Movies like My Best Fiend (1999)
The best movies like My Best Fiend (1999) are The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) and Wheel of Time (2003). If My Best Fiend hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEncounters at the End of the World (2008)7.5/10 from 311 votes
- NewestThe Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2024)Released 2024
- In GermanThe Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)Also in German
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
A study of the psychology of a champion ski-flyer, whose full-time occupation is carpentry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)
Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWheel of Time (2003)
Wheel of Time is Werner Herzog's photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, India.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFata Morgana (1972)
Shot under extreme conditions and inspired by Mayan creation theory, the film contemplates the illusion of reality and the possibility of capturing for the camera something which is not there. It is about the mirages of nature—and the nature of mirage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLessons of Darkness (1992)
Shortly after the Gulf War, oil fires were raging all through Kuwait. In the week before this sea of fire would be extinguished, Werner Herzog filmed this apocalyptic landscape with its murky skies, scorched earth and capricious flames.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2024)
Filmmaker Werner Herzog combs through the film archives of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft to create a film that celebrates their legacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
La Soufrière: Waiting for an Inevitable Catastrophe (1977)
Werner Herzog takes a film crew to the island of Guadeloupe when he hears that the volcano on the island is going to erupt. Everyone has left, except for one old man who refuses to leave.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBurden of Dreams (1982)
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEncounters at the End of the World (2008)
Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica, where he finds a desolate, beautiful landscape, largely untouched by human hands, and a group of truly unique people who risk their lives to study it. Centered at McMurdo Station, the United States' largest Antarctic research center, Herzog explores the minds of the scientists willing to abandon civilization and endure volatile conditions to learn more about the continent's wildlife and awe-inspiring natural wonders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dark Glow of the Mountains (1985)
Werner Herzog follows mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner during their expedition into climbing the Gasherbrum mountains, which has some of the most difficult peaks to be conquered, and they'll do it without the use of oxygen tanks. Herzog also takes some time to hear about their past experiences with other mountains, their personal tragedies and the reasons why they are so involved with such activity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Deutschland privat (1980)
"Deutschland privat" is a special project by Robert van Ackeren, who in 1979 asked people to send him their 8mm home movies by placing ads in several magazines in Berlin, Germany. In the ads he announced that he was planning to blow up and mount the best of those movies into a feature documentary to be released in German cinemas. He was surprised how many home movies he received and how generously people allowed him to use them for his feature. Part 1 of "Deutschland privat" gives us typical German home movies of the 1970s, i.e. private holidays, family parties, etc. Part 2 consists of what is now called "amateur porn"; home made 8mm movies featuring real porn action.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Grizzly Man (2005)
Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisF for Fake (1973)
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnselm (2023)
This unique cinematic experience dives deep into an artist’s work and reveals his life path, inspiration, and creative process. It explores his fascination with myth and history. Past and present are interwoven to diffuse the line between film and painting, allowing the audience to be completely immersed in the remarkable world of one of the greatest contemporary artists, Anselm Kiefer. Wim Wenders shot this unique portrait over the course of two years in stunning 3D.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe White Diamond (2004)
This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to design and test a unique airship during its maiden flight above the jungle canopy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWings of Hope (1999)
Werner Herzog returns to the South American jungle with Juliane Koepcke, the German woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash there in 1971. They find the remains of the plane and recreate her journey out of the jungle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)
A group of Miskito Indians use Nicaraguan child soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Images of the World and the Inscription of War (1991)
Farocki’s intriguing and troubling film explores the processes of visual perception and how they affect our understanding of history and society. In a work reminiscent of the writings of Paul Virilio and Michel Foucault, Farocki examines a range of phenomena including aerial reconnaissance photos of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Echoes from a Sombre Empire (1990)
Documentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Lost in La Mancha (2002)
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999)
A documentary chronicling the making of Kubrick's final film, 'Eyes Wide Shut', and his legacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInto the Inferno (2016)
With stunning views of eruptions and lava flows, Werner Herzog captures the raw power of volcanoes and their ties to indigenous spiritual practices.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJesus Christ Saviour (2008)
Klaus Kinski has perhaps the most ferocious reputation of all screen actors: his volatility was documented to electrifying effect in Werner Herzog’s 1999 portrait My Best Fiend. This documentary provides further fascinating insight into the talent and the tantrums of the great man. Beset by hecklers, Kinski tries to deliver an epic monologue about the life of Christ (with whom he perhaps identifies a little too closely). The performance becomes a stand-off, as Kinski fights for control of the crowd and alters the words to bait his tormentors. Indispensable for Kinski fans, and a riveting introduction for newcomers, this is a unique document, which Variety called ‘a time capsule of societal ideals and personal demons.’
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Tokyo-Ga (1985)
German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMeeting Gorbachev (2019)
Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, sits down with filmmaker Werner Herzog to discuss his many achievements. Topics include the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInto Great Silence (2005)
An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInto the Abyss (2011)
We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBurroughs: The Movie (1984)
An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, and William Burroughs Jr.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like My Best Fiend?
The closest matches to My Best Fiend are The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) and Wheel of Time (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after My Best Fiend?
People who watched My Best Fiend most often go on to The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) and Wheel of Time (2003).
What is the highest-rated movie like My Best Fiend?
Encounters at the End of the World (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 311 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like My Best Fiend?
The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like My Best Fiend?
Yes: The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974), Wheel of Time (2003) and Fata Morgana (1972).
How are movies similar to My Best Fiend chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside My Best Fiend, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.