Best movies like A Real Summer

In this romantic comedy, an aspiring socialite heads for a vacation in Monte Carlo where she befriends a wealthy widowed duchess and then begins blackmailing her after she steals a scandalous letter.

Jimmy and Sheila Broadbent, welcome to London Jimmy's 17-year-old daughter, Jane. Jane is from Jimmy's first marriage to an American and has come to visit her father and the step-mother she has never met. While visiting Sheila has the idea of making Jane a debutante, an idea Jane resists. Difficulties range from Jane's apathy to being placed on the marriage block, the determined efforts of Sheila's cousin, Mabel Claremont, to win wealthy David Fenner for her debutante daughter Clarissa, and Jane's attraction to David Parkson, an American drummer who plays in the orchestra at the coming-out balls.

Two literary women compete for 20 years: one writes for the critics; the other one, to get rich.

Set in a Yorkshire milltown in 1957, Ellen Hardy is unhappily married but is close to her ten-year-old son, Victor. The family has recently moved house and Victor has started at a new school where Ellen has become friendly with his teacher, Kathy Thompson, who is keen to encourage him at art. As the friendship between the two women grows, Ellen's millworker husband, Hardy, feels increasingly alienated at home.

After a rough divorce, Frances, a 35 year old book editor from San Francisco takes a tour of Tuscany at the urgings of her friends. On a whim she buys Bramasole, a run down villa in the Tuscan countryside and begins to piece her life together starting with the villa and finds that life sometimes has unexpected ways of giving her everything she wanted.

During the summer of 1981, a group of friends in New York are completely unprepared for the onslaught of AIDS. What starts as a rumor about a mysterious "gay cancer" soon turns into a major crisis as, one by one, some of the friends begin to fall ill, leaving the others to panic about who will be next. As death takes its toll, the lives of these friends are forever redefined by an unconditional display of love, hope and courage.

George Schneider is an author whose wife had just died. His brother Leo gives him the number of Jennie Malone, and somehow they hit it off. And just when things are moving along, the memory of his first wife comes between them.

It's the start of the 20th century, and Tuccio, resident playwright of a theatre repertory company offers the owners of the company his new play, "Illuminata". They reject it, saying it's not finished, and intrigue starts that involves influential critic Bevalaqua, theatre star Celimene, young lead actors and other theatre residents

When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughters are laid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata, a successful writer; Joey, a woman crippled by indecision; and Flyn, a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman, his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate…

A debutante, a serviceman's bride and a girl from a military family join the Women's Army Corps.

It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.

Famed composer Gustav Mahler reflects on the tragedies of his life and failing marriage while traveling by train.

Drama critic Larry Mackay, his wife Kate and their four sons move from their crowded Manhattan apartment to an old house in the country. While housewife Kate settles into suburban life, Larry continues to enjoy the theater and party scene of New York.

In the late 19th century, on board a ship sailing from Jamaica to England, Olivia Harwood, a recent widow, takes on the task of caring for several malaria patients, including Mark Bellis, a mysterious and tormented painter.

The ups and downs in the lives and careers of a group of ambitious young actresses and show girls from disparate backgrounds brought together in a theatrical hostel. Centres particularly on the conflict and growing friendship between Terry Randall, a rich girl confident in her talent and ability to make it to the top on the stage, and Jean Maitland, a world weary and cynical trouper who has taken the hard knocks of the ruthless and over-populated world of the Broadway apprentice.

Strawberry Fields is the story of two sisters who both like the same man but in different ways and is a bold and inventive melodrama that offers a distinctively refreshing spin on a complex story of lust, rivalry and liberation. A seemingly carefree woman is seen cycling through narrow lanes before reaching a strawberry farm where she takes on a job, living in a shabby caravan, starting to develop friendships with her co-workers and in particular one rugged farmhand, Kev. Although aloof and mysterious its not until a dazzling woman appears in the strawberry fields that we discover who she was running away from her sister, Emily. Emily is eccentric to the point of dangerous and its not long before the two sisters form a battle of wills with Kev caught in the crossfire (http://forum.movie-list.com).

Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow follows a family who goes on a hunt for a Bigfoot-like creature called the Howling Hoodoo during a visit to the house of their kooky aunt (played by Last Man on Earth’s Mary Steenburgen). The Howling Hoodoo itself is difficult to find, but they come across some other monsters in the woods that they didn’t even know they were looking for.

Leonard Schiller once counted among New York's literary lions, but illness and ten years of writer's block have lowered his profile, almost to the point of obscurity. When Heather Wolfe, an ambitious literature major, asks to interview him for her thesis on his work, her interest forces him to address the issues that he has avoided all these years, and stirs in him feelings he has long forgotten, much to his daughter's consternation.

Teenager James Greville has lived in children's homes his whole life, so he is surprised when a Great Uncle invites him to his country manor for a holiday. While exploring the sprawling Greville Lodge he soon discovers that it has many secrets.

