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Movies that feel like Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

If you loved Letter from an Unknown Woman, the closest films we have are The Earrings of Madame de... (1953), Brief Encounter (1945) and Marty (1955). All three share Letter from an Unknown Woman's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel and HBO Max and others, checked against today's data.

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.

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Max Ophülscontemplativeromantictender
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If Letter from an Unknown Woman hit the spot, these will too

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

Both are Max Ophüls films, and they rhyme

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.

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Brief Encounter poster
Brief Encounter
1945 · dir. David Lean
🍅 95%8drama · romance

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

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

Tender drama 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.

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Casablanca poster
Casablanca
1943 · dir. Michael Curtiz
🍅 99%8.5drama · romance

Romance built on stillness, twice over

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

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

Both trade on romance more than on being drama

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.

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

Romance with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

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.

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

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

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

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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg poster
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1964 · dir. Jacques Demy
🍅 97%7.8drama · romance

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

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

Both work the same tenderness

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.

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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans poster
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
1927 · dir. F. W. Murnau
🍅 98%8.1drama · romance

Both are drama through and through

The difference: 21 years apart, and the 1920s show

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul poster
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
1974 · dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
🍅 100%8romance · drama

Romance approached the same way

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

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The Notebook poster
The Notebook
2004 · dir. Nick Cassavetes
🍅 55%7.8romance · drama

The same preoccupation in both: love of one's life

An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.

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The best-reviewed films that share Letter from an Unknown Woman's defining feeling.