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Beauty and the Beast poster

Movies that feel likeBeauty and the Beast (1946)

The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

If you loved Beauty and the Beast, the closest films we have are A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Breaking the Waves (1996) and A Short Film About Love (1988). All three share Beauty and the Beast's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Earrings of Madame de... (1953).

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If Beauty and the Beast hit the spot, these will too

A Matter of Life and Death poster
A Matter of Life and Death
1946 · dir. Emeric Pressburger
🍅 97%★ 8romance · fantasy · drama

Both land stillness and dream logic at once

The difference: Easier on the hope than Beauty and the Beast

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.

Breaking the Waves poster
Breaking the Waves
1996 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 84%★ 7.8drama · romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: underdog

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.

A Short Film About Love poster
A Short Film About Love
1988 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 95%★ 8.1drama · romance

The same mix in both: romance, then tenderness

19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...

Mohabbatein poster
Mohabbatein
2000 · dir. Aditya Chopra
★ 7.1drama · romanceNetflix

Hopeful drama, and it commits to that

At a prestigious all-male university, three friends seek love outside of the school grounds; at the same time, a newly-hired music teacher seeks to befriend and loosen up the militantly strict headmaster.

Brief Encounter poster
Brief Encounter
1945 · dir. David Lean
🍅 95%★ 8drama · romanceMax

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

Children of Paradise poster
Children of Paradise
1945 · dir. Marcel Carné
🍅 98%★ 8.3drama · romance

Common ground: black and white

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

The African Queen poster
The African Queen
1952 · dir. John Huston
🍅 96%★ 7.7adventure · romance · war

Both lean on stillness more than on romance

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Beauty and the Beast does

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir poster
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
1947 · dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
🍅 100%★ 7.8romance · fantasy · drama

Dreamlike fantasy in both cases

In 1900, young widow Lucy Muir learns that her seaside cottage is haunted and forms a unique relationship with the ghost.

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

Drama built on romance, twice over

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.

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

Romance with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

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

Belle de Jour poster
Belle de Jour
1967 · dir. Luis Buñuel
🍅 95%★ 7.6drama · romanceMax

Fantasy built on stillness, twice over

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Great Expectations poster
Great Expectations
1946 · dir. David Lean
🍅 100%★ 7.8drama · romanceMax

A 1940s answer to the same itch

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

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The best-reviewed films that share Beauty and the Beast’s defining feeling.