac: A Passionate Life" you are looking for clever, serious and realistic movies about / with writers, art, poet, literary, age-gap relationship, family relations and love triangle themes of Biography, Drama and Romance genre shot in France or Italy.
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Balzac: A Passionate Life (1999)
 6.7
 653
Balzac: A Passionate Life (1999)
Original name: Balzac
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 240 min.
Story: He burned with ambition. He lusted for life. He lived for passion. This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac (Gérard Depardieu), a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that he shaped into one spectacular and unforgettable blaze of passion. At the heart of the story are the women in Balzac's life. Although gruff, unsophisticated, and far from handsome, Balzac exerts an irresistible fascination on women.
Style: clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, stylized, crying
Plot: writers, art, poet, literary, age-gap relationship, family relations, love triangle, betrayal, missing person, parents and children, love and romance, fall in love, couples, love affair, vengeance, social differences, society, infidelity, lifestyle, writer's life, innocence lost, wartime life, haunted by the past, homecoming, dishonesty ...
Time: 19th century
Place: france, switzerland, europe, paris france, black sea
Keyword: russian

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Most similar movies to Balzac: A Passionate Life

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, period drama and crying films with plots about couples, love and romance, couple relations, love, female nudity, unfulfillment and husband wife relationship mostly in Drama, Romance and Biography genres. Some movies like Balzac: A Passionate Life: The Children of the Century (1999), Colonel Chabert (1994), Byron (2003), Nathalie... (2003), Surviving Picasso (1996). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Watch Trailers From This List to Choose a Movie
The Children of the Century (1999)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 135 min.
Story: True tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset. But their affair falls apart during an excursion to Venice, Italy where Musset is distracted by drugs and ...
Style: atmospheric, stylized, captivating, sexy, visually stunning ...
Plot: sex, love affair, writers, lifestyle, destructive relationship, love and romance, sexuality, obsessive love, forbidden love, poet, female writer, infidelity ...
Time: 19th century, 1820s, 1830s
Place: paris france, italy, venice, france, europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
95%
Colonel Chabert (1994)
Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Colonel Chabert has been severely wounded in the French-Russian Napoleonic war to the point that the medical examiner has signed his death certificate. When he regains his health and memory, he goes back to Paris, where his "widow", Anne ...
Style: harsh, stylized, talky, disturbing, sentimental ...
Plot: napoleonic wars, betrayal, battles, war, military, haunted by the past, homecoming, aristocracy, dishonesty, life is a bitch, infidelity, missing person ...
Time: 19th century, year 1994, 1810s, 18th century, 1800s
Place: france, paris france, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
73%
 7.0
 1K
Byron (2003)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 147 min.
Story: Life and adventures of lord George Gordon Byron. BBC dramatization of the poet's final thirteen years
Style: realistic, serious, costume drama, crying, romantic drama ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: womanizer, obsession, debauchery, radical, writer's life, romanticism, lifestyle, writers, society, social misfits, politics, incestuous desire ...
Time: 19th century, 1810s, regency period
Place: albania, ottoman empire, yorkshire, london, turkey ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
68%
 6.3
 5K
Nathalie... (2003)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Spain
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Paris doctor Catherine starts to think her husband, Bernard, is having an affair when she hears an unfamiliar woman's message on his voice mail. Hoping to learn more about his extramarital activities, Catherine heads to a strip club, where she ...
Style: sexy, serious, atmospheric, psychological, realistic ...
Plot: prostitute, sexual relations, lesbian, striptease, dangerous attraction, sex, husband wife relationship, one night stand, unfaithful husband, adultery, voyeur, destructive relationship ...
Time: year 2003
Place: paris france, europe, france
⇓ similarity ⇓
62%
Movie in collections
Surviving Picasso (1996)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min.
Story: The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.
Style: emotional, realistic, serious, intense, romantic ...
Audience: toddlers
Plot: artist, painter, womanizer, art, biopic, love triangle, infidelity, art history, character study, mistress, physical abuse, couple relations ...
Time: 1940s, year 1996, 60s, 20th century, 50s ...
Place: poland, paris france, europe, france, provence
⇓ similarity ⇓
59%
Swann in Love (1984)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Swann (Jeremy Irons), an eligible bachelor in the best circles of fin-de-siècle Paris, has also some more vulgar but rich friends, the Verdurins. Through them he meets Odette (Ornella Muti), a courtesan, with whom he falls hopelessly in love. She ...
