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Films with Religious or Spiritual Themes or Refs

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Poll Question: Choose any favourites and list your own
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
5 [7.25%]
0 [0.00%]
4 [5.80%]
0 [0.00%]
20 [28.99%]
13 [18.84%]
5 [7.25%]
1 [1.45%]
2 [2.90%]
6 [8.70%]
2 [2.90%]
2 [2.90%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
1 [1.45%]
0 [0.00%]
2 [2.90%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
1 [1.45%]
1 [1.45%]
0 [0.00%]
4 [5.80%]
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Saperlipopette! View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 31 2018 at 10:50
^not that one needs Religious or Spiritual Themes or Refs to be considered serious
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 31 2018 at 11:18
Indeed.

Originally posted by Saperlipopette! Saperlipopette! wrote:

Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

Oh, and I did think about adding Melancholia, a film I love, but opted not to, will add, but I'll add it to the Breaking the Waves option. Lots of von Trier could fit methinks.
Breaking the Waves is perhaps the (more) obvious choice but its just not among my personal favorites. But yeah Von Trier is one of the last serious artists (that gets any attention) in the seemingly brain drained movie business.


Breaking the Waves was one of the first films I saw with my now wife in the cinema, so it has sentimental value for me. The interstices with the music in the movie helped to make the movie special (love how he did that and it's interesting how it relates to Dogme 95 principles). It's one of my wife's very favourite films.

We used to go see movies all the time, but that stopped when we moved farther out from the city. I have to travel quite some distance to see such films in the cinema now. I loved his Dancer in the Dark (with Bjork for those that don't know), and that as well as Melancholia, did get a pretty wide release. Love the Kingdom, and love The Element of Crime and Europa. He's hit and miss for me in terms of enjoyment. I didn't enjoy Nymphomaniac, but perhaps one is not supposed to (will try again with more of an open mind -- he can do some pretty unpleasant stuff, and I was disappointed with the Idiots when it came out (maybe just cause I had different expectatations and was into different kinds of film at the time).

Edited by Logan - July 31 2018 at 11:20
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Dark Elf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 31 2018 at 19:00
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

Agree 100%. Ustinov was also outstanding in Spartacus and helped to make that movie a classic.

And Tony Curtis, whose mellifluous Shakespearean locution is unparalleled in cinema:

"Spah-ta-cus, take me to da castle of my faddah!"
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to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2018 at 04:19
^ Yeah, Ustinov and Curtis. The yin and yang of acting! Lol!

Edited by SteveG - August 01 2018 at 04:19
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2018 at 23:17
Hi,

A couple of other films.

Bedazzled
Cabeza de Vaca
Cradle song (Cancion de Cuna)
Ghandi
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (German Film)
Little Buddha
Ridicule
Temptations of a Monk
The Name of the Rose
The Scarlet Letter

PC and DM's ultimate satire and comedy is very strong and almost takes the title as the best of them all ... the lines themselves are incredible and the whole thing is very well written ... and you must pay attention to the ending and the whole St Peter thing ... it's totally on it, and so with it!

Kinda difficult to choose one, and specially in this list would have been a lot of LUIS BUNUEL, although a lot of his work is mostly referential and "atomic", but things like NAZARIN, SIMON OF THE DESERT, and of course the famous last supper scene, more than make it for him. And dig the incredible dig on religion in the last film ... it's amazing, and specially so at the time it was done.

It really brings up the image of the GOYA painting that he illustrated in the film ... even if in that image it is not a religious thing, in the end ... it is the same thing and feeling.

LUIS, was never "against" religion per se ... as his friend states (a Dominican Friar!) ... (paraphrased) Luis likes to tease you and make sure you know and understand why you believe what you believe ... that is what his films are about! He's merely making sure I know what I am believing!

But even Nicolas Roeg has done various things dealing with religion and faith in his films, and has had several biblical pieces (I have never seen them!) done as well. Seems off kilter here, but I doubt it, since a lot of his work was looking for something "deeper" in life.


Edited by moshkito - August 01 2018 at 23:19
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2018 at 23:28
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

Holy Mountain is a great film, and I wish I'd included it. That's the kind of film that this poll should have been all about I think.

I think EL TOPO is a much better and interesting film than THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. However, like a couple of his other films, these are a bit on the weird side of things with great images all around, which sometimes are simply a take on various religious/spiritual themes, which my thoughts are sometimes that it is mostly not satirical, but a sort of ... what if ... kind of thing which makes it interesting.

