Culture/Movies

This page provides a listing of movies with a polyamorous theme. Some of the movies present the concept in a positive light, others in a negative light, and others offer no judgment. The initial content for this list came from The Alt.polyamory FAQ Culture Supplement.

Complete Listing
- The Edukators

-The sex of angels

Afterglow

 * Link: Afterglow
 * Cast: Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Lara Flynn Boyle
 * Synopsis: Two couples and the relationship between them.

All About Them (A Trois On Y Va)

 * Link: All About Them
 * Cast: Anaïs Demoustier, Félix Moati, Sophie Verbeeck
 * Synopsis: Charlotte and Micha are in a long-term, loving and committed relationship, and have recently taken a huge step forward in their relationship. They should live in domestic bliss, but they can't help but feel that something's failing to fall into place. Maybe their new friend Mélodie, for whom they both have so much affection, will be the one to help make things feel right again. Or it could be that their love triangle will make everything fall apart, instead... since Micha doesn't know that Mélodie is in love with Charlotte, and Charlotte doesn't know that Micha has fallen for Mélodie. Spoiler alert: in this refreshing French romantic comedy, comedic effect relies mostly on Mélodie having to hide in turn from each of her lovers to keep up the secret and avoid breaking up Micha and Charlotte's couple. But thankfully, honesty and affection win, in the end, and jealousy at no point becomes part of the equation.

Another Woman's Lipstick

 * Link: Another Woman's Lipstick
 * Cast: David Duchovny, Matt LaBlanc, Maryam d'Abo
 * Synopsis: Three episodes based on "Red Shoe Diaries", first episode concerns a woman who has two different lovers, who satisfy different needs. More dishonest monogamy than polyamory.

Bal Poussiire (Ball in Staub) (Ball in the Dust)

 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: Demi-Dieu (Demigod), a rich farmer and head of the villiage, already has five women. He decides to marry a sixth, young Binta. But Binta is a modern woman and self-confident. Unwilling to be kept in tutelage by him, she gets in conflict with him and the other five women. A pungent comedy on polygamy.

Bandits

 * Link: Bandits
 * Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett
 * Synopsis: Two bank robbers fall in love with the girl they've kidnapped.

Belle Époque

 * Link: Belle Époque
 * Cast: Ariadna Gil
 * Synopsis: Spanish film set just before the Spanish Civil War. An artist takes in a deserter, who repays him by sleeping with all four of his daughters. It's pretty light hearted and a warm farcical romp.

Becoming Colette

 * Link: Becoming Colette
 * Cast: Klaus Maria Brandauer, Mathilda May, Virginin Madsen
 * Synopsis: Young Colette attempts to deal with the coldness of her husband by entering into a menage a trois with him and his mistress.

The Blood Oranges

 * Link: The Blood Oranges”
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: A film about a couple in the 1970s, committed to the idea of open marriage. They meet and proceed to get involved with another couple.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

 * Link: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
 * Cast: Robert Culp, Natalie Wood, Elliot Gould, Dyan Cannon
 * Synopsis: This is very much a wife-swapping tale, rather than being more generally oriented. Widely known and raises many poly questions.

Breaking the Waves

 * Link: Breaking the Waves
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: After her husband becomes paralyzed and asks her to find lovers to make him happy, a very christian scottish woman tries hard despite her revulsion to the idea and the rejection of her by the community. The woman ends up making a big sacrifice, after which hubby miraculously recuperates.

Cafe au Lait

 * Link: Cafe au Lait
 * Cast: Julie Mauduech, Mathieu Kassovitz, Vincent Cassel
 * Synopsis: French film about a woman who becomes pregnant by one of her lovers. The three of them wind up forming a family of sorts to raise the child.

The Captain's Paradise (1953)

 * Link: The Captain's Paradise
 * Cast: Alec Guinness
 * Synopsis: Tale about a ferryboat captain on the Gibraltar/Africa run with a wife on each side.

Carrington (1995)

 * Link: Carrington
 * Cast: Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce)
 * Synopsis: The true story of a group of writers and artists in England in the 20's. Jonathan Pryce plays a gay man ; Emma Thompson is straight but in love with him; eventually she marries another, bisexual man and the three of them live together for some time. Problems occur when (1) Thompson's first fiancee has difficulties giving her up; (2) Thompson has a secret affair with the bisexual man's closest friend; (3) the bisexual man openly introduces another woman into the arrangement, which Thompson doesn't mind but Pryce does.

A Change of Seasons

 * Link: A Change of Seasons
 * Cast: Shirley Maclaine, Bo Derek, Anthony Hopkins, Mary Beth Hurt
 * Synopsis: Maclaine's professor husband has an affair with Derek; she then has an affair of her own, and then the four decide to go on a holiday together to see whether they can work something out...

