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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? poster

Movies that feel likeWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

If you loved Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the closest films we have are Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), An Autumn Afternoon (1962) and The Leopard (1963). All three share Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'s contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Trip to Bountiful (1985).

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Mike Nicholscontemplative
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? hit the spot, these will too

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

Common ground: black and white

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.

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

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

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.

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

Contemplative drama in both cases

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.

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

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

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.

Through a Glass Darkly poster
Through a Glass Darkly
1961 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 100%★ 7.9dramaMax

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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.

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

Both are drama through and through

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.

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.

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.

Umberto D. poster
Umberto D.
1952 · dir. Vittorio De Sica
🍅 98%★ 8.1dramaMax

Both working the same drama territory

When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.

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

The drama is handled with the same confidence

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.

The Trip to Bountiful poster
The Trip to Bountiful
1985 · dir. Peter Masterson
🍅 100%★ 7.4dramaPrime Video

Drama in the same key

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

The Whales of August poster
The Whales of August
1987 · dir. Lindsay Anderson
🍅 64%★ 7.1drama

The same drama instincts

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

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The best-reviewed films that share Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’s defining feeling.