Hard to not mention also that there are several films that deal with the dark themes, and at least a couple based on Dennis Wheatley's novels. (Look them up DarkElf ... Christopher Lee is in two of them!)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2018 at 05:09
I really liked El Topo, although Holy Mountain has the advantage of being a more recent to me watch. Incidentally, since I caught your comment on Graphic Novels. Quoted from IMDB:

Quote Jodorowsky has done a series of graphic novels in collaboration with the celebrated French comic artist Moebius. The novels are called "The Adventures of John Difool" and depict the adventures of a small- time private detective, who gets unwillingly involved in a battle of cosmic dimensions. The story, written by Jodorowsky, is complex and rich with insights into the problems of modern life and alienation. From the opening scene at Suicide Alley, a place where suicide epidemics frequently break out in the sullen nameless city where Difool lives, to the closing scene, also at Suicide Alley, the reader follows Difool in an adventure to first understand, and then fight for, peace and freedom in the universe. A deep and recurring message of the story is that no understanding of the human nature can be achieved via separation of the good from the evil.


As for some others you've mentioned. I'm sure we've discussed Bedazzled before and that is another I wish had occurred to me. I love that film (not the remake, which I've also seen). It's a film my dad caught on TV later than I had seen it, and was talking to me about how much he liked it (my mum got to know Cook and Moore quite well I think when Julie Christey was her roommate).

This isn't interesting, but I particularly loved Bedazzled because I caught it in 1995 when living in Japan very late night on TV. It was the first English language film I caught on TV there that had subtitles (after that, I always stayed up really late on Saturday nights to watch the films). A couple of years later my dad caught it on TV and was raving about it to me. I loved the songs part of that film. More's character with "Love Me" and then the Devil upstaging him with his opposite and more popular approach. It's one of my favourite comedies (If I haven't done it in a poll here, I'm sure I have at another forum). Maybe I will do a comedy film one -- most of my favourite comedies are British).

Most of the others you've named I have seen (I don;t catch as films as I used to). The Name of the Rose I'm sure I thought of it but forgot as I knocked this poll off, but forgot to include.

Umberto Eco is an author I have liked very much (especially Foucault's Pendulum). I should start reading more again (I'm at the point of needing reading glasses, but not used to them so I never use them except for small print).

Thanks for the well-thought out posts, Pedro.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2018 at 06:01
Another favorite of mine is Alex van Warmerdams darkly absurd and eerie The Northerners (De Noorderlingen) set in in the middle of nowhere/weirdsville/somewhere in the 1960's Netherlands - including a sainthood among many other things. As most great art its kind of fun as well.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2018 at 07:15
Oh, that's one I've heard great things about. Just starting on it, and can see that I will love that one. Thanks. The kids and wife are flying off in a couple of weeks, and then I'll watch it on the big screen (well, my big screen TV).
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Larkstongue41 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2018 at 18:49
Voting for 5 of my very favourite films: Andrei Rublev, The Seventh Seal, Ordet, Aguirre and the Passion of Joan of Arc.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2018 at 22:56
Hi,

Ingmar Bergman is an interesting dilemma for me. I like him and I don't like him. There are several things that are "overdone" for me, and I always thought that the symbolic nature of "The Seventh Seal" was over done and over "bearing" for me, just like his living room and family dramas. My father wrote many reviews about his films, that were truncated and cut up by Portuguese sensors, though most of the stuff they censored was about the American and English films and of course folks like Fellini and Bunuel.

There are some nice things out of his work though ... one of his sons (Daniel) made a film ... SUNDAY'S CHILDREN that was very much about the family thing and then they would break for church on Sunday, and of course, they did not match. It was a bit of a slow film that relied on dialogue (like Bergman), and I caught it on the Film Festival. I think that the film would make more sense for me now if I saw it and was able to compare it to his father's work better.

Another person that also made a film that does not specifically deal with "religion" is Sven Nykvist's (the cinematographer) THE OX, which deals mostly with the character being ashamed of what he did and not being able to deal with it. It is visually stunning!


Edited by moshkito - August 02 2018 at 22:58
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Barbu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2018 at 10:51
From the list...not sure, Last Temptation maybe.

mine:

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2018 at 13:32
From the list .....Ben Hur.....Last Temptation....
but I would mention The Greatest Story Ever Told with Max Von Sydow and King of Kings with Jeffrey Hunter.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2018 at 13:21
Meetings with Remarkable Men 
England 1979


It is not easy to review this film, specially in light that it was co-written by one of the folks that was associated to G. I. Gurdjieff, and the immediate thought is that its content is very close to the story of the man that create the writings that made this film.

I tend to think of this film as much more than just a film, although why, is harder to explain. There is a certain feeling of clarity and understanding within this film, and its dialogue, and specially the visual side of its scenery and eventual ending, which is rather stunning and different. It is not a conventional story, but its illustration is not specific to what we imagine, but at times, what we see and what/how we discern from it.

The story is that of Gurdjieff and the part of his life that is in search for some meaning. That meaning eventually comes to be seen in the film in the form of dance, and how it affects a person is my assumption. To this end, a lot of his work, has bits and pieces that are very useful in the study of acting and even directing, which Peter Brook has taken to an extensive degree and incorporated into what might be considered the experimental theater and film work that he has done over the years. It is no surprise that later, Peter Brook did a film called "THE TIGHTROPE", that is not a story, but essentially an acting exercise which is very similar to a very important part of the story and a visual stunning moment in the film when Gurdjieff has to cross a bridge. The important part of the exercise, is the attention to it and its detail, and thus the "meaning" is created. And that it gets taken even further afar, so you can see the ending part of the film with the dancers, although seeing that, you and I, will probably wonder ... that in itself is the meaning? 

