The great British filmmaker David Lean (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago”) said once, “I’m first and foremost interested in the story, the characters.” For the story is the motor that drives the screenplay, and so on the film itself. There’s a huge difference between the story and the screenplay; a screenplay is a set of written events that meant to be shot and visualized on the screen, while the story is one of the components of a screenplay. To put it in a simple way, a story is WHAT it is to be said, but a screenplay is HOW these things are going to be said visually.

So it comes to the screenwriter to find the best way to tell his story in a convincing and comprehending way, for a story can be so many things – novel, film, short story, a series, or even a song. But a screenplay’s sole purpose is to be shot and realized, and this realization comes from using all the concepts of the story and choosing the set of events “the plot” of how this story moves from point A to Z. There are a lot of examples of very simple and sometimes “naive” stories that are expressed in a magnificent screenplay; that is because a screenplay is the spine of a film, which can hold the film and hide its flaws and deepen its characters and fix the story. But on the same concept, there are a lot of films that had a great story within, yet are poorly and superficially written.

Here’s a list of 10 recent films with great stories that the screenplay didn’t benefit from, ending up mediocrely written; wherein another world, these stories would make great cinematic masterpieces with a proper screenplay. As William Wyler said, “‘Making movies is 80% script and 20% getting great actors.”

1. The Purge (2013)

First and foremost, “The Purge” is not a bad film; its story makes it solid enough despite all its clichés, yet it feels like it has something better hidden within. If on one night every year, you could commit any crime without facing consequences, what would you do? This kind of dystopian allegorical film is rare, and the story supports it to be one of those movies that questions the basis of human nature and the themes of good and evil. It’s one of those stories that deal with anarchy and political tension, and it had the chance to explore the roots of evil within human nature in a philosophical and complicated way.

“The Purge” is realized as a horror film, and as far as horror goes, it’s a proper film, delivering what it promised. It was clear that the purpose of “The Purge” was to make a franchise centered around the genre of action and horror, and it didn’t aim for more than this. And this doesn’t make it a bad franchise, but more of a waste of a great concept into a limited and narrow approach, where it could have been a great series of films questioning anarchy and chaos, and the depth of human nature.

In another world, “The Purge” is one of the greatest dystopian films dealing with bold ideas and raises so many questions to what is human nature and what it would be without rules and regulation; a speculative alternative-reality thriller like “Blade Runner,” the Dark Knight trilogy, and the works of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Philip K. Dick.

2. Hotel Artemis (2018)

A secret hotel for criminals in a futuristic Los Angeles where criminals come to hide and get medical care anonymously – who would refuse to watch such a story? This kind of story is always an audience favorite, but “Hotel Artemis” feels incomplete; it feels like a sequel rather than a standalone film. The scale of the idea of a hotel for criminals is huge and original; its originality is full of potential, with a background of cyberpunk-ish Los Angeles that comes with all its futuristic elements and violence.

“Hotel Artemis” is still an entertaining film with a bold, original idea, but it only delivers the action sequences and probably nothing else. The film has a great setup but naive characters and a poorly written plot, with a mediocre performance from all, except Jodie Foster, who holds the film together. “Hotel Artemis” should have been an action-packed cyberpunk film with gory violence and believable characters, yet it only delivers unexcusable yet stunning action sequences, giving the film only a small part of the charm it should have had achieved.

3. High Rise (2015)

“High Rise” is composed of so many elements that can transform the film into a masterpiece; it’s a film about playing god, power, creativity, paranoia, madness with elements of Orwellianism, dystopia, and socioeconomic ideas. The film is beautifully acted and thought-provoking, but it feels hollow, with so many voids that are covered up with beautiful magical scenery and general madness. The story is set in an alternative 1970s in a building that covers all the people’s needs and desires, making them disconnected from the outside world, until the infrastructure begins to fail and tensions between residents grow into chaos and madness. The story sounds thrilling and powerful, with all of its utopian themes and the ideas of social classes.

“High Rise” is not a bad film; it delivers the proper amount of madness and visuals that make it a solid picture with really bold ideas, as well as its skillful cast giving amazing performances, and the general aesthetics achieved by Ben Wheatley. But “High Rise” promises from the very beginning a bold anarchy sci-fi, raising its potential and presenting mesmerizing visuals. Yet, it fails to deliver any narrative significance – only two hours of mesmerizing scenes, style, music, and wonderful acting without a solid narrative core.

