Best movies like La spagnola

An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.

A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother.

Based -- loosely -- on Leo Tolstoy, this film starred feted stage star Nance O'Neil but is rather better remembered as Theda Bara's follow-up to the sensational A Fool There Was (1914).

A desperate housewife discovers her husband is having an affair and kidnaps his unsuspecting mistress, but what starts as a prank quickly spirals out of control.

"Citizen Ruth" is the story of Ruth Stoops, a woman who nobody even noticed -- until she got pregnant. Now, everyone wants a piece of her. The film is a comedy about one woman caught in the ultimate tug-of-war: a clash of wild, noisy, ridiculous people that rapidly dissolves into a media circus.

Larceny, adultery, sabotage and treachery. Yes, just your typical Christmas with the Dredge family! Twelve-year-old Joey Dredge is in trouble again. Expelled for jumping off the school roof, he's haunted by his father's death and hates his mother's new boyfriend and his bullying son. Compounding his misery is the knowledge he has to spend Christmas with them at the family beach house. Things look grim until the unexpected arrival of great-grandfather Albert, fresh from a stint in prison. Forced to share the back shed with this swearing, farting and devious octogenarian, Joey's life changes. Between barbecuing the family dog, performing a self-burial and causing his intended step-father to consume a startling amount of hash, Joey learns a few life lessons from Albert, who despite his many vices may give Joey the strength to accept the past and embrace the future.

A single day. To challenge the past. To accept the present. To decide the future. Sam arrives in his home town after 18 months away, hopeful that Meg, the girlfriend he abandoned, will go back with him to the city. His return brings the outside world into the parochial confines of the town, provoking mixed reactions which fuel conflict. Meg, heartbroken when Sam left her, has begun an affair with Sam's friend Johnny. On the eve of Sam's arrival, Johnny asks Meg to marry him. The marriage proposal, along with Sam's unexpected return, forces Meg to choose not only between the two men but also the type of life she wants. The conflicting loyalties and emotions generated by the triangle provide the focus for an array of inter-related characters enmeshed in the life of this country town. There is a feeling of impending tragedy as night falls and Johnny becomes increasingly desparate.

A myriad of outrageous calamities befalls an eccentric English clan with more than a few skeletons in its closets when the family's patriarch dies an unexpected death.

When Stephanie, a famous violinist, contracts multiple sclerosis her life begins to fall apart. Her career ends, her husband leaves her for another woman and her favorite pupil leave the country. Unable to bear all this loss, Stephanie attempts suicide.

A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son from his first marriage, John and wife Fanny. But these circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's current wife, and daughters Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.

In the 1950s, brothers Jacey and Doug Holt, who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor and Alice, wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela, which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd, both frown upon.

Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.

Enid only looks like she's sleeping. In fact, she's dead. Shortly after Enid caught her husband Harry in bed with her sister June, a row ensued, whereupon June accidently killed Enid. June's problem now is to hide the truth from the authorities, including her police-officer husband Floyd. Then she decides to reveal Enid's demise, albeit rearranging the damning evidence to make the whole thing look like the accident it really was.

A powerful, intimate portrait of three women living in the same house during different eras who all face unplanned pregnancies. The vignettes follow a recently widowed nurse struggling to take control of her life in the early 50s, a mother of four balancing raising a family and maintaining a career in the 70s, and a student making a difficult decision with the help of one woman that will change the course of both their lives in the 90s.

After fifteen years of marriage, an affluent couple divorce and take up with new partners.

A mother starts to get worried when she finds out that some wealthy friends have been invited to dinner with her somewhat screwball family.

Mexican immigrant and single mother Flor Moreno finds housekeeping work with Deborah and John Clasky, a well-off couple with two children of their own. When Flor admits she can't handle the schedule because of her daughter, Cristina, Deborah decides they should move into the Clasky home. Cultures clash and tensions run high as Flor and the Claskys struggle to share space while raising their children on their own, and very different, terms.

