Movies like Fanny (1932)
The best movies like Fanny (1932) are Marius (1931), La Bête Humaine (1938) and César (1936). If Fanny hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCity Lights (1931)8.2/10 from 2,591 votes
- NewestFatherhood (2021)Released 2021
- In FrenchMarius (1931)Also in French
- Same seriesMarius (1931)Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy
Marius (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: Same series: Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Bête Humaine (1938)
Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.
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: Same series: Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy · both comedy & 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
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 & comedy
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 comedy & drama
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 · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Baker's Wife (1938)
In this little Provencal village, a new baker, Aimable, settles down. His wife Aurelie is beautiful and much younger than he. She departs with a shepherd the night after Aimable produces his first breads. Aimable is so afflicted that he can not work anymore. Therefore, the villagers, who initially laughed at his cuckoldry, take the matter very seriously (they want the bread) and organize a plan to find Aurelie and to bring her back to the bakery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZero for Conduct (1933)
In a repressive boarding school with rigid rules of behavior, four boys decide to rebel against the director on a celebration day.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wedding March (1928)
Against the backdrop of Vienna's hidebound caste system, aristocrat and army officer Nicki is attracted to peasant Mitzi, although he knows it cannot last. Acquiescing to familial pressure, he ultimately gives her up to marry the more socially acceptable – albeit crippled – heiress Cecelia. Mitzi, for her part, is heartbroken and must resign herself to marrying churlish butcher Schani Eberle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies 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
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL'Âge d'or (1930)
The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCity Lights (1931)
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisJean de Florette (1986)
In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
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 & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Children of the Marshland (1999)
The film is set in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river in 1918. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisManon of the Spring (1986)
In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 drama
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 comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Red Head (1932)
A red-haired boy is his mother's punching bag; only his father's presence is a great comfort to him, but this weak man is under the shrew's thumb. His pain is so great he feels suicidal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The 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
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCœur fidèle (1923)
The good guys win out in this sweet tale about a young orphan who is abused for much of her life but who eventually finds happiness when she marries an honest man who extricates her from her situation.
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 · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisÀ Nous la Liberté (1931)
In this classic French satire, Louis, a convict, escapes from prison and takes on legitimate work, making his way up in the business world. Eventually becoming the head of a successful factory, Louis opts to modernize his company with mechanical innovations. But when his friend Émile finally leaves jail years later and reunites with Louis, the past catches up with them. The two, worried about being apprehended by police, long to flee the confines of industry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFatherhood (2021)
A widowed new dad copes with doubts, fears, heartache and dirty diapers as he sets out to raise his daughter on his own. Inspired by a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRiding in Cars with Boys (2001)
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Fanny?
The closest matches to Fanny are Marius (1931), La Bête Humaine (1938) and César (1936). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Fanny?
People who watched Fanny most often go on to La Bête Humaine (1938), Children of Paradise (1945) and The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940).
What is the highest-rated movie like Fanny?
City Lights (1931), rated 8.2/10 by 2,591 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Fanny?
Fatherhood (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Is Fanny part of a series?
Yes. It belongs to Marcel Pagnol's Marseille Trilogy, which includes Marius (1931) and César (1936).
Are there French movies like Fanny?
Yes: Marius (1931), La Bête Humaine (1938) and César (1936).
How are movies similar to Fanny chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Fanny, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.