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...
We Have a Pope ( Habemus Papam ) (2012)
6.7/10
Director: Nanni Moretti
Starring: Margherita Buy, Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr
At the Vatican, following the demise of the Pope, the conclave to elect his successor settles on Cardinal Melville. But the faithful gathered in St Pe... Read more
What Dreams May Come (1998)
7/10
Director: Vincent Ward
Starring: Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr, Annabella Sciorra, Max von Sydow
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
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
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
Wild Strawberries (1957)
8.2/10
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Victor Sjostrom, Gunnar Bjornstrand
The film that catapulted Bergman to the forefront of world cinema is the directors richest, most humane movie. Traveling to receive an honorary degre... Read more
Wings of Desire (1987)
8.1/10
Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Peter Falk, Curt Bois
'The first time I saw the film I thought it was a knockout; on second viewing it already seemed a classic,' wrote J. Hoberman of Wim Wenders' re-exami... Read more
Winter Light (1963)
8.1/10
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Starring: Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand
This chilling and powerful story of despair is the second of Bergman's trilogy (the others two being "The Silence" and "Through a Glass Darkly") and f... Read more
Yi Yi ( A One and a Two ) (1999)
8.1/10
Director: Edward Yang
Starring: Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Issey Ogata
Set in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, writer/director Edward Yang's acclaimed drama juxtaposes old and new, love and heartbreak as it follows the em... Read more
Yi Yi ( A One and a Two ) (Blu-ray) (1999)
8.2/10
Director: Edward Yang
Starring: Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Kelly Lee, Jonathan Chang, Issey Ogata
Set in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, writer/director Edward Yang's acclaimed drama juxtaposes old and new, love and heartbreak as it follows the em... Read more