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...
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
7.6/10
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie
One of the most controversial films of recent years, this adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel is essentially about the battle raging within Jesus w... Read more
The Long Day Closes (1993)
7.5/10
Director: Terence Davies
Starring: Leigh McCormack, Majorie Yates, Anthony Watson
A poignant slice-of-life remembrance by director Davies ('Distant Voices - Still Lives') picturing a postwar England which seems to be yearning for an... Read more
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
8.8/10
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett,...
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
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
The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007)
5.9/10
Director: Simcha Jacobovici
This documentary from the makers of 'Exodus Decoded' puts forward a compelling theory that the so-called 'Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries', discovered in Is... Read more
The Mahabharata (1989)
7.9/10
Director: Peter Brook
Starring: Urs Bihler, Ryszard Cieslak, Georges Corraface, Mamadou Dioume
One of the great masterpieces of world literature, 'The Mahabhrata' is a collection of ancient Sanskrit stories composed into the longest poem ever wr... Read more
The Matrix (1999)
8.7/10
Director: The Wachowski Brothers
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Hugo Weaving
Cutting-edge visuals and production design feature in this mind altering tale about a computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) who discovers he is living an ill... Read more
The Matrix ( Blu-ray ) (1999)
8.7/10
Director: The Wachowski Brothers
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano
Cutting-edge visuals and production design feature in this mind altering tale about a computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) who discovers he is living an ill... Read more
The Miracle Worker (1962)
8.1/10
Director: Arthur Penn
Starring: Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, Victor Jory
Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke won Oscars for their roles in Arthur Penn's version of Annie Sullivan and her pupil, Helen Keller. The dramatic force of... Read more
The Nativity Story (2006)
6.8/10
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Shaun Toub, Ciaran Hinds, Shohre...
Director of 'Thirteen', Catherine Hardwicke, uses her empathy for pregnant teens to good effect in telling the story that ends with the birth of baby... Read more