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Films with the genre "Melodrama", sorted by rating
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Casablanca (1943)
, 1h42Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Crime, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Films set in Africa, Political films, Films based on plays
Actors Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet
Set in December, 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine is the proprietor of an upscale nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca. "Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele: Vichy French, Italian, and German officials; refugees desperate to reach the still neutral United States; and those who prey on them. Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, it is later revealed he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side against the fascist Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War.
Office Romance (1977)
, 2h31Directed by Eldar Riazanov
Origin Russie
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Andrey Myagkov, Alissa Freindlich, Oleg Basilashvili, Svetlana Nemoliaïeva, Lyudmila Ivanova, Lia Akhedjakova
The action takes place in Moscow in 1976. Anatoly Yefremovich Novoseltsev, a clumsy single father of two sons, works at a statistical bureau. His boss is a strict unmarried woman, Ludmila Prokofievna Kalugina, nicknamed "our frump" by her subordinates. She has some self-confidence problems, hidden behind her gloomy humorless demeanor and plain old-fashioned look. Novoseltsev’s colleagues consider him as a smart and experienced worker. He dreams about a promotion and a raise that would help him provide for his children, but he is too timid to talk to his boss about it. His former classmate and old friend, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, recently appointed assistant manager of the institution, suggests appointing Novoseltsev as a head of the light industry department, but Kalugina rejects it believing that Novoseltsev is not good enough for the position. Then, following Samokhvalov's advice, Novoseltsev unwillingly tries to flirt with "the Frump" at a party in Samokhvalov's apartment in order to "get into contact" with her. Feeling extremely uneasy he tries in vain to make conversation with her - talks about random things such as picking berries and mushrooms, reads poetry, shows off his singing and dancing abilities (in a very comical way), but Kalugina gets annoyed and severely criticizes all his attempts to impress her. Eventually Novoseltsev becomes frustrated, flares up and tells Kalugina right in her face that he considers her dry, inhuman and heartless.
The Heiress (1949)
, 1h55Directed by William Wyler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Historical, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Mona Freeman, Vanessa Brown
Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) is a plain, painfully shy woman whose emotionally detached father (Ralph Richardson) makes no secret of his disappointment in her. When she meets the charming Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she immediately is taken by the attention that he lavishes upon her, attention she so desperately seeks from her father. Catherine falls madly in love with Morris and they plan to marry.
, 2h10Directed by Vladimir Valentinovich Menshov
Origin Russie
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Melodrama, Romance
Actors Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyova, Alexeï Batalov, Natalya Vavilova, Oleg Tabakov, Aleksandr Fatyushin
The film is set in Moscow in 1958 and 1979. The plot centers on three young women who come to Moscow from smaller towns: Katerina, Lyudmila, and Antonina. They are placed together in a workers' dormitory apartment and eventually become friends. Antonina is seeing Nikolai, a reserved but kind young man whose parents have a dacha in the country. Katerina (Vera Alentova) is a serious, upstanding woman who strives to earn her chemistry degree while working at a factory. She is asked to house-sit an apartment for her well-to-do Moscow relatives (a famous professor's family) while they are away on a trip. Lyudmila (Irina Muravyova), a flirty go-getter looking for a well-to-do husband while working at a bakery, convinces her to throw a dinner party at the apartment, and pretend that they are the daughters of Katerina's professor uncle, as a ploy to meet successful Muscovite men. At the party, Lyudmila meets Sergei, a famous hockey player, who falls in love with her and marries her even after discovering the truth about her origin. Katerina meets Rudolf (Yuri Vasilyev), a smooth talker who works as a cameraman for a television channel. He charms Katerina and then forces himself onto her. During Antonina and Nikolai's wedding, Lyudmila and Antonina find out that Katerina is pregnant. Upon discovering that Katerina is not the daughter of a professor, Rudolf refuses to marry her and believes that she is going to abort the fetus. Rudolf's mother stops by Katerina and Lyudmila's room in workers' dormitory to tell Katerina to stop bothering her son and offers her money, which Katerina refuses. Katerina finds out that it was actually Lyudmila who was calling Rudolf's mother pretending she was Katerina to demand child support. This leaves Katerina alone with the baby.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
, 2h2Directed by Elia Kazan
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Melodrama
Themes Films about families, Medical-themed films, Psychologie, Théâtre, Transport films, Rail transport films, Films about psychiatry, Films based on plays, Adaptation d'une pièce de théâtre de Tennessee Williams
Actors Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis
Under mysterious circumstances, Blanche DuBois, an aging highschool teacher, leaves her home in Auriol, Mississippi to travel to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski. She arrives on the train and boards a streetcar named "Desire" and reaches her sister's home in the French Quarter where she discovers that her sister and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski, live in a cramped and dilapidated two-room apartment in an old New Orleans tenement. Blanche and Stella are all that remain of an old aristocratic family. Blanche discloses that the family estate, Belle Reve, has been lost to creditors, and that she wants to stay with Stella and Stanley for a while. Blanche seems lost and broke, with nowhere to go. Stella welcomes her with an open heart.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
, 3h17Directed by David Lean
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Historical, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Politique, Films about sexuality, Transport films, Rail transport films, Political films
Actors Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Tom Courtenay
The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of the pre-World War I years, World War I itself, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tanya Komarova (Rita Tushingham), may be his niece and tells her the story of her father's life.
Now, Voyager (1942)
, 1h57Directed by Irving Rapper
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Romantic drama, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about psychiatry
Actors Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita Granville, Mary Wickes
Drab Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her dictatorial mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman's complete lack of self-confidence. It is revealed that Mrs. Vale had already brought up three sons, and Charlotte was an unwanted child born to her late in life. Fearing Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends she spend time in his sanatarium.
