Movies like De l'histoire ancienne (2001)
The best movies like De l'histoire ancienne (2001) are The Long Absence (1961), The Finishers (2013) and Brother (2019). If De l'histoire ancienne hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Nest (2020)6.1/10 from 396 votes
- NewestAt Work (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThe Long Absence (1961)Also in French
The Long Absence (1961)
Therese, a café owner, mourns the mysterious disappearance of her husband sixteen years earlier. A tramp arrives in the town and she believes him to be her husband. But he is suffering from amnesia and she tries to bring back his memory of earlier times.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Finishers (2013)
Julien, 17, is wheelchair-bound due to cerebral palsy. Despite their love for him, his family is gradually falling apart under the strain of dealing with his disability. In a bid to bond with his father, Julien challenges him to participate with him in the Ironman race in Nice (French Riviera), a triathlon in which his father has previously competed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrother (2019)
Because he wanted to protect his little brother, Teddy, a young man without a history, is accused of the murder of his father and sent to a closed educational center, waiting for his trial for parricide. He then plunges into a brutal universe of which he does not know the rules.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Name (2021)
Nelie escaped a miserable existence by becoming a frontline nurse in 1914. One day, she takes the identity of Rose, a young woman from a good family, who dies in front of her. She presents herself in her place at Madame de Lengwil's house, to become the reader of this wealthy woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisJuliette in Spring (2024)
Juliette goes back in her hometown to spend some time with her family. She finds herself between a loving but moody father, a New Age mother, a sister in the midst of an existential crisis, and a grandmother slowly losing her mind. Buried memories and family secrets rise to the surface in this sweet, tender and sometimes extravagant family portrait.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Secret (2007)
In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColonel Chabert (1994)
When Colonel Chabert returns from the war, he discovers that he has lost everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Passerby (1982)
Max Baumstein is a reputable businessman who founded an international organization fighting against violations of human rights. Why would he commit an act that apparently negates the principles he has striven for so long to uphold? As he is tried for first-degree murder for killing a Paraguayan ambassador in cold blood, he reveals a secret about himself that he kept hidden from his wife Lina. His act is the conclusion of a struggle that started many decades earlier in his childhood...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorman (2010)
A teenager pretends to be dying from cancer as a way to cope with the realities of his daily existence and his father's terminal illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Brigade (2017)
Bénédicte Meursault, a female firefighter, has just been transferred to a small fire brigade in the South of France. She is welcomed by Philippe, 45, the wise captain of the brigade. Soon after being introduced to the men, the young woman jumps into action. Unfortunately, while rescuing the victims of a terrible car crash, she does not find one of the injured who was ejected thirty meters away. Now the man is in hospital in a coma and he may die because of her. Completely upset, Bénédicte decides to resign but Philippe dissuades her from doing it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Woman (1976)
Psychological drama of the compelling relationship between a young French engineer and the girl he takes into his home after his wife has left him with their baby son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdieu Philippine (1962)
Michel is a young technician in the fledgling TV industry and is due for military service in two months at the time of the Algerian War. Juliette and Liliane are inseparable best friends, and aspiring actresses, who hang around outside the TV studio. Michel invites them in to watch, flirts with them both, and dates them separately and together. When Michel goes on a holiday to Corsica, just before he is drafted, the girls follow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Praise of Love (2001)
Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn His Shadow (2023)
After the death of their father, two half-brothers find themselves on opposite sides of an escalating conflict with tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAt Work (2026)
A successful photographer gives up everything to devote himself to writing and discovers poverty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn the Edge (2022)
One night, Leo, a Spaniard working in Brussels as a subway driver, sees a young man on the edge of the platform, just before he falls onto the tracks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like De l'histoire ancienne?
The closest matches to De l'histoire ancienne are The Long Absence (1961), The Finishers (2013) and Brother (2019). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after De l'histoire ancienne?
Start with The Long Absence (1961), the closest match to De l'histoire ancienne.
What is the highest-rated movie like De l'histoire ancienne?
The Nest (2020), rated 6.1/10 by 396 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like De l'histoire ancienne?
At Work (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like De l'histoire ancienne?
Yes: The Long Absence (1961), The Finishers (2013) and Brother (2019).
How are movies similar to De l'histoire ancienne chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside De l'histoire ancienne, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.