December Bride

 * Link: December Bride
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: A young woman in turn of the century Ireland falls in love with two brothers, choosing to live with them both and raise a son and daughter with two fathers.

Design for Living

 * Link: Design for Living
 * Cast: Gary Cooper, Fredrich March, Miriam Hopkins) &lt;/dd&gt;
 * Synopsis: Adaptation of Noel Coward's stage play about an artist (Cooper) and a playwright (March), friends and Americans in Paris and what happens when the both fall in love with a woman

Enemies: A Love Story

 * Link: Enemies: A Love Story
 * Cast: Angelica Houston, Ron Silver, Lena Olin
 * Synopsis: A tale of a man and the three women in his life.

Farinelli the Castrato

 * Link: Farinelli the Castrato
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: The story of the 18th century castrati opera star. There are a number of scenes portraying the title character and his brother sharing a woman. This movie is rated R.

Four Lovers

 * Link: Lovers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528750/
 * Cast: Marina Fois, Roshdy Zem, Elodie Bouchez, Nicolas Duvauchelle.
 * Synopsis: The story of a couple, that meets another one, then love happens.

Gazon Maudit / French Twist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
 * Link: Gazon Maudit
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: French film about a philandering husband whose wife becomes lovers with another woman. The wife decides not to choose between her two lovers and the three of them form a family in the end.
 * Synopsis: [http:// Mikael Blomkvist] is having a relationship with his partner in the magazine, who is amarried woman whose husband knows about their relationship. He's hired to find who murdered Harriett and [http:// Lisbeth Salander] (the girl with the dragon tattoo) helps him and they have an affair. Harriett becomes Blomkivist's lover when she comes to the magazine board meetings. A policewoman also becomes one of Blomkvist's lovers. This is all in the open.

The Harrad Experiment

 * Link: The Harrad Experiment
 * Cast: James Whitmore, Tippi Hedron, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Victoria Thompson, Laurie Walters
 * Synopsis: Adaptation of the Robert Rimmer book. Unfortunately it spends so much time on the topic of public nudity that it has little left over to deal with poly issues.

Harrad Summer

 * Link: Harrad Summer
 * Cast: Marty Allen, Bill Dana, Richard Doran, Victoria Thompson, Laurie Walters
 * Synopsis:

The Haunted Summer

 * Link: The Haunted Summer
 * Cast: Erik Stolz, Laura Dern
 * Synopsis: In 1815, authors Lord Byron, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley get together for some philosophical discussions, but the situation soon deteriorates into mind games, drugs and sex.

Heart Beat

 * Link: Heart Beat(1980)
 * Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John Heard, Ray Sharkey
 * Synopsis: This is the story of "beat" reporter Jack Kerouac's affair with a married couple.

Henry and June

 * Link: Henry and June
 * Cast: Uma Thurman, Fred Ward, Maria De Medeiros, Kevin Spacey
 * Synopsis: Writer Henry Miller has an affair with his friend's wife, Anais Nin... and then his wife June shows up. Anais finds herself becoming attracted to June. This movie is somewhat explicit and the people involved are less than stable.

The Hunger

 * Link: The Hunger
 * Cast: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon
 * Synopsis: More bi than poly, and only a few moments of that. At the end Sarandon's character seems to have new lovers of both genders.

Hurt Penguins

 * Link: Hurt Penguins
 * Cast:Michele Muzzi, Daniel Kash,  George King
 * Synopsis: Harriet and her boyfriend Nick are rock musicians in their thirties, desperately trying to land a recording contract. Harriet hatches a plan to get the rich older bookworm, Nick to fund them. In the end, she realizes she loves them both.

Jules and Jim

 * Link: Jules and Jim
 * Cast: Oskar Werner, Jeanne Moreau
 * Synopsis: Two men fall in love with the same woman.

A Lesson in Love

 * Link: A Lesson in Love
 * Cast: 1954) (Ingmar Bergman - Director
 * Synopsis: A romantic comedy about a doctor trying to win back his wife after she leaves him over an affair of his.

Lianna

 * Link: Lianna
 * Cast: Linda Griffiths
 * Synopsis: A professor's wife finds out he's having an affair, and at the same time falls in love with a female professor. More a lesbian tale than a poly one, but especially good at showing the effects on family and friends of "coming out" different.

Losing Chase

 * Link: Losing Chase
 * Cast: Helen Mirren, Beau Bridges, directed by Kevin Bacon
 * Synopsis: Story of a New England woman who has recently returned from a stay in a mental hospital. Her husband hires a college student to be her "mother's helper" and a complex relationship develops between them. Unsatisfying ending but plenty of poly issues.

