Best Jealousy Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of jealousy cinema — measured across 4,631 indexed frames from 61 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Jealousy films over-index on sofa, sweater and fedora — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
This Boy's Life (1993)
Michael Caton-JonesDP David WatkinIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
In 1957, a son and mother flee the East and an abusive boyfriend to find a new life, and end up in Seattle, where the mother meets a polite garage mechanic. The boy continually gets into trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd. The mom marries the mechanic, but they soon find out that he's an abusive and unreasoning alcoholic, and they struggle to maintain hope in an impossible situation as the boy grows up with plans to escape the small town by any means possible. Based on a true story by Tobias Wolff.
- 2
Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963)
Jean-Luc GodardDP Raoul CoutardIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang to direct an adaptation of "The Odyssey," but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.
- 3
Priscilla (2023)
Sofia CoppolaDP Philippe Le SourdIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →
When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
- 4
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Sam MendesDP Roger DeakinsIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
It's 1955. Frank and April Wheeler, are in the 'seven year itch' of their marriage; they're not happy. April has forgone her dream of being an actress, and Frank hates his job. One day, April suggests they move to Paris as a means to rejuvenate their life.
- 5
Belle De Jour (1967)
Luis BuñuelDP Sacha ViernyIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.
- 6
The Neon Demon (2016)
Nicolas Winding RefnDP Natasha BraierIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →
The sixteen year-old aspiring model Jesse arrives in Los Angeles expecting to be a successful model. The aspirant photographer Dean takes photos for her portfolio and dates her. Jesse befriends the lesbian makeup artist Ruby and then the envious models Gigi and Sarah in a party. Meanwhile, the agency considers Jesse beautiful with a "thing" that makes her different and she is sent to the professional photographer Jack. Jesse attracts the attention of the industry and experiences a successful beginning of her career. Ruby, Gigi and Sarah, however, will do whatever is necessary to get this "thing" for themselves.
- 7
Broken Embraces (2009)
Pedro AlmodóvarDP Rodrigo PrietoIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Passion, obsession, wealth, jealousy, family, guilt, and creativity. In Madrid, Harry Caine is a blind screenwriter, assisted by Judit and her son Diego. The past comes rushing in when Harry learns of the death of Ernesto Martel, a wealthy businessman, and Ernesto's son pays Harry a visit. In a series of flashbacks to the 1990s, we see Harry, who was then Mateo Blanco, a director; he falls in love with Ernesto's mistress, Lena, and casts her in a film, which Ernesto finances. Ernesto is jealous and obsessive, sending his son to film the making of the movie, to follow Lena and Mateo, and to give him the daily footage. Judit doesn't like Lena. It's a collision course.
- 8
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Billy WilderDP John F. SeitzIMDb 8.4TMDB 8.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Desperate for cash, screenwriter Joe Gillis has a chance meeting with a faded silent film star. Norma Desmond lives in her crumbling Sunset Boulevard mansion with only her butler to keep her company. She has become a sad demented recluse convinced that the outside world is clamoring for her dramatic return. Enticing him with the prospect of script work she puts him up in her mansion and he becomes ever more involved and entangled in her life.
- 9
The Handmaiden (2016)
Park Chan-wookDP Chung Chung-hoonIMDb 8.1TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl (Sookee) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Hideko) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle (Kouzuki). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to elope with him, rob her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. The plan seems to proceed according to plan until Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.
- 10
Michel GondryDP Ellen KurasIMDb 8.3TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Much to his surprise, timid Joel Barish is shocked to discover that the love of his life, sparky Clementine, has had him erased from her memory. To pay her back in the same coin, poor Joel summons up the courage to undergo a painless but intricate medical procedure to do the same, utterly unaware that darkness is an essential part of the light. Now, as hurt and angry Joel's ugly recollections of Clementine gradually fade away, giving way to a soulless black void, suddenly, he begins having second thoughts, toying with the idea of stopping the irreversible process. In the end, is ignorance really bliss?
What jealousy films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a jealousy frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — sofa is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- sofa1.9×
- sweater1.7×
- fedora1.6×
- mirror1.6×
How jealousy films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate jealousy from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 17%high keyvs 12% baseline
- 88%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
A Cinderella Story (2004) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 4,631 frames from 61 films carrying the jealousy label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/jealousy
What is FrameThrower?
Great films start with great references.
The numbers on this page come from the same index you can search directly. Every frame is tagged for lighting, lens, shot size, colour and mood — so you can find the reference you already have in your head, by describing it, by dropping in an image, or by picking a colour.
- The largest film library in the world — searchable frame by frame
- Search by light, colour, lens or mood — or by dropping in an image
- Script to lookbook in an afternoon — a board for every scene, from real frames
- Moodboards you can share on one link — your DP, designer and client see the same film
- API and MCP access — for agentic and developer workflows
- Free to start — no card required
A pitch trailer takes weeks of work and a budget most projects never get. The lookbook gets you there in an afternoon.
DiscoveryResearchReferencesEducation
These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used