Best movies like Portrait of the Artist

The former famous painter Frenhofer lives quietly with his wife on a countryside residence in the French Provence. When the young artist Nicolas visits him with his girlfriend Marianne, Frenhofer decides to start again the work on a painting he long ago stopped: La Belle Noiseuse. And he wants Marianne as model.

This film, loosely inspired by Anton Chekov's The Seagull, weaves a story about sex, family and the business of making films. When the young and overly sensitive filmmaker Julien screens his new DV art-film starring his girlfriend Lili (Swimming Pool's Ludivine Sagnier) --a sexy young local girl--to his famous actress mother Mado, and her lover Brice, an accomplished film director, an unraveling of the delicate peace in their house begins. The graceful beauty Lili, who dreams of becoming a famous actress like Mado, is immediately fascinated by Brice, who gladly falls prey to her charms.

John Hall is a drifter who wanders into a small town in Maine. He needs a job and decides to seek employment at the community's top business: a large textile mill. He is hired to work the "graveyard shift" -- from around midnight to dawn -- and, along with a few others, he is charged with cleaning out the basement. This task strikes the workers as simple enough, but then, as they proceed deeper underground, they encounter an unspeakable monstrosity intent on devouring them all.

Carl the Gardner grows odd plants for a rich Yankee woman Ellen Bennett living in South America while exercising a mental hold over her. All his previous employers died mysteriously.

This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

As single mom Grace juggles work, bills, and her affair with a married doctor, her daughter, Ansiedad, plots a shortcut to adulthood after finding inspiration in the coming-of-age stories she's reading for school.

Marian Medford Woodstock gave up a chance twenty years ago to compete for the Miss USA beauty title in order to marry Jeffrey Woodstock. She hopes to realize her past ambitions for fame and fortune through her daughter Kay, whom she persuades to enter a local beauty contest. Kay wins and is interviewed by reporter Gil McRoberts, who advises her to get married and settle down. Jeffrey is very upset with his wife's and daughter's passion for beauty contests and, when Kay enters the national contest, he informs Marian that she must choose between him and her chase after empty honors for Kay.

In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.

Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis falls in love with a fishmonger while working for him as a live-in housekeeper.

Three teenage brothers, gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex, reside in a downtrodden section of Glasgow, Scotland, circa 1968. But while Bobby and Alan are beginning to experience the power of raging hormones, the story focuses on Lex, who begins a downward spiral after he accidentally shoots the leader of Bobby's gang. Lex's cockiness and immaturity unfortunately prevent him from understanding the effect his subsequent crimes will have on both himself, and on those around him.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Yu-liang leaves a brothel in a small Chinese town, to become the second wife of Mr. Pan. While Pan is away at the revolution in Yunnan, Yu-liang learns to paint and takes art classes at the Shanghai Art Institute, until it is closed for painting nudes. Because she cannot bear him a son, Yu-liang leaves Pan to his first wife, and studies art in Paris, where she wins an award for a nude self-portrait. She returns to join Pan in Nanking in the 1930's, and becomes a Professor until it is discovered that she came from a brothel. She returns to Paris to live the rest of her life there, and finally gains a major exhibition of her work.

The story of nine-year old Maria and her father Marcelino who, in 1879, found the first pre-historic cave paintings at the now world famous Altamira cave.

2016 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch. It is almost the only information about the artist of The Garden of Earthly Delights that we can put a precise date to. Bosch, the garden of dreams is a film about his most important painting and one of the most iconic paintings in the world: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

From the makers of The Last Exorcism comes a boldly original vision of horror. What if the most chilling novel of all time was actually based on a true account of a horrific experiment gone awry? When he is suspended from his university job for his outlandish ideas, Professor John Venkenheim leads a documentary film crew to the rim of the Arctic Circle in a desperate effort to vindicate his academic reputation. His theory: Mary Shelley's ghastly story, "Frankenstein," is, in fact, a work of non-fiction disguised as fantasy. In the vast, frozen wilderness, Venkenheim and his team search for the legendary monster, a creature mired in mystery and drenched in blood. What they find is an unspeakable truth more terrifying than any fiction...a nightmare from which there is no waking.

A young novelist falls for a married blond beauty. She's too afraid to leave her thuggish husband and the idea of "accidental" death comes up. The writer doesn't go through with it and they break off. However, she's not done with him yet.

His name is Clint Westwood. Yes, sounds familiar. He changed his name when I came here to Hollywood. He is a filmmaker, actor and a writer. And he writes a lot. He is not famous yet, but he has an idea how to do it. Here is his story...and seven other stories too.

Mireille Stockaert is a lonely and broken woman. In love with painting and poetry, she makes do with her work in the cafeteria of the Beaux-Arts in Namur. Her life changes when she chooses to live in the large family house she inherits. Not having the means to maintain it, she decides to take in three tenants. Three men who will upset her routine.

A pair of kids trying to save their beloved pooch from a mad scientist working for a sinister villain whose experiment has transformed their dog into a crazy-eyed muppet monstrosity.

A young man, whose girlfriend was killed by street thugs, builds a Golem, Frankie, who is programmed to go out and kill the thugs. But all Frankie really wants is love.

