Best movies on Apple TV+ (Italie) : our Top 20

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

2025 · Simona Calo

An elderly Chinese immigrant is thrust into a wild, reality-bending odyssey where, by stepping into alternate versions of her life across parallel worlds, she alone can fight to preserve the people and memories that matter most.

With Christopher Lambert, Fortunato Cerlino, Francesca Inaudi and Dean Michael Gregory

2000 · Lars von Trier

Selma, a Czech émigré facing the loss of her sight, scrambles to support herself and her young son, who has inherited the same degenerative condition and will need an expensive operation to avoid the same fate. Crushed by mounting bills and the strain of making ends meet, she finds refuge in daydreams—turning everyday noises into rhythms and staging small, imagined musical numbers that lift her through the darkest moments.

With Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, Cara Seymour and Vladica Kostic

2013 · Paolo Sorrentino

For decades Jep Gambardella has used his charm to navigate Rome’s glittering nightlife; after his sixty-fifth birthday and a jolting memory from long ago, he turns his gaze away from clubs and soirées to discover an eternal panorama of strange, hauntingly beautiful moments.

With Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi and Galatea Ranzi

2004 · Alejandro Amenábar

A former ship mechanic and part-time poet, Ramón Sampedro is left paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident. For thirty years he campaigns for the legal right to choose his own death, while forging intimate bonds with his devoted lawyer Julia and his friend Rosa, who refuses to give up on convincing him that life still matters. Confined to his body but radiant in spirit, Ramón ultimately galvanizes those around him to embrace life more fully.

With Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, Lola Dueñas, Joan Dalmau, Josep Maria Pou, Mabel Rivera and Celso Bugallo

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

2002 · Martin Scorsese

In 1860s New York, recently released Irish convict Amsterdam Vallon returns to the chaotic Five Points to hunt down William Cutting, the powerful nativist gang leader who killed his father. To get close enough to exact revenge, Vallon ingratiates himself into Cutting’s inner circle, but what begins as a vendetta quickly evolves into a desperate struggle for survival and a fight to carve out a place for his embattled community.

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas and Liam Neeson

1967 · Jean-Pierre Melville

Having pulled off a perfectly executed contract killing, professional assassin Jef Costello—guided by a samurai-like code—finds himself squeezed into a lethal standoff between an unrelenting detective and a cold-blooded employer, and even his signature fedora and trench coat can’t shield him.

With Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, Michel Boisrond, Catherine Jourdan and Jean-Pierre Posier

2009 · Gaspar Noé

Oscar et Linda se sont installés récemment à Tokyo. Oscar se débrouille en vendant de la drogue et Linda travaille comme strip-teaseuse. Lors d'une descente de police, Oscar est grièvement blessé par une balle. Malgré son agonie, il s'accroche à la vie pour tenir la promesse qu'il a faite à sa sœur de ne jamais l'abandonner. Son esprit erre dans la ville, ses visions devenant de plus en plus chaotiques et effrayantes. Le passé, le présent et le futur se mêlent alors dans une folie hallucinante.

With Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, Cyril Roy, Olly Alexander, Masato Tanno, Ed Spear and Emily Alyn Lind

1963 · Georges Lautner

Expecting a quiet retirement, aging gangster Fernand Naudin is stunned when an old friend—the feared crime boss known as the Mexican—leaves him a large fortune. Uneasy about the sudden windfall, Fernand is even more thrown when he discovers he must also take responsibility for the boss’s daughter, Patricia. As he struggles to adapt to Patricia’s modern ways and her insufferable boyfriend, he also has to fend off the Mexican’s armed ex-associates, who are determined to claim what they believe is theirs.

With Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche, Claude Rich, Pierre Bertin, Jean Lefebvre and Sabine Sinjen

1971 · Gérard Oury

Don Sallust is the king’s minister in Spain, a two-faced, greedy courtier who siphons off tax revenues and rules with hypocrisy, earning the hatred of the people he exploits. When the Bavarian-born queen accuses him of fathering an illegitimate child by one of her ladies-in-waiting, he is publicly disgraced, stripped of his office and compelled to retire to a monastery.