4. Death Note (2017)

It’s very likely that the makers of the 2017 remake of “Death Note” did not understand the significance of the highly popular animation – the story that revolves around a boy meeting a mystical death god who gives him a book where if a name was written, the person of this name dies.

The story – which contains bold and powerful themes such as playing god, free will and the concept of good and evil – was entirely given up its significance in this American remake, stripping the story away from all the philosophical ideas and even stripping it from the entertainment element found the original story, making it solely superficial and very perplexing to try to understand what the writer wanted from the story. Even if it was meant to be solely a fantasy film with no deeper purpose than entertainment and the telling of this mesmerizing story, the film failed even to deliver this element.

The simplest and most basic element of making an action-fantasy film is to make it entertaining and fill its possible cliches, yet “Death Note” is nonsensical, poorly written, stripping away everything from the original story and presenting it as an annoying depthless film that doesn’t even cover its flaws with technical achievement. It’s badly realized, with poor use of music and mediocre performances. “Death Note” was made with the only aim of financial profit from one of the most popular stories, but this story deserves better than this – better than stripping it of its essence and delivering it in a mold of an American remake that shouldn’t have happened.

5. The Counselor (2013)

Ridley Scott’s project with the great American author Cormac McCarthy (“No Country for Old Men” and “The Road”) is loaded with first-line actors in Hollywood. The film follows Michael Fassbender as a lawyer who finds himself amid a drug war. Despite the suspense in reading the film’s synopsis, the film doesn’t benefit from its skillful international cast or its high budget, not to mention the story that has elements of corruption, dirty hands, drug cartels, law manipulation, political mafia, eroticism, and Machiavellianism. Yet the film does not give depth or show any of these suspenseful elements; the film even lacks the proper plot that should drive the characters and its motive, and keeps steering away from its course, which makes the viewer disconnect and lose interest in whatever’s happening.

“The Counselor” is a film that looks good, with its visuals and its mood, but it’s poorly written, full of unnecessary dialogues and a clumsy plot. This film gives the feeling that the story is told from the incorrect angle, because there’s a good story in here, filled with so many thrilling elements, yet it’s not there. The clumsiness of the film is a result of the clash between Scott’s cinematic approach and McCarthy’s literary approach, which ended up with a very confusing and perplexing film. “The Counselor” could have been a great suspenseful thriller with its talented cast and its great mood and beautiful cinematography, yet the only problem is that it’s not.

A good director can absorb the best of their actors in service of the film, but a great director is the one that makes actors in their roles unimaginable to be replaced by any other actor. Not because they are great actors, or because the role is written for them, but because the frequent collaboration between actors and directors create this subconscious bond in the director’s mind, making them able to fit a certain actor to a certain role even if no one else can see it.

This strong bond between actors and directors can be more than just in front of and behind the camera; some directors can give birth to acting greatness that the actors themselves didn’t know they had. It’s all about the vision, and one of the things that define great directors is their ability to choose actors and create this bond over time, whether in one film or across multiple projects. Here’s a list of 10 great non-mainstream collaborations that are more than just “typical” acting and directing jobs:

1. François Truffaut – Jean-Pierre Léaud (1959 – 1979)

Number of Collaborations: 7
Most Known: “Two English Girls”, “The 400 Blows” & “Stolen Kisses”

The name Antoine Doinel shall always be one of the most significant fictional characters in the history of French and world cinema, conceived by François Truffaut and portrayed by Jean-Pierre Léaud in four feature films and one short film. The character, as Truffaut described it, is his own alter ego, and Jean-Pierre Léaud was the one to express Truffaut’s thoughts and unconventional ideas. It started with “The 400 Blows” in 1959, the film that declared a new era of French cinema, the “Nouvelle Vague,” written and directed by Truffaut and starring Léaud at the age of 14 as this clumsy troublesome kid.

Léaud became one of the most significant figures in film history and one of the faces that defined the movement. From there, a long collaboration began between Truffaut and Léaud, giving birth to the underrated forgotten sequel to “The 400 Blows,” “Stolen Kisses,” “Bed & Board,” “L’amour en fuite,” and the short segment film “Antoine et Colette,” which all stars Léaud as an adult.

