Film

The Immigrant

Name: The Immigrant
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2013
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner, Dagmara Dominczyk, Yelena Solovey

Other titles called The Immigrant: the 1917 film.

Period drama

James Gray's lush, melancholic romance follows a Polish immigrant in 1921 New York caught between exploitation and false salvation. Gorgeously shot in period detail, it's a film about desperation, desire, and the gap between rescue and freedom. For anyone moved by character-driven dramas about trapped lives and the people who promise escape.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow, candlelit character studies where moral compromise matters more than plot, and you don't mind a love story that feels like an old oil painting.

Skip it if you want brisk plotting or a romance that declares itself early; this one is unhurried and mournful, with the dread of its setting never quite lifting.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of patient, shadowy scenes where much is conveyed through faces, lamplight and silence rather than dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai's exquisite study of longing and constraint in 1960s Hong Kong. Like The Immigrant, it prioritizes mood and visual beauty over plot, finding tragedy in what people cannot say or do to each other.

But Deliberately paced, almost static. If you need narrative momentum or dialogue-driven scenes, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Once Upon a Time in America1984

Sergio Leone's epic meditation on ambition, betrayal, and the American dream's underside. Both films share a nostalgic ache and explore how circumstance traps their characters across decades, with similar moral complexity about survival.

But At 229 minutes, it demands serious patience. The nonlinear structure can confuse; some versions are edited poorly.

The Fountain2006

Darren Aronofsky's operatic, visually overwhelming film about love across time. Shares The Immigrant's willingness to prioritize beauty and emotion over narrative clarity, and the same sense of impossible longing.

But Wildly divisive. Some find it pretentious; others think it's genuinely moving. You might be in the former camp.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Immigrant

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Night of the Hunter1955

Both are morality plays about exploitation disguised as salvation, told through visual language more than plot. Laughton's magisterial atmosphere and Gray's lush cinematography come from the same impulse.

Charles Laughton's only directorial effort: a fever dream of pursuit and predation. Both films use visual poetry and fairytale darkness to explore how desperation makes people vulnerable to charming villains. Same DNA entirely, different era.

But A 1955 film in black and white, it moves at its own deliberate pace. The theatrical performance style will feel distant if you're used to modern naturalism.

Carol2015

Todd Haynes' restrained period romance about two women and the social forces that keep them apart. The same visual precision, the same focus on desire constrained by circumstance and society's rules.

But Quiet and unhurried. The emotional climax is a glance, not a scene. That subtlety will bore anyone wanting clearer drama.

The Skin I Live In2011

Spanish thriller with the same obsessive visual style and a protagonist whose rescue of another person conceals darker truths. Explores how saving someone and possessing them can be the same act.

But It pivots into genuine horror. If you're expecting a straightforward romance, the twist will feel like betrayal.

A Tale of Love and Darkness2015

Natalie Portman's adaptation of Amos Oz's memoir, set in 1950s Jerusalem. The same attention to how history and circumstance shape intimate relationships, with similar muted colour palette and lyrical approach.

But Glacially slow and deliberately undramatic. Some viewers find it meditative; others find it airless.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford2007

Slow-burn American period piece about obsession and the gap between fantasy and reality. Shares Gray's painterly visual style and his interest in how admiration can corrupt or destroy.

But Nearly three hours of gorgeous but uneventful filmmaking. If you came for a Western, you'll be frustrated.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford poster

Far from the Madding Crowd2015

Thomas Vinterberg's adaptation emphasizes landscape, emotion, and the constraints placed on women making choices. Less noir than The Immigrant, but the same richness of visual storytelling and trapped desire.

But The rural English setting is quite different in mood. Some find it too genteel compared to the grit of period pieces like this one.

Theeb2014

Jordanian coming-of-age film set during World War I, shot in desert landscapes. Shares the immigrant experience—displacement, moral compromise, beauty amid hardship—in an entirely different context.

But Very sparse dialogue and minimal plot. Long sequences of landscape and silence. Not for those who need constant dialogue or action.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Both examine how women are trapped by circumstance and others' needs. The Immigrant shows desperation; Akerman shows the daily texture of constraint. Same cage, different angle.

Chantal Akerman's three-hour portrait of a woman's routine and invisible labour. A radical formal choice that finds drama in repetition. Like The Immigrant, it's about a woman's constrained life, but Akerman shows us the hours instead of the crisis.

But Nearly all of it is watching someone cook and clean. If you expect narrative or character development, you will be actively bored.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

Phantom Thread2017

Both are about beautiful, talented women who have limited choices and powerful men who claim to save them. Phantom Thread is what happens when the woman saves herself.

Paul Thomas Anderson's baroque fashion world romance. Shares The Immigrant's portrait of a woman navigating a powerful man's world, but inverts it—here she has more agency and wit. Same visual obsession, same queasy power dynamics.

But Perversely funny in ways that undercut the romance. If you want to root for the couple, the film keeps suggesting you shouldn't.