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Movies like Limelight

Key Features:
Ballet, Comedy, Mentorship, Redemption, Self-esteem, Art, Silent film era, Character-driven, Humanism
Tone:
serious, humorous, earnest
Target Audience:
Classic film enthusiasts, Drama lovers, Fans of Chaplin, Viewers interested in the arts
Emotional Arc:
Despair → Hope → Acceptance

Limelight

1952-10-16
Limelight Poster - Find Similar Movies

A fading music hall comedian tries to help a despondent ballet dancer learn to walk and to again feel confident about life.

Genres
Romance, Drama, Music
Cast
Charlie Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney Chaplin, Norman Lloyd, Andre Eglevsky, Melissa Hayden, Marjorie Bennett, Wheeler Dryden
Crew
Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin
Rating
7.9(566 votes)
LimelightLimelight
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The Band Wagon
7.1

A Broadway artiste turns a faded film star's comeback vehicle into an artsy flop.



A Star Is Born
7.1

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.



The Entertainer
6.2

Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.



The Artist
7.5

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.



Variety Lights
6.954

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.



Funny Lady
5.2

Famous singer Fanny Brice has divorced her first husband Nicky Arnstein. During the Great Depression she has trouble finding work as an artist, but meets Billy Rose, a newcomer who writes lyrics and owns a nightclub.



Funny Face
7

A shy Greenwich Village book clerk is discovered by a fashion photographer and whisked off to Paris where she becomes a reluctant model.



Sunset Boulevard
8.3

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.



Ghostlight
7.1

When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet alongside his estranged teenage daughter, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.



The Nutcracker
5

In 1920s Vienna, a young girl receives a magical doll on Christmas Eve.



The Comedian
5.684

An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke, has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played. Already a strain on his younger brother and his wife, Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets Harmony, the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul, and the two find inspiration in one another, resulting in surprising consequences.



Alfie
Alfie(1966)
6.5

A young man leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.



Gigi
Gigi(1958)
6.246

A home, a motorcar, servants, the latest fashions: the most eligible and most finicky bachelor in Paris offers them all to Gigi. But she, who's gone from girlish gawkishness to cultured glamour before our eyes, yearns for that wonderful something money can't buy.



French Cancan
7.2

Nineteenth-century Paris comes vibrantly alive in Jean Renoir’s exhilarating tale of the opening of the world-renowned Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin plays the wily impresario Danglard, who makes the cancan all the rage while juggling the love of two beautiful women—an Egyptian belly-dancer and a naive working girl turned cancan star.



The Butterfly Circus
7.336

At the height of the Great Depression, the showman of a renowned circus leads his troupe through the devastated American landscape, lifting the spirits of audiences along the way. During their travels, they discover a man without limbs at a carnival sideshow. However, after an intriguing encounter with the showman, he becomes driven to hope against everything he has ever believed.



The Sunshine Boys
6.8

Lewis and Clark, aka The Sunshine Boys, were famous comedians during the vaudeville era, but off-stage they couldn't stand each other and haven't spoken in over 20 years of retirement. Willy Clark's nephew is the producer of a TV variety show that wants to feature a reunion of this classic duo. It is up to him to try to get the Sunshine Boys back together again.



The Barefoot Contessa

Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when the independently wealthy tycoon Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film.



Show Boat
Show Boat(1951)
6.1

A dashing Mississippi river gambler wins the affections of the daughter of the owner of the Show Boat.



Chaplin
Chaplin(1992)
7.4

An aged Charlie Chaplin narrates his life to his autobiography's editor, including his rise to wealth and comedic fame from poverty, his turbulent personal life and his run-ins with the FBI.



Stardust
Stardust(1973)
6.6

The lives of two local professional dancers change suddenly as American soldiers stop in their town hoping to be entertained in accordance with the Broadway style. Effectively, they perform up to their expectations. However, as the army men have to march northward, their moment of glory finishes heartlessly.



