Good films should do a couple of things. Firstly, they need to entertain. Secondly, they need to either provide an escape from thinking, or make you think. I spotted a post on
ReadySteadyBook referencing
infinite thØught on films with philosophical import, which was a call for suggestions for films to be studied in a university course, ignoring the obvious ones that students may have already seen (Blade Runner, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Memento).
There were some interesting suggestions there, including The Seventh Seal (which is in my DVD collection but I haven't got round to it yet), Funny Face, Solaris (Tarkovsky's version), Möbius, and even the Naked Gun trilogy ("language is constituted by its misfirings, by our talking past each other").
It's not easy to try and think of a list of 'philosophical' films that you hope people won't think of as pathetic or overly pretentious, and I believe that even if something is considered 'lightweight' and not unintelligible enough to be considered 'art', there are usually underlying philosophical themes because films generally try to tell us something about the nature of humanity and/or society (and make money at the same time). I've wracked my brains and managed to retrieve a shortlist from (my admittedly Swiss cheese-like) memory:
- Romper Stomper (1992): the nature of evil.
- Pleasantville (1998): the validity of moral relativism and authority.
- What Dreams May Come (1998): sentience and self-constructed realities.
- American Psycho (2000): objective and subjective realities, with a steaming helping of gore.
- The Man Who Wasn't There (2001): absurdism / existentialism, with the classy cinematography of noir.
Any more suggestions to fill up my Christmas break?
