Movies like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954)
The best movies like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut (1954) are Salomé (2013), Five Seconds (2025) and Gioia (2026). If The Lovers of Manon Lescaut hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHuman Capital (2013)7.4/10 from 963 votes
- NewestGioia (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianFive Seconds (2025)Also in Italian
Salomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Seconds (2025)
Adriano is a middle-aged man living in a dilapidated villa in Tuscany, when a group of young idealistic students arrives to restore the villa's vineyards.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGioia (2026)
Gioia is a high school teacher who has never known any other love than the oppressive bond with her own parents, with whom she still lives. One of the students at her school, Alessio, is cashing in on his own body to make a couple of hundred euros to help his mother, a cashier in a supermarket. The relationship that dawns between Gioia and Alessio is forbidden fruit, fragile yet, inexplicably, one they can’t do without. Still, Alessio’s desire to improve his social standing is a silent killer that prevents him from ultimately accepting Gioia’s surprising affection for him. He goes and destroys it all, cancelling the only person who has ever loved him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChrist Stopped at Eboli (1979)
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoal II: Living the Dream (2007)
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin Harris, though they must compete to be on the team, and estranged from fiancee Roz, whose nursing career keeps her back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Diary (1962)
Enrico is a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. He receives a phone call informing him that his younger brother Lorenzo has died. Enrico recalls their long and difficult relationship; he was brought up by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother, Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoilt brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDormant Beauty (2012)
A mosaic of several intertwined stories questioning the meaning of life, love and hope, set during the last six days in the life of Eluana Englaro, a young woman who spent 17 years in a vegetative state.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGiordano Bruno (1973)
Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUltras (2020)
An aging soccer fanatic faces down the reality of his past while struggling to give himself and a young follower very different futures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Family Friend (2006)
Geremia, an aging tailor/money lender, is a repulsive, mean, stingy man who lives alone in his shabby house with his scornful, bedridden mother. He has a morbid, obsessive relationship with money and he uses it to insinuate himself into other people's affairs, pretending to be the "family friend". One day he is asked by a man to lend him money for the wedding of Rosalba, his daughter. Geremia falls in love at first sight with the bewitching creature and and soon indulges in a "beauty and the beast" relationship...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHuman Capital (2013)
The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlong the Ridge (2006)
A young father and his two children struggle to find harmony after his wife leaves them for another man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Padre (2018)
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
Andreas Kartak, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris, is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to. Kartak is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances, and his alcoholism, forever intervene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFinally Dawn (2024)
A young Roman woman during the 1950s is on the verge of becoming engaged to a man. She goes to Cinecittà to do an audition as an extra and is thrust into this almost infinite night during which she discovers herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Family (1987)
Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo can't really decide until it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThings We Don't Say (2026)
Carlo and Elisa are a successful couple. He’s a university professor and writer facing a creative block; she’s a brilliant, sharp-witted journalist, known for her internationally published editorials. They live in Rome, moving between accomplishments and routine, affection and something that might be fading. In search of new energy, they travel to Morocco with their lifelong friends, Anna and Paolo, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Vittoria—bright, curious, a little eccentric. Tensions soon rise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mass Is Ended (1985)
Young Father Giulio returns to Rome, where he was born and raised, to replace a priest who has left the clergy to start a family. He is delighted to reunite with his loved ones, especially his mother, sister, and old friends. Once radical leftists like Giulio himself, the latter are now each coping in their own way with the defeat of the revolution. Soon, however, Giulio realizes that despite his best efforts, he seems unable to solve the problems troubling those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Mother's Smile (2002)
A celebrated painter receives a visit from a cardinal's assistant, who informs him that his mother could become a saint.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut?
The closest matches to The Lovers of Manon Lescaut are Salomé (2013), Five Seconds (2025) and Gioia (2026). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Lovers of Manon Lescaut?
Start with Salomé (2013), the closest match to The Lovers of Manon Lescaut.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut?
Human Capital (2013), rated 7.4/10 by 963 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut?
Gioia (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Lovers of Manon Lescaut?
Yes: Five Seconds (2025), Gioia (2026) and Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979).
How are movies similar to The Lovers of Manon Lescaut chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Lovers of Manon Lescaut, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.