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Ashes and Diamonds poster

Movies that feel likeAshes and Diamonds (1958)

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

If you loved Ashes and Diamonds, the closest films we have are The Cranes Are Flying (1957), Mrs. Miniver (1942) and From Here to Eternity (1953). All three share Ashes and Diamonds' contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Black Orpheus (1959).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Andrzej Wajdacontemplativebleakromantictender
11 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Ashes and Diamonds hit the spot, these will too

The Cranes Are Flying poster
The Cranes Are Flying
1957 · dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
🍅 96%★ 8.3drama · romance · war

The same two preoccupations: world war ii, and black and white

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

Mrs. Miniver poster
Mrs. Miniver
1942 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 93%★ 7.6drama · romance · war

Both are built on the same subject: world war ii

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

From Here to Eternity poster
From Here to Eternity
1953 · dir. Fred Zinnemann
🍅 88%★ 7.6war · romance · dramaPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

The Best Years of Our Lives poster
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 97%★ 8.1drama · romance · warPrime Video

Contemplative where it counts, bleak underneath

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Battle for Sevastopol poster
Battle for Sevastopol
2015 · dir. Sergey Mokritsky
★ 7war · drama · romancePrime Video

Romantic and tender in the same breath

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

The story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

Wings poster
Wings
1927 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 94%★ 7.5drama · action · war

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The difference: Leans harder into action than Ashes and Diamonds does

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.

The Earrings of Madame de... poster
The Earrings of Madame de...
1953 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 97%★ 7.8drama · romanceMax

Romance built on romance, twice over

The difference: Trades the bleakness of Ashes and Diamonds for an angle of its own

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

Black Orpheus poster
Black Orpheus
1959 · dir. Marcel Camus
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · romanceMax

Tender war, and it commits to that

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Summer with Monika poster
Summer with Monika
1953 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.5drama · romance

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

One summer day, two teens begin a reckless affair and abandon their families to be with one another.

La Jetée poster
La Jetée
1962 · dir. Chris Marker
🍅 90%★ 8.2drama · romance · science fiction

Bleak romance in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to science fiction than Ashes and Diamonds does

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

Splendor in the Grass poster
Splendor in the Grass
1961 · dir. Elia Kazan
🍅 75%★ 7.7drama · romance

Romantic war in both cases

A fragile Kansas girl's unrequited and forbidden love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness.

Journey to Italy poster
Journey to Italy
1954 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 96%★ 7.2drama · romanceMax

Tender drama in both cases

Married for eight years with no children, Brits Katherine and Alex Joyce are driving to Italy, their ultimate destination just outside of Naples to sell the villa they have just inherited from his uncle, the villa where they will be staying during their time there. On the drive, they come to the realization that this trip marks the first time that they have truly been alone together, and as such don't really know one another in the true sense.

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The best-reviewed films that share Ashes and Diamonds’ defining feeling.