Movies Like Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963)

Muriel, or the Time of Return is a 1963 drama film from Alain Resnais with a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and The Power of the Dog.

Drama

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

1976

A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores and takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.

7.4

MagicScore

The Power of the Dog

2021

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.

6.8

MagicScore

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

1976

When a widowed mother falls in love with an American sailor, her troubled young son is pressured by the bullying leader of his clique to seek revenge.

6.5

MagicScore

Elsa & Fred

2014

After his daughter persuades him to move into a new apartment, aged widower Fred strikes up a friendship with his eccentric 74-year-old neighbour Elsa, who convinces him it's never too late to keep enjoying life. Although he seemed resigned to a miserable bedridden existence, Fred embraces Elsa's youthful enthusiasm as she introduces him to the path of life and entertains him with outlandish stories about her past life. But when he discovers Elsa's terminally ill, Fred decides to accompany her on the trip of her dreams to the eternal city of Rome to help her fulfil a lifelong ambition.

6.0

MagicScore

French Exit

2021

“My plan was to die before the money ran out,” says 60-year-old penniless Manhattan socialite Frances Price, but things didn’t go as planned. Her husband Franklin has been dead for 12 years and with his vast inheritance gone, she cashes in the last of her possessions and resolves to live out her twilight days anonymously in a borrowed apartment in Paris, accompanied by her directionless son Malcolm and a cat named Small Frank—who may or may not embody the spirit of Frances’s dead husband.

5.6

MagicScore

A Woman Is a Woman

1961

Longing for a baby, a stripper pursues another man in order to make her boyfriend jealous.

7.3

MagicScore

Nouvelle Vague

2025

After writing for Cahiers du cinéma, young Godard decides making films is the best film criticism. He gets Beauregard to fund a low-budget feature, creating a treatment with Truffaut about a gangster couple.

7.2

MagicScore

Love at Sea

1965

During her holiday in Brest, a young Parisian falls in love with a sailor. But autumn comes and the two lovers have to part. They write to each other. Will their love resist at a distance, each living his life, him in Brest with his friends, she in Paris who keeps waiting for him? An impossible love story and the cross-portrait of two cities, Paris and Brest, between the realism of the color images and the poetry infused by the sepia black and white images, lives to the rhythm of the nostalgia of the two lovers...

7.1

MagicScore

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.

7.1

MagicScore

#10

The Married Woman

1964

A superficial woman finds conflict choosing between her abusive husband and her vain lover.

6.8

MagicScore

#11

Witness for the Prosecution

1957

An ailing barrister is thrust back into the courtroom in what becomes one of the most unusual and eventful murder cases of the lawyer's career when he finds himself defending a man being tried for the murder of a socialite.

8.2

MagicScore

#12

La vida no vale nada

1955

Pablo, a wandering laborer, has imprisoned himself in a hell of alcoholism. Cruz, a widow, reaches out to the troubled man, but even her compassion may not be enough to save him.

8.1

MagicScore

#13

Yearning

1964

War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.

8.1

MagicScore

#14

Rocco and His Brothers

1960

When a impoverished widow’s family moves to the big city, two of her five sons become romantic rivals with deadly results.

8.0

MagicScore

#15

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

1960

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.

7.9

MagicScore

#16

Gone with the Wind

1939

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

7.9

MagicScore

#17

The Night of the Hunter

1955

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

7.9

MagicScore

#18

The Unknown Policeman

1941

A gang of thieves has jeopardized the city and even the police, whose chief urges their forces to captured the band within 48 hours. Meanwhile, band members meet in a cafe run by a widow and her daughter and her suitor, Cantinflas, who maintains a scuffle with the robbers running all at the station. Since then, Cantinflas become a member of the police force for special missions.

7.8

MagicScore

#19

Two Women

1960

A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.

7.8

MagicScore

#20

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

1993

Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger brother, Arnie, who has a knack for finding trouble. Settled into a job at a grocery store and an ongoing affair with local woman Betty Carver, Gilbert finally has his life shaken up by the free-spirited Becky.

7.7

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Muriel, or the Time of Return?

The top films similar to Muriel, or the Time of Return by MovieMagicScore are Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (7.4), The Power of the Dog (6.8), The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (6.5). Each shares drama themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Muriel, or the Time of Return worth watching?

Muriel, or the Time of Return holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10 from 191 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Muriel, or the Time of Return?

Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) is a drama film directed by Alain Resnais, starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée.

Where can I find more recommendations like Muriel, or the Time of Return?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles Movies like The Power of the Dog Movies like The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Movies like Elsa & Fred Movies like French Exit Movies like A Woman Is a Woman

About movies like Muriel, or the Time of Return

This ranked list pairs Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963), a drama film from Alain Resnais, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Delphine Seyrig take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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