I found this a difficult question to answer because if a film causes me any intense degree of depression. I rather effectively wash it right out of my remembering. Unless, the film itself is such a masterwork of fimmaking that you just can’t wash it away. I found Dogville to be quite depressing but a truely unforgettable film. I have’nt yet seen its sequel Manderlay. Should I?
Damnation
Dancer in the Dark
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is probably one of the most thoroughly depressing things I’ve ever seen. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a pretty melancholy affair as well.
lars von trier films (he basically rules this topic) for me it was dancer in the dark and dogville.
Burned by the Sun is an amazing and depressing look at Stalinist politics. L’Atalante is also pretty depressing. Oh, and The Cooler is really depressing. All are great movies.
Any film that’s a downward spiral without a definite glimmer of hope the audience can hang on to would be depressing for me. Perhaps the nihilistic “4” by Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Also, Le Feu follet by Louis Malle. Johnny Got His Gun and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are tragic but the audience can at least take away that sense of robust human courage when the film ends.
Imitation of Life
Jude
Carrington
Pi
Barfly
Sofie’s Choice
Not sure but there’s a good chance it’s Italian neo-realist. Bicycle Thieves, Open City, Umberto D.
The neorealists seldom pointed to a way out. We see Umberto’s situation but don’t get any clues to resolving it.
Likewise with Bicycle Thieves. We see a society that pits the poor against each other but what next?
I fide them to be very difficult films.
Dancer in the Dark
Lars Von Trier
Have you seen this film?
It fucked me up.
I mean it completely fucked me up for a week
I was so angry at Lars for whole week
and began to question him as an artist entirely at this point…
I wondered if he might benefit, like Lynch with The Straight Story
in making a feel good film
a brilliantly done feel good film
just to prove he can.
t.misu
i completely agree with you tara!
Dancer in the Dark fucked me up as well.
that is probably the most painful thing for me to watch.
i spent a couple weeks just being upset…emotionally and almost physically.
i could feel it in my stomach almost.
La Strada always makes me cry but it’s not as depressing to me because there is such a life to it, there is such humanity in it.
but at the end of Dancer in the Dark you just feel like somebody stole something from your spirit.
the spiderman trilogy
Requiem for a Dream
The Perfect Storm
No doubt about, Graves of the Fireflies
The first thing that comes to mind is Forbidden Games. A film about war’s effect on children is obviously not going to be very uplifting. I don’t really want to give anything away for those who haven’t seen it, but I was pretty stunned about how sad the whole thing was by the end.
Davie Crockett : King of the Wild Frontier
Germany Year Zero
Bergman’s “Scenes from a Marriage”, he’s minimalist style of shooting catches you and never let’s you go, just like life.. awesome and depressing at the same time.
Harry, yes, films where little kids commit suicide in the end are pretty depressing, aren’t they?
The most depressing film I have ever seen, to use a bit of hyperbole, is Robert Bresson’s “Diary of a Country Priest”.
The priest’s desparate need to establish a connection, an inkling of being wanted, fails after each attempt. His anguish is visible with his actions and words muttered. As the priest is drained of life throughout the film, the viewer, too, is emotionally and even spiritually drained. Bresson forces the viewer to relate to the priest. In doing so, one suffers with him. The conclusion of the film brings relief, even as the viewer realizes that the priest lived a life where he was denied that which most strive for: a simple connection with those around us. The ending can be seen as an escape or a final pang to suffering.
Depressing.
Gaspar Noe’s I Stand Alone is really depressing for its depiction of a joyless, cruel world and a man filled with nothing but frustration and hatred for the world and everyone in it.
Sansho the Bailiff
The Elephant Man made me shed tears ,Requiem for a dream made me feel terrible for all of the characters.Ellen Burstyn’s performance was heart breaking,Irreversible made me hug and kiss my girlfriend after we walked out to the car lol.Dolls by Takeshi Kitano.,Winter Light,hope nobody laughs at me but when i was a kid fox and the hound made me cry like a baby.most of the films are already mentioned ,so i cant think of any other.peace!
The Pledge was dark and depressing.
requiem for a dream and boys dont cry
“Grave of the Fireflies”. I cried for days. I saw it for the first time two months ago and I still thinking in Seita and Setsuko.
“Leaving Las Vegas”. Because I loved and will love Elisabeth Shue for ever since this movie.
Dancer in the Dark and Requiem for a Dream. I so badly want to see Requiem again but I honestly don’t think I’d make it through.
Dancer in the dark and Breaking the waves were tough endings
But The Vanishing was on the top of my list for years until i Saw HUNGER, which is a tough a movie you ever see.
Oh I just thought of mine! Lars and the Real Girl. I was SOOO depressed walking out of that movie.
Au hasard balthazar
Fire within
In a year with 13 moons
Mother and Son
Salo ( the most nihilistic film ever)
The Last Laugh ( although the ending changes all the melancholy)
The Ascent
The Match factory girl
El Sur
Teorema
live forever
Sweet sixteen
the wind that shakes the barely
La Haine
dead man shoes
Festen
christiane F
All of those are pretty downbeat