Best philosophical movies

by K_kugelis created 13 Oct 2011 | last updated - 10 May 2012

Here I have movies that made me think and they have some sort of "philosophy".
I'm really expecting comments which will say that all these movies are both
pretentious and say nothing new. Maybe they are right, but it's just my personal
opinion that I want to share with others. I hope it might help you find something
interesting.

I apologize for adding some movies that really have little "philosophy" but they are
one of my favorites.
Showing all 61 Titles
Sort by:
List order

View:
Log in to copy items to your own lists.



1.
Acordar para a Vida (2001)
7.6/10
A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the
meanings and purposes of the universe. (99 mins.)
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Trevor Jack Brooks, Lorelei Linklater, Wiley Wiggins
Add to Watchlist




2.
Clube de Combate (1999)
8.9/10
An insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life crosses paths with a
devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves
into something much, much more... (139 mins.)
Director: David Fincher
Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf
Add to Watchlist




3.
Matrix (1999)
8.7/10
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his
reality and his role in the war against its controllers. (136 mins.)
Director: The Wachowski Brothers, The Wachowski Brothers
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Add to Watchlist




4.
2001: Odisseia no Espao (1968)
8.3/10
Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar
surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest. (160
mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Add to Watchlist




5.
Bem-Vindo Mr. Chance (1979)
8.0/10
Chance, a simple gardener, has never left the estate until his employer dies. His
simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity. (130 mins.)
Director: Hal Ashby
Stars: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden
Add to Watchlist




6.
Queres Ser John Malkovich? (1999)
7.8/10
A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of the movie star,
John Malkovich. (112 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
Stars: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich
Add to Watchlist




7.
Donnie Darko (2001)
8.1/10
A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates
him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident. (113
mins.)
Director: Richard Kelly
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Add to Watchlist




8.
Os Psico-Detectives (2004)
6.7/10
A husband-and-wife team play detective, but not in the traditional sense. Instead,
the happy duo helps others solve their existential issues, the kind that keep you up
at night, wondering what it all means. (107 mins.)
Director: David O. Russell
Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg
Add to Watchlist




9.
eXistenZ (1999)
6.8/10
A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality
creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged. (97
mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe
Add to Watchlist




10.
Pi (1998)
7.5/10
A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal
patterns found in nature. (84 mins.)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart
Add to Watchlist




11.
De Olhos Abertos (1997)
7.8/10
A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and
needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured. (117 mins.)
Director: Alejandro Amenbar
Stars: Eduardo Noriega, Penlope Cruz, Chete Lera, Fele Martnez
Add to Watchlist




12.
Solaris (1972)
8.0/10
A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what
has caused the crew to go insane. (167 mins.)
Director: Andrey Tarkovskiy
Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jri Jrvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy
Add to Watchlist




13.
Stalker (1979)
8.1/10
A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that
grants wishes. (163 mins.)
Director: Andrey Tarkovskiy
Stars: Alisa Freyndlikh, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoliy Solonitsyn,Nikolay Grinko
Add to Watchlist




14.
Blade Runner: Perigo Iminente (1982)
8.2/10
Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who
hijacked a ship in space and have returned to Earth seeking their maker. (117
mins.)
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Add to Watchlist




15.
Regras da Casa (1999)
7.4/10
A compassionate young man, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor
there, decides to leave to see the world. (126 mins.)
Director: Lasse Hallstrm
Stars: Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Michael Caine, Delroy Lindo
Add to Watchlist




16.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
8.4/10
In future Britain, charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed and volunteers for
an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to
solve society's crime problem... but not all goes to plan. (136 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Add to Watchlist




17.
O Stimo Selo (1957)
8.3/10
A man seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess
against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague. (96 mins.)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Stars: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjrnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe
Add to Watchlist




18.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
7.9/10
After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she
and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in
a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality. (147 mins.)
Director: David Lynch
Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller
Add to Watchlist




19.
Estrada Perdida (1997)
7.6/10
After a bizarre encounter at a party, a jazz saxophonist is framed for the murder of
his wife and sent to prison, where he inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic
and begins leading a new life. (134 mins.)
Director: David Lynch
Stars: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, John Roselius, Louis Eppolito
Add to Watchlist




