Highest-Rated Movies about 'Psychological Realism'

Under the Sand (2000), The Wind (2018), Heartbeat Detector (2007), Germany Year Zero (1948), Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Genova (2008), The Swimmer (1968), Repulsion (1965) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Psychological Realism movies.

#1. Under the Sand (2000)

Storyline: For many years, Marie and Jean have happily spent their vacation together in the Landes region of western France. But this summer, while Marie naps on the beach, her husband goes swimming and vanishes without a trace. Tenaciously and disquietingly, Marie keeps the memory of her husband alive, often speaking of him as if he never disappeared. An offbeat study of the grieving process that will ring true for anyone who has gone through a similar personal loss.

Plot Keywords: drama, psychological, french cinema, female protagonist, grief, memory, identity ...

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#4. Germany Year Zero (1948)

Storyline: Edmund, a young boy who lives in war-devastated Germany after the Second World War, must do all kinds of work to help his family get food and survive. One day he meets one of his former teachers and hopes to get support from him, but this man's ideas don't lead Edmund into a clearer or safer way of living.—Hugo <transit@cam.org>

Plot Keywords: child's perspective, struggle for survival, moral dilemma, social criticism, black and white, war trauma, berlin ...

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#5. Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Storyline: Two hours from 17:00 to 19:00h on the longest day of the year in the life of a young Parisienne is presented. Florence Victoire, who is better known by her stage name Cléo Victoire (as in Cleopatra), is a singer with three hit singles to her name, and as such some renown. Two days ago, she went in for some tests for abdominal issues to see if it is cancer. She will be getting the results today at 18:30h. She is certain that it will be a terminal cancer diagnosis, her mind fixated on that outcome and what it actually means. This belief affects how she approaches the day, from her encounters with friends and acquaintances to what she observes in total strangers around her. It could be as simple as how she views the lyrics to new songs presented to her from her songwriting team, to her feelings about a conversation she overhears in a café between a couple having relationship problems, to the typical sweet nothings spoken to her from her lover, José. There are certain things that do ...

Plot Keywords: female director, black and white, realism, paris, existentialism, female perspective, urban life ...

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#7. The Swimmer (1968)

Storyline: Neddy Merrill has been away for most of the Summer. He reappears at a friend's pool. As they talk, someone notices that there are pools spanning the entire valley. He decided to jog from pool to pool to swim across the whole valley. As he stops in each pool his interactions tell his life story.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, existential, midlife crisis, suburban life, social satire, identity crisis, american dream ...

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#8. Repulsion (1965)

Storyline: In London, Belgian immigrant Carol Ledoux shares an apartment with her older sister Helen, and works as a manicurist at a beauty salon. Helen uses the word "sensitive" to describe Carol's overall demeanor, which is almost like she walks around in a daze, rarely speaking up about anything. When she does speak up, it generally is about something against one of those few issues on which she obsesses, such as Helen's boyfriend Michael's invasion of her space at the apartment. That specific issue may be more about men in general than just Michael's actions, as witnessed by Carol being agitated by hearing Helen and Michael's lovemaking, and she not being able to rebuff the advances effectively of a male suitor, Colin, who is infatuated with her. One of those other obsessive issues is noticing cracks and always wanting to fix them. While Helen and Michael leave on a vacation to Pisa, Italy, Carol chooses largely to lock herself in the apartment, ditching work. There, she is almost hypnotized...

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, horror, suspense, mental breakdown, isolation, hallucination, film noir ...

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#10. Red Desert (1964)

Storyline: In a bleak rundown industrial area a young woman, Giuliana, tries to cope with life. She's married to Ugo the manager of a local plant but is soon having an affair with one of his co-workers, Corrado Zeller, who is visiting. Giuliana is unstable, not quite knowing anymore just what her role is, whether that be a wife, a mother or just another person. Her escape from life is short-lived however as Zeller is simply using her to satisfy his own needs and desires.—garykmcd

Plot Keywords: art film, existentialism, psychological drama, alienation, modernity, female protagonist, visual storytelling ...

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#12. Loveless (2017)

Storyline: Still living under the same roof, the Moscow couple of Boris and Zhenya is in the terrible final stages of a bitter divorce. Under those circumstances, as both have already found new partners, the insults pour down like rain in this toxic familial battle zone, always pivoting around the irresolvable and urgent matter of Alyosha's custody, their 12-year-old only son. Unheard, unloved, and above all, unwanted, the introverted and unhappy boy feels that he is an intolerable burden, however, what his parents don't know is that he can hear every single word. As a result, when Boris and Zhenya finally realize that Alyosha has been missing for nearly two days, it is already too late. But is this a simple case of a runaway teenager?

Plot Keywords: emotional alienation, social critique, psychological trauma, domestic violence, social alienation, urban loneliness, family conflict ...

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#13. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Storyline: Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress ...

Plot Keywords: existentialism, surrealism, psychological drama, metafilm, identity crisis, artistic creation, passage of time ...

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#14. Pressure Point (1962)

Storyline: Frustrated by his inability to help an African-American patient who hates whites, a psychiatrist (Peter Falk) asks his superior (Sidney Poitier) to release him from the case. The superior relates a case from his own past during World War II when he treated a young Nazi (Bobby Darin) who despised blacks. Explaining the tragic results of the case, the older psychiatrist encourages his younger colleague not to be swayed by the patient's attitude, to remain objective and to stick with his treatment.

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, race relations, psychoanalysis, black and white, american film, 1960s, social issues ...

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#15. Olivier Olivier (1992)

Storyline: Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and Serge, a country veterinarian, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother's house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing from France to Africa and nearly destroys his mother, who clings to her remaining child, Nadine, and her devoted neighbor, Marcel. Several years later, having relocated to the city, the police investigator who handled the case meets a Paris rent boy whom he believes to be the missing Olivier. Once he returns to his rural home, the teenager Olivier tries to assuage his mother's now-entrenched grief and heal the rift between his reunited parents. Meanwhile, he must overcome his brooding, adolescent sister's jealousy and doubts about his identity and reconcile his sleazy street life with his picturesque new surroundings. Questions about the tight-lipped Olivier's true motivations continue to crop up, however, threatening to send his mother over the edge for good.—Rotten T.

Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, family tragedy, identity mystery, french film, rural setting, emotional trauma, psychological analysis ...

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