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...
Mary (2005)
5.9/10
Director: Abel Ferrara
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Modine, Heather Graham, Marion Cotill...
Abel Ferrara attempts to illuminate the life of Mary Magdalene and the role of Catholocism in the modern world through three interweaving stories. To... Read more
La Petite Jerusalem (2005)
Director: Karin Albou
Starring: Fanny Valette, Elsa Zylberstein, Bruno Todeschini, Heidi Tillette deClermont Ton...
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in a tight-knit Jewish suburb in Paris attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasing... Read more
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Colm Feore
Inspired by real events, this is as much courtroom drama as supernatural chiller. It tells in flashback the tragic story of 'Emily Rose' (Jennifer Ca... Read more
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Blu-ray) (2005)
6.7/10
Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter, Colm Feore
Inspired by real events, this is as much courtroom drama as supernatural chiller. It tells in flashback the tragic story of 'Emily Rose' (Jennifer Ca... Read more
Illuminating Angels and Demons (2005)
Starring: Simon Cox
Based on Dan Brown's book, ('Angels and Demons'), this documentary investigates the mysterious worlwide organisation dating back centuries known as th... Read more
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
7.2/10
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Edward Norton, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Marton...
Ridley Scott directed this epic-scale historical drama inspired by the events of the 12th century Crusades. Balian (Orlando Bloom) a humble French bla... Read more
Renegade ( aka Blueberry ) (2004)
5.2/10
Director: Jan Kounen
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis, Michael Madsen, Temuera Morrison, Ernest Borgnin...
This loose adaptation of Jean 'Mobius' Giraud's comic series 'Blueberry' stars Vincent Cassel as the lawman whose past comes back to haunt him when th... Read more
The Five People You Meet In Heaven (2004)
7.4/10
Director: Lloyd Kramer
Starring: Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Jeff Daniels, Dagmara Dominczyk, Michael Imperioli
Mitch Albom ('Tuesdays With Morrie') wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his best-selling novel. Eddie (Jon Voight) is an elderly maintenanc... Read more
The Gospel of John (2003)
7.7/10
Director: Philip Saville
Starring: Henry Ian Cusick, Stuart Bunce, Christopher Plummer
In the spirit of 'The Passion of the Christ' comes this uplifting dramatization of the life of Jesus as seen through the eyes of his disciple John. Th... 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