I don’t really see a conflict between the church and the movies, the sacred and the profane. Obviously, there are major differences, but I can also see great similarities between a church and a movie house. Both are places for people to come together and share a common experience. I believe there is a spirituality in films, even if it’s not one which can supplant faith. I find that over the years many films address themselves to the spiritual side of man’s nature, from Griffith’s Intolerence to John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath, to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, to Kubrick’s 2001… and so many more. It is as though movies answered an ancient quest for the common unconscious. They fulfill a spiritual need that people have to share a common memory.

—Martin Scorsese