HumanityQuest.com   insights into over 500 human values

| Feedback | Sign Guest Book |

Home > Themes > Inspiration > Movies

Here are  list of movies that in some way say something about inspiration.

 

  Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse
 
Suzanne Farrell is a ballerina who became the Muse of the choreographer George Balanchine of the New York Ballet. (see full review)
more @Imbd
     
  Excalibur  
  The movie, Excalibur, tells the story of King Arthur and Excalibur, the magical sword. Life in the kingdom is going well when King Arthur's wife has an affair with his favorite knight, Sir Lancelot. The King finds out about it, which causes him to fall into a deep despair and the entire kingdom starts to go downhill due to his neglect. He gathers his knights and tells them to search for the holy grail which will restore his inspiration. The mood  becomes darker and more depressed as the knights search for the grail but die off, one by one. 

The good hearted Knight
Perceval searches for the grail.  He has a couple of near death experiences in his quest. Within the final near death experience, he finds the grail and brings it back to Arthur. He says to Arthur, "the Grail has always been in you." Arthur becomes rejuvenated and he goes on to fight the evil forces that threaten the kingdom.
More reviews  @netflix   @Imbd
     
  Tchaikovsky  
    A movie about the life of Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer.  He makes a bad marriage and it affects his inspiration. People attending the wedding said his wife will give him inspiration, however, they're quite wrong and the opposite happened.  She was a flirt and a bit of an idiot and he eventually divorces her.

Usually he will sit in a tavern and play the piano. After he looses his inspiration, he plays, but can't hear his playing.  He gets burned out and goes to the country to recuperate and get inspired by nature. H
e swims, plays with kids, hangs out in nature and get his inspiration back.
     
  La Belle Noiseuse

 

La Belle means beautiful girl or woman and Noiseuse means crazy in French. A young artist and his girlfriend visit a painter who has not been working for some time. The artist gives them a tour of his studio. He says I want to get out, the suffering in here is unbearable. At one point he says about what he works for, "when the finger move by themselves, that's what I want."  

The girlfriend poses for him. He moves her body around in different poses, "I want to get your insides spirit to come out." At first she feels inhibited, but ffinally she starts finding poses on her own. He finishes the canvas and seals it into a wall. I'm not sure what the movie says about inspiration?  Did he reach a state of inspiration? Why did he have to seal up his work? It had something to do with saving his marriage. 
more @imbd
     
  Caravaggio  
  Caravaggio says, "Long live doubt, for from doubt comes insights."
Caravaggio was quite young when he started to paint and seems to have had a tortured life. They try to create the mood of his paintings in the movie. Not much stands out after a few weeks of seeing the movies. It's not clear to me what inspired him. He seems to be into debauchery, like the Bacchanalia. The tome of the Baccai, of abandon to the scenes and revelry. But his paintings have a stylized quality, The are composed from models. The darkness of doubt, I guess, presses in on all sides. The Inspiration of ST. Matthew, their were 2 copies but the better one was lost in WWII.  In the move he falls for a couple, a guy and his woman.
He had something to day about inspiration since he painted, "
The Inspiration of Saint Matthew".
more @imbd
     

 

  Life of Emile Zola  
  cover
The inspiration of a value. A writer in Paris France. He strives to write about Truth and Justice for the average person. He has success and becomes self satisfied. However, he is awakened to fight again when a army officer is unjustly and falsely accused of treason.
more @imbd
     
  Razors Edge  
  The American, Laurence Darrell, volunteers to be an ambulance driver in World War I. After the devastation of war he rejects the life of wealth and instead searches for meaning. He eventually goes to a monastery in Tibet where the head monk tells him to go up in the higher snow covered mountains to mediate.  Laurence climbs through the snow to a simple lean-to hut. He sits reading his books, but then the firewood runs out and the fire eventually dies. While containing to read, it gets colder and colder, his lips are turning blue. Suddenly inspiration strikes and Laurence realizes the answers are not in books, but in real experiences. After throwing the books on the fire to get warm, he gets up and looks out over the mountain tops. It's time to go back to society in the West with his new awareness.
 More reviews   @netflix, @imdb
     
  Inspirations  
   
Director: Michael Apted, - an in-depth exploration of the creative process
     

 

  Rembrandt    
  This older black and white movie from 1936 tells the story of the famous painter, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. According to the movie, his main inspiration seemed to come from the love of his first wife. Sitting at a table with his friends who were discussing women, Rembrandt said, "All women are in one."  In other words, he was saying that he could see all women in his wife. The painting of himself and his wife to the right show how happy he was.  His wife died young and this affected him greatly. 

