21 films to reflect on life and love

A selection of films with philosophical undertones about life and relationships.

Cinema can also be a source of inspiration when reflecting on personal relationships.. Art is a way of expressing feelings and ideas that cannot be expressed in words, and its interpretation can be very stimulating.

Moreover, films have long ceased to be mere entertainment; today they are much more, and can even be the subject of philosophical essays, as evidenced by the work of the thinker Slavoj Žižek.

The best movies to reflect on love and life.

Below you can watch a selection of recommended films to think about life, relationships and the way we live., relationships and the way we experience them.

1. The Tree of Life

One of the recent films with the most obvious Judeo-Christian undertones. It is not simply the story of a familyIt 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 is caught in the conflict of whether he should forget his relationship with a woman or whether he prefers to keep those memories, however painful they may be. After all, memory is part of one's identity, as well as the place where love dwells.

3. Memento

Recognized by many as Christopher Nolan's best film to date, Memento talks about the role we play in constructing meaning for our own existence. It uses the case of Leonard, a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia..

4. American Beauty

One of the best-known classics of philosophical cinema. A middle-aged man in the midst of an existential crisis sees how his life changes when he meets his daughter's young friend. A very scathing tragicomedy and critical of the western way of life..

5. The bright side of things

A man trying to get out of the worst period of his life meets a socially marginalized young woman. A film that emphasizes not to be carried away by appearances. Meeting people with whom you are compatible requires a good deal of critical thinking.

6. Now or Never

Two terminally ill men decide to embark together on a quest for all those experiences they would like to see come true before they die. Despite coming from totally different worlds, the tandem that they formthe tandem they form is addictive and very endearing.

7. Waking Life

A philosophical film basically composed of conversations that follow one after the other throughout what seems to be a dream. It shows a risky aesthetic, based on the use of rotoscoping (film stills are painted to look like drawings).

8. Towards Wild Routes

What would happen if we tried to reduce our lives to the bare minimum? This film addresses this issue 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 the wilderness in a self-sufficient way.

9. Untouchable

As in Now or Never, this film also narrates the adventures of two very different people. What distinguishes these two films to reflect on life is that in this second one the context changes: there is not only a class difference between the two, but also a generational difference. Moreover, this is not a film about what makes life unique, but rather a thought-provoking film about racism and discrimination.

10. Blade Runner

What is it that makes us human? What is the nature of forgiveness? In this movie about androids and humans addresses the most ancient philosophical questions and, incidentally, tells a story that surpasses that of the book on which it is based.

11. The Dead Poets Club

One of the most remembered movies starring Robin Williams. The story of a teacher who encourages his students to live life intensely through his unconventional educational methods and a motto: carpe diem.

12. The Arrival

One of the science fiction films that do what this genre does best: talk not only about a universe different from our own in which technology is superior, but also about the great human questions. but to address the great human questions through the tools available in that fictional world. In this case, love and the Pain produced by loss play a fundamental role.

13. Annie Hall

A Woody Allen classic, in which drama is mixed with large doses of humor to give rise to shrewd reflections on life and love. Or rather, about falling out of love.

14. The Fight Club

What gives meaning to our lives? Where do we find the strength to love? If Fight Club has become a cult film, it's because of the rawness with which it it is because of the crudeness with which it perfectly portrays the modern 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 director Werner Herzog's most famous documentaries. It is centered on the life of Timothy Treadwella humble man who decided to spend several summers in the wilderness surrounded by wild bears in order to befriend and film them.

16. Camino

A very interesting film that addresses the issue of how the experience of death can become hijacked by religious fundamentalism.

17. Incendies

One of Denis Villeneuve's most famous films, about the way in which the imaginary borders that imaginary borders established by societies can come to form physical borders, totally palpable, maintained by religious fundamentalism.The film is about the way in which the imaginary frontiers that societies establish can become physical frontiers, totally palpable, maintained by hatred and fear.

18. This is England

A story about the way in which a counterculture such as the skinheads can become a counterculture that affirms values consistent with the maintenance of state power through racism and xenophobia.

19. Everything is illuminated

Elijah Wood stars in a film based on stories of the past, and how they shape the way we experience the present both individually and collectively, focusing on the case of the Jewish collective.

20. The Sea Inside

One of Alejandro Amenábar's classics, it 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 Danish director Lars von Trier is divided into two parts, and explains through narratives the story of an apocalypse that is more personal than real.