Movies like Le bonheur des tristes (1981)
The best movies like Le bonheur des tristes (1981) are TalhotBlond (2012), Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). If Le bonheur des tristes hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Substitute (1996)7.0/10 from 621 votes
- NewestFerry 2 (2024)Released 2024
- In FrenchBecoming a Father (2020)Also in French
TalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNormal (2003)
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bramble House Christmas (2017)
While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $100,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim what he considers his family’s money, going undercover to investigate the bed and breakfast the nurse has recently taken over. When Finn meets Willa, he discovers she’s not a conniving gold digger at all, but a woman in need who put the money to good use. When she discovers his true identity, will it keep Willa from ever trusting him again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeeds of Yesterday (2015)
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLocke & Key (2011)
Three children become the caretakers of a New England mansion that is home to a bevy of secrets and magic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecoming a Father (2020)
Frank is a father whose dreams will be shaken by the birth of his daughter with Down syndrome. How will he face the small and big sacrifices that this new life imposes on him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisL'Emprise (2015)
"L'emprise" is the story of a drama, adapted from the moving book-witness "Acquitted", by Alexandra Lange. The story of a mother of four children, which is found in March 2012 in the dock of the foundations of Douai for the murder of her husband. How does a woman manage to kill the father of her children with a knife? During the three days of the trial, panting narrative takes us into the daily life of Alexandra, a mother that the society has failed to protect, neither she nor her children from the control of a monster she has loved. Through this incident that made headlines and upset the public, an event movie that raises the question of the balance of justice. Will she be heard?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Zero (2014)
Based on the true story of a successful couple, Maggie and Aaron who are preparing for the arrival of their first child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello (2022)
An emotionally unavailable flight attendant meets a potential love interest and later finds out that her "perfect guy" has ulterior motives. As the clock ticks down on New Year's Eve, she must fight to keep her murdered ex-boyfriend's secrets or find herself dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Son (2019)
Time passes and tension mounts in a Florida police station as an estranged interracial couple awaits news of their missing teenage son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwelve Angry Men (1954)
Twelve Angry Men is a 1954 teleplay by Reginald Rose for the Studio One anthology television series. Initially staged as a CBS live production on 20 September 1954, the drama was later rewritten for the stage in 1955 under the same title and again for a feature film, 12 Angry Men (1957). The episode garnered three Emmy Awards for writer Rose, director Franklin Schaffner and Robert Cummings as Best Actor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJust Past Noon on a Tuesday (2018)
Two strangers visit the penthouse of a recently deceased lover, only to find themselves learning more about each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bir Yudum Mutluluk (1982)
The story of a worker fighting to save a young girl addicted to morphine from a life of crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Fool on the Pill (2024)
In a village, an unlucky fool has a bad morning when he’s forced to walk to town for his job interview. Along the way he meets a man who claims he is a wizard and can tell The Fool is unlucky, he offers him a lucky pill that will change his life temporarily. The Fool doesn't actually believe the pill will work but when he takes it and gets the job against all odds, The Fool is hooked.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ferry 2 (2024)
After losing his drug empire, Ferry Bouman has found a measure of peace away from Brabant's criminal underworld — until his past catches up to him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKuppathu Raja (2019)
A story about the relationship between the slum dwellers in Chennai and how certain anti-social elements create unrest in their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ali and Alia (2019)
Ali and Alia are childhood neighbors that fell in love with each other, but bigger events occur in their lives which gets them separated. Ali seeks to maintain Alia's heart even if it is through substance abuse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Generation Angst (TBA)
Jack Grinnell, an aspiring grunge musician, must overcome the grim reality of his heroin addiction that has destroyed all of the relationships in his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I love you mum, I promise I won't die (2021)
In May 2014, just months after Dan died, the DSM Foundation commissioned award-winning playwright Mark Wheeller to write a verbatim play that told his story, so other young people could learn the lessons he sadly no longer could, and make choices that would keep them safe. The title takes Dan’s joking last words to his mum, Fiona, before he left home for what turned out to be the last time: ‘I Love You, Mum – I Promise I Won’t Die’. Mark worked on the very first production with his talented youth theatre company in Southampton, Oasis Youth Theatre, and the play had its first public performances in March 2016, with previews in Southampton and its premiere at the BRIT school, just a mile from Dan’s home in Croydon, South London.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRed Palm (2024)
A man must go on a journey through the darkest recesses of his mind or succumb to his vices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Le bonheur des tristes?
The closest matches to Le bonheur des tristes are TalhotBlond (2012), Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996) and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Le bonheur des tristes?
Start with TalhotBlond (2012), the closest match to Le bonheur des tristes.
What is the highest-rated movie like Le bonheur des tristes?
The Substitute (1996), rated 7.0/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Le bonheur des tristes?
Ferry 2 (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Le bonheur des tristes?
Yes: Becoming a Father (2020) and L'Emprise (2015).
How are movies similar to Le bonheur des tristes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Le bonheur des tristes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























