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Through a Glass Darkly poster

Movies that feel likeThrough a Glass Darkly (1961)

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

If you loved Through a Glass Darkly, the closest films we have are Cries and Whispers (1972), Winter Light (1963) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). All three share Through a Glass Darkly's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Magician (1958).

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ingmar Bergmancontemplative
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · Kanopy

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If Through a Glass Darkly hit the spot, these will too

Cries and Whispers poster
Cries and Whispers
1972 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 92%★ 7.9dramaMax

Both are Ingmar Bergman's work, and they rhyme

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

Winter Light poster
Winter Light
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 77%★ 8drama

Ingmar Bergman directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

An Autumn Afternoon poster
An Autumn Afternoon
1962 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 95%★ 8dramaMax

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

Ordet poster
Ordet
1955 · dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
🍅 100%★ 8.2drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

The three sons of devout Danish farmer Morten have widely disparate religious beliefs. Youngest son Anders shares his father's religion, but eldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while middle child Johannes has become delusional and proclaims that he is Jesus Christ himself. When Mikkel's wife, Inger goes into a difficult childbirth, everyone's beliefs are put to the test.

Cléo from 5 to 7 poster
Cléo from 5 to 7
1962 · dir. Agnès Varda
🍅 93%★ 7.8dramaMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Sansho the Bailiff poster
Sansho the Bailiff
1954 · dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
🍅 100%★ 8.3drama

Drama approached the same way

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

The Magician poster
The Magician
1958 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.5drama

Both are drama through and through

A traveling magician and his troupe arrive in a Swedish town in the 1840s, where their act is scrutinized by local authorities and a skeptical medical official. Their stay leads to a series of confrontations that test the boundaries between performance, belief, and deception.

The Leopard poster
The Leopard
1963 · dir. Luchino Visconti
🍅 100%★ 7.9drama

Drama of the same temperament

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

Germany, Year Zero poster
Germany, Year Zero
1948 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 96%★ 7.8dramaMax

Both working the same drama territory

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

Late Spring poster
Late Spring
1949 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%★ 8.2dramaMax

Both play drama straight

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

Drunken Angel poster
Drunken Angel
1948 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama

Drama in the same key

In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

Hamlet poster
Hamlet
1948 · dir. Laurence Olivier
🍅 96%★ 7.5dramaMax

Both know what they want from drama

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.

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The best-reviewed films that share Through a Glass Darkly’s defining feeling.