Style: contemplative, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual ...
Plot: duchess, love and romance, erotica, sensuality, lovers, fantomas, star crossed lovers, jealousy, obsession, prostitute, french president, couple relations ...
Time: 19th century, 1890s
Place: france, paris france, europe, italy, egypt
⇓ similarity ⇓
59%
 6.2
 369
Cet amour-là (2001)
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Cet Amour-là is an intimate portrait of a legendary love affair. Set against the beauty of the Breton seaside, it is also a film that revels in the insights that Marguerite Duras' writing affords.
Style: psychological, emotional, captivating, serious, sincere ...
Plot: destiny, wartime life, soldier, lifestyle, love and romance, fall in love, hopes, couple relations, family relations, couples, culture clash, love affair ...
Time: year 2001, 21st century
Place: france, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
56%
 5.9
 2K
Nora (2000)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK, Italy, Germany
Duration: 106 min.
Story: In 1904, in Dublin, James Joyce chats up Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid recently come from Galway. She enchants him with her frank, direct and uninhibited manner, and before long, he's convinced her to come with him to Trieste, where he has a job ...
Style: realistic, touching, sentimental, sincere, serious ...
Plot: novelist, love affair, writers, writer's life, lifestyle, couple relations, society, family problems, love triangle, artists and showbiz, sexual relations, male female relationship ...
Time: edwardian era, victorian era, 1900s, 1910s, 20th century
Place: ireland, italy, dublin ireland, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
56%
Movie in collections
Too Beautiful for You (1989)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A car dealer, well-to-do and with a beautiful wife, finds himself attracted to his rather plain new temporary secretary. Despite her own commitments she feels the same and the two soon embark on an affair. Though it would seem it has happened before ...
Style: talky, cynical, realistic, semi serious, clever ...
Audience: date night
Plot: love, bittersweet, sexuality, adultery, marriage, love triangle, infidelity, pleasure, love and romance, dishonesty, fall in love, couple relations ...
Time: year 1989, 80s
Place: france
⇓ similarity ⇓
55%
 6.5
 17K
Total Eclipse (1995)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France, Belgium
Duration: 111 min.
Story: Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Style: serious, costume drama, cult classic, erotic, sexual ...
Plot: gay, poet, lgbt, male nudity, writer's life, homosexuality, gay teenager, melancholy, violence, homoeroticism, homosexual, art ...
Time: 19th century, 1870s, victorian era, ancient times
Place: paris france, africa, europe, france, holland ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
54%
 6.2
 2K
Gabrielle (2005)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 90 min.
Story: A seemingly ideal marriage is thrown into embarrassing turmoil in Patrice Chéreau's period drama, based on the short story The Return by Joseph Conrad.
Style: serious, psychological, emotional, clever, realistic ...
Plot: infidelity, marriage, letter, adultery, couples, family problems, power relations, dishonesty, love and romance, suffering, husband wife relationship, betrayal ...
Time: 1910s, year 2005
Place: france, paris france, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
53%
 6.4
 2K
Eva (1962)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min.
Story: Best-selling author Tyvian Jones has a life of leisure in Venice, Italy, until he has a chance encounter with sultry Frenchwoman Eva Olivier. He falls for her instantly, despite already having wedding plans with Francesca Ferrara. Winning Eva's ...
Style: noir, neo noir, contemplative, realistic, serious ...
Plot: writers, lust, girl, music and dance, sex, novelist, nudity, femme fatale, power relations, couples, midlife crisis, infidelity ...
Time: 60s, 20th century
Place: venice, rome italy, europe, italy
⇓ similarity ⇓
53%
Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid ...
Style: enigmatic, period piece, costume drama, stylized, atmospheric ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: artist, painter, art, painting, maid, master and servant, sexual tension, society, older man younger woman relationship, teenage girl, portrait, age difference ...
Time: 17th century, ancient times, year 2003, 19th century, victorian era
Place: holland, netherlands, europe, america
⇓ similarity ⇓
51%
 6.0
 519
Priest of Love (1981)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Mexico, Italy
Duration: 125 min.
Story: Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, ...
Style: intellectual, independent film, contemplative, talky, serious ...
Plot: older woman younger man relationship, skinny dipping, writers, nudity, playwright, art, poet, age-gap relationship, male nudity, biopic, couples, love affair ...
