WW2 Romantic Dramas
by parallelrealitiesmusic | created - 27 Oct 2016 | updated - 13 Jul 2019 | PublicMy choice of mostly romantic period dramas taking place before and during WWII
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1. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,841 | Gross: $78.65M
2. The Moon and the Stars (2007)
Not Rated | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
Together in Rome to shoot a film, a German actress (McCormack) and an English actor (Pryce) contend with forces that complicate their romance as well as the production itself.
Director: John Irvin | Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Alfred Molina, Catherine McCormack, András Bálint
Votes: 379
3. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,875 | Gross: $1.02M
4. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,766 | Gross: $50.93M
5. Glorious 39 (2009)
R | 129 min | Drama, History, Mystery
The adopted daughter of a privileged British politician uncovers a family secret in the weeks leading up to World War II.
Director: Stephen Poliakoff | Stars: Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Toby Regbo
Votes: 5,700
6. Up at the Villa (2000)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A widow finds choosing a new husband might not be her choice at all, as the actions of her various prospects confine her freedom.
Director: Philip Haas | Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Penn, Anne Bancroft, James Fox
Votes: 2,845 | Gross: $2.93M
7. To Have and Have Not (1944)
Passed | 100 min | Adventure, Comedy, Film-Noir
During World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan, Dolores Moran
Votes: 37,998
8. Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978)
116 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three young men - a Croat, an Italian, and a Jew - are the best of friends in pre-World War II Dubrovnik. When their country is occupied by Germans and their cronies, the idyllic city ... See full summary »
Director: Lordan Zafranovic | Stars: Frano Lasic, Milan Strljic, Tanja Poberznik, Boris Kralj
Votes: 1,044
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music, Romance
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale
Votes: 35,941 | Gross: $25.54M
10. Mediterraneo (1991)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, War
In WW2, an Italian Army unit of misfits occupies an isolated non-strategic Greek island for the duration of the war.
Director: Gabriele Salvatores | Stars: Diego Abatantuono, Claudio Bigagli, Giuseppe Cederna, Claudio Bisio
Votes: 16,418 | Gross: $4.53M
11. The Edge of Love (2008)
R | 110 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Two feisty, free-spirited women are connected by the brilliant, charismatic poet who loves them both.
Director: John Maybury | Stars: Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys, Simon Armstrong
Votes: 18,941 | Gross: $0.03M
12. Closing the Ring (2007)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
A young man searches for the proper owner of a ring that belonged to a U.S. World War II bomber gunner who crashed in Belfast, Northern Ireland on June 1, 1944.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Dylan Roberts, Gene Dinovi
Votes: 4,869
13. The Camomile Lawn (1992)
258 min | Drama, Romance, War
In 1939, young Oliver, Calypso, Polly and Walter visit friends and family in Cornwall. Spanish Civil War is over and WW2 has begun, so they enjoy their love life while they can. Decades later, they gather again, this time for a funeral.
Stars: Felicity Kendal, Claire Bloom, Jennifer Ehle, Richard Johnson
Votes: 939
14. Suite Française (2014)
107 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
During the early years of German occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier (Michelle Williams), a French villager, and Lieutenant Bruno von Falk (Matthias Schoenaerts), a German soldier.
Director: Saul Dibb | Stars: Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Margot Robbie, Eric Godon
Votes: 28,525
15. The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961)
Approved | 124 min | Drama, Romance
While the Nazi regime subjugates European nations during World War II, in the Belgian Congo nurse Rachel Cade tries to cure the local people. Colonel Derode falls in love with her, but an injured young American pilot upsets his plans.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Angie Dickinson, Peter Finch, Roger Moore, Errol John
Votes: 603
16. Foyle's War (2002–2015)
TV-14 | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As WWII rages, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front; investigating crime on the south coast of England. Later series, see the retired detective working as an MI5 agent in the aftermath of the war.
Stars: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell, Ellie Haddington
Votes: 18,259
17. Walter Defends Sarajevo (1972)
133 min | Action, War
A man who tried to stop Nazi soldiers in World War II.
Director: Hajrudin Krvavac | Stars: Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic, Rade Markovic, Ljubisa Samardzic, Neda Spasojevic
Votes: 2,959
18. Lili Marleen (1981)
R | 120 min | Drama, Music, Romance
In 1938, a German singer falls in love with a Jewish composer in Zurich, who helps Jews flee Nazi Germany. She wants to help but is forced back to Germany. Her song "Lili Marleen" becomes a hit with soldiers and the Nazi top brass.
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder | Stars: Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, Karl-Heinz von Hassel
Votes: 4,293
19. Otpisani (1974–1975)
55 min | Action, Drama, War
Prle, Tihi, and other youths from the resistance movement in German-occupied Belgrade are high on the Gestapo's termination list. Some of them get written off, but new ones arrive and continue to fight.
Stars: Dragan Nikolic, Vojislav 'Voja' Brajovic, Stevo Zigon, Bozidar Pavicevic-Longa
Votes: 1,768
20. Bright Young Things (2003)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, War
An adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel "Vile Bodies", is a look into the lives of a young novelist, his would-be lover, and a host of young people who beautified London in the 1930s.
Director: Stephen Fry | Stars: Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Dan Aykroyd, Simon McBurney
Votes: 6,318 | Gross: $0.93M
21. The Battle of Neretva (1969)
G | 105 min | Drama, History, War
World War II drama about the 1943 battle around the Neretva River between Axis forces and Yugoslav partisan units.
Director: Veljko Bulajic | Stars: Yul Brynner, Hardy Krüger, Franco Nero, Sylva Koscina
Votes: 4,042
22. Cabaret (1972)
PG | 124 min | Drama, Music, Musical
A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
Director: Bob Fosse | Stars: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey
Votes: 59,383 | Gross: $42.77M
23. The Reader (2008)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain
Votes: 259,804 | Gross: $34.19M
24. White Mischief (1987)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1940s Kenya, a married couple join other affluent British expatriates in a lifestyle of recklessness and excess, but soon find themselves in a troubling situation.
Director: Michael Radford | Stars: Sarah Miles, Joss Ackland, John Hurt, Greta Scacchi
Votes: 3,214 | Gross: $3.11M
25. The Halcyon (2017)
60 min | Drama, War
The story of a bustling and glamorous five star hotel at the center of London society and a world at war.
Stars: Annabelle Apsion, Mark Benton, Jamie Blackley, Edward Bluemel
Votes: 3,104
26. Burnt by the Sun (1994)
R | 135 min | Drama, War
In the USSR in 1936, shadows of Stalin's repressions fall on a famous, revolutionary hero. The accusations of him being a foreign spy are nonsense, and everyone knows that. However, a slow process of his downfall has already started.
Director: Nikita Mikhalkov | Stars: Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Oleg Menshikov, Nadezhda Mikhalkova
Votes: 16,342 | Gross: $2.62M
27. Brideshead Revisited (1981)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
The life, friendships and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder-including his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle.
Stars: Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Roger Milner, Phoebe Nicholls
Votes: 8,037
28. Allied (2016)
R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Romance
In 1942, a Canadian intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Vincent Ebrahim
Votes: 169,685 | Gross: $40.10M
29. Island at War (2004)
396 min | Drama, War
During the Second World War, a quiet channel island community is thrown into turmoil by the invasion forces of Nazi Germany.
Stars: Saskia Reeves, Owen Teale, Julia Ford, Clare Holman
Votes: 1,921
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