Best movies — histoire on Apple TV+ : our Top 20

2018 · Laurent Tirard

In 1809 France, a young officer is sent off to war, leaving his fiancée shattered. To ease her sorrow, the woman’s sister begins writing letters in the captain’s voice, inventing news and comforts that rekindle hope — but as the deception grows, loyalties, love, and the truth are put to the test.

With Jean Dujardin, Mélanie Laurent, Christophe Montenez, Fabienne Galula, Noémie Merlant, Féodor Atkine and Evelyne Buyle

1993 · Steven Spielberg

During the Second World War, industrialist Oskar Schindler risks everything to defy the Nazi regime, using his factories and connections to employ, protect, and ultimately save more than a thousand Jewish people from deportation and death.

With Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, Embeth Davidtz and Malgorzata Gebel

1963 · Tony Richardson

Bound by deep affection yet divided by stark social classes, Tom and Sophie must navigate family expectations and mounting chaos to discover whether their love can survive.

With Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Diane Cilento and David Tomlinson

1995 · Mel Gibson

After his childhood sweetheart and new wife Murron is brutally killed, Scottish warrior William Wallace retaliates by ambushing and killing a detachment of the local English lord’s soldiers — an act that sparks a village uprising which soon grows into a nationwide rebellion against English rule.

With Mel Gibson, Catherine McCormack, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen, Brendan Gleeson and James Robinson

2023 · Michael Mann

In the summer of 1957, former racing champion Enzo Ferrari faces a personal and professional collapse as the company he and his wife Laura forged from nothing a decade before teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Their stormy marriage is tested further by the pain of mourning one son and the uneasy acceptance of another.

With Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, Jack O'Connell, Gabriel Leone and Giuseppe Festinese

2004 · Terry George

Set in Rwanda in the 1990s amid a genocide that claimed over a million Tutsi lives while much of the world looked away, this film is drawn from real events and follows hotelier Paul Rusesabagina. Facing chaos and danger, he converts his hotel into a refuge for more than a thousand people, risking everything to protect those seeking shelter.

With Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, Fana Mokoena, Joaquin Phoenix, Jean Reno and Desmond Dube

2013 · Steve McQueen

On the eve of the American Civil War, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted, stripped of his liberty, and sold into slavery. Enduring harsh cruelty and occasional acts of compassion, he fights to survive while holding fast to his dignity. After twelve years of captivity, a chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist sets in motion the possibility of his return to freedom.

With Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson and Adepero Oduye

2010 · Tom Hooper

When his older brother abdicates, Albert—nicknamed Bertie—is suddenly crowned king despite a debilitating stammer that saps his confidence and fuels doubts about his suitability. He reluctantly seeks out Lionel Logue, an unconventional speech therapist whose candid methods and insistence on emotional as well as vocal work forge an unlikely bond between them. Through persistence, surprising techniques, and growing trust, Bertie learns to master public speaking and summon the strength to address the nation as Europe edges toward war.

With Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Timothy Spall, Michael Gambon and Jennifer Ehle

1933 · Lowell Sherman

In New York, nightclub owner and singer Lady Lou attracts a steady stream of admirers. One of them, a brutal outlaw who has just escaped custody, is headed back to claim the woman he believes belongs to him—unaware she’s been unfaithful during his absence. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Captain Cummings, a young, determined leader of the local temperance movement, who intervenes to protect her and bring the fugitive to justice.

With Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, David Landau and Rafaela Ottiano

2015 · F. Gary Gray

In 1987, five young men turned uncompromising rhymes and relentless, hard-edged beats into the only weapon they had to voice their anger and frustration about life in one of America's most dangerous neighborhoods. The film traces how these cultural insurgents—relying on provocative lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent—confronted the authorities determined to keep them silent and built one of the most notorious hip-hop collectives, N.W.A. By laying bare the realities of life in the hood, their music unleashed a cultural and social uprising whose impact continues to resonate.