Time: year 1981, 1920s, 20th century, 1910s
Place: mexico, italy, new mexico, latin america, england ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
 7.1
 6K
Germinal (1993)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium, Italy
Duration: 160 min.
Story: It's mid 19th century, north of France. The story of a coal miner's town. They are exploited by the mine's owner. One day the decide to go on strike, and then the authorities repress them
Style: political, realistic, emotional, anthology, philosophical ...
Plot: mining, revolution, art, politics, union, capitalism, fighting the system, french history, anarchist, unemployment, miner, coal ...
Time: 19th century, year 1993, victorian era
Place: france, europe, flanders
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
 7.0
 32K
Miss Potter (2006)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story: The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness and success.
Style: sentimental, touching, period piece, costume drama, serious ...
Audience: family outing, kids
Plot: writers, artist, writer's life, biopic, female artist, family relations, snobbism, painting, art, friendship, first love, rabbit ...
Time: 1900s, victorian era, edwardian era, 19th century, 1910s ...
Place: england, london, britain, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
47%
Beyond the Clouds (1995)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France, Germany
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Made of four short tales, linked by a story filmed by Wim Wenders. Taking place in Ferrara, Portofino, Aix en Provence and Paris, each story, which always a woman as the crux of the story, invites to an inner travel, as Antonioni says "towards ...
Style: erotic, touching, emotional, colorful, atmospheric ...
Plot: infidelity, adultery, love triangle, love, tragedy, love story, nude girl, love and romance, dishonesty, unfulfilled love, love affair, fall in love ...
Place: italy, europe, france, new york, paris france ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
47%
Camille Claudel (1988)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 175 min.
Story: The life of Camille Claudel, a french scupltor who becomes the apprentice of Auguste Rodin and later his lover. Her passion for her art and Rodin drive her further away from reason and rationality.
Style: psychological, emotional, intense, heartbreaking, touching ...
Plot: biopic, mental illness, artist, art, painter, sculptor, obsession, storytelling, art history, fall in love, love, couples ...
Time: 19th century, ancient times
Place: france, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
46%
Movie in collections
Summer in February (2013)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min.
Story: The Newlyn School of artists flourished at the beginning of the 20th Century and the film focuses on the wild and bohemian Lamorna Group, which included Alfred Munnings and Laura and Harold Knight. The incendiary anti-Modernist Munnings, now ...
Style: touching, sincere, emotional, serious, retro ...
Audience: girls' night
Plot: painter, love triangle, infidelity, biopic, love affair, lifestyle, couples, family relations, unfulfilled love, love and romance, fall in love, couple relations ...
Time: 1910s, 1900s, 20th century, year 1915, pre world war one ...
Place: cornwall, england, london
⇓ similarity ⇓
45%
 6.6
 8K
Vatel (2000)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: France, UK, Belgium
Duration: 103 min.
Story: In 1671, with war brewing with Holland, a penniless prince invites Louis XIV to three days of festivities at a chateau in Chantilly. The prince wants a commission as a general, so the extravagances are to impress the king. In charge of all is the ...
Style: melancholic, light, tricky, captivating, visually appealing ...
Plot: king of france, food, betrayal, nobility, political intrigue, tragic love, fall in love, power relations, french history, wine, storytelling, intrigue ...
Time: 17th century, ancient times, victorian era
Place: france, europe, netherlands, holland, versailles
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
 6.2
 445
The Gambler (1997)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands, Hungary, UK
Duration: 97 min.
Story: Under pressure from his publisher, Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky gets work on his latest piece, 'Rouletenberg'. In the 27 days it takes for him to complete the novel reality and fiction become blurred; in this feverish atmosphere of ...
Style: stylized, romantic drama, realistic, serious, independent film
Plot: gambling, writers, older man younger woman relationship, addiction, gambler, biopic, obsession, redemption, poet, nudity, novelist, gambling addiction ...
Time: year 1997, 1860s, 19th century, 1870s
Place: germany, st. petersburg russia, russia
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
All the Mornings of the World (1991)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Music, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 115 min.
Story: It's late 17th century. The viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe comes home to find that his wife died while he was away. In his grief he builds a small house in his garden into wich he moves to dedicate his life to music and his ...
Style: visually stunning, stylized, emotional, mesmerizing, historical drama ...
