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Movies like Paprika (1991)

The best movies like Paprika (1991) are Adua and Her Friends (1960), Malena (2000) and Nights of Cabiria (1957). If Paprika hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Adua and Her Friends (1960)

    When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. Malena (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: Fans watch both · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Nights of Cabiria (1957)

    Rome, 1957. A woman, Cabiria, is robbed and left to drown by her boyfriend, Giorgio. Rescued, she resumes her life and tries her best to find happiness in a cynical world. Even when she thinks her struggles are over and she has found happiness and contentment, things may not be what they seem.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  4. Amarcord (1973)

    In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  5. Frivolous Lola (1998)

    In 1950s northern Italy, a woman tests her fiancé's love and passion by trying to break his commitment to premarital chastity.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy

  6. I Vitelloni (1953)

    Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

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  7. Love and Anarchy (1973)

    When his anarchist friend is killed trying to assassinate Mussolini, Tunin decides it's up to him to finish the job. While visiting a brothel, he meets a prostitute named Salome, who agrees to help, as her former boyfriend was also killed by Mussolini. They enlist the aid of another prostitute and hatch an elaborate plan, but as the fateful day quickly approaches, the women have second thoughts.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. La Dolce Vita (1960)

    Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  9. Boccaccio '70 (1962)

    An anthology of four comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy: frothy young love and office politics in the big city; milk advertisements that begin to haunt an aging prude; a trophy wife enduring her husband's very public affairs; a lucky ticket-holder at a small town fair.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Belle de Jour (1967)

    Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  11. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)

    Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means to getting what they want.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  12. Homework (1991)

    Virginia is taking a class at film school, and has decided on her solo project for the class. She will secretly film herself and her ex-husband Marcelo with a candid camera while they make love.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. Black Angel (2002)

    Livia, the attractive wife of a high-ranking Ministry of the People's Republic official, is accompanied by Ugo, a lawyer, her admirer and her husband's spy, to Venice. There, she is to meet her lover Helmut Schultz, a lieutenant in the infamous SS with whom she is having a passionate love affair. During the journey, Livia retraces the steps of her sexual aberration. But a surprise awaits her in the lagoon city.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  14. Roma (1972)

    A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  15. Nana (1983)

    In Zola's Paris, an ingenue arrives at a tony bordello: she's Nana, guileless, but quickly learning to use her erotic innocence to get what she wants. She's an actress for a soft-core filmmaker and soon is the most popular courtesan in Paris, parlaying this into a house, bought for her by a wealthy banker. She tosses him and takes up with her neighbor, a count of impeccable rectitude, and with the count's impressionable son. The count is soon fetching sticks like a dog and mortgaging his lands to satisfy her whims.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

  16. Murmur of the Heart (1971)

    This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  17. Jamon Jamon (1992)

    José Luis has a cushy corporate job at the lingerie factory his mom owns. After he falls in love and proposes to Silvia, a beautiful laborer on the underwear assembly line, his mom enlists Raul, a potential underwear model and would-be bullfighter, to seduce Silvia.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. Remember Me, My Love (2003)

    A middle-class Italian family is tore apart when the father meets an old flame, the mother—a frustrated onetime actress—auditions for a play, their insecure son tries to make friends through drugs, and their underaged daughter—who has already figured out how to use sex to her advantage—does what she does best to appear on TV.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

  19. The Decameron (1971)

    A young Sicilian is swindled twice, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take revenge on their sister's lover; a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night; a group of painters wait for inspiration; a crafty priest attempts to seduce his friend's wife; and two friends make a pact to find out what happens after death.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Inserts (1975)

    A young, once-great Hollywood film director refuses to accept changing times during the early 1930s, and confines himself to his decaying mansion to make silent porn flicks.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

  21. Variety Lights (1950)

    In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  22. Princesa (2001)

    Fernanda, a 19-year-old Brazilian trans woman, travels to Milan and becomes a sex worker to finance her sex change operation.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  23. Passionate Partners (1993)

    Kreola arrives in Santa Domingo to join her photographer husband Andy. Although Andy is initially jealous of Marco, who is in town looking for his missing girlfriend who did not return from Santa Domingo with her coworkers after a girls getaway. When Kreola and Andy site the missing girl Iris in the company of their gruff, dominating sea captain Leon, Andy suggests Kreola distract him so that Marco has a chance of getting Iris back. Kreola scoffs at this but eventually does fall under Leon's spell. Andy's writer friend Jo Ann blames the island atmosphere for the tendency for puritanical Westerners to reject their inhibitions. When Andy and Marco cannot free their women from Leon's influence, things get drastic.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  24. Sweet Dreams (1981)

    Michele is a young filmmaker frustrated by the lack of understanding his work receives and at odds with the film industry, especially a colleague making a musical on the '68 student protests. As he struggles to complete his own film about Freud's mother, Michele's insecurity and creative block manifest in a series of unsettling nightmares. Nanni Moretti's self-inquiry into cinema, political ennui, and men's relationships with their mothers.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  25. Working Girls (1987)

    A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  26. Bread and Tulips (2000)

    An endearing light comedy about a woman who spontaneously becomes a resident of Venice after her family left her behind. While enjoying the wonderful people she meets she achieves a new life and the first time independent of her family.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  27. P.O. Box Tinto Brass (1995)

    A successful erotic film producer from Rome regularly receives letters from female fans seeking his advice on how to spice up their sex lives. Thanks to his years of experience in both the film business and the sex industry, he has all sorts of tips at the ready and, in an emergency, is happy to make a house call himself to demonstrate his qualities in person.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. The Erotic Dreams of Cleopatra (1985)

    Caesar brings the Egyptian queen Cleopatra to Rome, but their intense passion for each other has started to cool. As others prepare seek to bring about a conspiracy against Caesar and Cleopatra, every night Cleopatra begins to dream the same dream: her former lover is killed by his close associates. Her high priest states that the dream is one of prophecy, and no action can stop the march of events. Despite this, the Egyptian queen sends her messengers to Caesar, seeking to warn him that the fatal wounds will be inflicted by Brutus.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both

  29. The Canterbury Tales (1972)

    Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  30. Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963)

    Four short films by four different directors dealing with the principles of modern life. "Illibatezza" (Rossellini): The hostess Anna Maria, to dissuade an aggressive suitor who prefers maternal tendencies, assumes an unscrupulous attitude, obeying the suggestions of her distant boyfriend. "The New World" (Godard): The deflagration of an atomic bomb causes strange effects on the inhabitants of a city. "La ricotta" (Pasolini): During the filming of a film about a religious subject, the extra Stracci dies hanging on the cross due to an indigestion of ricotta. "Il pollo spante" (Gregoretti): While an expert illustrates to a board of merchants the most modern techniques to increase sales through the discovery of the secret self of the average consumer, the human story of a bourgeois who, following these suggestions, focuses on the purchase of a plot of land in the countryside.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this

Like Paprika and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Paprika?

The closest matches to Paprika are Adua and Her Friends (1960), Malena (2000) and Nights of Cabiria (1957). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Paprika?

People who watched Paprika most often go on to Adua and Her Friends (1960), Malena (2000) and Nights of Cabiria (1957).

What is the highest-rated movie like Paprika?

Nights of Cabiria (1957), rated 8.0/10 by 892 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Paprika?

Remember Me, My Love (2003) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Italian movies like Paprika?

Yes: Adua and Her Friends (1960), Malena (2000) and Nights of Cabiria (1957).

How are movies similar to Paprika chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Paprika, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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