Spiritual Cinema
"Movies containing spiritual, metaphysical, conscious or similar messages or themes".
Simon Keyes explains the idea behind Spiritual Cinema.
It is the extraordinary power of cinema, high or low, serious and exploitative, to move and disturb us that we should celebrate and embrace in all its diversity. Films can fertilise our inner lives and provide a counter-balance to that compartmentalisation of our "religious" selves that Thomas Merton dubbed our "personal holiness project". The feelings and shadows that films (well, perhaps not quite every movie) incarnate in us give us privileged access to the world beyond our immediate experience. The sights and sounds of cinema can resonate in the realms of the unconscious and the archetypal like no other medium, and there is much for us to learn about ourselves in this experience.
Below is a list of "the best of" this genre...
Buddha's Lost Children (2007)
7.9/10
Director: Mark Verkerk
Thailand's Golden Triangle is a rugged region known for its drug smuggling and impoverished hill tribes but one man devotes himself to the welfare of... Read more
Cape Fear (1961)
7.3/10
Director: J Lee Thompson
Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum star in Hollywood's classic tale of revenge and murder. Robert Mitchum is unforgettable as Max Cady, an ex-con determi... Read more
Cape Fear (Blu-ray) (1961)
7.3/10
Director: J Lee Thompson
Starring: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen
Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum star in Hollywood's classic tale of revenge and murder. Robert Mitchum is unforgettable as Max Cady, an ex-con determi... Read more
Chaotic Ana (2007)
6.4/10
Director: Julio Medem
Starring: Manuela Velles, Charlotte Rampling, Bebe , Asier Newman, Nicolas Cazale
Ana (Manuela Velles) is an innocent, living a sheltered existence as an artist in an Ibizan cave with her father; but when Justine (Charlotte Rampling... Read more
Chariots of Fire (1981)
7.2/10
Director: Hugh Hudson
Starring: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, Ian Holm
England's finest athletes have begun their quest for glory in the 1924 Olympic Games. Success brings honour to their nation. For two runners, the hono... Read more
City of Angels (1998)
6.7/10
Director: Brad Silberling
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, Dennis Franz, Andre Braugher
This Americanization of Wim Wenders' haunting 'Wings of Desire' stars Nicolas Cage as an angel who strives to become human after falling in love with... Read more
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
7.7/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut
Power line repairman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has a 'close encounter' with an alien spacecraft when he is sent out to investigate a mysterious pow... Read more
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Special Edition) (1977)
7.7/10
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Francois Truffaut
Writer/director Steven Spielberg's intelligent sci-fi story stars Richard Dreyfuss as an Indiana electrical lineman whose close encounter with a UFO o... Read more
Close-Up (1990)
8.3/10
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Starring: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehdrad Ahankhah
Regarded as one of the greatest films of the '90s, acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami's brilliant exploration of a misguided cinephile's attempts to... Read more
Cocoon (1985)
6.7/10
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Steve Guttenberg, Jessi...
Ron Howard directs a fine batch of Hollywood's senior citizens, who find that the Fountain of Youth is located not far from their Florida retirement c... Read more