With O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr. and R. Marcos Taylor

2024 · Julio Quintana

Denied access to the greens where they worked, five Mexican-American teenage caddies in segregated 1950s Texas refuse to be sidelined: they form their own team, fashion a one-hole course out of a pasture, and, against overwhelming prejudice, rise to claim the 1957 Texas State championship. Inspired by true events.

With Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, Cheech Marin, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen and Oscar Nunez

2015 ·

During the Cold War, an American U-2 pilot is shot down and taken prisoner by Soviet forces. Facing a ten-year sentence, his only chance rests with New York lawyer James Donovan, who is quietly enlisted by a CIA agent to negotiate his release. Donovan flies to Berlin to try to arrange a prisoner swap that would see the convicted Soviet spy Rudolf Abel returned to his country in exchange for the pilot’s freedom.

With Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Austin Stowell and Billy Magnussen

1998 · Terrence Malick

A band of soldiers from an Army rifle company known as "C‑for‑Charlie" is tested to its limits on Guadalcanal, undergoing physical and emotional transformations as the campaign grinds on. Their voyage begins with an eerily easy landing, but soon gives way to relentless, brutal engagements that strip away illusions and force each man to confront fear, loss, and what it means to endure. Through confusion, comradeship, and sacrifice, they are remade by war — and the story closes with the quiet, hard-won departure of the handful who survive.

With Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Adrien Brody, Ben Chaplin, Elias Koteas, John Cusack and Woody Harrelson

2006 · Kevin Macdonald

Fresh from completing his medical training, young Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan seeks adventure and travels to Uganda as President Obote’s rule collapses. When General Idi Amin seizes power, Garrigan is summoned to serve as the dictator’s personal physician, thrust into the perilous inner circle of a rapidly changing regime.

With Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Simon McBurney, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington, David Oyelowo and Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga

1987 · Bernardo Bertolucci

Pu Yi's life is traced from exalted beginnings—born into imperial privilege and installed as China's final sovereign within the seclusion of the Forbidden City, adored by a vast nation—to the abrupt end of his rule and a descent into moral decay and self-indulgence. The film follows his exploitation by Japanese occupiers and, after years of upheaval, his eventual reduction to an anonymous existence as an ordinary laborer under the People's Republic.

With John Lone, Peter O'Toole, Joan Chen, Vivian Wu, Dennis Dun, Ruocheng Ying and Victor Wong

2023 · Jon S. Baird

1988 finds American video-game entrepreneur Henk Rogers stumbling upon the addictive puzzle game Tetris. As he tries to bring it to a global audience, he becomes embroiled in a perilous maze of lies and political corruption within the Soviet bloc.

With Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva, Anthony Boyle, Toby Jones, Igor Grabuzov and Ben Miles

2008 ·

Ben Sanderson, a once-successful Hollywood screenwriter ruined by alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas determined to drink himself to death. There he forms an uneasy friendship and a mutual pact of noninterference with Sera, a sex worker who becomes his reluctant companion.

With Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts and Laurence Fishburne

2006 · Paul Greengrass

On September 11, passengers and crew aboard United Flight 93 confront a hijacking and, learning of the wider attacks, mount a desperate, improvised resistance. Their brave, split-second actions culminate in the plane crashing near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, denying the hijackers their intended target.

With Trieste Kelly Dunn, Starla Benford, Kate Jennings Grant, J.J. Johnson, Polly Adams, Trish Gates and Olivia Thirlby

1998 · Shekhar Kapur

Set against the turbulence of post-Reformation England, the film follows Elizabeth I’s rise to the throne and the fragile consolidation of her early rule. Pressured by advisers determined to secure the nation through marriage, targeted by Catholic plots and hostility, and torn between sovereign duty and a charged, clandestine attachment to Robert Dudley, she must shape her own path as monarch.

With Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, John Gielgud, Richard Attenborough and Fanny Ardant

2022 · Petr Jákl

An attractive department-store clerk named Ash, armed with a shotgun and a chainsaw, is suddenly hurled back to Dark Ages England, where he sparks a romance with a local woman while defending himself against relentless hordes of the undead.

With Ben Foster, Sophie Lowe, Michael Caine, Til Schweiger, Matthew Goode, Roland Møller and William Moseley