Movies like Serie Noire (1979)
The best movies like Serie Noire (1979) are So Long, Stooge (1983), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Monsieur Hire (1989). If Serie Noire hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLe Samouraï (1967)7.8/10 from 1,337 votes
- NewestSaint Omer (2022)Released 2022
- In FrenchSo Long, Stooge (1983)Also in French
So Long, Stooge (1983)
In the 18th Arrondissement of Paris, Lambert, an aloof garage manager working the night shift at a petrol station spends his time drinking on the job, content in his own company. One night, Bensoussan, a small-time drug pusher in dire straits falls in on a stolen moped pretending to need a spark plug. The two men develop an unlikely friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJust Before Nightfall (1971)
A married man who killed the wife of his best friend during a tryst feels compelled to turn himself in.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsieur Hire (1989)
A French man spies on a lovely younger woman across the way. When he's spotted by the woman shortly after being questioned by the police about a local murder, the man's simple life becomes more complicated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fighter (1983)
Jacques Darnay has served 8 years for robbing a jeweller. Now he is out of prison and looking for his loot worth 6 million francs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Watchmaker of St. Paul (1974)
Michel Descombes is a watchmaker who lives in Lyon with his teenage son Bernard. When the police visit and inform him that Bernard has killed a man and is on the run with a girl, Michel realises that he knew far less about his son than he thought.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMan on the Train (2002)
A man, Milan steps off a train, into a small French village. As he waits for the day when he will rob the town bank, he runs into an old retired poetry teacher named M. Manesquier. The two men strike up a strange friendship and explore the road not taken, each wanting to live the other's life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Men in Manhattan (1959)
Two French journalists become embroiled in a criminal plot in New York City involving a disappeared United Nations diplomat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChoice of Arms (1981)
A former crook is pulled out of retirement when a gang on the run turn to him for shelter after a prison break.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Body of My Enemy (1976)
A man accused of murder discovers a trail of corruption leading to the powerful family of his former love. Going underground, he seeks allies in a town where trust is scarce.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Inquisitor (1981)
Martinaud, an illustrious notary suspected of being the perpetrator of two horrendous crimes, voluntarily agrees to be questioned by Inspector Gallien on New Year's Eve. What initially is a routine procedure, soon becomes a harsh interrogation that seems to confirm the initial suspicions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPolice (1985)
Mangin, a police inspector in Paris, leans hard on informants to get evidence on three Tunisian brothers who traffic in drugs. He arrests one, Simon, and his girl-friend Noria. Simon's brothers go to their lawyer. He springs Noria, who promptly steals 2 million francs that belong to the Tunisians. They suspect her of the theft; her life as well as the lawyer's is in danger. Meanwhile, Noria is playing with both the lawyer and Mangin's affections. Mangin is mercurial anyway: intimidating and bloodying suspects, falling for a police commission trainee before flipping for Noria, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Can he save the lawyer and Noria, and can he convince her to love?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Men in Town (1973)
A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLe Deuxième Souffle (1966)
A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPasha (1968)
Six months before his retirement from the criminal police, inspector Joss finds his colleague Gouvion dead, in a poorly faked suicide attempt. Joss loses his temper, and investigates on his own, which leads him through the bas-fond of Paris...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlic Story (1975)
The film story depicts Emile Buisson, following the death of his wife and child, escaping from a psychiatric institution in 1947 and returning to Paris. Buisson, who three years later would become France's public enemy number one, begins a murderous rampage through the French capital.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Man Must Die (1969)
When his young son is killed in a hit and run accident, Charles Thenier resolves to hunt down and murder the killer. By chance, Thenier makes the acquaintance of an actress, Helène Lanson, who was in the car at the time of the accident. He then meets Helène’s brother-in-law, Paul Decourt, a truly horrible individual.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBob le Flambeur (1956)
In Paris, Bob Montagne is practically synonymous with gambling -- and winning. He is kind, classy and well-liked by virtually everyone in town, including police inspector Ledru. However, when Bob's luck turns sour, he begins to lose friends and makes the most desperate gamble of his life: to rob the Deauville casino during Grand Prix weekend, when the vaults are full. Unfortunately, Bob soon learns that the game is rigged and the cops are on to him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHave Mercy on Us All (2007)
In Paris, many citizens go to the precinct after the doors of their apartments have been sprayed with a 4 and the letters "clt". When a dweller is found mysteriously dead in his apartment, Detective Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg and his partner Danglard investigate...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGangsters (2002)
Franck Chaievski and Nina Delgado are two undercover detectives of a French special force trying to identify two corrupts members of the Paris Police Force. Franck is pretending to be a gangster and Nina a prostitute living with him, and involved in a robbery of a fortune in diamonds, having seven deaths and some injured persons.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMesrine (1984)
Mesrine was the foremost criminal, public enemy N°1, the man most wanted in France, guilty of 39 crimes. "In the police or newspaper history, Mesrine broke all records". The film begins with his escape on May 8, 1978. Mesrine was the only man to escape from La Santé. We relive the 18 crazy months he spent on the run and his encounter with Sylvia who is swept into his madness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Coup de Torchon (1981)
A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath of a Corrupt Man (1977)
In the middle of the night, deputy Philippe Dubaye wakes up his old friend Xavier Maréchal with disturbing news: he has just killed Serrano, a racketeer with extant political connections. Serrano kept proofs of Dubaye's involvement in corrupt dealings and was poised to use them against the deputy. Xavier readily agrees to cover up for his old pal Philippe, but he soon runs into difficulties. Nobody believes Dubaye's alibi. And everybody -- influential personalities, powerful businessmen, dubious go-betweens and the police -- wants to get hold of the documents that served to blackmail Dubaye; by all possible means...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pariah (1972)
For more than 15 years, two Marseille friends and criminals battle the law, rival gangs, prison authorities and even mined beaches in order to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSK1 (2015)
The hunt, capture and trial of Guy Georges, one of France's most notorious serial killers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLe Samouraï (1967)
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSaint Omer (2022)
A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCry of the City (1948)
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStavisky... (1974)
Biarritz, 1933. Charm and talent assist small-time swindler Serge Alexandre, alias Stavisky, to bribe his way into the centre of French politics. But when his great scam involving millions is exposed, he brings the government to the verge of collapse and the country to the brink of civil war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Serie Noire?
The closest matches to Serie Noire are So Long, Stooge (1983), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Monsieur Hire (1989). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Serie Noire?
People who watched Serie Noire most often go on to So Long, Stooge (1983), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Monsieur Hire (1989).
What is the highest-rated movie like Serie Noire?
Le Samouraï (1967), rated 7.8/10 by 1,337 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Serie Noire?
Saint Omer (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Serie Noire?
Yes: So Long, Stooge (1983), Just Before Nightfall (1971) and Monsieur Hire (1989).
How are movies similar to Serie Noire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Serie Noire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.