Watching Movies of Life - the Movie Meditation
These descriptions of certain emotional states of mind are intended to encourage us to watch specific aspects of our life as if they were a movie. A five star movie in this list is not rated necessarily as a highly entertaining, mainstream movie. Instead, a good movie suggested here may more accurately reflect the drama of life in all its facets -- the shadow of an emotion as well as its positive side. Find out what moves you and learn to simply let it be. Meditation is watching, unidentified and non-judging.
F -- Wise Philanthrope
The shadow side
Not being able to do or touch anything, observing misery and not being able to cope with it, moving into dreams and desires, loneliness, being afraid of reality's cruelty, to suffer from vertigo and claustrophobia, feeling closed up, being afraid of people and the suffering that they create, being afraid of one's own violence, attracting suffering and violence magnetically, being out of balance
The light side
Embracing the world, loving unconditionally, acting with love, loving people as they are, developing wisdom through people and their suffering, being full of compassion, acting with warmth and with female wisdom, being in balance
Movies with these themes
Vanilla Sky
David Aames recently has become owner of his deceased father's publishing company, and begins to enjoy a wealthy lifestyle. David, through his friend Brian Shelby, is introduced to Sofia Serrano, and the two begin to flirt and become closer. When David's former girlfriend, Julianna Gianni, discovers this, she becomes extremely jealous. One day, she offers David a ride, but purposely crashes her car at high speeds off a bridge; Julianna dies while David survives, though his face is seriously deformed and he is forced to wear a mask to cover the injury. On an evening out with Brian and Sofia after the crash, David becomes extremely intoxicated, much to Sofia's displeasure, and she and Brian leave David to wallow on a sidewalk. However, the next morning, Sofia returns to help David back onto his feet, and they begin to date steadily. His facial injuries are able to be removed via plastic surgery...
Stranger than fiction
Harold Crick is an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service and an obsessive time-saver, living his life via the timing of his watch. His is given the job to audit an intentionally tax-deliquent baker, Ana Pascal. On the same day, he begins hearing the voice of a woman that is omnisciently narrating the events in his life, but he is unable to communicate with the voice. On his way home, Harold's watch stops working and he resets it using the time given by a bystander; the voice narrates that this "seemingly innocuous act" will result in his "imminent death". Harold turns first to a psychiatrist who initially attributes the voice to schizophrenia but then suggests Harold turn to a literary expert. Harold visits Jules Hilbert, a university professor, and relates his story; Jules first comes to the same conclusion as the psychiatrist but then recognizes aspects of a literary work in Harold's story, and encourages him to help identify the author, first by determining if the work is a comedy or a tragedy...
Apt Pupil
A clean-cut, all-American high school student named Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers that his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker, is in reality a fugitive Nazi war criminal named Kurt Dussander (McKellen). After threatening to turn him in, Bowden reveals that he is fascinated with the activities of the Nazis in WWII, and blackmails Dussander into entertaining him with gory tales of the death camps. He even orders a detailed replica uniform which he forces Dussander to wear. As he spends more time with the old man, the boy's grades suffer, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents. In turn, the Nazi blackmails the young boy into studying to restore his grades, with threats to expose the boy's subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents. Dussander even pretends to be Todd's grandfather in order to get him special permission to raise his grades. Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young man, and both seem to gain satisfaction from attempts to kill animals in Dussander's oven. Dussander even appears to take great pride in Todd's unbelievable turnaround, going from near dropout to straight A's in a matter of weeks...
The French Lieutnant´s Woman
The plot concerns the love affair between a Victorian gentleman and a woman who has been jilted by a French officer, scandalizing the "polite society" of Lyme Regis.
In the original book, the author is very much present - constantly addressing the reader directly and commenting on his characters, and on Victorian society in general, from his Twentieth-century perspective. A direct adaptation would have required a continual voice over...
What About Bob?
When Dr. Leo Marvin, (Richard Dreyfuss) a trained psychiatrist, goes on vacation in New Hampshire, he leaves his new patient, Bob Wiley (Bill Murray), on his own with a copy of Marvin's latest book, "Baby Steps." Bob is a very nice man, but he's nearly paralyzed by multiple phobias and his last psychiatrist, Dr. Carswell Fendsterwald (driven to the brink of a nervous breakdown) is quitting his practice and leaving town to get away from Bob. This, combined with the audience's knowledge that a number of therapists have dropped Bob, foreshadow future events, though not in the way one would expect...
The Number 23
Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) is an animal control officer married to cake shop owner, Agatha (Virginia Madsen); they have a son, Robin (Logan Lerman). The film opens with Walter narrating the events of his recent birthday. He begins by describing how, when it was almost five o'clock, he received a call to catch a dog. The dog had been cornered in the basement of a Chinese restaurant, and gives chase when Walter approaches. Walter eventually corners the dog, and learns from his name tag that his name is Ned. While Walter is distracted by light reflecting off Ned's tag, the dog bites his arm and escapes again. Walter attempts to follow, but loses Ned at a cemetery. While searching the cemetery, Walter notices the gravestone of Laura Tollins...
Remark
Although the movie list is inspired by Tibetan Pulsing typologies on the human mind, it does not claim to be completely accurate in its assessment.
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