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...
After Life (1998)
7.7/10
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Starring: Naito Taketoshi, Oda Erika, Terajima Susumu, Naito Takashi, Tani Kei
Many films have offered insight into the unexplainable realm of the after life. In Kore-eda Hirokazu's ("Maborosi") thought-provoking vision, the newl... Read more
One: The Movie (2006)
7.5/10
Director: Ward Powers
Starring: Deepak Chopra, Ram Dass, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Robert Thurman, etc ...
A cinematic journey in search of the answer to life's ultimate question. Armed with only a mail-order video camera, a list of twenty questions and a d... Read more
Wheel Of Time (2003)
7.2/10
Director: Werner Herzog
Starring: H H Dalai Lama
Legendary German filmmaker Werner Herzog's mesmerising documentary is a beautifully photographed look at the largest Buddhist ritual in Bodh Gaya, Ind... 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
Heaven Is For Real (2014)
5.8/10
Director: Randall Wallace
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Margo Martindale, Kelly Reilly, Connor Corum
Based on the #1 New York Times best selling book, this film recounts the story of a small-town father who must find the courage and conviction to shar... Read more
What Dreams May Come (Blu-ray) (1998)
7/10
Director: Vincent Ward
Starring: Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr, Max von Sydow, Robin Williams
This stunning achievement in visual effects follows a man's literal journey through heaven and hell in an attempt to be reunited with his wife in the... Read more
Ordet (1954)
8.2/10
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass Christensen
A tale of miraculous resurrection brought about by human love, Carl Dreyer's Ordet is an extraordinary expression of spiritual optimism without being... Read more
The Tree of Life ( Blu-ray ) (2011)
6.8/10
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, this complex and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition stars Brad Pitt as the patriarch of a M... Read more
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ( Blu-ray ) (2001)
8.8/10
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Ian Holm, Ian McKell...
In the first installment of director Peter Jackson's ambitious and successful film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy, Elijah Wood stars a... Read more