For the Boys
6.2

Talented USO entertainer Dixie Leonard and comedian Eddie Sparks deal with their relationship over the course of 5 decades from World War II to the Vietnam War era to their twilight era in the 90's.



A Brighter Tomorrow

An old film director, unhappy with the movie he's shooting about a Hungarian circus stranded in Rome during the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, faces divorce from his producer wife and other problems.



Silent Movie
6.5

Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them.



The Company
5.2

Ensemble drama centered around a group of ballet dancers, with a focus on one young dancer who's poised to become a principal performer.



A Nutcracker Christmas

When her niece is cast in The Philadelphia Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker, a jaded ex-ballerina is forced to come to terms with the life and love she left behind.



La Strada
La Strada(1954)
7.91

When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.



Frances Ha
7.3

An aspiring dancer moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks.



Marie Antoinette
6.697

The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.



Sweet Charity
6.9

Taxi dancer Charity continues to have faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands, and hope that she will finally meet the nice young man to romance her away from her sleazy life. Maybe, just maybe, handsome Oscar will be the one to do it.



Ballerina
Ballerina(2016)
7.192

In 1879 Paris, a young orphan dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.



Moonlight and Valentino

A young widow still grieving over the death of her husband finds herself being comforted by a local housepainter.



Polina
Polina(2016)
6.6

Polina is a young dancer from a modest family. After years of ballet academy, she is accepted by the Bolshoi; still, she decides to try and audition of a modern dance company in France. She makes it, but her journey will not end there...



Victor/Victoria
7.3

A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.



An American in Paris
7.029

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.



Center Stage: Turn It Up

All self-taught dancer Kate Parker has ever wanted to do was perform with the American Academy of Ballet. But when she doesnt make it after auditioning, she learns that it takes more than precision and perfection to succeed in the dance world.



The Dancer
6.544

A young woman from the American Midwest, Loïe Fuller became the toast of the Folies Bergère at the turn of the 20th century and an icon of the Belle Epoque. Inventor of the breathtaking Serpentine Dance, she was a pioneer of modern dance and lighting techniques. It was her complicated relationship to her protégé - Isadora Duncan – that precipitated the downfall of this early 20th century icon.



Moulin Rouge!
7.5

A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.



The Comics
5.8

Two silent movie actors escape from their film. Forced to find a way to survive in the real world, they will only cause troubles to the people they will meet along the way.



The Joker is Wild

A Prohibition-era nightclub crooner has his career is cut short when his throat is slashed by a mob boss.



Feel the Beat
7.566

After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.



Strictly Ballroom
6.6

Brave new steps put Scott's career in jeopardy. With a new partner and determination, can he still succeed?



Gypsy
Gypsy(1962)
6.3

Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee.



Lost Illusions
7.4

Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.



A Patch of Blue
7.6

A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man, who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life.



Emma
Emma(1996)
6.6

Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.



Paris
Paris(2008)
6.5

Pierre, a professional dancer, suffers from a serious heart disease. While he is waiting for a transplant which may (or may not) save his life, he has nothing better to do than look at the people around him, from the balcony of his Paris apartment.



Flashbacks of a Fool

An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia. The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 1970s Britain.



Singin' in the Rain
8.141

In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.



Mrs. Henderson Presents

Eccentric 70-year-old widow purchases the Windmill Theatre in London as a post-widowhood hobby. After starting an innovative continuous variety review, which is copied by other theaters, they begin to lose money. Mrs. Henderson suggests they add female nudity similar to the Moulin Rouge in Paris.



Flashdance
6.49

Alex Owens, a young woman juggling between two odd jobs, aspires to become a successful ballet dancer. Nick, who is her boss and lover, supports and encourages her to fulfil her dream.



Lady Chatterley's Lover

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.



Le Notti Bianche
7.4

A middle-aged man meets a young woman who is waiting on a canal bridge for her lover's return.



Stage Fright
6.799

A struggling actress tries to help a friend prove his innocence when he's accused of murdering the husband of a high-society entertainer.



La Ronde
La Ronde(1950)
7.3

An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.



