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Breathless poster

Movies that feel likeBreathless (1960)

A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.

If you loved Breathless, the closest films we have are Pierrot le Fou (1965), Talk to Her (2002) and Contempt (1963). All three share Breathless' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Pandora's Box (1929).

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If Breathless hit the spot, these will too

Pierrot le Fou poster
Pierrot le Fou
1965 · dir. Jean-Luc Godard
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · romance · crimeMax

Both are Jean-Luc Godard's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Easier on the melancholy than Breathless

Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.

Talk to Her poster
Talk to Her
2002 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 91%★ 7.9drama · romance

Both are working the same pair: mortality, journalist

The difference: 42 years apart, and the 2000s show

Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.

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

Jean-Luc Godard working the same nerve twice

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.

Jules and Jim poster
Jules and Jim
1962 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama · romanceMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

Pandora's Box poster
Pandora's Box
1929 · dir. G.W. Pabst
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama · crime · romanceMax

Both are built on the same subject: grief

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

The Hustler poster
The Hustler
1961 · dir. Robert Rossen
🍅 94%★ 7.9drama · romance

Both land stillness and romance at once

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

West Side Story poster
West Side Story
1961 · dir. Jerome Robbins
🍅 92%★ 7.6crime · drama · romance

Gritty where it counts, tender underneath

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

On the Waterfront poster
On the Waterfront
1954 · dir. Elia Kazan
🍅 99%★ 8.1crime · drama · romance

Contemplative drama in both cases

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

Elevator to the Gallows poster
Elevator to the Gallows
1958 · dir. Louis Malle
🍅 93%★ 7.9crime · drama · thrillerMax

Crime built on melancholy, twice over

The difference: Leans harder into thriller than Breathless does

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Badlands poster
Badlands
1973 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 97%★ 7.7drama · romance · crime

Romance with a pulse of grit, in both cases

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

Cool Hand Luke poster
Cool Hand Luke
1967 · dir. Stuart Rosenberg
🍅 100%★ 8drama · crime

One thread runs through both: mortality

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

P.S. I Love You poster
P.S. I Love You
2007 · dir. Richard LaGravenese
★ 7drama · romance

Common ground: grief

A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Breathless’ defining feeling.