Love Songs

 * Link: Love Songs
 * Cast: Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Gregoire Leprince-Ruignet
 * Synopsis: French musical film that opens on an established FFM triad. By the end of the film the main protagonist is involved in a new dyad, but the movie portrays the menage a trois in a positive light, and there is no "poly relationships are doomed to fail" tropes here.

Loving Couples
her lover's girlfriend. The two cheating couples decide to go to a resort but they unintentionally pick the same one. Hilarity ensues.
 * Link: Loving Couples
 * Cast: Shirley MacLaine, James Coburn, Susan Sarandon, Sally Kellerman, John De Lancie
 * Synopsis:Wife is cheating her husband and the husband is cheating her back with

Loving Molly

 * Link: Loving Molly
 * Cast: Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner, Anthony Perkins, Susan Sarandon
 * Synopsis: The story of three men and the one woman that they share from the time they are children and throughout their lives. Based on "Leaving Cheyenne" by Larry McMurtry.

Lucky Lady

 * Link: Lucky Lady
 * Cast: Liza Minelli, Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds
 * Synopsis: It does look like the three main characters are getting set to stay together at the end of the movie.

Mango Kiss

 * Link: Mango Kiss
 * Cast: Sally Kirkland, Michelle Wolff, Daniele Ferraro
 * Synopsis: Two friends move into the kinky, queer, poly San Francisco scene and decide to experiment with polyamory after becoming lovers. They end up monogamous, but polyamory is portrayed fairly positively in the movie.

Me, You, Them

 * Link: Me, You, Them
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: True story of the relationship between a Brazilian woman and her three husbands, who live together in the same house in a poor and arid small village.

Mickey and Maude

 * Link: Mickey and Maude
 * Cast: Dudley Moore, Amy Irving, Ann Reinking, Wallace Shawn
 * Synopsis: Light-hearted romp about a man who gets himself married to two different people. When everyone finds out, they try to share.

No Way Out

 * Link: No Way Out
 * Cast: Kevin Costner, Sean Young, Gene Hackman)
 * 'Synopsis: Costner gets involved with Young, who is already involved with his boss (Hackman). Bad things happen. She actively says that she is poly (before she is killed

Ordinary Decent Criminal

 * Link: Ordinary Decent Criminal
 * Cast: Kevin Spacey, Linda Fiorentino
 * Synopsis: Michael Lynch is Dublin's most notorious criminal, his brazen robberies making him the bane of the Gardaí and a hero to his fellow working class city Northsiders. When not playing happy families with his two wives - sisters Christine and Lisa - and his children, Lynch is busy plotting elaborate heists, thinking as much about the showmanship of it all as he is the loot involved. On his case is Garda Noel Quigley, his determination to convict Lynch slowly turning into an obsession. Inevitably, a showdown looms.

Paint Your Wagon

 * Link: Paint Your Wagon
 * Cast: Lee Marvin, Jean Seberg, Clint Eastwood, Ray Walston
 * Synopsis: Due to the scarcity of women, Marvin and Eastwood share one.

Der Philosopher

 * Link: Der Philosopher
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: German Film. A man falls in love with 3 women separately, then feels badly about deluding them. All winds up happily.

Pour Quoi Pas

 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: French Film. In the end a woman returns to rejoin her poly family, recognizing it as the right place to be.

Raise the Red Lantern

 * Link: Raise the Red Lantern
 * Cast: Li Gong
 * Synopsis: A college student becomes the 4th wife of a wealthy middle-aged man. This drama is mostly about competition between the wives of one rich man in China in the 1920's.

Red Shoe Diaries

 * Link: Red Shoe Diaries
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: Man finds out about girlfriends poly (non-monogamous, really) lifestyle after she kills herself. Then he meets her other lover.

The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker

 * Link: The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker
 * Cast: Jill St. John, Ron Ely
 * Synopsis: Tale of a traveling salesman with two complete families, one in Pittsburgh and the other in Philadelphia.

Richard's Things

 * Link: Richard's Things
 * Cast: Liv Ullman
 * Synopsis: After a mans death, his mistress and widow become lovers.

Rita and Sue ... and Bob too

 * Link: Rita and Sue ... and Bob too
 * Cast: Siobhan Finneran, Michelle Holmes, George Costigan
 * Synopsis: A married man's affair with two younger women causes his wife to leave him. Can the three lovers transmute their sexual interest into something more lasting?

Same Time, Next Year

 * Link: Same Time, Next Year
 * Cast: Alan Alda, Ellen Burstyn)
 * Synpsis: Alda has a once a year meeting with his lover, most of the time is spent examining the changes between the two people in the intervening times.