With Louis de Funès, Yves Montand, Alice Sapritch, Karin Schubert, Alberto de Mendoza, Paul Préboist and Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón

1953 · Henri-Georges Clouzot

transport trucks packed with highly unstable nitroglycerin across impenetrable jungle to a distant oil installation. The journey turns into a relentless gauntlet of collapsing roads, treacherous terrain and mechanical hazards, and the strain of constant danger frays friendships and ignites bitter rivalries. What starts as a paid assignment becomes a fight for survival that lays bare courage, fear and the true cost of loyalty.

With Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli, Véra Clouzot, Antonio Centa and Luis De Lima

2011 · Ron Fricke

Captured on 70mm over nearly five years and filmed across twenty-five countries on five continents, Samsara presents a visual odyssey through consecrated sites, regions marked by catastrophe, vast industrial landscapes, and the planet’s most awe-inspiring natural scenes.

With Ni Made Megahadi Pratiwi, Puti Sri Candra Dewi, Putu Dinda Pratika, Marcos Luna, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Olivier De Sagazan and Ladyboys of Cascade Bar

2023 · Matteo Garrone

Two teenagers from Senegal set out in search of a better life, undertaking a perilous odyssey toward Italy. Their hopes are tested at every turn — by a tangle of border controls, the vast, merciless sands of the Sahara, and the treacherous stretch of the Mediterranean Sea.

With Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo, Hichem Yacoubi, Doodou Sagna, Khady Sy and Venus Gueye

2009 · Alain Resnais

A young art teacher, serving his mandatory term at an isolated village school in Anatolia, pins his hopes on a transfer to Istanbul once his service ends. When allegations of inappropriate contact with a student emerge, his plans to leave collapse, and he is driven into a deep, unraveling existential crisis.

With André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Michel Vuillermoz and Annie Cordy

2022 · Felix van Groeningen

Across four decades and beneath the vast, rugged panorama of the Italian Alps, this sweeping tale follows Pietro and Bruno as their friendship evolves—intensifying, fracturing and ultimately reshaping each man's search for identity, belonging and a place to call home.

With Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Lupo Barbiero, Cristiano Sassella, Elisabetta Mazzullo, Andrea Palma and Surakshya Panta

2009 · Fatih Akin

In Hamburg, Zinos, a German-Greek chef who runs a beloved locals-only restaurant, inadvertently upends the cozy equilibrium of his kitchen when he hires an exceptionally gifted cook, unleashing tensions that threaten the eatery’s identity.

With Adam Bousdoukos, Birol Ünel, Moritz Bleibtreu, Anna Bederke, Pheline Roggan, Dorka Gryllus and Wotan Wilke Möhring

1971 · Bernardo Bertolucci

A timid, indecisive Italian is co-opted as a fascist henchman and dispatched abroad to organize the assassination of his former teacher, now an outspoken political dissident.

With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Dominique Sanda, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti and José Quaglio

2000 · Jafar Panahi

Several women contend with the constraints of present-day Iran, striving to preserve their agency and identities amid a deeply patriarchal, repressive social order.

With Nargess Mamizadeh, Maryiam Palvin Almani, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin, Monir Arab, Maede Tahmasbi and Maryam Shayegan

2009 · Luca Guadagnino

Set in the legendary 1970s and inspired by Claudio Baglioni’s album of the same name, the film follows Andrea and Giulia, two teenagers whose sudden, all-consuming love seems to make the rest of the world fall away. Born into different social worlds with different friends and opposing futures, they are pulled relentlessly in opposite directions by forces beyond their control. As their passion collides with destiny, they must decide whether their bond can survive everything that threatens to tear them apart.

With Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marisa Berenson and Pippo Delbono