Let the Sunshine In
5.216

Isabelle, Parisian artist, divorced mother, is looking for love, true love, at last.



Irma la Douce
7.397

When a naive policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn’t want her seeing other men and creates an alter ego who’s to be her only customer.



Nostalgia
Nostalgia(1983)
7.8

A Russian poet, Andrei and his interpreter, Eugenia travel to Italy to research the life of an 18th-century composer.



A Countess from Hong Kong

A Russian countess stows away in the stateroom of a married U.S. diplomat bound for New York.



Winter Light
7.9

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.



In Her Hands
6.6

A young man from a modest family gets the chance of a lifetime to reveal his hidden talent for piano but can he find the strength and courage to live up to the challenge?



Bright Star
6.603

In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.



Center Stage: On Pointe

Jonathan Reeves is tasked with infusing more contemporary styles and modernism into the American Ballet Academy, and enlists his top choreographers Charlie, Cooper and Tommy to recruit dancers to compete at a camp where the winners will be selected to join the Academy. Bella Parker, who has always lived in the shadow of her hugely successful sister Kate, finally gets her chance to step into the limelight as one of the dancers recruited for the camp.



Mr. Roosevelt
6.151

A young woman returns home and must confront her ex-boyfriend when an unexpected tragedy occurs.



The Patsy
The Patsy(1964)
6.2

Eccentric bellhop Stanley Belt is recruited unexpectedly by the comedy team of a recently deceased entertainer. Stanley struggles to become a song-and-dance man as the team grooms him to become a star. But as the date of a high-stakes appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show grows near, they begin to fear that the only astonishing thing about Stanley is his utter lack of talent.



Dance with Him
6.616

Three years after simultaneously parting with a philanderer husband and experiencing a dramatic fall during a horse jumping contest, Alexandra Balzan, a Parisian architect, regains an appetite for life and love after a chance encounter with an aging misanthrope of a master horseman and his horse



Party Girl
6.8

Slick lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career of defending mobsters in trials. It's not until he meets a lovely showgirl at a mob party that he realizes that there's more to life than winning trials. Farrell tries to quit the racket, but mob boss Rico Angelo threatens to hurt the showgirl if Farrell leaves him.



Christmas Encore
5.9

A struggling actress is cast in her last off (off) Broadway show - a modern take on “A Christmas Carol” - before giving up her dream and moving home. Instead, she finds romance with her director and a renewed passion for her craft and the city. But when the historic theater loses its lease and the show is set to fold, she and her cast mates are need of a Christmas miracle.



Pal Joey
Pal Joey(1957)
6.203

An opportunistic singer woos a wealthy widow to boost his career.



Music and Lyrics
6.4

A washed-up '80s pop star gets a chance at a comeback when reigning pop diva Cora Corman invites him to write & record a duet with her, but there's a problem--Alex hasn't written a song in years; he's never written lyrics and he has to come up with a hit in a matter of days.



The Last Showgirl
6.504

When the glittering Las Vegas revue she has headlined for decades announces it will soon close, a glamorous showgirl must reconcile with the decisions she’s made and the community she has built as she plans her next act.



Silk Stockings
6.7

After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to complete their mission and to retrieve them. She starts out condemning the decadent West, but gradually falls under its spell—with the help of an American movie producer. A remake of Ninotchka (1939).



Judy
Judy(2019)
6.695

Thirty years after starring in "The Wizard of Oz," beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.



La Belle Époque
7.4

Victor, a disillusioned 60-something whose marriage is on the rocks, opts to relive the week of his life when, 40 years earlier, he met his true love through a company that allows customers to return to the time period of their choosing.



Test
Test(2013)
6.742

San Francisco, 1985. Two opposites attract at a modern dance company. Together, their courage and resilience are tested as they navigate a world full of risks and promise, against the backdrop of a disease no one seems to know anything about.



