What is the most tragic scene in cinema history?

the last scene of Malena the Shoping scene

Since nobody has mentioned it, there are a number of scenes in Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies) that qualify.

I think the suicide scene of Madhabi Mukherjees character in SUBARNAREKHA.

The suicide in Mouchette
The Life of Oharu – the whole film is tragic

Le Notti Bianche

Well, the ending of “Le Notti Bianche” is sad, but I wouldn’t describe it as tragic.

Anyone got anything better than a double suicide?

I think I won this one….

Not yet… How about this, RWP3? ;)

Robert, you can’t touch that.

As for you, Apursansar- that’s mighty fucked up, yo.

Grave of the Fireflies is a pretty good choice here… when the little girl dies obviously… Ellie’s death or miscarriage in Up is also really tragic…

but my choice is the scene in The Rules of the Game where the muse for the airplane record breaking
trip doesn’t show.

Well, I’ve never seen double suicide. But I feel like there has to be more tragic stuff than a double suicide, if that’s all you’re throwing in the ring. Does more tragic stuff happen around the suicide?

Actual Tragedy, to me, is when the people have to live with what they’ve done, rather than escape into death. People dying isn’t tragic, it’s just sad or gruesome. Tragedy is, you know, like oedipus gouging his eyes out because he fucked his mom.

That’s why i find stuff like Late Spring tragic, or the way people in Au Hasard Balthazar resign themselves to be stepped on abused all their life. That seems more tragic because they haver to live with it for a long time. They’ve given up, but are doomed to suffer.

@John P : The end of Double Suicide should give you the chills – it did that for me !

I don’t think that I quite agree with you, John. A character who decides to endure suffering and resigns as the father in “Late Spring” or the characters in “Au hasard Balthazar” make us aware of the inevitable tragedy of life itself, but in my opinion it’s just as tragic if a character is unable to endure. A good example would be the scene from “Subarnarekha” which Rüdiger mentioned that is tragic because the female protagonist is confronted with her own brother discovering her as a prostitute although he was meant to think that she is dead, and in sheer desparation she sees no other way out than to kill herself right in front of his eyes. The scene from “Sansho the Bailiff” which I first posted is not tragic because the sister decides to keep on living as a female slave, but because she kills herself although her brother is about to save her, having given up her will to live.

Monica Bellucci got tortured in Tornatore’s Malena… tragic!

The Ending of The Mist and Dogville is just soooo depressing !

All I’m saying is some of these moments seem less tragic and more “sad” or depressing. While I hated The Mist, for example, the ending is indeed tragic beyond belief, and just because something bad happens to someone, it doesn’t mean it’s tragic.

For instance, The Mist, a movie I dislike, is tragic, because of the choice at the end. Of course, NOTHING about the character leads him to this moment in any way, but the fact that he gives up basically on an impulse instead of sticking to his character yields tragic results.

On the other hand, while I liked it a lot, I don’t see how Dogville is tragic, it’s more acidic and nauseating in the end. Or how The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is really tragic. Sad, yes, but tragic, no, as he simply had a stroke.

And the Sansho the Bailiff example, to me, it’s tragic because the brother reaps the tragedy. Romeo and Juliet is doubly tragic because they could have both lived- if Juliet was indeed dead, and Romeo killed himself, it’d be just sad. But the dramatic irony, the fact that they could have easily been happy, is what makes it tragic. Not the death, but the realization of misery, of choice, of downfall.

I’m sure I’m over thinking this, but I’m also bored. And to be fair, Double Suicide may indeed be the most tragic ending/film ever, I haven’t seen it.

wow John, you make one damn great opinion,.thanks !

Criterion adding another michael bay movie.

Love will kill you:

Chaplin in “The Gold Rush”, preparing a nice dinner he can’t afford, for the girl he thinks is interested in him. She doesn’t come. He falls asleep and wakes to the additional pain of the sounds from town where the New Year’s revellers are singing. Has misguided love and loneliness ever been portrayed better?

“King Kong” (1933). He dies atop the tallest building in N.Y., the only place that gives him a memory of ‘home’ in the midst of a completely alien world.
At the end, he doesn’t know why they are after him; he only knows he is losing the one thing he couldn’t give up, even in death.

The English Patient—her in a cave, alone with her terror.

Don’t hate me for this, but in Little Miss Sunshine, when Paul Dano’s character learns he’s colorblind. it was more powerful for me than anything in grave of the fireflies.

Also, i can’t pinpoint a scene but Synecdoche, NY was tragic.

old yeller
au hasard balthasar

Matt, I stopped reading when you said “Little Miss Sunshine”. You’re dead to me now. Whoever you are.

Donald Sutherland’s discovery of his daughter at the start of Don’t Look Now.

John P: I think it is the way in which the elements come together vs a singular tragic act.
In Double Suicide it is the atmosphere of the claustrophobic stage setting, the music, and the fatalist POV that make it tragic.

btw, killing off Matt was kinda tragic, no?

Lulu at the hands of Jack the Ripper (Pandora’s Box)

Most shocking: What happens to Gwynneth Paltrow in “Seven”

Most hilarious tragic scene: Arthur’s scene in “Bande à part” (Band of Outsiders)

Animated Tragic Scene: Grave of the Fireflies and Windaria

>>When Sophie is forced to choose in SOPHIE’S CHOICE. Great movie, but I will never watch it again<<
That’s two of us, Strawdawg. Part of me wants to see it again to verify the film is as good as I remember, but I just can’t bring myself to do it, even thouhg I own a copy.

A crying Humbert Humbert giving “Lo” a bunch of money and going off in search of Claire Quilty in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita.

or

The ending of The Last American Virgin.

I was thinking to “Germania anno zero”.

Harakiri was pretty depressing.
I can’t feel for grave of the fireflies. Something about cartoons and cgi just can’t get me to really care for them. They only time I ever care for a cgi character in pixar films.