He had this eccentric awkward style in his acting; he wasn’t a devoted basic actor who stuck to the script like everyone else, his performances were a mix of improvisations and outtakes, a unique and different approach to his roles that came from his unconventional personality, and Truffaut found his gem in this freakish extraordinary actor. From a young age they became friends; Truffaut tamed Léaud’s peculiarity and created “The Adventures of Antoine Doinel” that was composed of both Truffaut and Léaud’s real life.

François Truffaut shall always be one of the greatest names in the history of cinema, with his revolutionary fresh take on different subjects and ideas, and his creative cinematic approach that gave birth to the French New Wave. And as Truffaut said, when he wants to make a film he has to find an idea, but with Jean-Pierre Léaud, he just wanted to work with him. Aside from “The Adventures of Antoine Doinel,” Truffaut and Léaud had made other great films such as “Two English Girls” and “Day for Night.”

2. George Cukor – Katharine Hepburn (1932 – 1979)

Number of Collaborations: 10
Most Known: “Holiday”, “The Philadelphia Story” & “Adam’s Rib”

George Cukor was one of the most versatile and solid directors in classic Hollywood; he’s the one who gave us essential films like “The Women,” “Holiday,” “My Fair Lady,” “A Star is Born” and “The Philadelphia Story,” and so many others. He quickly earned the reputation of being a director who could hoax mesmerizing performances from actresses and was known as a “woman’s director.” He had a fast-paced approach to films, with light satire and beautiful (sometimes long) shots.

The four-time Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn was one of the most eccentric and genius actresses in classic Hollywood. Her class was charming and her strong talent and charisma were one of a kind; she paved her way into becoming one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood and maybe the greatest ever. It was Cukor who gave her first role in “A Bill of Divorcement” (1932). From this film, Cukor and Hepburn had a long-lasting friendship that gave birth to some of the greatest classical comedies such as “Holiday,” “The Philadelphia Story,” “Adam’s Rib,” “Sylvia Scarlett” and “Little Women,” and many others. Both Cukor and Hepburn brought out the best of each other; with Cukor’s romanticizing vision and Hepburn’s solid theatrical performances and limitless talent, the pair created their style and uniqueness to make light-hearted comedies that survived and will survive the test of time.

3. Tsai Ming-Liang – Lee Kang-sheng (1992 – 2020)

Number of Collaborations: 10 Feature films
Most Known: “Good Bye, Dragon Inn” “Vive L’Amour” & “Rebels of the Neon God”

For anyone familiar with the one and only Tsai Ming-Liang, one of the most celebrated “Second New Wave” film directors of Taiwanese cinema, then the face of Lee Kang-sheng is what defines the works of the great dictator. Tsai delivers sophisticated films that don’t play by the normal rules of narratives of mainstream cinema; he explores the unspoken feelings and desires of human nature. The state of loneliness and loss are one of the themes usually used in his work, for his vision sees what lies beneath the skins of the people.

Tsai rose to world cinema from his debut “Rebels of the Neon God,” and from there started a years-long collaboration between him and his favorite actor Lee Kang-sheng with 10 feature films and many short and segments films. Lee became the essential brand for the cinema of Tsai; this kind of meditative cinema that explores loneliness, boredom, existential dilemmas, and sexual desires had Lee representing all of those deep emotions with his mood and his beautiful acting with the sentimentality and the melancholic atmosphere Tsai created. This actor-director collaboration is more than a mere collaboration; it’s a rare state of spiritual merging that resulted in a great one-of-a-kind type of cinema that transcended the normal cinematic rules, romanticizing the melancholic emotions and desires, and exploring the human condition.

4. Steve McQueen – Michael Fassbender (2008 – 2013)

Number of Collaborations: 3
Most Known: “Shame” & “12 Years a Slave”

With only three films together, Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender became a very important and significant pair. They tackled topics such as sex addiction, slavery, and hunger strikes, all topics that are not easy to watch as the focus of a film. Their collaboration started in 2008 with the film “Hunger,” telling a shocking real story of an Irish republican inmate named Bobby Sands who goes on a hunger strike. “Hunger” is strong and powerful; McQueen’s mark was so obvious and powerful with a dedicated methodological actor, and with a strong story about the inhumane prison conditions.

A few years later, the amazing pair made “Shame,” another bold and shocking film about a man and sex addict with mysterious past. The film is about sex yet it’s not sexy; it’s a painful character study of a person in a condition of agony and trauma. “Shame” layered so many themes that it’s deep and hard to look at, telling a story that not any actor-director can tell.