The Seduction of Joe Tynan

 * Link: The Seduction of Joe Tynan
 * Cast: Alan Alda
 * Synopsis: Alda plays a politician who falls in love with another woman at a convention.

The sex of Angels

 * Synopsis: Young spanish couple get involved with another young man. Poly issues are discussed. Happy ending.

Sharing Richard

 * Link: Sharing Richard
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: A lawyer, a real estate agent, and an office worker, who are best friends, separately meet and start dating a recently divorced doctor. Instead of breaking it off, they decide to share him without his knowledge.

She's Gotta Have It

 * Link: She's Gotta Have It
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: One of Spike Lee's earliest films, deals with a polyamorous young woman and the three men who want her to choose. There are also a lot of African-American male/female issues addressed in this movie.

Small Circle of Friends

 * Link: Small Circle of Friends
 * Cast: Karen Allen, Shelley Long
 * Synopsis: Genuine poly values are central to the plot of this film about a MFM triad. Low-budget production, but asks good questions.

Splendor

 * Link: Splendor
 * Cast: Johnathon Schaech, Matt Keeslar, Kathleen Robertson
 * Synopsis: A woman, Veronica, falls in love with two men. Initially she sees the two men at different times although they know of each other. Eventually they meet and come to live together. When she becomes pregnant she moves out and is presented with a “standard, stable” man who she plans to marry...

A Strange Affair

 * Link: A Strange Affair
 * Cast: Judith Light
 * Synopsis: A wife is in the process of leaving her husband for another man when her husband suffers an accident and requires full time care. So she moves her new lover in.

The Substitute Wife

 * Link: The Substitute Wife
 * Cast: Lea Thomson, Farrah Fawcett
 * Synopsis: Thomsons character is dying, and she finds Fawcett to be a new wife for her husband. The family falls in love with the new woman and then Thomson miraculously recovers. They decide to keep the family together with both women.

Summer Lovers

 * Link: Summer Lovers
 * Cast: Daryl Hannah, Valerie Quennessen, Peter Gallagher
 * Synopsis: A young American couple on a summer vacation in the Mediterranean get involved with a French archaeologist.

Surviving Picasso

 * Link: Surviving Picasso
 * Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Julliane Moore
 * Synopsis: Film about Picasso and his stormy relationships with various lovers, children, etc. While most of the women and some of the relationships in the film are definitely poly, Picasso himself is portrayed as an insensitive, arrogant, and jealous male who finally gets a taste of his own medicine.

Threesome

 * Link: Threesome
 * Cast: Lara Flynn Boyle, Steven Baldwin, Josh Charles
 * Synopsis: The story of 2 men and 1 woman who find themselves assigned to the same dorm room, and the relationship that develops. Their multi-partner relationship is portrayed in a very poly-friendly way.

Two Girls and a Guy

 * Link: Two Girls and a Guy
 * Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Heather Graham, Natasha Gregson Wagner
 * Synopsis: Two girls, Carla and Lou meet on the street outside a loft waiting for their boyfriends. In a short time, they find out that they're waiting for the same guy. Angry, they break into his loft and when he returns, a round of accusations and explanations begins.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

 * Link: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
 * Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin, Juliette Binoche
 * Synopsis: The womanizing Tomas falls in love with the monogamous Tereza, but cannot give up his lover Sabina....Meanwhile, Russian tanks roll over Prague...

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

 * Link: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
 * Cast: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz
 * Synopsis: Vicky and Cristina visit Spain and meet an artist who invites them home for a threesome without shame. Cristina ends up in a polyamorous relationship with him, which is portrayed realistically and without bias.

The Wedding Banquet

 * Link: The Wedding Banquet
 * Cast: Winston Chao, Mitchell Lichtenstein, May Chin
 * Synopsis: In spite of his partner's reservations, a gay man and a starving artist decide to marry, he to get his traditional, matchmaking parents off his back and she to keep from being deported. Things get....complicated.

When Two Won't Do

 * Link: When Two Won't Do
 * Cast:
 * Synopsis: It takes viewers on an intimate road trip across North America - from a polyamory conference in the Catskills, a swingers' convention in Las Vegas, to long-term multipartner families in California. Along the way, the filmmakers try to learn from these relationship veterans, while navigating their own fledgling polyamorous relationships. The results are as giddy, painful, sad and loving as real life tends to be.

Willie and Phil

 * Link: Willie and Phil
 * Cast: Michael Ontkean, Margot Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Natalie Wood
 * Synopsis: Seventies movie about a polyamorous triad involved in the protest movement. Somewhat of a remake of "Jules and Jim"