Movies like Tess (1979)
The best movies like Tess (1979) are Wuthering Heights (1970), Jane Eyre (1996) and Cousin Bette (1998). If Tess hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSense and Sensibility (1995)7.4/10 from 1,937 votes
- NewestRosalie (2024)Released 2024
Wuthering Heights (1970)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Eyre (1996)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCousin Bette (1998)
In 19th century Paris, Bette Fischer, a poor and homely spinster, forms an alliance with the seductive courtesan Valerie Marneffe to orchestrate revenge on her handsome and wealthy relatives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Age of Innocence (1993)
In 19th century New York high society, a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJane Eyre (2011)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Europeans (1979)
An adaptation of Henry James' novel about the Countess Eugenia Münster and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, Eugenia hopes to make an advantageous marriage with a wealthy cousin. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Great Expectations (2012)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJude (1996)
In late 19th-century England, Jude aspires to be an academic, but is hobbled by his blue-collar background. Instead, he works as a stonemason and is trapped in an unloving marriage to a farmer's daughter named Arabella. But when his wife leaves him, Jude sees an opportunity to improve himself. He moves to the city and begins an affair with his married cousin, Sue, courting tragedy every step of the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreat Expectations (1999)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. After Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son. These circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's wife and daughters without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWuthering Heights (1998)
Gypsy boy Heathcliffe is adopted by God-fearing landowner Earnshaw in 19th-century northern England and grows up as the soulmate of the daughter, Cathy. However, their romance suffers various tragedies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Wuthering Heights (1939)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFirelight (1998)
In 1838, lovely governess Elisabeth Laurier agrees to bear a child of an anonymous English landowner, and he will in return pay her father's debt. At birth, she, as agreed, gives up the child. Seven years later, she is hired as governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate. The girl's father, Charles Godwin, turns out to be that anonymous landowner. So Elisabeth has to be her own daughter's governess, and she can't reveal the secret of her tie with little Louisa.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBright Star (2009)
In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Room with a View (1986)
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreat Expectations (1946)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWuthering Heights (1992)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna Karenina (1997)
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Piano (1993)
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited pre-teen daughter Flora to the wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWashington Square (1997)
In 1870s New York, spinster heiress Catherine Sloper is courted by the much younger, penniless Morris Townsend, much to the chagrin of her overprotective father. Catherine must decide whether to spend the rest of her life alone, or marry a man interested in her solely for her inheritence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPersuasion (1995)
In early 19th-century England, dire financial straits reacquaint the aristocratic Anne Elliot with her wealthy ex-fiance Frederick Wentworth. The two must choose between either putting the past behind them or listening to their hearts.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFar from the Madding Crowd (2015)
In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a hardworking young sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMansfield Park (2007)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWuthering Heights (2011)
Yorkshire moorlands, northern England, in the late 18th century. Young Heathcliff, rescued from the streets of Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights, an isolated farm, develops over the years an insane passion for Cathy, his foster sister, a sick obsession destined to end tragically.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisRosalie (2024)
France, 1870s. Rosalie is a young woman unlike any other. She hides a secret: she was born with a face and body covered in hair. She’s concealed her peculiarity all her life to stay safe, shaving to fit in. Until Abel, an indebted bar owner unaware of her secret, marries Rosalie for her dowry. Will Abel be able to love Rosalie and see her as the woman she is, once he finds out the truth?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Eyre (1943)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnegin (1999)
A virtuous and passionate girl falls in love with a cynical but a dashing aristocrat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Cousin Rachel (2017)
A young Englishman plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisWar and Peace (1956)
The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tess?
The closest matches to Tess are Wuthering Heights (1970), Jane Eyre (1996) and Cousin Bette (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tess?
People who watched Tess most often go on to Wuthering Heights (1970), Jane Eyre (1996) and Cousin Bette (1998).
What is the highest-rated movie like Tess?
Sense and Sensibility (1995), rated 7.4/10 by 1,937 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tess?
Rosalie (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Tess?
Yes: Wuthering Heights (1970), Jane Eyre (1996) and Cousin Bette (1998).
How are movies similar to Tess chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tess, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.