Then came “12 Years a Slave” that was the best in its year, according to the Academy. The film earned Fassbender his first Oscar nomination for playing the role of Edwin Epps, a psychotic American slave owner. Although his roles in both “Hunger” and “Shame” deserved Oscar nominations more than this role, this film was an absolute achievement; not only in the making and realization of this brutal yet beautiful film about freedom and slavery, but it was the first film directed by a black director to win Best Picture.

Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender are a dynamic duo, with Fassbender giving his best and McQueen actualizing his ideas; it’s one of the collaborations that needs to be considered, as a dedicated team that gave nothing but the best of each other.

5. Howard Hawks – Cary Grant (1938 – 1952)

Number of Collaborations: 5
Most Known: “Only Angels Have Wings”, “His Girl Friday” & “Bringing Up Baby”

Howard Hawks is a director responsible for great classic films such as “Scarface,” “The Big Sleep,” “Bringing Up Baby” and “Rio Bravo,” to name a few. Cary Grant is one of the most versatile actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood, known for his works with Hitchcock and his lighthearted comedic acting. His collaborations with Hawks are often overlooked; it was Hawks who gave Grant the mold of physical comedy, using Grant’s suaveness and giving him goofy yet amazing roles, with only five films, four comedies and one drama.

Hawks created a new form of screwball comedies that suited Grant’s style, and that can be easily seen in the comedies he made with Hawks as opposed to the comedies he made with other directors. Hawks managed to elevate Grant to the peak of his comedic performances, giving him both physical elements to work with and light comedic dialogues. The set designs in Hawks’ films were always special, and the costumes and the jokes in his films seemed natural, so all of that was fertile ground for Grant to express his comedic side.

Also, one of the things that defines Hawks was his choice of the stories he wanted to tell and the way in which he tells it; whether it’s comedy or drama or western, he had an eye for choosing scripts and actors. The strongest example is “Bringing Up Baby,” starring Grant and Katharine Hepburn in very silly roles on paper. Yet Hawks doesn’t make them silly; he knew the line between silliness, absurdity, and fun, and he always experimented with pushing the actors to give the best of their comedic personality.

Not all directors would know how to direct a comedy film with an actual leopard roaming around called “baby” in the 1930s, yet Hawks made some of the greatest and – dare to say – craziest fast-paced comedies that revolutionized the genre. Cary Grant was one of these tools to realize his vision, as in “His Girl Friday,” “Bringing Up Baby” and “Monkey Business.”

The 1990s were cinematically rich, without a doubt; it was the decade that brought us great filmmakers such as David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, and Paul Thomas Anderson, and great masterpieces like “Fight Club,” “Pulp Fiction,” “12 Monkeys,” “Heat” and much more. While we can appreciate the great mainstream masterpieces that came out of this decade, there are also great masterpieces from all over the world that came out in the ‘90s as well.

It’s not just that these films are great; it’s also a great inspiration to many of our new favorite films. When you think of the inspirations for the action sequences in “John Wick” or the concept of dreams in “Inception,” you can’t ignore the following films, which were and still are great inspiration for filmmaking. Here’s a list of 10 cinematic forgotten masterpieces from the 1990s.

10. Richard III (1995, Richard Loncraine)

Richard Loncraine’s “Richard III” (1995) is a unique and remarkable adaptation of the play, and here we have the story in Britain in the 1930s where Richard is a fascist sympathizer planning to take over the throne. The film is adapted masterfully into a completely different era and atmosphere than its original setting, yet it doesn’t feel forced or manipulated.

The cast includes some of the finest actors such as Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr. and Ian McKellen as Richard who co-wrote the film with Loncraine. McKellen’s performance is filled with charm and pure theatrical presence. The film as well looks great, with its amazing cinematography, production design, and the complete look of the film that makes it unique and mesmerizing. “Richard III” is an overlooked masterpiece, filled with great acting moments and beautiful production. Loncraine and McKellen managed to elevate the play from its tight historical setting and deliver a great film with modern, bold ideas.

9. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, James Foley)

“Glengarry Glen Ross” has been an instant classic since the day it premiered. The film is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by David Mamet that takes place within only two days, about four real estate salesmen and how desperate they become when they know that the top two of them will stay at their job and the rest will be fired. “Glengarry Glen Ross” is a rare slow-burning intense drama that masterfully exposes the human desperation of achieving success, and it depicts the stressful competitions in workplaces.

