21 movies to reflect on life and love
The cinema can also be a source of inspiration when it comes to reflecting on personal relationships . Art does not cease to be a way of expressing feelings and ideas that can not be expressed in words, and its interpretation can be very stimulating.
In addition, movies have long ceased to be mere entertainment; nowadays they are much more, and can even be the object of philosophical essays, as the work of the thinker Slavoj Žižek demonstrates.
- Maybe you're interested: "10 philosophical films about identity"
The best films to reflect on love and life
Below you can see a selection of recommended films to think about life , the relationships and the way in which we experience them.
1. The tree of life
One of the recent films with a more evident Judeo-Christian background. It is not simply the story of a family ; It aspires to be a representation of the birth of love and piety in general as elements that give meaning to life.
2. Forget about me
A man who is involved in the conflict of yes must forget his relationship with a woman or if he prefers to keep those memories, painful as they are. After all, memory is part of one's identity, in addition to being the place where love lives.
3. Memento
Recognized by many as Christopher Nolan's best film to date, Memento talks about the role we have in building a meaning for our own existence. For this he uses Leonard's case, a man suffering from antegrade amnesia .
4. American Beauty
One of the best known philosophical film classics. A middle-aged man in the middle of an existential crisis sees how his life changes when he meets his daughter's young friend. A very tragicomedy biting and critical with the western model of life .
5. The good side of things
A man who tries to get out of the worst time of his life knows a young woman socially marginalized. A film that emphasizes not getting carried away by appearances. Knowing people with whom you are compatible requires a good deal of critical thinking.
6. Now or never
Two men with terminal illnesses decide to undertake together the search for all those experiences they would like to see carried out before they die. Despite coming from completely different worlds , the tandem that form both is addictive and very endearing.
7. Waking Life
A philosophical film composed basically of conversations that are happening throughout what seems to be a dream. It shows a risky aesthetic, based on the use of rotoscopy (the frames of the film are painted to look like drawings).
8. Towards wild routes
What would happen if we tried to reduce our life to the minimum necessary? This film deals with this topic from the narration of a real case, that of a young man nicknamed Alexander Supertramp who decided to leave everything behind and start living in nature in a self-sufficient way.
9. Untouchable
As in Now or Never, here are also narrated the adventures of two very different people. What distinguishes these two films to reflect on life is that in this second context changes: not only is there a class difference between the two, there is also a generational difference. In addition, this is not a film about what makes life unique, but invites us to think about racism and discrimination.
10. Blade Runner
What is it that makes us humans? What is the nature of forgiveness? In this film of androids and humans the most ancestral philosophical questions are treated and, in passing, a story is told that surpasses that of the book on which it is based.
11. The club of the dead poets
One of the most remembered movies of those starring Robin Williams. The story of a teacher who encourages his students to live life intensely through their unconventional educational methods and a slogan: carpe diem.
12. The arrival
One of the science fiction films that do what this genre best knows how to do: to speak no longer of a universe different from ours in which technology is superior, but address the big human issues through the tools available in that fictional world. In this case, the love and pain produced by the loss have a fundamental role.
13. Annie Hall
A classic by Woody Allen, in which the drama is mixed with great doses of humor to give rise to shrewd reflections on life and love. Or, rather, about the lack of love.
14. The fight club
What gives meaning to our lives? Where do we get the strength to love? If the Fight Club has become a cult movie it is because of the harshness with which he perfectly portrays the modem way of life based on consumption and productivity understood as the source of the meaning of life and even of love.
15. Grizzly Man
One of the most famous documentaries of director Werner Herzog. It focuses on the life of Timothy Treadwell , a man of humble class who decided to spend several summers in virgin lands surrounded by wild bears, to establish a friendship with them and to film them.
16. Way
An interesting film that addresses the issue of how the experience of death can be hijacked by religious fundamentalism.
17. Incendies
One of the most famous films by Denis Villeneuve, about the way in which the imaginary borders that societies establish can form physical borders , totally palpable, maintained by hatred and fear.
18. This is England
A story about the way in which a counterculture like that of the skinheads can be transformed into another that affirms the values consistent with the maintenance of state power thanks to racism and xenophobia.
19. Everything is illuminated
Elijah Wood stars in a film based on stories from the past, and in the way they shape the way in which we experience the present both individually and collectively, focusing on the case of the Jewish collective.
20. Sea Inside
One of the classics of Alejandro Amenábar, tells the true story of Ramón Sampedro, who for years fought for the right to a dignified death, with all the moral implications that this entails.
21. Melancholy
This film by the Danish director Lars von Trier is divided into two parts, and explains through stories the story of an apocalypse more personal than real.