Stella (1955)
, 1h30Directed by Michael Cacoyannis
Origin Grece
Genres Drama, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Feminist films, Politique, Théâtre, Political films, Films based on plays
Actors Melina Mercouri, Giorgos Fountas, Alekos Alexandrakis, Christina Kalogerikou, Voula Zouboulaki, Dionysis Papagiannopoulos
Stella, the main character, is a rebetiko singer. Although she is in love with Miltos, a soccer player, she repeatedly rejects his marriage proposals. When Miltos finally forces her to accept the idea of marriage, Stella does not appear in church, despite Miltos repeatedly warning her that he will kill her if she doesn't marry him. Miltos kills her with a dagger at end of the film.
Veer-Zaara (2004)
, 3h12Directed by Yash Chopra
Origin Inde
Genres Drama, Musical, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about religion, Musical films, Bollywood
Actors Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Manoj Bajpayee, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini
Most of the story is revealed as a flashback from the prison cell of Veer Pratap Singh.
, 2h26Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Origin Japon
Genres Drama, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Sports films, Martial arts films
Actors Yōko Umemura, Nobuko Fushimi
The film is set in Japan in 1885. Kikunosuke Onoe, played in his movie debut by the stage actor Shotaro Hanayagi, is the adoptive son of a famous Kabuki actor, who is training to succeed his father in an illustrious career. While hypocritically praising Onoe's acting to his face, the rest of his father's troupe deride him behind his back. Otoku (Kakuko Mori), the young wet-nurse of Onoe's adoptive father's infant son, is the only one frank enough to disclose his artistic shortcomings and urge him to improve himself. When Otoku is dismissed by Onoe's family for her closeness to the young master, with its potential for scandal, Onoe is outraged and leaves Tokyo to hone his art away from his father, much to the latter's wrath.
Oliver Twist (1948)
, 1h56Directed by David Lean, George Pollock
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Adventure, Melodrama
Themes Films about children, L'enfance marginalisée
Actors Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, John Howard Davies, Kay Walsh, Anthony Newley, Francis L. Sullivan
A young woman in labour makes her way to a parish workhouse and dies after giving birth to a boy, who is systematically named Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) by the workhouse authorities. As the years go by, Oliver and the rest of the child inmates suffer from the callous indifference of the officials in charge: beadle Mr. Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan) and matron Mrs. Corney (Mary Clare). At the age of nine, the hungry children draw straws; Oliver loses and has to ask for a second helping of gruel ("Please sir, I want some more").
Imitation of Life (1959)
, 2h5Directed by Douglas Sirk
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Films about films, Films about racism
Actors Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner, Dan O'Herlihy
In 1947, widow Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) dreams of becoming a famous Broadway actress. Losing track of her young daughter Susie at the beach (portrayed as a child by Terry Burnham), she asks a stranger named Steve Archer (John Gavin) to help her find the girl. Susie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a black single mother who also has a daughter, Sarah Jane (portrayed as a child by Karin Dicker), who is about Susie's age. Sarah Jane inherited her father's fair skin and can pass for white. She does this with fierce zeal and fervor, taking advantage of her European heritage and features. In return for Annie's kindness, Lora temporarily takes in Annie and her daughter. Annie persuades Lora to let her stay and look after the household, so that the widow can pursue an acting career.
Mother India (1957)
, 2h55Directed by Mehboob Khan
Origin Inde
Genres Drama, Musical theatre, Musical, Melodrama
Themes Films about families, Feminist films, Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Bollywood
Actors Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar Tuli, Raaj Kumar, Kumkum, Mukri
The film is set in 1957, the present day at the time of shooting. When construction of an irrigation canal to the village is completed, Radha (Nargis), considered to be the "mother" of the village, is asked to inaugurate the canal. She remembers her past, when she was newly married.
Marius (1931)
, 2hDirected by Alexander Korda, Marcel Pagnol
Origin France
Genres Drama, Comedy, Melodrama, Romance
Themes La provence, Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Robert Vattier, Alida Rouffe
The film takes place mostly in the waterfront bar of César, Marius's father. Marius works in the bar and his good friend since childhood, Fanny, works outside the bar selling cockles. Marius has a hidden desire to travel to exotic places with the ship crews that depart from the docks of Marseilles. This desire becomes exposed when a rich older man (Panisse) proposes to Fanny and Marius gets jealous. Marius' jealousy of Panisse is the first indication of the secret feelings that he has for her, but much to his surprise, the feelings are reciprocated by Fanny. She confesses that she loves Marius prompting him to reveal his plans of traveling the world to her, noting that being the wife of a man at sea is not a desirable life. After a few nights, it is discovered that they have slept together and Marius's father and Fanny's mother convince him to marry her. Marius becomes noticeably melancholy after proposing to Fanny until a few days later, the date of departure of a boat on which Marius was supposed to crew. Fanny, realizing that Marius is not truly happy being with her, decides to encourage him to leave. She helps distract his father while Marius sneaks onto the boat.
Fanny (1932)
, 2h20Directed by Marc Allégret, Yves Allégret, Pierre Prévert, Marcel Pagnol
Origin France
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Melodrama, Romance
Themes Pregnancy films, La provence, Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Raimu, Orane Demazis, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Robert Vattier
The story takes place in Marseille, where Marius, the son of a barkeeper César, has a romance with Fanny, neighbourhood girl of the fish sales man in the harbor. Marius dreams of sailing away one day and travel the seven seas. Fanny soon discovers she is pregnant of Marius, a shameful position in their community since she's a single mother with a father unable to secure the future of her and her child. She agrees with her mother and father's advice to marry a more prosperous salesman in the harbor, Honoré Panisse, who is 30 years older than she is. A few months after the marriage and the birth of the baby Marius returns and tries to win back Fanny.