Movies like The Most Beautiful Life (1956)
The best movies like The Most Beautiful Life (1956) are The Swimming Pool (1969), The Things of Life (1970) and Manon of the Spring (1986). If The Most Beautiful Life hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAmour (2012)7.7/10 from 1,843 votes
- NewestOut of Love (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchThe Swimming Pool (1969)Also in French
The Swimming Pool (1969)
Set in a magnificent villa near a sun-drenched St. Tropez, lovers Jean-Paul and Marianne are spending a happy, lazy summer holiday. Their only concern is to gratify their mutual passion - until the day when Marianne invites her former lover and his beautiful teenage daughter to spend a few days with them. From the first moment, a certain uneasiness and tension begin to develop between the four, which soon escalates in a dangerous love-game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Things of Life (1970)
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of Love (2025)
When Jeanne, a meticulous insurance assessor, is suddenly left to care for her estranged sister’s two children after their mother vanishes, her carefully ordered life begins to unravel. Confronted with unexpected responsibilities, she must balance the fragile task of earning the children’s trust while also tending to her own relationship with her girlfriend, who struggles to adjust to Jeanne’s new role. As grief, uncertainty, and shifting loyalties mount, Jeanne finds herself redefining what family and love truly mean.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndangered Species (2017)
The fates of three entwined families. Joséphine and Tomas have just got married. It was a joyful celebration. But soon, Joséphine’s parents will discover a darker side lurking behind the couple’s sunny happiness. Meanwhile, Mélanie tells her parents that she is pregnant but the father is not ideal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe African Doctor (2016)
1975. When Seyolo Zantoko, a doctor from the Congo who has managed, along with his family, to flee tyranny, is hired by the mayor of a small town in northern France, he begins a struggle to adapt to a new life and gain the trust of the prejudiced villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe House by the Sea (2017)
By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuriel, or the Time of Return (1963)
In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Summer in Provence (2014)
In the wake of their parent's separation, three siblings spend the summer in the south of France with their estranged Grandfather. In less than 24 hours, a clash of generations has occurred between the teenagers and the old man. During this turbulent summer, both generations will be transformed by one another.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stranger (2025)
Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmour (2012)
Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCairo Conspiracy (2022)
A fisherman's son is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival, the university’s highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, dies and the young student becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt's religious and political elite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndochine (1992)
In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Devries, and her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camillevare form the three points of a cross-cultural romantic triangle. As the struggle against European imperialism sweeps Indochina, Jean-Baptiste and Camille have to choose sides and Éliane faces the emotionally difficult challenge of raising the child of her daughter and ex-lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCafé de Flore (2011)
Jacqueline is a young mother living in 1960s Paris with her disabled son Laurent. Abandoned by her husband, Jacqueline sacrifices everything to care for her son and vows to give Laurent a “normal” life full of happiness. Antoine, is a successful DJ in present day Montreal who seems to have it all: a thriving career, two beautiful daughters, partner Rose, with whom he is passionately in love. However, nothing is perfect and Antoine’s ex-wife Carole remains devastated by their recent separation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAllied (2016)
In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTanguy (2001)
Tanguy is 28 years old and still living with his parents. They think it's time he moves out. He doesn't, so they hatch a plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Most Beautiful Life?
The closest matches to The Most Beautiful Life are The Swimming Pool (1969), The Things of Life (1970) and Manon of the Spring (1986). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Most Beautiful Life?
Start with The Swimming Pool (1969), the closest match to The Most Beautiful Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Most Beautiful Life?
Amour (2012), rated 7.7/10 by 1,843 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Most Beautiful Life?
Out of Love (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Most Beautiful Life?
Yes: The Swimming Pool (1969), The Things of Life (1970) and Manon of the Spring (1986).
How are movies similar to The Most Beautiful Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Most Beautiful Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.