15 Movies that Will Lift your Spirits
The right movie at the right time can heal a love wound, fuel a revolutionary idea, or purge abysmal pain. This is our list of movies that will lift your spirits, movies that inflame discouraged spirits. Perfect for these dates.
The right movie at the right time can heal a love wound, fuel a revolutionary idea, or purge abysmal pain. Unlike music, whose cathartic effect is almost instantaneous, (good) cinema should not be rushed, it needs time to inoculate our minds with valuable drops of vigor and hope. Because cinema can save lives. This is our selection of films that will lift your spirits, films that inflame discouraged spirits. Perfect to see in the always melancholic Christmas parties.
15 movies to cheer you up
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
A man returns home where no one waits for him with open arms. The quiet man does not want to fight, but he will fight; He does not want to love, but he will love; he doesn’t want to know anything about his past, but the past always comes back, like love and war. The quiet man pays tribute to life, love, friendship, and whiskey. What more could you want! Recommended for those who flee, for those who return, for those looking for a second chance.
The Song of the Road (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
A child who grows up with his life in the bosom of a family determined to resist the tragedy of poverty. But children always find light in little things, in the glitter of the monsoon drops, in the mud puddles on the riverbank, in the eyes of a grandmother ready to die. Recommended for those who are far from their family, for those who want to dream like a child again, and for those who still read verses under the cobblestones.
The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925)
Charles Chaplin saved so many lives with his cinema that he deserves a place on this list of films that will lift your spirits. Although it is difficult to select one among his extensive filmography, we are left with The Gold Rush, that film in which Chaplin put his best humor into a terrible time eating a delicious plate of lace-up boots. Recommended for those nostalgic for classic humor, for those who believe that there is no better way to live than by joke.
Trapped in time (Harold Ramis, 1993)
If you are one of those who plays Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe every February 2 and smiles with a groundhog that predicts the weather, you don’t need this movie to sell you. Trapped in Time is one of the best comedies in contemporary cinema starring a character designed to show off the famous Bill Murray: a haughty and offensive meteorologist who is forced to live in an eternal loop until he does things the way they have to be done. To be cut off again this Christmas, alone or in the company.
Memories of yesterday (Isao Takahata, 1991)
Do you remember when you were a child when you lived in the village? Do you remember school, theater performances, and that child who made you blush? Do you remember all those crazy plans you had, those illusions and projects that would one day mark your future life … when you were older?
Now you are older, and everything is a melancholic haze, an incisive nostalgic wound barely perceptible in the urban smog. You no longer have time for illusions or projects, you no longer blush with anything … Memories of yesterday is a movie to blush, to go back and caress the crazy head full of dreams of that girl you were, once, back in town.
The Secret Garden (Agnieszka Holland, 1993)
From the same director of Europe, Europe, and with the music of Zbigniew Preisner, one of the most important composers in contemporary European cinema, came this adaptation of the famous novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. For those children who discover the magic of their innocence and for those adults who rediscover the magic in the innocent gaze of their children. “Because if you look at it well, you will see that the whole world is a garden .”
Amarcord (Fellini, 1973)
Nothing to lift your spirits like a good Italian movie, that cinema that teaches you to love life like no other. As a critic said in his day, if there is a film built entirely on nostalgia and joy, it is Amarcord, a shot of happiness to lift any soul in pain. For those who understand that living is nothing more or less than a sum of wonderful and prodigious ridiculousness.
Eleven (John Carney, 2007)
The spell of music and love in an unforgettable little movie. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová put their voices, songs, and interpretations at the disposal of any boy-meets-girl story that is transformed into a work of subtle overflowing romanticism, worth the contradiction. Because the best love stories are always the ones that don’t end well. Recommended for those wounded by love and music.
The Club of Five (John Hugues, 1985)
Many teenagers on this side of the Atlantic grew up on those American high school movies. But when they got to high school, they couldn’t find cheerleaders, quarterbacks, or lockers anywhere. This was another story. But among all those generic youth films, El club de Los Cinco always stood out by far, a suggestive and endearing ode to friendship, diversity, and good joints. To remember old friends, to remember when we were the best.
Brian’s Life (Monty Python, 1979)
The juniper, the spaceship, the popular front of Judea, the Romani ite domum, Pijus Magnificus, the stoning, freedom or crucifixion, blessed are the nose-noses, what have the Romans done for us… and Brian, of course. The genius Monty Python reached their zenith in what is probably the greatest satire of all time.
The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (Pasolini, 1964)
From the best satire of all time to the best film on the life of Jesus Christ in history. From Brian of Nazareth to Jesus of Nazareth. Only a total artist like Pier Paolo Pasolini could shoot a film like this, without prejudice or quotas: pure poetry. They say that after attending a congress where Christians and Marxists sought to bring positions closer together, Pasolini fell in love with the Gospel of Matthew and decided to recreate it with his rudimentary and lyrical style. Recommended for those who need to trust again.
Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, 1984)
This is not the best comedy ever, nor does it pretend to be, it is just a hilarious movie with no more pretensions than to make the viewer laugh. And he does it from minute 1. With a charming retro air, Top Secret! follow the life of Nick Rivers attending a cultural festival in Nazi-controlled East Germany? So is this movie, absurdly great. And if his musical intro is not the best in history, he lacks little.
Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993)
With a handful of pills in hand, Julie does not give in to the fatal impulse before the torn gaze of a nurse. He throws the pills on the ground and decides to die in another way, turning his back on life. “—Why are you crying, Marie? “Because you don’t cry.” But life always seeps its light through the cracks of broken hearts. And Julie lights up again. Recommended for those who urge a catharsis, for those who have their soul in pieces.
Henry Fool (Hal Hartley, 1997)
Simon Grim bends down to listen to the vibrations of the road. Something is rumbling, someone is coming. He is Henry Fool, a grimy, unbalanced, charlatan ex-con of the dubious profession. And a kind of guardian angel, a coach capable of pulling out of the hole a misfit street sweeper with the soul of a writer. I wish we all had a Henry Fool by our side. Recommended for all outcasts in the world, outcasts and proud, of course.
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
We have tried to lift your spirits with comedies, romances, biographies, satires, tragedies, classics, and not-so classics. A bit of everything. But if our cinematographic treatment has not worked, we will always have a sofa, a blanket, and The Wizard of Oz. And everything is solved. Somewhere over the rainbow . ..
