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The Woman Next Door poster

Movies that feel likeThe Woman Next Door (1981)

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

If you loved The Woman Next Door, the closest films we have are A Man and a Woman (1966), Jules and Jim (1962) and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). All three share The Woman Next Door's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Black Orpheus (1959).

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. François Truffautcontemplativeromantictender
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If The Woman Next Door hit the spot, these will too

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

The same preoccupation in both: france

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.

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

François Truffaut directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

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.

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

Contemplative and romantic in the same breath

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.

Last Tango in Paris poster
Last Tango in Paris
1972 · dir. Bernardo Bertolucci
🍅 81%★ 6.8drama · romance

One thread runs through both: extramarital affair

A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

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

Drama with a pulse of tenderness, in both cases

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 1960s show

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.

Black Orpheus poster
Black Orpheus
1959 · dir. Marcel Camus
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · romanceMax

Both lean on stillness more than on romance

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.

The Silence poster
The Silence
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%★ 7.7drama · romance

Romantic drama in both cases

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.

Dil Chahta Hai poster
Dil Chahta Hai
2001 · dir. Farhan Akhtar
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · romanceNetflix

Romance built on tenderness, twice over

Three inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them - until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.

Veer-Zaara poster
Veer-Zaara
2004 · dir. Yash Chopra
🍅 94%★ 7.8drama · romanceNetflix

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, a pilot in the Indian Air Force, rescues the stranded Zaara, a woman from Pakistan, following a bus accident, and their lives are forever bound.

Journey to Italy poster
Journey to Italy
1954 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 96%★ 7.2drama · romanceMax

Romance built on romance, twice over

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.

Days of Heaven poster
Days of Heaven
1978 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama · romance

Both run tender where it counts

In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.

Two Lovers poster
Two Lovers
2008 · dir. James Gray
🍅 81%★ 7drama · romance

Both are built on the same subject: neighbor

A depressed man moves back in with his parents following a recent heartbreak and finds himself with two women.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Woman Next Door’s defining feeling.