The film stars some of the greatest actors in Hollywood. Al Pacino delivers an energetic performance as one of the salesmen, with Jack Lemmon in one of his greatest roles away from romantic comedies; the film also has Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce, and Alec Baldwin. Despite its star-loaded cast, the film has been forgotten in the filmography of each of those actors since they have already delivered other great mainstream films, but “Glengarry Glen Ross” is an intensely beautiful exploration of workplace competitions and the nature of the human desperation into achievement and success.

8. Belle Epoque (1992, Fernando Trueba)

The 1994 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, “Belle Epoque” is a weird sex-comedy that doesn’t play by any rules; the film tells a story of a Spanish military deserter who finds himself on a lonely farm with a farmer and his four daughters, and he falls for all of them. It’s a lively and cheerful comedy, weird and comical; it’s scandalous yet inoffensive. “Belle Époque” delivers rare warmth and beauty that’s not easy to achieve; the story sounds like an erotic fantasy that’s too flirtatious to be real, yet its goofy comedic scenes and beautiful landscape makes you indulge yourself in this bizarre journey and enjoy its weirdness.

The film layers concepts of politics and morality, and is smartly written to cover its deep bold idea with a bold yet sarcastic storyline. “Belle Epoque” is a smart, funny sex comedy that’s still innocent in its approach. With its beautiful Spanish mood and satirical atmosphere, the film delivers a fun ride into a nonsensical yet enjoyable story.

7. Midaq Alley (1995, Jorge Fons)

This forgotten masterpiece is based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel written by Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz and starring Salma Hayek, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, and Bruno Bichir. Relocating the setting of the novel from middle-class Cairo to Mexico City, the film has multiple perspectives and multiple storylines that intertwine in one Mexican neighborhood, and each character is written to represent one of the deadly seven sins.

The film did a great job in combining the complicated rich stories in less than 150 minutes, and it is a technical and artistic achievement; the way it’s shot and edited is so smooth and engaging in creating a multiple-perspective narrative film. “Midaq Alley” tells a timeless story and boldly explores the dirt of mankind, with beautiful acting and heartbreaking brutal storylines, and a strong and powerful depiction of lust and power. The film raises so many questions about morality and love, and the realistic shocking truth of childhood dreams and the conflict of money, love, and lust.

6. Il Postino (1994, Michael Radford)

Nominated for five Academy Awards and the winner of Best Music, Original Dramatic Score. “Il Postino” is an Italian classic set in the 1950s where Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, is in self-exile in the Italian south. There he meets Mario, a simple postman who wants to express his love to the woman he loves; Neruda becomes friends with Mario, and teaches him poetry and how to express his love.

The film is set against the magical beauty of southern Italy and the Mediterranean Sea, and it beautifully and poetically explores the concepts of love, friendship, and poetry. Massimo Troisi, who plays Mario, delivers a sensational performance in his last role; as a matter of fact, he died during shooting and they had to change the script, which makes the film even more special and sentimental. “Il Postino” is a beautiful masterpiece set against mesmerizing scenery and filled with poetry, sentimentality, and romance. It’s a rare film that is beautifully acted and shot with a real unique theme that they don’t make anymore.

While we are in a time where computers are used to digitally de-age actors or create a completely digital universe with all its details, using expressive CGI is a slightly new trend in filmmaking. Fifty years ago, editing was done manually and special effects were done with building actual models. But because of the digital advancement in graphics, artificial intelligence, and computing, creating realistic CGI is no longer a dream. Yet this advancement makes filmmaking nowadays different; it’s no longer about taking long trips to shoot in a certain country or certain season because this is all done digitally now, but this leaves us with another complexity.

It’s not easy to find the balance between using excessive CGI and the traditional narrative, and this raises questions: should CGI serve the plot? Or, should the plot be fitted to suit the CGI? This list has 10 films that highly prioritize the visual element over the plot and the storyline, making them visually compelling films that are empty on the inside.

10. Transformers: The Last Knight (2017, Michael Bay)

“Transformers: The Last Knight” is the fifth installment of the live-action Transformers film series directed by Michael Bay. This time it has Anthony Hopkins narrating the history of Transformers, which is quite boring and it would have been much greater if Hopkins narrated the silliness of this film. This film is colossal, messy, loud, and unnecessarily long. It delivers a very thin storyline and very bad acting from the human actors that make you want to find anything else to distract you until the film is over.

