Movies like Matisse (1951)
The best movies like Matisse (1951) are Being James Bond (2021), As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) and Maria by Callas (2017). If Matisse hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSpielberg (2017)7.5/10 from 317 votes
- NewestCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchHenri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (2009)Also in French
Being James Bond (2021)
Daniel Craig candidly reflects on his 15 year adventure as James Bond. Including never-before-seen archival footage from Casino Royale to the upcoming 25th film No Time To Die, Craig shares his personal memories in conversation with 007 producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria by Callas (2017)
Told through performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs, the film reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHenri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (2009)
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. This documentary presents Inferno's incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot's original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot's own notes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKubrick by Kubrick (2020)
American filmmaker Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999), one of the greatest in history, but also one of the most reserved, gave few interviews throughout his long career, and none of them were filmed. A first-person journey through his life and work, based on a recorded conversation with French film critic Michel Climent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpielberg (2017)
A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStruggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski (2018)
Artists in LA discover the work of forgotten Polish sculptor Stanislav Szukalski, a mad genius whose true story unfolds chapter by astounding chapter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCorman's World (2011)
A chronicle of the long career of American filmmaker Roger Corman, the most tenacious and ingenious low-budget producer and director in the US film industry, a pioneer of independent filmmaking and discoverer of new talent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVery Nice, Very Nice (1961)
Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidney (2022)
This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove, Antosha (2019)
From a prolific career in film and television, Anton Yelchin left an indelible legacy as an actor. Through his journals and other writings, his photography, the original music he wrote, and interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues, this film looks not just at Anton's impressive career, but at a broader portrait of the man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (2003)
Brilliant, long in-the-works story of the life and art of the world's greatest comedian and the cinema's first genius, Charlie Chaplin. Produced, written and directed by renowned film critic Richard Schickel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMilius (2013)
The life story of ‘Zen Anarchist’ filmmaker John Milius, one of the most influential storytellers of his generation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Extraordinary Voyage (2011)
An account of the extraordinary life of film pioneer Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and the amazing story of the copy in color of his masterpiece A Trip to the Moon (1902), unexpectedly found in Spain and restored thanks to the heroic efforts of a group of true cinema lovers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this42 Up (1999)
Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGilbert (2017)
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHubert Krejčí – Smrt divadlu! (2023)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Migliaccio: O Brasileiro em Cena (2021)
The documentary Migliaccio - O Brasileiro em Cena follows the path of those who take risks for the art, either as directors, as writers, as scenographers and even as costume designers. The Oscarito trophy received by Flávio Migliaccio in 2014 Gramado Film Festival crowns a career enmeshed by many threads. Since Migliaccio has performed in different fields of art - from cinema and theater to literature and drawing -, the documentary creates varied visual interventions to enchain the narrative, in addition to the interviews and archive pictures, such as a shadow play to represent his humble childhood, and to the cartoons the artist drew to portray his existential questions in his ranch in Rio Bonito (State of Rio de Janeiro). Images and stories that aim to show a professional and personal life pervaded by possibilities and attitudes, both artistic and political.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Eterna (2022)
Eterna is a 2022 Spanish documentary film directed by Juanma Sayalonga and David Sainz about the life of feminist rapper-poet Gata Cattana.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Tragic Mask: The Laird Cregar Story (2007)
A biography of the short-lived character actor Laird Cregar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn (2007)
The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals, adventures, loves and excess was largely played out in front of the camera - either making movies or filling the newsreels and gossip magazines. Tragically he was dead from the effects of drugs and alcohol by the time he was only 50 & the myths live on. But there is another side of Flynn that is less well known - his ambitions to be a serious writer and newspaper correspondent, his documentary films and his interest in the Spanish Civil War and Castro's Cuba
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
With this inventive portrait, director Kirsten Johnson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBe Water (2020)
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020)
Once the world's most famous astrologer, Walter Mercado seeks to resurrect a forgotten legacy. Raised in the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico, Walter grew up to become a gender non-conforming, cape-wearing psychic whose televised horoscopes reached 120 million viewers a day for decades before he mysteriously disappeared.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRage, Sex, and Jazz: I Spit on Your Graves by Vernon Sullivan (2022)
In 1946, the controversial French writer Boris Vian writes his novel I Spit on Your Graves under the pseudonym of Vernon Sullivan, supposedly a mysterious African-American writer; a work against racism and Anglo-Saxon puritanism whose publication causes a great scandal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Matisse?
The closest matches to Matisse are Being James Bond (2021), As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) and Maria by Callas (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Matisse?
Start with Being James Bond (2021), the closest match to Matisse.
What is the highest-rated movie like Matisse?
Spielberg (2017), rated 7.5/10 by 317 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Matisse?
Come See Me in the Good Light (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Matisse?
Yes: Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (2009), Kubrick by Kubrick (2020) and The Extraordinary Voyage (2011).
How are movies similar to Matisse chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Matisse, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.