Movies like Sempre più difficile (1943)
The best movies like Sempre più difficile (1943) are Sweetheart (2025), Malena (2000) and The Leopard (1963). If Sempre più difficile hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCinema Paradiso (1988)8.4/10 from 5,047 votes
- NewestSweetheart (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianSweetheart (2025)Also in Italian
Sweetheart (2025)
A reluctant summer together transforms into an enchanting adventure when a young boy discovers his aunt's mysterious Sicilian house holds secrets and, perhaps, ancient spirits lurking within its walls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalena (2000)
12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed dead, and, through his soul, we see his love for her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Leopard (1963)
As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me by Your Name (2017)
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPrimavera (2025)
A talented violinist, Cecilia, confined in an orphanage, meets Vivaldi who becomes her teacher. Under his mentorship and through his music, she gains courage to break free from the life she was destined for and pursue her passion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGolden Door (2006)
The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower, decides to emigrate to the US with all his family, including his old mother. Before they embark, they meet Lucy. She is supposed to be a British lady and wants to come back to the States. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before to arrive to Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts the proposal. Once they arrive in Ellis Island they spend the quarantine period trying to pass the examinations to be admitted to the States. Tests are not so simple for poor farmers coming from Sicily. Their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome September (1961)
Robert Talbot, an American millionaire, arrives early for his annual vacation at his luxurious Italian villa. His long-time girlfriend Lisa has given up waiting for him and has decided to marry another man. Meanwhile, his sneaky business associate Maurice secretly misappropriates the villa as a hotel while Talbot is away. The current guests of the "hotel" are a group of young American girls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLa Terra Trema (1949)
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAvanti! (1972)
A successful businessman travels to Italy to arrange for the return of his tycoon father's body, only to learn that dear old dad died with his longtime mistress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best of Youth (2003)
After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Stolen Children (1992)
Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Dolce Villa (2025)
When his daughter decides to buy a crumbling Tuscan villa, Eric rushes to Italy to talk her out of it — and instead finds beauty, romance and new purpose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFireworks (2023)
The troubled relationship between Gianni and Nino, set in the narrow-minded and prejudicial Sicily of 1982.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrooklyn (2015)
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Children's Train (2024)
In late 1940s Italy, a mother makes the difficult decision to send her son to the north, where he catches glimpses of a new life away from poverty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCabrini (2024)
Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini arrives in 1889 New York City and is greeted by disease, crime, and impoverished children. Cabrini sets off on a daring mission to convince the hostile mayor to secure housing and healthcare for society's most vulnerable. With broken English and poor health, Cabrini uses her entrepreneurial mind to build an empire of hope unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnna Christie (1930)
Old sailor Chris Christofferson eagerly awaits the arrival of his grown daughter Anna, whom he sent at five years old to live with relatives in Minnesota. He has not seen her since, but believes her to be a decent and respectably employed young woman. When Anna arrives, however, it is clear that she has lived a hard life in the dregs of society, and that much of spirit has been extinguished. She falls in love with a young sailor rescued at sea by her father, but dreads to reveal to him the truth of her past. Both father and young man are deluded about her background, yet Anna cannot quite bring herself to allow them to remain deluded.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCinema Paradiso (1988)
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOne Hundred Steps (2000)
Peppino Impastato is a quick-witted lad growing up in 1970s Sicily. Despite hailing from a family with Mafia ties and living just one hundred steps from the house of local boss Tano Badalamenti, Peppino decides to expose the Mafia by using a pirate radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sempre più difficile?
The closest matches to Sempre più difficile are Sweetheart (2025), Malena (2000) and The Leopard (1963). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sempre più difficile?
Start with Sweetheart (2025), the closest match to Sempre più difficile.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sempre più difficile?
Cinema Paradiso (1988), rated 8.4/10 by 5,047 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sempre più difficile?
Sweetheart (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Sempre più difficile?
Yes: Sweetheart (2025), Malena (2000) and The Leopard (1963).
How are movies similar to Sempre più difficile chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sempre più difficile, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.