Sometimes it's nice just to sit back and relax with a glass of wine and a good film. Even better if the film is about one's favourite hobby. Double endorphins, so to speak.

1 Moulin Rouge

There are just no words to express how much I love, love, love this spectacular musical masterpiece directed by Baz Luhrman. Who incidentally also gave us the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, so: All hail, Baz!

The story is simple. Penniless writer Christian (Ewan McGregor) travels to Montmartre in 1899 and ends up writing a play for the Moulin Rouge theatre/gentlemen’s entertainment facility. He falls in love with singer and courtesan Satine (Nicole Kidman), who wants nothing more than to become a real actress.

However, a rich investor has set his eye on her and comes between the two young lovers. Satine then has to make a choice between love and financial security for herself and her friends.

The entire film is a "magnificent, opulent, tremendous, stupendous, gargantuan, bedazzlement”, let me tell you. The songs are lavish, re-imagined covers and medleys of an almost overwhelming number of artists and genres, including Marilyn Monroe, Queen, Patti LaBelle and Elton John.

A warning: the film is also quite exhausting to watch. It’s incredibly fast, chaotic and a huge sensory overload.

You're almost constantly bombarded with splendour, song and general razzle dazzle, which occasionally gets interrupted by the most serious, heart-breaking scenes of deceit, pain and existential angst to remind you that we’re still dealing with a tragic artist love story here.

The struggle of surviving on the arts in turn-of-the-century France and the Bohemian ideals of Freedom, Beauty, Truth and Love are the pillars that lift this film where it belongs: to the very top of this list and into the hall of fame of movies that manage to accurately express the passion of being an artist in a totally over-the-top, full of clichés story that is addictively entertaining and just plain genius.

2 Girl with a Pearl Earring

Young Griet (Scarlett Johansson) starts her new position as a maid in the household of painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) in the mid 1600's Dutch Republic.

While she is there the Vermeer takes a liking to her, and her curious mind and understanding of the arts prompt him to teach her more about the principles of his art and painting in general.

In the course of the movie she learns about composition, shading, the making of paint and of course ends up the subject of Vermeer's most famous painting.

Director Peter Webber has done a splendid job re-creating the oppressing atmosphere of the time, where everything and everyone was subject to strict social rules. Griet, as the rest of the household, appears to constantly move in a forced, fixed pattern, held back by invisible strings.

Which is why the film isn’t ‘easy entertainment’ either. Watching the film and the characters being trapped in their own lives feels a bit like running under water. You really want to get somewhere but you just can't pull yourself free and move properly.

But the rare moments in which they dare to stretch the strings a little are worth every struggle to get there. The scene where Vermeer makes Griet discover all the colours of the clouds in the sky, in order to help her understand his glazing technique, is absolutely mesmerising.

3 Memoirs of a Geisha

Before you're wondering, yes, this film rightfully earns its place in this list, with the word "geisha" literally meaning "artist".

Our main protagonist is young Chiyo, with eyes as blue as water, who is sold to a geisha house as a child.

One night she tries to escape and as a punishment is forbidden from rising in the ranks, working as a lowly servant until rival geisha Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) takes Chiyo under her wing and begins training her.

From that point the viewer is invited to join the difficult and painful journey of becoming a geisha, where each task you attempt and every area of your life is part of an elaborate artistic performance, from your make-up to the way you walk.

What other girls have years to learn Chiyo must learn in months. Her talent and wit help her to complete the rigorous training and become Sayuri (played by Ziyi Zhang), one of the most famous geishas the area has ever seen.

While the film does not centre around one specific type of art the entire film is a brilliant depiction of the journey to art itself and the kind of dedication and reverence involved.

Overall the movie is not just highly interesting and remarkably beautifully shot, it also takes its time, showing the neat, meticulous and soft kind of art that is so often found in Japanese culture.

4 Why Beauty Matters

This one-hour long BBC documentary was written and presented by philosopher Roger Scruton ten years ago. But the topic is as relevant today as it was then, perhaps even more so.

The film talks about the devaluation of beauty since the 20's century, moving from visually pleasing art, music and architecture to pieces that "aim to disturb" with an emphasis on "originality, however achieved, at whatever moral cost".

Scruton questions the development of modern art with its oftentimes shocking and ugly motives, where skill is no longer needed, resulting in everyone being an artist and everything potentially being a piece of art.

Not that I disagree with his general point, having written my own blog post on the matter, but the documentary can be quite biased in some parts. Scruton has a fixed opinion and clearly makes a statement, rather than asking a question.

The film seems so critical on occasion that it feels a bit as if he's going on a rant, rather than providing a topic for discussion.

Which doesn't take away the necessity for the subject being raised. It's a very interesting documentary that I recommend to anyone, if only to give you some food for thought.

5 The Danish Girl

To be quite honest, I wasn't planning on watching this film, set in 1926 Copenhagen. But I am such a sucker for a muted colour palette and it had to do with painting, so I decided to give it a shot. And boy, am I glad I did.

15 minutes in and I was sold. The main protagonists' marriage, friendship and artistic companionship is absolutely adorable. From the first few scenes you hope that nothing ever comes between them. Of course it does, though.

Popular landscape artist Einar Wegener does his artist wife a favour and poses for a ballerina portrait when the actual model can't make it. The moment he puts on the delicate ivory stockings something seems to call to him and he begins to dress in women's clothes on a regular basis thereafter.

His wife sees it as a game at first and plays along, but later it becomes clear that her husband is not just fooling around. Even though it poses a great change in her life and the potential loss of her husband, she makes an effort to understand and encourages him still.