And that would say ... we missed the point and failed the tightrope/bridge?

It is the process that creates the inner peace that makes it possible to move on, and add meaning to one's life, it seems like, something so basic that we do not always consider it, and how important each and every moment really is, that we take for granted. But do we know how to live with that kind of depth and detail? I don't know and the film is not telling you, and I tend to feel that the books themselves by Gurdjieff, do not exactly tell you, because it is such an individual experience all along for all of us. 

The film has very nice moments and details that are probably very close to the life of the man himself, and it also features some other bits that are unusual ... like casting Terence Stamp who has been known to quit acting in order to undertake meditation and a path of the inner side. 

It is a very spiritual film, but it does not hammer anything at you. It just shows some moments in one's life and how things progress and moves along, and in the end, it allows you to make your own call and understanding, which is the hard part that makes the film be a bit of an oddity for you ... you have to figure it out for yourself!

Beautiful film, and probably one of the most spiritual film ever made, but a film that does not push its vision and try to print it on your head. The ending is as much as a far out bit as it is a release, though dance/dancing is not shown in the earlier parts as being that important until the ending sequence. And even then, it is something that we would probably ask ... dance? ... since we are used to something that has an interpretation of our own lives a lot more than something, that has an invisible link that we can not see altogether. 

I suppose that we think that is the case in most of our lives?

Directed by Peter Brook
Written by Peter Brook, G. I. Gurdjieff and Jeanne Salzmann
Music by Thomas de Hartmann adapted by Laurence Rosenthal
Cinematography by Gilbert Taylor
With Dragan Maksimovic as Gurdjieff, Terence Stamp as Prince Lubovedsky, Mikica Dimitrijevic as the young Gurdjieff, Athol Fugard (well known playwright in the English Theater scene!) as Professor Skridlov, Warren Mitchell, Fahro Konjhodzic, David Markham, Natasha Parry
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote geekfreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2022 at 03:33
Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments


But wish this movie was on the list.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BaldFriede Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2022 at 05:31
I would have thrown in "¡Viva la muerte!" ("Long Live Death!") by Fernando Arrabal and "Zardoz" by John Boorman.

"Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes" and "De vierde man" (I prefer to use the original titles of movies) are two of my all time favourite movies; normally my vote would go there. But "La montaña sagrada" needs a vote.

I once saw a triple feature of "La montaña sagrada" (the original title of "The Holy Mountain"), "¡Viva la muerte!" and "Zardoz" on acid at a local cinema. Somehow the acid merged these three movies into one super long and super weird movie.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BaldFriede Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2022 at 05:41
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:


Umberto Eco is an author I have liked very much (especially Foucault's Pendulum). I should start reading more again (I'm at the point of needing reading glasses, but not used to them so I never use them except for small print).

My favourite books by Umberto Eco are "Baudolino" and "La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana" ("The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana"). The latter is in my opinion an attempt of Eco to describe what will happen inside the brain shortly after death. Extremely fascinating.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2022 at 06:19
Stunning, I tell you Evil Smile

let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MortSahlFan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2022 at 06:25
"Elmer Gantry" is my favorite.

Notice one of the last scenes. Fate. Accident. Big Bang?

We see a sign that reads, "NO SMOKING", but a guy flickers his cigarette, and because of all the straw/hay, the place catches on fire. Everyone (except Sister Sharon) goes by instinct, and gets the hell out of there, despite Sister Sharon telling them this is the apocalypse/rapture, some message from the heavens. She's the only believer. And that's religion for you. Just like every President has to suddenly pretend he loves the bible.

It's business, and Lancaster's character demonstrates this in every way, but finally "grows up". 

I also love "The Seventh Seal" and the movie, "Sult" with the character named Pontius. I don't know much about religion, but I'm guessing there's a lot of religious symbolism, as there is with many movies.


Edited by MortSahlFan - July 22 2022 at 06:29
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 23 2022 at 06:56
Hi,

A couple more ...

Barrabas (with Anthony Quinn)
The Devils (Ken Russell's)

All in all, a magnificent list ... but me voting on it is gonna be tough.

Of all these, I think that "Bedazzled" (the original with PC and DM) is probably the one film that I would think is the best, despite folks not appreciating some of the incredible twisted humor, specially the last 15 minutes, which is SO TRUE TODAY. George Spigott kept his promise ... he went out and created a mess!

BTW, I remember when I first saw "Jesus of Montreal" and how stunned I was ... it is an incredible film, although I think that some "Christians" won't like the hippocrisy so wide open in the film!

"Life of Bryan" also deserves some outstanding kudos for some wonderful writing, and not just clever ... 


Edited by moshkito - July 23 2022 at 06:58
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