20.
Veludo Azul (1986)
7.8/10
The discovery of a severed human ear he found in a field leads a young man on an
investigation related to a group of criminals that kidnapped a singer's child. (120
mins.)
Director: David Lynch
Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern
Add to Watchlist




21.
O ltimo Captulo (2006)
7.3/10
Spanning three parallel stories over a millennium, 'The Fountain' is a story of love,
death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world. (96 mins.)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Sean Patrick Thomas, Ellen Burstyn
Add to Watchlist




22.
A Scanner Darkly - O Homem Duplo (2006)
7/10
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous
new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result. (100 mins.)
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Rory Cochrane
Add to Watchlist




23.
Cubo (1997)
7.4/10
7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily
placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps. (90 mins.)
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Stars: Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller
Add to Watchlist




24.
Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
7.2/10
A cemetery man must kill the dead a second time when they become zombies. (105
mins.)
Director: Michele Soavi
Stars: Rupert Everett, Franois Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, Mickey Knox
Add to Watchlist




25.
Kontroll (2003)
7.6/10
A tale about a strange young man, Bulcs, the fellow inspectors on his team, all
without exception likeable characters, a rival ticket inspection team, and racing
along the tracks... And a tale about love. (105 mins.)
Director: Nimrd Antal
Stars: Sndor Csnyi, Eszter Balla, Zoltn Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch
Add to Watchlist




26.
O Barbeiro (2001)
7.6/10
A laconic, chain-smoking barber blackmails his wife's boss and lover for money to
invest in dry cleaning, but his plan goes terribly wrong. (116 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, James Gandolfini
Add to Watchlist




27.
Nada a Esconder (2005)
7.2/10
A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their
front porch. (117 mins.)
Director: Michael Haneke
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bnichou, Annie Girardot
Add to Watchlist




28.
Os Filhos do Homem (2006)
7.9/10
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a
former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a
sanctuary at sea. (109 mins.)
Director: Alfonso Cuarn
Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Add to Watchlist




29.
Dogville (2003)
7.9/10
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town.
In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out
that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away... (178
mins.)
Director: Lars Von Trier
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson
Add to Watchlist




30.
Following (1998)
7.6/10
A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him
under his wing. (69 mins.)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Jeremy Theobald, Alex Haw, Lucy Russell, John Nolan
Add to Watchlist




31.
Memento (2000)
8.5/10
A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for
the man he thinks killed his wife. (113 mins.)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Add to Watchlist




32.
O Maquinista (2004)
7.7/10
An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity. (101
mins.)
Director: Brad Anderson
Stars: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Snchez-Gijn, John Sharian
Add to Watchlist




33.
Magnolia (1999)
8.0/10
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and
meaning in the San Fernando Valley. (188 mins.)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Add to Watchlist




34.
Nu (1993)
7.8/10
Johnny flees Manchester for London, to avoid a beating from the family of a girl he
has raped. There he finds an old girlfriend... (131 mins.)
Director: Mike Leigh
Stars: David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell
Add to Watchlist




35.
Caf e Cigarros (2003)
6.9/10
A series of vignettes that all have coffee and cigarettes in common. (95 mins.)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Stars: Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, RZA
Add to Watchlist




36.
O Festim Nu (1991)
6.9/10
After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator
accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot
being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa. (115 mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands
Add to Watchlist




37.
Bem-Vindo ao Turno da Noite (2006)
7.2/10
After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the
late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs
wild. (102 mins.)
Director: Sean Ellis
Stars: Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Michelle Ryan, Erica Ellis
Add to Watchlist




38.
O Feitio do Tempo (1993)
8.1/10
A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again. (101 mins.)
Director: Harold Ramis
Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Add to Watchlist




39.
Beleza Americana (1999)
8.5/10
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn
his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive
friend. (122 mins.)
Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
Add to Watchlist




40.
American Psycho (2000)
7.6/10
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic
ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical,
gratuitous fantasies. (102 mins.)
Director: Mary Harron
Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Add to Watchlist




41.
A Vida em Directo (1998)
8.0/10
An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a TV show. (103
mins.)
Director: Peter Weir
Stars: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
Add to Watchlist




42.
Terra Tranquila (1985)
6.9/10
A man awakens to find himself alone in the world. (91 mins.)
Director: Geoffrey Murphy
Stars: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith, Anzac Wallace
Add to Watchlist