Through him she makes it to fame herself, with portraits of Einar's alter-ego, Lili. And it's no wonder that worked as an inspiration, Lili being the embodiment of Einar’s freedom and transformation into what he felt he ought to be.

While both main characters start out being painters, life as an artist is not the main plot point in this film. But finding yourself and your inner desire is. And there is nothing more artsy than realising who you are and what makes you feel alive. And having the courage to pursue it, no matter the cost.

6 Séraphine

Middle-aged Séraphine, who is introduced as a little odd, works various jobs throughout a French village in 1914 to earn her living.

Every bit of spare time she uses to gather the most peculiar ingredients, such as blood from the butcher, wax from candles at church and a variety of herbs. It is revealed that she uses these to make paints for her art, which she practices mostly at night.

One of her positions is as a housekeeper for German art critic Wilhelm Uhde, who comes across her paintings and wants to promote her.

However, he soon has to flee the country when the war breaks out. Many years later he finds her again, still poor and still in the same village, and convinces her to start a full-time career as an artist.

While the film can be a bit slow in parts, and with its over two hours is quite long, it is definitely worth a watch.

The little French village is ever so “charmante”, with its pretty stone houses with the wooden shutters and it's fun to see how Séraphine seems to get away with her strangeness because no one takes any notice of her.

It also deals with the whole artist cliché and shows that there is just no such thing as ‘the artist type’. Art, instead, can be found in all kinds of places and in all kinds of people.

7 Lust for Life

Normally I don’t care for the excessive, overly dramatic acting style so often seen in old Hollywood movies. But to portray artist Vincent van Gogh the passionate, wild performance of Kirk Douglas works surprisingly well. Vincent's art and the painter himself weren't exactly subtle either.

The film starts with Vincent trying to find a position as a minister, like his father, but realising that he does not have the right disposition for it. Nor for any of the other pursuits he has looked into.

Not seeing the world like everyone else and not seeming to fit in anywhere, he begins to turn his hobby, painting, into a career instead.

When he arrives in Paris after years of practising Vincent meets with painters of the rising expressionist movement, such as Pissarro and Gauguin and talks to them about their art and techniques.

One quote from the film in particular I'd like to share with you: "As I work at my drawings, day after day, what seemed unattainable before is now gradually becoming possible. Slowly, I'm learning to observe and measure. I don't stand quite so helpless before nature any longer". Now, is not that one of the most inspiring things you've ever read?

For more artsy quotes have a look at my related article.

8 Stealing Beauty

Look, I'm not gonna lie, the storyline of this coming-of-age film set in Tuscany isn’t great. But hear me out.

The movie follows 19-year-old Lucy (Liv Tyler) who visits some artsy friends of her diseased mother's in their rustic villa in Tuscany, played by actors such as Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons and Rachel Weisz.

In true Bohemian fashion things are a bit less formal up there in the golden hills. There’s teenage romance, heartbreak and a somewhat happy ending, but nothing that would normally engage my interest.

Moreover, on several occasions director Bernardo Bertolucci seems to be purposely trying to create an unnecessarily creepy or inappropriate atmosphere that doesn't help the story at all.

So, how is this worth your time? Well, at least the first 20 minutes are. I found that small fraction of the film so inspiring I spent an entire week painting it.

The camera slowly moves from the ancient stonework of the house with its grape wines over to some red clay sculptures, seemingly resting next to their creators in the shade of a lush garden, with the hills of Tuscany in the background as far as the eye can reach. Absolutely irresistible.

There is something about movies set in Tuscany that makes them highly artistic, even if art is not their main topic at all.

The setting, along with an appropriate soundtrack, creates a kind of mellow charm that shows the comfortable and carefree side of the arts, which makes for a perfect Sunday afternoon, if you manage to overlook the shortcomings of the film.

9 Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Another documentary on this list is this 2010 film-critic favourite. In 1994 three explorers found a hidden cave in southern France which turned out to contain the oldest painted images discovered to date.

Some of the paintings were created over 30,000 years ago, which is twice as old as any other known cave paintings. Imagine that. But not only are they so valuable because of their age and pristine preservation, they are also most intricate and beautiful.

Some of them show horses, or deer, others depict mammoths and lions, in most amazing detail.

It is hard to imagine the excitement and awe that the original explorers must have felt when they first descended into that cave, not knowing what they might find, if anything.

15 years later it is still just as powerful an experience for the current scientists. One of the archaeologists working on the cave describes seeing the drawings for the first time as an "emotional shock" of which he had to recover for a couple of days in order to process what he had seen.

The documentary follows a group of scientists, granted rare access to the cave, which had been sealed off with a steal door right after its discovery. Naturally the cave is a subject of great scientific research, trying to reconstruct the past and how humans used to live, work and think.

10 Frida

What better tale is there about art that "must out", no matter what adversities might stand in its way? And it stars the marvellous Salma Hayek, portraying famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, earning her an Oscar nomination for the role.

The film starts with a young, wild Frida, being the little rebel that she was. Quite early on the story cuts to her bus accident, leaving her shackled to her bed for many months and causing her pain for the rest of her life.

Not being able to do much else Frida turns to painting and soon develops her own, unique style. Once being able to walk again she makes out to meet communist and artist Diego Rivera, her future husband.

For the duration of the film Frida is constantly incited by her forceful spirit and insatiable lust for life while being suppressed by her ailment and the political situation at the same time.

That struggle has been the foundation of her development as an artist, with her paintings giving her a voice through which to speak. Or shout, rather.

All in all, this movie is deliciously strong and vibrant, portraying very well the reasons for Frida's art and the motivations behind her paintings.