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Nostalgia poster

Movies that feel likeNostalgia (1983)

Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov journeys through Italy with his interpreter Eugenia to research the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who once lived abroad. Isolated and consumed by an unrelenting longing for his homeland, Andrei becomes drawn to Domenico, a radical mystic obsessed with spiritual redemption. Through austere imagery and extended temporal rhythms, Tarkovsky examines exile, memory, and the profound melancholy of being unable to belong fully to either place or language.

If you loved Nostalgia, the closest films we have are Wings of Desire (1987), Belle de Jour (1967) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946). All three share Nostalgia'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 A Man and a Woman (1966).

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Andrei Tarkovskycontemplativeromantictenderdreamlike
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If Nostalgia hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Nostalgia for the Light (2010)

Wings of Desire poster
Wings of Desire
1987 · dir. Wim Wenders
🍅 95%★ 7.9drama · fantasy · romanceMax

One thread runs through both: dreams

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than Nostalgia does

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

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

Both keep coming back to the same thing: dreams

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.

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

Contemplative and romantic in the same breath

The difference: Made in the 1940s, in a different era of the craft

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.

The Woman Next Door poster
The Woman Next Door
1981 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 85%★ 7.2drama · romance

Tender drama in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less dreamlike than Nostalgia does

Two ex-lovers wind up living next door to each other with their respective spouses. Forbidden passions ensue.

Before Midnight poster
Before Midnight
2013 · dir. Richard Linklater
🍅 98%★ 7.9romance · dramaRent or buy

Romance with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. They now live in Paris with twin daughters but have spent a summer in Greece at the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul poster
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
1974 · dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
🍅 100%★ 8romance · dramaMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

Sapphire Blue poster
Sapphire Blue
2014 · dir. Felix Fuchssteiner
★ 6.2fantasy · romance · drama

Both lean on romance more than on romance

Gwen has just discovered, that she's the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. Now she has to juggle with constant trips to the past, her relationships with Gideon and figuring out dark secrets surrounding the Circle.

Days of Heaven poster
Days of Heaven
1978 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama · romance

Drama built on tenderness, twice over

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

Dil Chahta Hai poster
Dil Chahta Hai
2001 · dir. Farhan Akhtar
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · romanceNetflix

Romance built on stillness, twice over

Three inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them - until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.

A Man and a Woman poster
A Man and a Woman
1966 · dir. Claude Lelouch
🍅 75%★ 7.5drama · romance

The shared currency is romance

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.

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

Common ground: italy

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.

Contempt poster
Contempt
1963 · dir. Jean-Luc Godard
🍅 92%★ 7.4drama · romance

Both are built on the same subject: italy

Art film producer Jeremy Prokosch, unhappy with the work of his director, hires Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb, he brings in a screenwriter to energise the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.

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