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Portrait of a Lady on Fire poster

Movies that feel likePortrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

If you loved Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the closest films we have are With Every Heartbeat (2011), Carol (2015) and Asako I & II (2018). All three share Portrait of a Lady on Fire'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 Right Now, Wrong Then (2015).

🍅 98% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Céline Sciammacontemplativeromantictender
6 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · MUBI · Fandor

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If Portrait of a Lady on Fire hit the spot, these will too

With Every Heartbeat poster
With Every Heartbeat
2011 · dir. Alexandra-Therese Keining
★ 6.8romance · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: lesbian relationship

After they meet at their parent's engagement party, Mia and Frida are intrigued by and attracted to one another, despite Mia's own upcoming engagement to Tim. Mia must decide whether to continue her life with Tim or to follow her heart with Frida.

Carol poster
Carol
2015 · dir. Todd Haynes
🍅 94%★ 7.3romance · dramaPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: lesbian relationship

In 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.

Asako I & II poster
Asako I & II
2018 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 77%★ 7.1drama · romance

Contemplative and romantic in the same breath

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

The Lunchbox poster
The Lunchbox
2013 · dir. Ritesh Batra
🍅 97%★ 7.8drama · romance

Drama built on tenderness, twice over

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

Amour poster
Amour
2012 · dir. Michael Haneke
🍅 93%★ 7.9drama · romance

Contemplative romance in both cases

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Free Fall poster
Free Fall
2013 · dir. Stephan Lacant
★ 7.5drama · romance

Both lean on romance more than on drama

A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness – and what it means to fall in love with another man.

I Don't Want to Go Back Alone poster
I Don't Want to Go Back Alone
2011 · dir. Daniel Ribeiro
★ 8.2drama · romance

Tender romance, and it commits to that

The arrival of a new student in school changes Leonardo's life. This 15 year-old blind teenager has to deal with the jealousy of his friend Giovana while figuring out the new feelings he's having towards his new friend, Gabriel.

My Name Is Khan poster
My Name Is Khan
2010 · dir. Karan Johar
🍅 88%★ 7.9drama · romance

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, has Asperger's syndrome. He marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who treat him as a terrorist because of his condition and his race.

45 Years poster
45 Years
2015 · dir. Andrew Haigh
🍅 96%★ 7.1drama · romance

Romance built on romance, twice over

There is just one week until Kate Mercer's 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.

Right Now, Wrong Then poster
Right Now, Wrong Then
2015 · dir. Hong Sang-soo
🍅 92%★ 7.1drama · romance

Both work the same tenderness

By mistake, film director Ham Chunsu arrives in Suwon a day early. With time to kill before his lecture the next day, Chunsu stops by a restored, old palace and meets an artist named Yoon Heejung. Together, they go to Heejung's workshop to look at her paintings, have Sushi with Soju for dinner, and get close. Later, they go to another café and have more drinks with Heejung's acquaintances. When asked if he is married, Chunsu is forced to reveal the fact that he is, and Heejung gets deeply disappointed...

The Souvenir poster
The Souvenir
2019 · dir. Joanna Hogg
🍅 90%★ 6.4drama · romanceRent or buy

Drama in the same key

A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.

Weekend poster
Weekend
2011 · dir. Andrew Haigh
🍅 95%★ 7.6drama · romanceRent or buy

Romance approached the same way

After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.

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The best-reviewed films that share Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s defining feeling.