As a new day begins in the small American town of Minninnewah, the residents start their day as ordinary as the next. Mother Nature, however, has other plans for them. Inhabitants have just 13 minutes to seek shelter before the largest tornado on record ravages the town, leaving them struggling to protect their loved ones and fighting for their lives. Left to deal with the aftermath, four families must overcome their differences and find strength in each other in order to survive.

Grace is excited for the summer so she can start a business with her friends, but things take an unexpected turn when her mom announces a trip to Paris. There, Grace must learn to get along with her French cousin, Sylvie, and she finds unexpected inspiration for her business. Then, Grace finds out her grandparents bakery, that inspired her to start a business, is closing. Can she and her friends find a way to save it?

A charismatic, crazy hothead transforms a family's life when she becomes the nanny of five girls.

Josh leaves his advertising career at its peak, everyone wants either to be him or to have him. A car accident will leave his daughter in a strange coma and when everyone has given up she starts communicating with him, or is he going mad?

The story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is a story of impossible love that ultimately celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.

Thrown for a loop by the unexpected news that Dad has suddenly gone to his reward, the grieving eccentric Scanian clan are drawn together in a test of familial endurance that soon has them at each other's throats.

The wickedly funny story of three sisters' coming of age in a wildly dysfunctional family, set against the backdrop of the 60's, free love, the Cold War, LSD and the dawn of feminism. Affectionately dubbed "Little Women on acid", this is a story about the destructive effects of secrecy and the bonds of duty between parents and their children.

The slimy underbelly of psychiatry is revealed in this nasty exploitation drama that centers on a female psychiatrist who talks about her tawdriest cases, examples of which, including incest, masochism, impotency and prostitution, are illustrated. When not talking, the doctor and her daughter get involved in a few wild adventures of their own including an orgy and a campus riot.

For the first time in 15 years, all four siblings in a family show up to care for their dying mother, who is only given a couple of weeks to live. One comes from America with her two children. A divorced sister also comes with her child and sneaks off regularly to meet a mystery man who may be her ex-husband. The third & youngest daughter is an unmarried nurse aware of her ticking biological clock. The only son chases after his grumpy father who seems to not care a whit about his wife's circumstances. The four are also faced my their mother's dreams to accomplish a few things before she dies - to visit a beach she had visited in the past, to see her youngest married, and to visit Paris. She also wants to be embalmed and be honored with a 21 gun salute. Thus the whole group has to set off in the quest to fulfill their mother's wishes.

Sixteen-year-old Mars wants more from her life than just a fistful of flies which, to her, is a fistful of nothing. Stifled and dominated by her family, Mars just wants to be free. Denied relationships with the people who truly understand her, Mars battles her family on her own, and in her quest to be treated as a grown-up she gives her mother the courage to act and forces her father to make the choice of his life. A story about how a young girl finally finds the courage to have faith in herself.

Coming-of-age story about an Italian-Australian teenager making his way in the world.

Independent film by early New Hollywood figure John Korty

Manos, a Greek school teacher, is forced to travel to Melbourne, Australia when the man who murdered his grandfather 57 years ago surfaces there. While the reluctant Manos is tutored in the art of revenge by old friend Stephanos, he also attempts to patch things up with his former fiance Nicki.

Lillian Stevens was raised without care, attention, or education on the ways of the world. When she becomes pregnant by the reckless Harold Winthrop, her mother takes her to an abortionist. Harold then falls for Ruth Stevens, raised by an attentive and loving mother, who is not so easily taken advantage of.

Three intrepid siblings try to rescue their precious duck from bird smugglers who want to eat it.

In the midst of an Australian summer, we meet three sisters. Nina is widowed with two young children. Anna is an aspiring actress unhappily married to a filmmaker. Christine is a med student who is yet to fully come to terms with her sexuality. When their mother Susan's breast cancer returns, the family is faced with choices and the reality of their last Christmas together. Simple and sincere, Little Sparrows celebrates life and the unconditional love of a mother.

A woman's husband leaves her and their three daughters. Years later she sets out to find him and get him to pay back child support.