Plot: classical music, musician, music, composer, artist, art, older man younger man relationship, shoemaker, death, orchestra, cello, french history ...
Time: 17th century, year 1991, 19th century
Place: france, europe, versailles
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
 6.9
 2K
Violette (2013)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 139 min.
Story: Born out of wedlock early in the last century, Violette Leduc meets Simone de Beauvoir in postwar Saint-Germain-des-Près. An intense lifelong relationship develops between the two women authors, based on Violette's quest for freedom through ...
Style: realistic, captivating, serious, sincere, psychological ...
Plot: lesbian, gender, writers, lesbian relationship, friendship, writer's life, friends, society, lgbt, women, couples, erotica ...
Time: 20th century, 1940s, 60s, 70s, year 1972 ...
Place: france, paris france, europe, provence
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
Movie in collections
The Heart of Me (2002)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Drama set in 1930s London with two sisters, Madeleine married to Rickie, and Dinah, who falls in love with him. Rickie and Dinah begin an affair which is to have repercussions throughout all their lives.
Style: sentimental, touching, emotional, serious, romantic drama ...
Plot: couples, love affair, infidelity, betrayal, sister sister relationship, pregnancy, fall in love, society, parents and children, haunted by the past, unfaithful husband, forbidden love ...
Time: 1930s, 1940s, year 2002, 20th century, year 1934 ...
Place: london, england, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
43%
 5.8
 6K
Angel (2007)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium, UK
Duration: 134 min.
Story: Edwardian England. A precocious girl from a poor background with aspirations to being a novelist finds herself swept to fame and fortune when her tasteless romances hit the best seller lists. Her life changes in unexpected ways when she encounters ...
Style: serious, realistic, talky, witty, clever ...
Plot: adultery, love, writers, infidelity, estate, world war one, writer's life, family relations, rise to the top, ambition, social differences, couple relations ...
Time: 1900s, victorian era, 20th century, edwardian era, year 1914
Place: england, britain, europe, london
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
 5.8
 582
Haunted Summer (1988)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley (née Godwin) and Percy Shelley get together for some philosophical discussions, but the situation soon deteriorates into mind games, drugs, and sex. It is a fictionalization of the summer that Lord Byron and the ...
Style: grindhouse, independent film, gothic, realistic, serious ...
Plot: writers, art, poet, napoleonic era, strength, acid, literary, women, drug use, couples, mutant, gays and lesbians ...
Time: 19th century, 1800s
Place: italy, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
Madame Bovary (1991)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 143 min.
Story: Bored with the limited and tedious nature of provincial life in 19th-century France, the fierce and sensual Emma Bovary finds herself in calamitous debt and purses scandalous sexual liaisons with absolute abandon. However, when her volatile ...
Style: realistic, melancholic, sexy, costume drama, intense ...
Plot: infidelity, adultery, husband wife relationship, literature, family life, tragic hero, village life, life is a bitch, village, love affair, hopes, destructive relationship ...
Time: 19th century, 1840s, victorian era, year 1991, 1850s
Place: normandy, france, europe, switzerland
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
Callas Forever (2002)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Italy, France, Spain, UK, Romania
Duration: 108 min.
Story: A fictionalized account of the last days of opera singer Maria Callas (Ardant).
Style: realistic, sincere, sentimental, touching, serious ...
Plot: ambition, musician's life, starting over, opera singer, aging, artists and showbiz, lifestyle, showbiz, friendship, celebrity culture, classical music, hopes ...
Time: year 2002, year 1977, 70s
Place: greece, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
 6.2
 3K
Cousin Bette (1998)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story: Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her niece, Hortense Hulot. Failing to do so, she instead finds ...
Style: light, humorous, talky, realistic, semi serious ...
Plot: infidelity, slut, adultery, manipulation, dysfunctional family, family relations, love, fall in love, love and romance, couple relations, love triangle, love affair ...
Time: 19th century, 1840s, victorian era
Place: france, paris france, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
 6.9
 29K
Bright Star (2009)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Australia, UK, France
Duration: 119 min.
Story: In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to ...
Style: heartbreaking, period piece, romantic, touching, sad ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: poet, poetry, writers, biopic, love story, love, art, friendship, letter, tragedy, passion, couple relations ...
Time: 19th century, victorian era, regency period, ancient times, year 2009 ...
Place: england, europe, britain, rome italy, london
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
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