THE MOST Depressing Film - Ever

When my sons were just getting into renting movies (pre-teen, early teens, I guess) I rented Edward Scissorhands. They liked it but found it sad. So then I rented Powder and they're like, jeez Mom, could you rent a happy film? So then I rented White Squall figuring it was an adventure film. After that they stop letting me pick the films.

Now, lemme open with the statement that I LOVED "LONESOME DOVE", but I found it to be one of the most depressing movies Ive seen, ever.

two mid eighties movies about nuclear war are quite depressing

one is threads, a story about an airburst over a small northern english town, the other is testament, a story about the after effects in an american suburb away from the direct hit

both films pull no punches and are well done with out being overly schlocky

Requiem for a Dream.

I was so disturbed after that....for a long time.

The Bicycle Thief.

I never saw the movie but the book had its depressing moments. Are you speaking of a particular death, farmerman?

That was the thing with the book. You became so emotionally involved with the characters after hundreds and hundreds of pages, that their untimely deaths were very difficult to deal with.

Re the dvd price, shewolf, Shoah is nine and a half hours of trouble. I can't remember if it was shown in two or three sets of hours at the Westside Pavilion, but I and hub and a professor friend of ours made it through about eight of the hours and then I had an appointment to get to. The theater was not jam packed.



Bicycle Thief? Other films affected me more but I won't argue with that affecting you, KC. Will be back if I snag on the name of the ital film that got me most, besides, of course, Open City.

I saw Shoah over two evenings (20 years ago) and I'll agree with you, osso. It's incredibly depressing.

Chai, I also found Requiem for a Dream to be very disturbing. Gave me nightmares, actually.

Two that I think of right away. One Flew over the Cukoo's Nest and the film biography of Frankie Lymon. If I had know in advance the depression I would experience from watching them, I would avoided the experience altogether.

It's taken me a while, and in the meantime I've revived an old ital film thread, but

here's one -

Umberto D by de Sica

On cookoo's nest, batches of my family including both my parents lost mental ability. Hard to elaborate on. The movie was just a movie to me, though I can see it helped bring awareness.

There are many depressing films and many have rightly been mentioned here, but the most depressing films I have seen would be:
- De Verwording van Herman Dürer (1979), an ultra-depressing Dutch story of a young man who, on a quest to find an imaginary land of happiness, sinks into insanity.
- Winterstadt (1981), a Swiss film in which a number of alienated people are kind of washed up in a grey faceless town somewhere in Central Europe. Nothing happens, all conversation is pointless, everyone dreams of leaving but no one does. It is like waiting for Godot in grayscale. The absence of joy or sadness makes it even more depressing than a tragedy.

So many depressing films, Dorothy!

Why did I do that to myself, I wonder?

I'm hard-pressed to pick the most depressing, ever ..... (I've probably blotted it out! )

Let me think on this for a bit ..........

Cuckoo's nest, depressing? He redeems Chief. He sets him free!

I recently watched Hotel Rwanda for the first time, and my reaction after the final credits started to roll was "that was the most depressing movie I've ever seen." A terrific movie, but what a downer.

I'll have to think on this. Of the ones mentioned, none really brought me down bc they all had little bits of beauty or hope shimmering in them. Of the ones I have seen.

Can't recall the name, but what immedietly jumped to mind was a film about a man who is burnt in an accident, his family ceases to recognize him, and he becomes an action hero or some such thing. I believe it was a comic-inspired movie. Regardless, I remember very strongly a scene where he is lurking in the shadows watching his beautiful wife and child and yet he can't go to them...because he loves them.

That depressed me for a while, thinking of how horrid it would be, and how some people truly have survived burns of the nearly unimaginable sort. It really got me pondering how much what we enjoy in this world is conditional: right down to our loved ones and kids. Depressing!

'Wages of Fear' is another French film that is filled to the brim with hopelessness and depression. The tension in the film is so overwhelming that one wishes to see it several times. (Hitchcock fades after seeing Clouzot)
.
http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies/WagesofFear.htm

That sounds like Spawn (1997) IMDB entry

Good review on Wages of Fear....
I'd heard of it but not seen it.

Strange thing: an hour after I wrote about 'Port of Shadows', I changed channels on my TV and on the French station I saw "Port of Shadows' once more.