This romantic comedy from France explores the misadventures of several friends looking for love and trying to define beauty. Daphne is a lovely women who is nonetheless unsure about her looks, compounded by the fact that she's fallen in love with Vincent, who has a policy of only dating models. Daphne's best friend Celine comes up with an idea -- she'll get her pal Jacques to paint a nude portrait of Daphne. When Vincent sees the painting, he'll be more attracted to the woman who posed for it, leading him to her doorstep. But of course, it isn't quite that simple.

A group of buyers visit an artist's studio to purchase a painting that was praised in a famous magazine.

A companion to the director's Le Dos Rouge/Portrait of the Artist. A famous filmmaker works on his next film, which will focus on monstrosity. He is obsessed by the idea of finding a painting that will be central to the film and will crystallize all the power and beauty of monsters.

This documentary for PBS by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, tells the story of the Buddha’s life, a journey especially relevant to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. It features the work of some of the world’s greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia, have depicted the Buddha’s life in art rich in beauty and complexity. Hear insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Join the conversation and learn more about meditation, the history of Buddhism, and how to incorporate the Buddha’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness into daily life.

Whitey Bulger: the Making of a Monster is the definitive biographical documentary about Whitey – a story that takes viewers into the heart of darkness of the legendary crime boss and cold-blooded killer. It digs deep into the mind of a psychopath, exploring the roots of his insatiable need for power and control. The documentary debunks the myth of the “Robin Hood of South Boston,” painting a deeply rendered portrait of evil.

This documentary, made seven years after the death of legendary filmmaker and kinetic artist Len Lye, tells Lye's story: from being a young boy staring at the sun, to travels around the Pacific and life in New York. It includes excerpts from many of his films, and interviews with second wife Ann and biographer Roger Horrocks. Len Lye himself is often heard, outlining his ideas of the ‘old brain’ and how Māori and Aboriginal art influenced his work. The grandeur of his ideas are only matched by their scale, with steel sculptures designed to be "at least 20 foot high".

A photographer and a makeup artist document their burgeoning relationship and their partnership on a fine art project through the lenses of their own cameras.

While in prison, Jack had two momentous experiences: he got religion, and met the woman who would become his wife. He and Alison are devoted to the idea of staying in God's good graces, so they have moved to a remote power station in central Australia, far from anything. Into this possibly idyllic arrangement comes a rootless young man who the power company has hired on to be the station's handyman. Tensions escalate between the men as their conflicting values rub up against one another.

An headed-to-ruin couple buys a house for a fresh new start. Since they moved in, the wife doesn't want to have sex with her demanding husband. One day, changing the light bulb of the stairs leading to the basement, he finds out a hole in the wall, which will upsets their intimacy. After many restless nights, the man decides to fill to hole... to find it out wide open, a few days later. Then, he decides to uncover what lies beyond the wall. Is that a good idea ?

Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty is one of the best loved of classical ballets, combining in a single work all the enchantment and virtuosity that ballet has to offer. The royal court, the panoramic journey of the Prince to the overgrown castle, and the great celebratory dances of the happy ending (in which other famous fairy-tale figures appear) are all brought to life by the luscious designs of this celebrated production, created in 1946 for The Royal Ballet. The inspired performances of its revival for the 75th anniversary of the Company in 2006, together with a magnificent High Definition recording, make this a superb tribute to The Royal Ballet's unique style and visual splendour.

This film discusses the search for the last remains of Demasduit (Mary March), one of the last of the Indigenous Beothuk people, set in the Red Indian Lake area of Central Newfoundland. A young girl, Bernadette Buchans, believes that she is related to Mary March. Throughout the whole film, Bernadette and her father Ted are searching for the grave of her mother. An archaeologist/ photographer, Nancy George, accompanies them and she also believes that she has family connections to the Beothuks.

Horrific Nazi experiments have left a surviving WWII soldier with a terrifying condition: at the sight of fresh blood, he transforms into a man-sized, blood-sucking killer insect. Refusing to let his affliction destroy him and all he loves, he instead commits himself to using his "powers" for good-by finding the people responsible and bringing them to justice.

During a brief stay in Florence, Camille believes she's victim of an enormous flood. Urgently taken to a psychiatric hospital, she is diagnosed with the Stendhal Syndrome: a temporary psychological disorder well known to affect tourists who are too vulnerable to the beauty of art work. This disorder which is considered benign doesn't worry the medical staff who asks that she be sent back to her country. Back home, she has to come to terms with a tragedy she has wanted to flee: her mom had gone missing right before her departure. Convinced that she has to move on with her life for her mental sanity, Camille decides that it is time to accept the fact that her mother will never come back. But when she goes to Matane, the last place where her mother had been seen alive, Camille comes across many clues that will propel her into an emotional roller coaster.

On her birthday, Juliette is too upset to worry about the strange cleaner who imitates her every move and lusts after her clothing.

Mike and Sulley are back at Monsters University for a fun-filled weekend with their Oozma Kappa fraternity brothers. The gang is throwing their first party, but no one’s showing up. Luckily for them, Mike and Sulley have come up with a plan to make sure “Party Central” is the most epic party the school has ever seen.