The special effects have always been one of a kind in this series, and “The Last Knight” proves that the special effects team is the real hero behind this series, with its powerful depiction of the machinery characters and the liveness given to it, and the whole atmosphere visual surroundings in the film. The film is still a fun ride if you are interested in seeing Bay saying goodbye to the Transformers world. But generally, “The Last Knight” awes the audience with its colossal CGI and technical achievements, but it does nothing to the franchise but degrade its uniqueness and its importance.

9. Jupiter Ascending (2015, The Wachowskis)

“Jupiter Ascending” is a dazzling space opera that is visually and psychedelically transcending; it’s one of those movies with magnificent CGI and a ridiculous and nonsensical storyline. The film is an obvious failed attempt to create a mythological space world, for it uses very superficial philosophy, miscasting, and a horrible approach. The film is built on a base that is not solid enough; it could have been another “Star Wars” or “Thor,” and yet it’s poorly written and weakly acted, uses cliches to explain its plot, and tries all it can to hide its flaws in the mesmerizing CGI.

The Wachowskis gave us “The Matrix” 20 years ago, but it seems like this film is a rewrite of that film in another universe where all of Earth is part of a galactic matrix. Using the same philosophy and approach isn’t wrong, but it’s used wrong and in a very boring way. It’s much worse than “The Matrix”; it’s deeply flawed and badly acted, and it’s a total waste of the colossal epic-like CGI. “Jupiter Ascending” has everything to be a great film with great visuals, but its directors and main lead actors did not deliver any greatness, only a boring, lazy story and the greatness delivered by the CGI team.

8. Prometheus / Alien: Covenant (2012 / 2017, Ridley Scott)

Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe is useless and doesn’t present anything new, but the concept designs created originally by H. R. Giger are still timeless and magnificent as they were. “Prometheus” and its sequel are another attempt to explore and spiritually remake old important films that were and still are significant in the history of cinema.

These deep-space horror monster-packed films are an absolute visual achievement, for the creation of other planets and worlds is crafted with complete creativity and aesthetics. But the decision to re-explore the Alien universe is pointless; the films are poorly written and don’t add to the original films, and deliver nothing but the use of advanced digital special effects in recreating the world.

7. Winter’s Tale (2014, Akiva Goldsman)

Akiva Goldsman’s debut film is based on a novel by the same name by the American novelist Mark Helprin that was offered to Martin Scorsese to direct in 2002, and he refused by saying that the novel is “unfilmable.” “Winter’s Tale” is a fairy-tale set in a mythical New York City in 1916 and follows a thief and his mysterious winged horse, who falls in love with a woman whose house he was meant to rob. But somehow this thief miraculously survives a huge fight and lives until 2014 without growing old.

The story sounds interesting and beautiful; it’s about love, mortality, mythical creatures, reincarnation, and Lucifer. Yet the film completely treated the story in a very superficial way, but with the special effects that created the aesthetics and beauty of a fairy tale. “Winter’s Tale” should have been magically realistic and divinely romantic, but it lacks the only thing that makes a fairy tale – it lacks cinematic magic. The film is poorly written and flawed, but delivers beautiful CGI in concepts and designs in the creation of its dark gloomy 1916 mythic New York City and its surroundings.

6. Battleship (2012, Peter Berg)

“Battleship” is a loud epic-scaled action-adventure rich with visual effects and explosions; the story follows the crews of a small group of warships that are forced to do battle against a naval fleet of extraterrestrial origin. The film is idealess, empty and nonsensical, but it tries to fill these gaps with magnificent epic action sequences and impressive visual effects. The questions arise once the film is over about the actual core of the film, for it is poorly written and terribly acted with non-funny jokes and one-dimensional characters, filled with loud and noisy clichéd battles.

“Battleship” is an epic wannabe, crowded with lots of elements and technical achievements, yet it lacks an idea or purpose. This fun ride isn’t that awful, but it’s awful enough to deliver nothing but expensive stunning visuals that couldn’t save the film from its general boring mood. It’s a B-movie, but it’s not a B-movie due to its big budget.