43.
Voando Sobre Um Ninho de Cucos (1975)
8.8/10
Upon admittance to a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients to take
on the oppressive head nurse. (133 mins.)
Director: Milos Forman
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Add to Watchlist




44.
O Despertar da Mente (2004)
8.4/10
A couple undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their
relationship turns sour, but it is only through the process of loss that they discover
what they had to begin with. (108 mins.)
Director: Michel Gondry
Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne
Add to Watchlist




45.
Cidade Misteriosa (1998)
7.7/10
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember,
in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who
seek the souls of humans.(100 mins.)
Director: Alex Proyas
Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt
Add to Watchlist




46.
O Escafandro e a Borboleta (2007)
8.0/10
The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to
live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed. (112
mins.)
Director: Julian Schnabel
Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Jose Croze, Anne Consigny
Add to Watchlist




47.
Sindoque, Nova Iorque (2008)
7.2/10
A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates
a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play. (124
mins.)
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams,Catherine Keener
Add to Watchlist




48.
Brazil: O Outro Lado do Sonho (1985)
8.0/10
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and
himself becomes an enemy of the state.(132 mins.)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond
Add to Watchlist




49.
My Dinner with Andre (1981)
7.6/10
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, apparently playing themselves, share their lives
over the course of an evening meal at a restaurant... (110 mins.)
Director: Louis Malle
Stars: Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn, Jean Lenauer, Roy Butler
Add to Watchlist




50.
Doutor Estranhoamor (1964)
8.5/10
An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of
politicians and generals frantically try to stop. (95 mins.)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn
Add to Watchlist




51.
12 Macacos (1995)
8.1/10
In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather
information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human
population on the planet. (129 mins.)
Director: Terry Gilliam
Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Joseph Melito
Add to Watchlist




52.
Inadaptado (2002)
7.7/10
A love-lorn script writer grows increasingly desperate in his quest to adapt the book
'The Orchid Thief'. (114 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton
Add to Watchlist




53.
O Homem Elefante (1980)
8.2/10
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while
scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous facade, there is
revealed a person of intelligence and sensitivity. (124 mins.)
Director: David Lynch
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud
Add to Watchlist




54.
Uma Segunda Vida (1966)
7.6/10
An unhappy middle aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and
give him a completely new look and identity - that comes with it's own price. (106
mins.)
Director: John Frankenheimer
Stars: Rock Hudson, Frank Campanella, John Randolph, Frances Reid
Add to Watchlist




55.
Waking the Dead (2000)
6.6/10
A congressional candidate questions his sanity after seeing the love of his life,
presumed dead, suddenly emerge. (105 mins.)
Director: Keith Gordon
Stars: Billy Crudup, Bill Haugland, Nelson Landrieu, Ivonne Coll
Add to Watchlist




56.
Manual de Instrues para Crimes Banais (1992)
7.6/10
A film crew follows a ruthless thief and heartless killer as he goes about his daily
routine. But complications set in when the film crew lose their objectivity and begin
lending a hand. (95 mins.)
Director: Rmy Belvaux, Andr Bonzel
Stars: Benot Poelvoorde, Jacqueline Poelvoorde-Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert,Hector Pappaert
Add to Watchlist




57.
Escndalo na TV (1976)
8.1/10
A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and
revelations about the news media for its own profit. (121 mins.)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall
Add to Watchlist




58.
Vidas ao Acaso (2001)
7.0/10
In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor,
and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the
face. of life's cold unpredictability. (104 mins.)
Director: Jill Sprecher
Stars: Alan Arkin, John Turturro, Matthew McConaughey, David Connolly
Add to Watchlist




59.
Ghost Dog - O Mtodo do Samurai (1999)
7.5/10
An African American mafia hit man who models himself after the samurai of old
finds himself targeted for death by the mob. (116 mins.)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Stars: Forest Whitaker, Henry Silva, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman
Add to Watchlist




60.
Melancolia (2011)
7.1/10
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new
planet threatens to collide with Earth. (136 mins.)
Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgrd
Add to Watchlist




61.
Anticristo (2009)
6.5/10
A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken
hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad
to worse. (108 mins.)
Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Storm Acheche Sahlstrm
Add to Watchlist