Image
Rembrandt
and Saskia

 
Rembrandt started living beyond his means and accumulated big debts. Through all this he tried to maintain his integrity by only painting the way he saw life instead of doing high paying commissions for wealthy patrons. It seemed to me he was inspired by his spirit of integrity.

Later in life he found inspiration in love again when he became lovers with a maid from the country. He wanted to marry her, but initially could not because of some inheritance issues.  Unfortunately, she also died young along with several of his children..

In one of the ending scenes, the old
Rembrandt sits at a table with a group of young artists and their woman friends. They start  toasting life, love, money, art, etc.  They ask him to make a toast. Rembrandt,  however, quotes the bible and says, "All is vanity" more @ netflix

Image

Self-Portrait

 

 

  Turner and Hooch  
 
Tom Hanks is a detective and while fooling around with his girlfriend in the kitchen has a moment of inspiration. He jumps up all excited and takes off to go check out his idea.
more @netflix
     
  Whale Rider  
   

A young Maori  girl follows her inner impulses instead of caving in to the customs of the community and her grandfather.  She has a deep connection to the spirit of her Maori traditions and overcomes obstacles to follow the spirit that moves her.

At one point she asks her uncle to help her learn to fight with a staff which is traditionally reserved for the males of the community. He does it and this inspires him to start jogging and taking care of himself.

The community tries to save some whales that have been beached. They are unsuccessful in getting them to go back out to sea. The girl gets and top of the whale and gets it to go back out to sea.  She in turn inspires the entire community to come together and becomes the leader.

 

  Siddhartha      
  This movie based on a novel by Herman Hesse, tells the story of Siddhartha, who comes from a wealthy family in India. The young Siddhartha and his friend leave their boyhood homes, where Siddhartha says, "everyday is the same". Together they search for some sort of greater fulfillment.  After years of living with other religious seekers and Sadhus (religious holy men), Siddhartha still hasn't found the inspiration he's looking for. He meets Buddha and is impressed, but not enough to become a disciple like his friend.

Siddhartha continues on by himself and meets a beautiful courtesan and asks her to be his teacher in Love. The cover of the movie box shows him knelling in a worshipful position in front of the courtesan.  After becoming rich and having a child with the courtesan, his life of wealth becomes unfulfilling and he eventually leaves and goes back on the road. Crossing a river, he meets a ferry man who talks about living a simple life and learning lessons from the river. Siddhartha lives a simple life with him and works as a ferryman. In the end he meets his old friend, who is still searching, They stay together on the river and find fulfillment in this simple life.  
More reviews  @netflix    @imbd


To review:

     
  Martin Luther  
  more... @netflix   @imbd
 

 

     
  Empires: Martin Luther
 

There is a second documentary on Martin Luther. In this video he struggles for years with his religion. He finally comes to a realization that the individual must have a direct personal relationship with god instead of going through priests and the Pope.  (this happens on the DVD at 2 7 41:00) He then goes on to inspire others.
     
  Down With Love  
  At one point the journalist feels like he's down and out but suddenly he gets an idea and goes to the computer and starts typing. (what sets this up?)

@imbd

     
  Adaptation  
   At one point the screen writer who is struggling with his screenplay gets an idea and starts to feverously write. (what sets this up?)

@imbd

     
  Dancing at Lughnasa
 
Takes place in Ireland. The woman are in a room and they get up and start dancing.. A moment of inspiration.
     
  Doctor Zhivago  
    The main character has moment of inspiration.
     
  An Ad.  
    I saw an ad for Bombay Sapphire gin. An aging gruff writer is interviewed by several reporters. They ask him various questions. A woman reporter asks him about ambition and love and thy flirt. In the ad they say, "there are two kids of people in the world, those that inspire awe, and everyone else."