Hi, helleia.

That’s an interesting question. I can’t claim to know of films that inspire me “as well as Tiny Buddha,” because different things inspire me in different ways. But here are a few films, off the top of my head, that gave me the opportunity to consider things from a different perspective, and by doing so, helped me to understand the human condition a bit better, and/or helped me to fill in some of the gaps in my own personal philosophy:

The Razor’s Edge (1984) – This is one of Bill Murray’s first philosophical films. I personally find it to be a far superior film to the 1946 version with Tyrone Power. Although the 1984 version departs from Summerset Maugham’s novel in significant ways, I think the departures help the story to have more impact and to drive home the points of the story all the better.

Huo zhe, a.k.a. “To Live” (1994) – This is a Chinese film by director Yimou Zhang, and in my book, it is one of his masterpieces. In addition to the film’s excellent cinematography and musical score, this adaption of Hua Yu’s novel depicts the lives of two people and their family through the political changes in China from the 1940s to the 1970s. I think it is an amazingly beautiful film on many levels.

Körkarlen, a.k.a. “The Phantom Carriage” (1921) – This is a silent film by one of Sweden’s master directors, Victor Sjöström. Based on the novel by Selma Lagerlöf, some of the story regarding alcoholism may not resonate with today’s viewers, but the story itself, at least for me, is amazingly powerful. The film will remind you a bit of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but Körkarlen makes Dickens’ characters seem pale and almost laughingly amateurish. When the main protagonist (or perhaps antagonist) David Holm (played by Sjöström himself) has his change of heart, it is based on the horror he feels when he sees the heartless and sadistic pain he has inflicted on the people who have cared for him, and how it has terribly and irrevocably affected their lives. When he cries out for salvation, it is not for his own salvation, but the physical salvation of those he has harmed. He begs, with every fiber of his being, for his own soul to be damned to Hell for eternity. (I get choked up just thinking about that part of the movie.) Scrooge, on the other hand, is primarily interested in avoiding his own death, for which he promises to be a better man: a light, fluffy, and shallow motivation compared to David Holm’s motivation. Also, please don’t be put off by it being a silent film. The cinematography is amazing, as are the special effects. To think that this film was made in 1921, in filmmaking’s infancy, completely astounds me. The film has more than one modern musical score, and I suggest Matti Bye’s score over all others. Bye masterfully tailors his score to the film using a minimalistic style rich with an effective pallet of instruments and timbres. (You’ll also see a scene extremely similar to a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I don’t have any proof, but I am inclined to think that Kubrick stole the idea for the scene from Sjöström.) In my opinion, for what it may not be worth, Körkarlen is one of the masterpieces of all cinema.

CMI