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Movies that feel like The African Queen (1952)

If you loved The African Queen, the closest films we have are Beauty and the Beast (1946), Breaking the Waves (1996) and A Short Film About Love (1988). All three share The African Queen's romantic and tender feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

🍅 96% Rotten Tomatoes7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John Hustonromantictenderepiccontemplativehopeful

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If The African Queen hit the spot, these will too

Beauty and the Beast poster
Beauty and the Beast
1946 · dir. Jean Cocteau
7.9drama · fantasy · romance

Romantic and tender in the same breath

The difference: Not nearly as epic as The African Queen

The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

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Breaking the Waves poster
Breaking the Waves
1996 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 84%7.8drama · romance

Both are built on the same subject: faith

The difference: Missing the scale of The African Queen

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.

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A Short Film About Love poster
A Short Film About Love
1988 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 95%8.1drama · romance

The same mix in both: stillness, then hope

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...

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Only Angels Have Wings poster
Only Angels Have Wings
1939 · dir. Howard Hawks
🍅 100%7.6romance · adventure · drama

Both lean on scale more than on romance

A traveling performer arrives at a remote South American port town where the head of an air freight service must risk his pilots' lives to earn a major contract.

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Hiroshima Mon Amour poster
Hiroshima Mon Amour
1959 · dir. Alain Resnais
🍅 96%7.8drama · history · romance

Romantic drama in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to history than The African Queen does

The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.

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Mohabbatein poster
Mohabbatein
2000 · dir. Aditya Chopra
7.1drama · romance

Adventure built on tenderness, twice over

At a prestigious all-male university, three friends seek love outside of the school grounds; at the same time, a newly-hired music teacher seeks to befriend and loosen up the militantly strict headmaster.

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My Name Is Khan poster
My Name Is Khan
2010 · dir. Karan Johar
🍅 87%7.9drama · romance

Contemplative romance, and it commits to that

Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, has Asperger's syndrome. He marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who treat him as a terrorist because of his condition and his race.

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Cleopatra poster
Cleopatra
1963 · dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
🍅 61%7drama · history · romance

Drama with a pulse of scale, in both cases

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans.

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

Romantic adventure, and it commits to that

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

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

Romance with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

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

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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

The same romance instincts

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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The best-reviewed films that share The African Queen’s defining feeling.