Best Lesbian relationship Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of lesbian relationship cinema — measured across 1,577 indexed frames from 25 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Lesbian relationship films over-index on candle, pillow and dress — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Céline SciammaDP Claire MathonIMDb 8.0TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →
In 18th-century France young painter Marianne, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day, the two women become closer as they share Héloïse's last moments of freedom before the impending wedding.
- 2
Ammonite (2020)
Francis LeeDP Stéphane FontaineIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →
In 1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) works alone on the rugged Southern coastline. With the days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now searches for common fossils to sell to tourists to support herself and her ailing mother. When a wealthy visitor entrusts Mary with the care of his wife Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan), she cannot afford to turn his offer down. Proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, Mary initially clashes with her unwelcome guest, but despite the distance between their social class and personalities, an intense bond begins to develop, compelling the two women to determine the true nature of their relationship.
- 3
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Lisa CholodenkoDP Igor Jadue-LilloIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Nic and Jules are in a long term, committed, loving but by no means perfect same-sex relationship. Nic, a physician, needs to wield what she believes is control, whereas Jules, under that control, is less self-assured. During their relationship, Jules has floundered in her "nine to five" life, sometimes trying to start a business - always unsuccessfully - or being the stay-at-home mom. She is currently trying to start a landscape design business. They have two teen-aged children, Joni (conceived by Nic) and Laser (by Jules). Although not exact replicas, each offspring does more closely resemble his/her biological mother in temperament. Joni and Laser are also half-siblings, having the same unknown sperm donor father. Shortly after Joni's eighteenth birthday and shortly before she plans to leave the house and head off to college, Laser, only fifteen and underage to do so, pleads with her to try and contact their sperm donor father. Somewhat reluctantly, she does. He is late thirty-something Paul, a co-op farmer and restaurateur. Despite his seemingly successful businesses, Paul has always shirked responsibility, most specifically in his personal life. After Joni and Laser meet with Paul, Nic and Jules learn what their children have done and, although they don't want Paul infiltrating their lives, want to meet him - especially as Joni and Laser seem to want to maintain some sort of relationship with him. As Paul's relationship with the entire family grows (which includes his hiring Jules to design and construct his backyard), they have an effect on what he wants in life. In turn, he affects their family dynamic as well as each person's relationships outside of it.
- 4
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.
- 5
Benedetta (2021)
Paul VerhoevenDP Jeanne LapoirieIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Virginie Efiraas Sister Benedetta Carlini
Charlotte Ramplingas Sister Felicita
Daphné Patakiaas Bartolomea
17th-century Tuscany, Italy. As the sinister threat of the Plague looms over Europe, the sincerely devout eight-year-old novice, Benedetta Carlini, is brought into the Theatine Convent of the Mother of God in Pescia as a bride for Jesus Christ. Eighteen long years later, as ominous whispers of disputable miracles scandalise the cloistered sisters, a test of faith awaits deeply pious Benedetta in the shape of bruised, abused, and earthly Bartolomea: a young woman fleeing her violent father. Now, while under the vigilant eye of cynical Abbess Felicita, fleeting glimpses of the forbidden fruit invite a tentative intimacy, ungovernable desires, and intense diabolical obsessions in, and suddenly, the holy signs of faith are manifest in Sister Benedetta's body. But, few can wrestle with guilt and emerge unscathed. Is there an escape from sin when the flesh is the enemy?
- 6
Thelma (2017)
Joachim TrierDP Jakob IhreIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Having just enrolled at a university in Oslo against her stern parents' will, the sheltered Biology freshman and devout Christian, Thelma, leaves for the first time the isolated Norwegian countryside, to start a new life away from home. Tangibly lonely, a casual conversation and one unexpected friendship with the beautiful fellow student, Anja, will broaden Thelma's hazy horizons; however, as the glacially alluring misfit wrestles with an onslaught of novel feelings, little by little, an unprecedented psychosomatic manifestation of repressed emotions start to take over. Indeed, a mystery cloaks soft-spoken Thelma's past, and the more she struggles to renounce her nebulous desire, the more violent becomes her quivering awakening. Can Thelma unearth a denied truth behind the stinging temptation?
- 7
Bound (1996)
Lilly Wachowski, Lana WachowskiDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Corky, a lesbian ex con hired to work in an apartment as a plumber, meets neighbors Caesar, who launders money for the Mafia, and his girlfriend Violet. The two women have a love affair and decide to steal $2,000,000 that Caesar has in custody before he gives them back to Mafia boss Gino Marzone. Caesar is set up by the two scheming women as a scapegoat but things start to go wrong when he reacts in an unexpected way...
- 8
Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013)
Abdellatif KechicheDP Sofian El FaniIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Adèle is a high school student who is beginning to explore herself as a woman. She dates men but finds no satisfaction with them sexually, and is rejected by a female friend who she does desire. She dreams of something more. She meets Emma who is a free spirited girl whom Adèle's friends reject due to her sexuality, and by association most begin to reject Adèle. Her relationship with Emma grows into more than just friends as she is the only person with whom she can express herself openly. Together, Adèle and Emma explore social acceptance, sexuality, and the emotional spectrum of their maturing relationship.
What lesbian relationship films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a lesbian relationship frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — candle is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- candle3.4×
- pillow2.8×
- dress2.8×
- staircase2.6×
- bed2.5×
- ocean2.5×
- curtains2.3×
- blonde hair2.3×
How lesbian relationship 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 lesbian relationship from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 86%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Carol (2015) 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 1,577 frames from 25 films carrying the lesbian relationship 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/lesbian-relationship
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