Two teenage boys try to help a tiny spherical alien get back to its mothership, while the army and a devious petty crook pursue the creature for its wonderful powers.

A longtime maid for New York socialites watches from afar as the daughter she once gave up is raised by others. Director Arthur Greville Collins' 1935 film stars Ruth Donnelly, Anita Louise, Margaret Lindsay, Warren Hull, Frank Albertson, Arthur Treacher, Ronnie Crosby, Henry O'Neill, Lillian Kemble Cooper and Gordon Elliott.

The conflict between duty and conscience is explored in the WWII drama The Deep Six. Alan Ladd stars as Naval gunnery officer Alec Austin, a Quaker whose sincere pacifist sentiments do not sit well with his crew members. When he refuses to fire upon an unidentified plane, the word spreads that Austin cannot be relied upon in battle (never mind that the plane turns out to be one of ours). To prove that he's worthy of command, Austin volunteers for a dangerous mission: the rescue of a group of US pilots on a Japanese-held island. The ubiquitous William Bendix costars as Frenchy Shapiro (!), Austin's Jewish petty officer and severest critic. If the film has a villain, it is Keenan Wynn as ambitious Lt. Commander Edge, who seems to despise anyone who isn't a mainline WASP.

As his mother’s illness progresses, a wealthy young man hires a perfect caregiver. But their lives start to spiral into a deadly affair as the caregiver seemingly tries to make herself a permanent facet of the wealthy family.

A movie publicist is assigned to keep the public from learning that a beloved child star is an egotistical little brat.

Inspired in form by American police TV shows and soap operas, The Golden Boat is a madcap, surreal dash through the streets of New York city, telling the mysterious and often hilarious story of an aged street-person named Austin, a comically compulsive assassin, as he joins up with a young rock critic and philosophy student named Israel Williams. In the course of their adventures, Austin pursues his object of desire - a Mexican soap opera star - and along the way engages a host of TV characters and bit players, whose repartee range from gangsterish insults to the question of God's existence.

A year after becoming the toast of New York City's art scene, photographer Max Martin has lost his ability to take a decent picture. On the night before his make-or-break gallery opening, surrounded by the trappings of success but devoid of inspiration, Max embarks on a bizarre trek through the city in search of ten mysterious photographs that could save his career. Shot in brilliant color and dramatic black and white, first-time director Jeremy Stein's industrial New York City is a wonderland, roamed by witches and magical creatures, where survival hinges on the completion of a simple quest. Accompanied by an unlikely crew of strangers he meets along the way, Max trips through a modern-day Oz and rediscovers the easily forgotten value of seeing magic reflected in everyday life.

The almost entirely true story of Abraham Lincoln and his self-appointed bodyguard, U.S. Marshal Ward Hill Lamon - a banjo-playing Southerner who foiled repeated attempts on the President's life, and kept him functioning during the darkest hours of the Civil War.

Biography - This programme takes an in-depth look at the boy and the man who was born to be a legend. Together with rare unseen footage we chart his progress from his poor beginnings, through his teenage years to the eventual meteoric rise of a star. -

A museum worker pretends to be an artist in order to impress women. When an attractive assistant director of a SoHo art gallery overhears him, she offers to exhibit his work. He plays along, which leads to a series of complications following his newfound double life. He starts falling in love with the assistant director, but her art critic fiancé grows suspicious.

When a sickly Victorian woman dies suddenly, a postmortem reveals that her body contains a fatal dose of arsenic. Suspicion falls on her husband and her companion, who are lovers. Inspector Martin of Scotland Yard solves the mystery of her death... over a cup of tea.

Documentary telling the extraordinary story of Koko, the only 'talking' gorilla in the world, and her lifelong relationship with Penny Patterson. Project Koko started as a PhD project to teach sign language to a baby gorilla, but as Koko began to communicate with Penny, an intense bond formed between them. Penny has now been with Koko for over 40 years and claims Koko can reveal fresh insights into the workings of an animal's mind. Koko's unique life with Penny has been filmed every step of the way. Over 2,000 hours of footage chart the most dramatic moments - Penny's battle to keep Koko from being taken back to the zoo in which she was born, Penny's clash with academic critics who doubted her claims and the image of Koko mourning the death of her kitten.

Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form. How do we respond to abstract art when we see it? Is it supposed to be hard or easy? When abstract artists chuck paint about with abandon, what does it mean? Does abstract art stand for something or is it supposed to be understood as just itself?

A little girl living on an isolated ranch claims to have formed a bond of friendship with a pure white, "wild" stallion. The horse is well known in the area, almost legendary, and supposedly vicious. Is she just making it up, or is she telling the truth? If it's real, isn't it dangerous for her with a "killer" horse? Or is the horse as vicious as he's been portrayed?

Alban Berg's black, satirical opera is one of the masterpieces of the 20th Century. It charts the rise and fall of a femme fatale "created to make trouble", from life as a society hostess to prostitution and eventual bloody death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Berg's score is intensely beautiful, and the rich characterisation brilliantly executed.

A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.