What constitutes a beautiful film varies from one person to another, but some aspects of filmmaking must be counted when stating that a film is “beautiful.” The word ‘beautiful’ usually refers to something with a pleasing appearance, but when it comes to moving images with sounds, characters, narratives, and a mental and emotional connection, it’s not about just appearance anymore.

To constitute a beautiful film, the film must be pleasing to all the senses and deliberately created by the artist (the filmmaker) to feed the audience’s senses. Whether choosing a certain camera lens or a specific piece of music or a certain decision taken by a character in the plot, every decision taken by the filmmaker counts in creating a piece of art that we can consider “beautiful,” hence using their own unique and original ideas. And since we live in a world of mainstreams where you can easily find out what films other people think are beautiful, here are 10 films you probably haven’t seen that provide all the elements above to be as beautiful as can be.

10. Macbeth (2015, Justin Kurzel)

The latest mainstream adaptation of the famous play directed by Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard has all the elements that make for a great Shakespearean production, with mesmerizing performances from Fassbender and Cotillard as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as they experience the madness of power and ego. The beautiful yet brutal medieval atmosphere of the story is represented as a grimy dark fairy tale that enriches the characters and the complex insanity of the story.

“Macbeth” (2015) delivers a modern take of the classical play, benefiting from all of the modern aspects of filmmaking and using the Shakespearean poetic and romantic language with the magnificent scenery and scary acting from its leads, to create a solid beautiful adaptation of “Macbeth” that is awfully brutal yet aesthetically pleasing.

9. Silent Wedding (2008, Horatiu Malaele)

Co-written and directed by Horatiu Malaele, “Silent Wedding” is a sarcastic yet painful story from Eastern Europe where two lovebirds are forced to have a silent wedding because of the death of Stalin. The film is filled with joyful moments as well as moments that are heartbreaking.

Horatiu Malaele’s Silent Wedding is a beautiful look at a different era and different culture, blending the beautiful realism and minimalism of the Romanian New Wave with the horrific historical events of living under a dictatorship, which gives the film a unique sense of tragedy and comedy while feeding the senses with its weirdness and aesthetic.

8. Museum Hours (2012, Jem Cohen)

“Museum Hours” is an intimate low-budget drama written, edited, shot, produced and directed by independent filmmaker Jem Cohen. The film stars Mary Margaret O’Hara as Anne, a woman called to Austria for a family medical emergency, and who becomes friends with Johann (portrayed by Bobby Sommer) who works as a guard at the grand Kunsthistorisches Museum. Cohen’s independent artistic approach explores friendship and the state of loneliness set against the magical sentimental atmosphere of Vienna’s winter and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

The film concentrates on the value of art in mending people’s lonely existence. The dialogue is simple and intimate as it expresses the warmth of its main characters as they get out of the harsh loneliness that surrounds them, a loneliness that is as harsh as the European winter they experience. Filled with heartwarming moments and a unique cinematic touch, “Museum Hours” is a love letter to art and friendship with its visual achievement and intimate composition. It’s a film that feels like a warm hug against the horrors of loneliness.

7. Upstream Color (2013, Shane Carruth)

From Shane Carruth (the director of “Primer”) in his second feature film, “Upstream Color” is a smart science fiction film that breaks all the rules of creating a narrative, and uses the technical aesthetics to create an artistic experience. Starring Carruth himself with Amy Seimetz, the film explores the shaky relationships between a man and a woman in an unstructured reality.

With its atmosphere that feels like an illusion, the film takes a beautiful journey into undiscovered territory where the brilliant composing of the scenes takes you beyond the traditional normal aspects of filmmaking that dictate that narrative is not something to observe and understand but to experience. “Upstream Color” provides the audience with an other-worldly experience, with an original concept and an amazing composition. It’s a film to be experienced as a reflection of Carruth’s unique talent and brilliant mind.

6. The Rider (2017, Chloé Zhao)

Written and directed by female Chinese-American director Chloé Zhao, “The Rider” is a study on masculinity and dreams. The film stars Brady Jandreau in his first acting project as Brady Blackburn (a real portrayal of himself) as a cowboy who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a rodeo accident as he tries to get his life back and discover the meaning of his existence after the loss of his dream.

With a sensational performance from Jandreau and a beautiful scenery and music, “The Rider” is a beautiful piece of film that speaks to the audience on a very emotional level about loss and dreams, and it put Zhao as one of the names that needs to be followed in the next few years as a director with a real artistic vision and the capability to make meaningful beautiful pictures.