feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Black Orpheus (1959)

If you loved Black Orpheus, the closest films we have are Splendor in the Grass (1961), The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) and Journey to Italy (1954). All three share Black Orpheus' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Marcel Camuscontemplativeromantictender
See it on the map

When is Black Orpheus streaming? →

If Black Orpheus hit the spot, these will too

Splendor in the Grass poster
Splendor in the Grass
1961 · dir. Elia Kazan
🍅 75%7.7drama · romance

Both land stillness and romance at once

A fragile Kansas girl's unrequited and forbidden love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness.

Feels alike?
The Earrings of Madame de... poster
The Earrings of Madame de...
1953 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 97%7.9drama · romance

Both lean on tenderness more than on drama

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.

Feels alike?
Journey to Italy poster
Journey to Italy
1954 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 96%7.3drama · romance

Contemplative romance in both cases

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.

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

Romantic drama, and it commits to that

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.

Feels alike?
The Silence poster
The Silence
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%7.7drama · romance

Romance built on tenderness, twice over

Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

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

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

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

Feels alike?
Marty poster
Marty
1955 · dir. Delbert Mann
🍅 96%7.7drama · romance

Romantic romance in both cases

Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother, is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward, he faces constant badgering from family and friends to get married but has reluctantly resigned himself to bachelorhood. He then meets Clara, an unattractive school teacher. Realising their emotional connection, Marty promises to call, but family and friends try to convince him not to.

Feels alike?
Letter from an Unknown Woman poster
Letter from an Unknown Woman
1948 · dir. Max Ophüls
🍅 100%7.8drama · romance

A streak of tenderness through both

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

Feels alike?
Great Expectations poster
Great Expectations
1946 · dir. David Lean
🍅 100%7.8drama · romance

The same drama instincts

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.

Feels alike?
Wuthering Heights poster
Wuthering Heights
1939 · dir. William Wyler
🍅 92%7.5drama · romance

Romance in the same key

The difference: Made in the 1930s, in a different era of the craft

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

Feels alike?
Make Way for Tomorrow poster
Make Way for Tomorrow
1937 · dir. Leo McCarey
🍅 100%8.2drama · romance

Both play drama straight

An elderly couple are forced to separate themselves from each other after their children refuse to take both into one house.

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

Both know what they want from romance

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

Feels alike?

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Black Orpheus’ defining feeling.