Rendez-vous
5.574

Nina is a young, carefree actress who arrives in Paris searching for her big break. There, she finds drama both on- and offstage as she becomes involved with three men: a mild-mannered real-estate agent who offers her stability, a bad-boy actor who lives dangerously on the edge, and an intense theater director who casts her in a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” As opening night approaches, the emotional extremes of Nina’s love life fuel her art.



Funny Girl
7.2

The life of famed 1930s comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of New York, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as her marriage to the rakish gambler Nick Arnstein.



Fedora
Fedora(1978)
6.7

An ambitious Hollywood hustler becomes involved with a reclusive female star, whom he tries to lure out of retirement.



Ragtime
Ragtime(1981)
6.994

A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.



Rodrigue in Love
6.396

A struggling actor, Stéphane arrives with his troupe at the Avignon Festival to perform a boulevard play. There, he meets Fanny, a renowned actress, and falls under her spell. Taking advantage of a misunderstanding to get closer to her, Stéphane sinks into a lie that he will have to keep going for the duration of the festival... but which will quickly overwhelm him!



Venus Beauty Institute

Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young co-worker, Marie, and a much older widowed client, despite their obvious rapport.



Ridicule
Ridicule(1996)
6.9

To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.



The Apartment
8.2

Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.



Billy Elliot
7.597

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.



Lady Chatterley
6.1

After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.



Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School

Frank Keane, a baker by trade, has been consumed by grief over his wife's untimely death. But everything changes when he pulls his bread truck over on a rural highway to help a dying stranger entangled in a car wreck, who was on his way to a fateful reunion.



Benny & Joon
7.021

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.



Cartagena
Cartagena(2009)
5.594

Muriel is beautiful, free-spirited and bed-ridden since a horrific accident. Leo is a drunk middle-aged ex-boxer. Desperate for work and unqualified, he interviews for Muriel, who hires him to cook and care for her against her better judgment. Initially out of his depth, Leo slowly wins Muriel's trust. As Muriel teaches him to read, he forces her to confront the joys beyond her window.



The Price of Fame
5.2

A criminal duo learns of Charlie Chaplin's death and decides to steal his coffin to hold for a ransom.



Mr. Saturday Night
5.7

Buddy Young was the comic's comic, beloved by everyone. Now, playing to miniscule crowds in nursing homes, it seems like everybody but Buddy realizes that he should retire. As Buddy looks for work in show business, he realizes that the rest of the world has forgotten the golden days of Buddy Young, and that there just may not be room in the business for an old comic like himself.



Radiance
Radiance(2017)
6.458

The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.



The Phantom of the Opera

An aspiring opera singer finds herself transported back to Victorian-era London -- and into the arms of a reclusive, disfigured maestro determined to make her a star.



Junior Bonner
6.1

With his bronco-busting career on its last legs, Junior Bonner heads to his hometown to try his luck in the annual rodeo. But his fond childhood memories are shattered when he finds his family torn apart by his greedy brother and hard-drinking father.



Jokes & Cigarettes
7.1

Barcelona, Spain, in the late sixties. Eugenio, a young jeweler who has fallen in love with Conchita, a singer, to the point of learning to play the guitar to accompany her in her performances, will first have to learn to overcome his stage fright.



Mélo
Mélo(1986)
6.8

Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are violinists and lifelong friends living in Paris in the 1920s. While Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not, both are happy with their lives. Pierre is happily married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Marcel little suspects.



La Dolce Vita
8.054

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.



The Merry Gentlemen

To save her parents' small-town nightclub, a Broadway dancer stages an all-male, Christmas-themed revue — and meets a guy with all the right moves.



Le vie del Signore sono finite

Set in Italy during the 1920s, a barber is in a wheelchair because of a psychosomatic illness after he lost the woman he loves.



One Last Dance
5.561

In the wake of tragedy, a renowed New York dance company is on the brink of collapse. After leaving the dance world for good, Travis, Chrissa, and Max are pulled in to resurrect the dance that shattered their careers. They have one last chance to save the company, re-connect with the passion and magic, and prove that miracles really can happen.



Lola Montès
6.836

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.

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