NoBadPicks

Movies Like The Rules of the Game

If you loved The Rules of the Game's Drama and Comedy storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.

Top Picks

Mélo
6.8

Mélo

1986

Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are violinists and lifelong friends living in Paris in the 1920s. While Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not, both are happy with their lives. Pierre is happily married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Marcel little suspects.

Goodbye Again
7.1

Goodbye Again

1961

Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.

Désirée
6.5

Désirée

1954

In Marseilles, France in 1794, Desiree Clary, a young millinery clerk, becomes infatuated with Napoleon Bonaparte, but winds up wedding General Jean-Baptiste Berandotte, an aid to Napoleon who later joins the forces that bring about the Emperor's downfall. Josephine Beauharnais, a worldly courtesan marries Napoleon and becomes Empress of France, but is then cast aside by her spouse when she proves unable to produce an heir to the throne.

Kitty Foyle
6.5

Kitty Foyle

1940

A hard-working, white-collar girl falls in love with a young socialite, but meets with his family's disapproval.

I Got Life!
6.1

I Got Life!

2017

Aurore has separated, just lost her job, and learns that she is going to be a grandmother.

Moliere
6.4

Moliere

2007

Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise, hilarity ensues.

Jane Eyre
6.9

Jane Eyre

1996

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Welcome to the Sticks
6.7

Welcome to the Sticks

2008

Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France...

More Movies Like The Rules of the Game

Paris Can Wait
5.8

Paris Can Wait

2016

Anne is at a crossroads in her life. Long married to a successful, driven but inattentive movie producer, she unexpectedly finds herself taking a car trip from Cannes to Paris with Jacques, a business associate of her husband. What should be a seven-hour drive turns into a carefree two-day adventure replete with diversions involving picturesque sights, fine food and wine, humor, wisdom and romance - reawakening Anne's senses and giving her a new lust for life.

What the Day Owes the Night
7.7

What the Day Owes the Night

2012

Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.

Mr. Morgan's Last Love
6.6

Mr. Morgan's Last Love

2013

A widowed professor living in Paris develops a special relationship with a younger French woman.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
5.9

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

2010

Two married couples find only trouble and heartache as their complicated lives unfold. After 40 years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife to pursue what he thinks is happiness with a call girl. His wife, Helena, reeling from abandonment, decides to follow the advice of a psychic. Sally, the daughter of Alfie and Helena, is unhappy in her marriage and develops a crush on her boss, while her husband, Roy, falls for a woman engaged to be married.

Pardon Mon Affaire
6.9

Pardon Mon Affaire

1976

On an otherwise normal day, Étienne, a happily married man and a good father, sees something that stops him dead in his tracks: a gorgeous woman in a billowing red dress. Long after she has left his vision, her memory continues to haunt his mind. He falls instantly in love with her and tries everything to get to know her better. Helping Étienne snare his elusive lady in red are his three bumbling buddies, which all have secret affairs and/or cheat on their wives.

A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate
6.8

A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate

1923

When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.

Uranus
6.6

Uranus

1990

After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists. The local bar owner, a simple man who likes to write poetry, who only wants to be left alone to do his job, becomes a target for Communist harassment as they try and locate a particular loyalist, and he pushes back.

Love Is in the Air
6.2

Love Is in the Air

2023

A fiercely independent pilot fighting to keep her family business afloat starts to fall for the man sent by corporate to ground her operation forever.

Let's Make Love
6.4

Let's Make Love

1960

When billionaire Jean-Marc Clement learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue, he passes himself off as an actor playing him in order to get closer to the beautiful star of the show, Amanda Dell.

What's Love Got to Do with It?
6.0

What's Love Got to Do with It?

2023

Two childhood friends now in their thirties must decide whether to follow their heads or their hearts once the man decides to follow his parents' advice and enter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

Boyfriends and Girlfriends
7.1

Boyfriends and Girlfriends

1987

Middle-class Parisian suburbs: Blanche and Léa, office worker and student, meet and become friends. Léa is going out with Fabien, but is thinking of leaving him. Blanche falls for Léa's handsome and witty friend Alexandre, but is tongue-tied whenever she meets him. Léa goes on holiday and Blanche, still smitten with the dashing Alexandre, begins to get to know Fabien.

Le Plaisir
7.5

Le Plaisir

1952

Three stories about the pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Mme Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falling in love with his model - pleasure and death.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with The Rules of the Game (1939): Drama and Comedy themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of The Rules of the Game.

See full details for The Rules of the Game (1939)

People Also Search For