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Limelight poster

Movies that feel likeLimelight (1952)

A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.

If you loved Limelight, the closest films we have are The Circus (1928), Modern Times (1936) and I Know Where I'm Going! (1945). All three share Limelight's romantic and tender 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).

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Charlie Chaplinromantictendercontemplativewittyplayful
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Limelight hit the spot, these will too

The Circus poster
The Circus
1928 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 97%★ 8.1comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Charlie Chaplin working the same nerve twice

The difference: 24 years apart, and the 1920s show

Charlie, a wandering tramp, becomes a circus handyman - soon the star of the show - and falls in love with the circus owner's stepdaughter.

Modern Times poster
Modern Times
1936 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 98%★ 8.5comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Charlie Chaplin directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

I Know Where I'm Going! poster
I Know Where I'm Going!
1945 · dir. Michael Powell
🍅 100%★ 7.4romance · drama · comedy

One thread runs through both: black and white

Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.

The Shop Around the Corner poster
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 · dir. Ernst Lubitsch
🍅 99%★ 8comedy · drama · romance

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Sissi poster
Sissi
1955 · dir. Ernst Marischka
★ 7comedy · drama · romance

Romantic where it counts, tender underneath

The young Bavarian princess Elisabeth, who all call Sissi, goes with her mother and older sister Néné to Austria where Néné will be wed to an emperor named Franz Joseph, Yet unexpectedly Franz runs into Sissi while out fishing and they fall in love.

City Lights poster
City Lights
1931 · dir. Charlie Chaplin
🍅 95%★ 8.5comedy · drama · romancePrime VideoMax

Contemplative and witty in the same breath

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

The Red Shoes poster
The Red Shoes
1948 · dir. Michael Powell
🍅 98%★ 8.1drama · romanceMax

The same preoccupation in both: ballet dancer

The difference: Takes it somewhere less witty than Limelight does

A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.

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

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.

The Cameraman poster
The Cameraman
1928 · dir. Edward Sedgwick
🍅 100%★ 8comedy · romance · drama

Playful drama, and it commits to that

A photographer takes up newsreel shooting to impress a secretary.

Roman Holiday poster
Roman Holiday
1953 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 97%★ 8romance · comedy · drama

Comedy with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.

Holiday poster
Holiday
1938 · dir. George Cukor
🍅 100%★ 7.7comedy · romance · drama

Both lean on stillness more than on romance

Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionaire — and she's agreed to marry him. But when Johnny plans a holiday for the two to enjoy life while they are still young, his fiancée has other plans & that is for Johnny to work in her father's bank!

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

Romantic drama in both cases

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

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The best-reviewed films that share Limelight’s defining feeling.