Movies like The Rules of the Game (1970)
The best movies like The Rules of the Game (1970) are Paternal Leave (2025), I Am Love (2010) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). If The Rules of the Game hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGladiator (2000)8.2/10 from 21,860 votes
- NewestSolo Mio (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianPaternal Leave (2025)Also in Italian
Paternal Leave (2025)
Torn between longing and anger, 15-year-old Leo travels to the coast of northern Italy to meet her biological father. The two are complete strangers to each other. They struggle to find truth, affinity, love and the courage to face themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Love (2010)
Emma has left Russia to live with her husband in Italy. Now a member of a powerful industrial family, she is the respected mother of three, but feels unfulfilled. One day, Antonio, a talented chef and her son's friend, makes her senses kindle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Italy, 16th century. Petruchio, a choleric, lying and poor rural landowner from Verona, arrives in Padua in search of fortune and a wife, while Baptista, a wealthy merchant, announces that he will not allow Bianca, his youngest daughter, to marry until the temperamental and unruly Katherina, his eldest daughter, does.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlash Gordon (1980)
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Brief Affair (2025)
Lea and Rocco meet by chance in a bar and an instant attraction ignites between them. From that moment, a secret affair begins, consisting of fleeting, clandestine meetings in a hotel room. However, as time passes, Lea's obsession with Rocco intensifies, leading her to intrude more and more into his life. The story soon takes an unexpected and unsettling turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlesh and the Devil (1926)
When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGladiator (2000)
After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus, one of Rome's most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator and battle to the death against other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOedipus Rex (1967)
In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Oedipus, and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoldier of Fortune (1976)
Medieval soldier of fortune Ettore is traveling through Europe with his partners looking for a fight where they can earn some money. When they come across a Spanish castle under siege by the French army, Ettore bides his time to determine which side is the winning one. This is at first the French, but the treatment he receives from them is unpleasant enough to make him change his mind and turn to the Spanish side. Somehow, Ettore must rally the weakened Spanish troops to battle their enemy long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTenderness (2017)
Back from the hospital where he has been treated after a heart attack, Lorenzo is on his way upstairs to his top-floor apartment in Naples when he meets Michela. The charming young woman, who has just moved to the facing apartment, has forgotten her keys and finds herself locked out. Cynical and grumpy, the retired lawyer who has been living estranged from the rest of the world, should normally leave her to her fate but he mellows under her spontaneous charm. He helps her, becomes friends not only with her but with her husband Fabio and their two children. For once, the self-declared misanthropist seems to be experiencing the long forgotten feeling of empathy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuddenly Heaven (2003)
Confirmed bachelor Lorenzo sees his beliefs about commitment put to the test when a gorgeous Latina deserted by her fiancée forces him to take his place in the romantic trip she had planned.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisRomeo and Juliet (1936)
Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLadyhawke (1985)
Captain Etienne Navarre is a man on whose shoulders lies a cruel curse. Punished for loving each other, Navarre must become a wolf by night whilst his lover, Lady Isabeau, takes the form of a hawk by day. Together, with the thief Philippe Gaston, they must try to overthrow the corrupt Bishop and in doing so break the spell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Daughter (2025)
A middle-aged man, Pietro, becomes a widower and must take care of his daughter. He will never have the time to delve into his own pain, committing himself to raising his daughter with love and dedication, in an all-encompassing relationship in which one heals the other's wounds through his own. When, after a few years, he tries to start a new life with a new partner, not everything will go as hoped: his daughter's reaction will be exaggerated and Pietro will be put to the test. He will find himself struggling between anger and paternal instinct.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSolo Mio (2026)
After Matt's dreams of a picturesque Italian wedding are shattered when his fiancée leaves him at the altar, he embarks on his planned honeymoon across Italy alone, immersing himself in the country's vibrant culture, food, and beauty, meeting Gia along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ties (2020)
Naples, early 1980s. The strained marriage between Aldo and Vanda is fractured one evening when Aldo admits, unprompted, his infidelity. Equally hurt and bewildered, Vanda attempts to hide her pain from the couple's two school-age kids, lest they discover that their cramped apartment is not a home of trust and love. 30 years later, Aldo and Vanda are still tied together, but their relationship with each other and their children continues to be defined by what happened all those years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGladiator II (2024)
Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIl conte Max (1957)
Alberto, a newspaper man, tries a one-time shot of living the good life with the help of his penniless mentor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDivorce Italian Style (1961)
Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisJohn Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
John Wick is forced out of retirement by a former associate looking to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to aid him, Wick travels to Rome and does battle against some of the world’s most dangerous killers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like The Rules of the Game and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Rules of the Game?
The closest matches to The Rules of the Game are Paternal Leave (2025), I Am Love (2010) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Rules of the Game?
Start with Paternal Leave (2025), the closest match to The Rules of the Game.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Rules of the Game?
Gladiator (2000), rated 8.2/10 by 21,860 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Rules of the Game?
Solo Mio (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Rules of the Game?
Yes: Paternal Leave (2025), I Am Love (2010) and A Brief Affair (2025).
How are movies similar to The Rules of the Game chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Rules of the Game, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.