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...
Kundun (1997)
7/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Tethong
A beautifully crafted saga of the 14th Dalai Lama, from his childhood in Tibet to his exile following the Chinese takeover. A cast of non-professional... Read more
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
7/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, B D Wong, Mako
This grand historical adventure in Tibet is the story of Austrian mountain climber and Nazi party member, Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt), who after fleei... Read more
Sliding Doors (1997)
6.8/10
Director: Peter Howitt
Starring: John Hannah, John Lynch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeanne Tripplehorn
A likeable romantic-comedy about a woman who is given a chance to live her life twice, each time, choosing a different man. Will she get it right eith... Read more
Breaking the Waves (1996)
7.9/10
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier
The extraordinary story of a young, simple-minded, God-fearing Scottish woman who willingly takes on lovers in the belief that it will cure her paraly... Read more
The Education Of Little Tree (1996)
7.3/10
Director: Rick Friedberg
Starring: James Cromwell, Tantoo Cardinal, Joseph Ashton
James Cromwell ("Babe") stars in this heartwarming adaptation of the acclaimed bestseller about an orphaned eight-year-old Cherokee boy sent to live w... Read more
Michael (1996)
5.7/10
Director: Nora Ephron
Starring: Andie MacDowell, Jean Stapleton, John Travolta, Robert Pastorelli, William Hurt
A pair of Chicago-based tabloid reporters and a beautiful "angel expert" investigate a woman's claim that the archangel Michael is living in her Iowa... Read more
Dead Man Walking (1995)
7.5/10
Director: Tim Robbins
Starring: Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Robert Prosky
Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 bestseller is the basis for this harrowing account of her life's work'; a spiritual advisor for condemned killers awaiting... Read more
Powder (1995)
6.6/10
Director: Victor Salva
Starring: Mary Steenburgen, Sean Patrick Flanery, Lance Henriksen, Jeff Goldblum
A rural teen (Sean Patrick Flanery) whose skin is ghostly white and whose nickname is Powder, is the local pariah; he's scary, shy, brilliant and seem... Read more
Satantango (1994)
8.5/10
Director: Bela Tarr
Starring: Peter Berling, Janos Derzsi
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bela Tarr's epic rendering of Laszlo Karsnahorkai's novel about the decline of Communism in Eastern Europe, is a u... Read more
Forrest Gump (1994)
8.8/10
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Mykelti Williamson, Tom Hanks, Sally Field, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise
Winner of six Oscars, including Best Picture, Director and Actor, Robert Zemeckis' modern-day fable stars Tom Hanks as the simple-minded but good-hear... Read more