Movies like La Bête Humaine (1938)
The best movies like La Bête Humaine (1938) are Fanny (1932), Children of Paradise (1945) and Port of Shadows (1938). If La Bête Humaine 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 ratedChildren of Paradise (1945)8.1/10 from 476 votes
- NewestA Place to Fight For (2023)Released 2023
- In FrenchFanny (1932)Also in French
Fanny (1932)
Soon after Marius's departure, Fanny learns that she is pregnant with his child, to the disappointment of her mother and of Marius's father, César. To secure a better life for her unborn child, she accepts a marriage proposal from the aging widower Honoré Panisse.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChildren of Paradise (1945)
In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPort of Shadows (1938)
Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean, an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of both revenge and kindness render him front-page news.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPépé le Moko (1937)
Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisToni (1935)
In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down for good — like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, romance, or enmity, and Toni becomes entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lower Depths (1936)
Inhabitants of a flophouse struggle to survive under the harsh treatment imposed by the landlord, Kostyleva. One resident, young thief Wasska Pepel, ends his affair with the landlord's wife, Vassilissa, and takes up with her sister, Natacha. Pepel also befriends the baron, a former nobleman fallen on hard times, but Pepel's attempts at happiness are complicated when he's accused of murder by a spiteful Vassilissa.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaybreak (1939)
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHôtel du Nord (1938)
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJenny Lamour (1947)
Paris, France, December 1946. Jenny Lamour, an ambitious cabaret singer, and Maurice, her extremely jealous pianist husband, become involved in the thorough investigation of the murder of a shady businessman, led by Antoine, a peculiar and methodical police inspector.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL'Atalante (1934)
Newly married couple Juliette and ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'Atalante along with the captain's first mate and a cabin boy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Earrings of Madame de... (1953)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Well-Digger's Daughter (1940)
A rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
Michel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller, Edouard Lestingois. The Lestingois family decides to take in the irrepressible bum, and he shows his gratitude by shaking the household to its foundations. With Boudu Saved from Drowning, legendary director Jean Renoir takes advantage of a host of Parisian locations and the anarchic charms of his lead actor to create an effervescent satire of the bourgeoisie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe River (1951)
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the Bengal river around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Golden Coach (1952)
A viceroy, a nobleman and a bullfighter court a comedy-troupe actress in 18th-century Peru.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Chienne (1931)
Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to the wretched Adele. By chance, he meets Lucienne, 'Lulu', and makes her his mistress. He thinks he has finally found love, but Lulu is a streetwalker, still in love with her pimp.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarius (1931)
César runs a bar along Marseilles' port, assisted by his 23-year-old son, Marius. Friends since childhood, Fanny and Marius love each other, but Marius has a secret wanderlust: every ship's whistle stirs a longing for foreign lands. When M. Panisse seeks Fanny's hand in marriage and when a departing clipper needs a deckhand, Marius and Fanny must decide who and what they love most. César, with his generous, wise spirit, tries to guide his son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)
Mild-mannered novelist of Western fiction, Amédée Lange, and his colleagues take over a publishing house after their exploitative boss disappears, only for the superior to return and try to reclaim the profits from their successful cooperative.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThérèse Raquin (1953)
Star-crossed lovers Thérèse and Laurent think they've gotten away with murder after Thérèse's weakling husband "falls" from a speeding train. But when forced to contend with a blackmailer's demands and the mute accusations of Thérèse's mother-in-law, it's only a matter of time before the law, their passion or blind chance trips them up.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStormy Waters (1941)
A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Roofs of Paris (1930)
In the tenement slums of Paris between the world wars, impoverished street singer Albert yearns for beautiful Romanian immigrant Pola. Pola's boyfriend, local hoodlum Fred, grows jealous of Albert's constant attention to his woman and frames the hapless musician for one of his own petty crimes. But while Albert is in prison for Fred's misdeed, Pola ends up falling for Albert's faithful best friend, Louis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rules of the Game (1939)
The Marquis de la Chesnaye and his wife host a weekend gala where a variety of complicated romantic and social entanglements between guests and servants lead to tragedy, all against the backdrop of a looming war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Day in the Country (1946)
The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Belle Équipe (1936)
Five unemployed workers win 100,000 Francs in the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCésar (1936)
Leaping forward twenty years, the trilogy continues with the death of Fanny's husband, Panisse, and the discovery of her secret by her son, Césariot. The young man resolves to track down his biological father, Marius, whose life has been fraught with calamity and poverty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLe Million (1931)
Debt-ridden painter Michel is overcome with joy at discovering that he has just won 1 million florins in the Dutch lottery, but almost immediately, he discovers that his softhearted girlfriend, Béatrice, has given away his jacket containing the winning ticket to an elderly petty thief. Soon Michel, Beatrice and Michel's artistic rival, Prosper, are hurtling through the streets of Paris on the trail of the missing jacket.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Place to Fight For (2023)
Greg is a police lieutenant; he must collect informations on eco-activists, infiltrating them for months. Myriam, a young free woman, is fighting to save a forest from the building of a dam. They meet and fall in love on the Zone. A beautiful life, a joy that Greg discovers, despite the risks of being unmasked. For each of them, time is short: soon everything will disappear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLe Combat dans l'île (1962)
The charismatic, surly son of a wealthy industrialist, Clément, leads a double life as a member of a right-wing extremist organization. When he’s ratted out after a failed assassination attempt on a prominent politician, Clément and his long-suffering wife Anne flee Paris to the idyllic country home of his childhood friend, pacifist print-maker Paul. As affection blossoms between Paul and Anne, the emotional, as well as political tensions, soar and eventually explode.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust the Two of Us (2023)
When Blanche meets Grégoire, she thinks she has found the one. The ties that bind them grow quickly, and a passionate affair ensues. Together, they relocate. For Blanche, far from her family, from her twin sister, Rose, a new life begins. But little by little, she finds herself caught in the grip of a deeply possessive and dangerous man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like La Bête Humaine?
The closest matches to La Bête Humaine are Fanny (1932), Children of Paradise (1945) and Port of Shadows (1938). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after La Bête Humaine?
People who watched La Bête Humaine most often go on to Fanny (1932), Children of Paradise (1945) and Port of Shadows (1938).
What is the highest-rated movie like La Bête Humaine?
Children of Paradise (1945), rated 8.1/10 by 476 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like La Bête Humaine?
A Place to Fight For (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like La Bête Humaine?
Yes: Fanny (1932), Children of Paradise (1945) and Port of Shadows (1938).
How are movies similar to La Bête Humaine chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside La Bête Humaine, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.