My definition are these, in no preferable order:
1. Chadni Bar
2. Hotaru No Haka (Tombstones For Fireflies)
3. They Shoot Horses Don't They?
4. Requiem For A Dream
5. Dancing At Lughnasa
6. The Mission
7. Boys Don't Cry
8. Green Mile
9. Kal Ho Naa ho
10. Elephant Man
What's yours?
Night Mother,Ole Yeller,Dark Victory,The boys in the band,Lady in a cage,Frances,Splender in the Grass,The Rapture,Requiemfor a dream, they shoot horses dont they
shareWOW! night, mother is INCREDIBLE. I saw the play performed once - It was so affecting... but they have not released this on dvd - they need to.
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"A Patch of Blue" with Sidney Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman. Hartman plays a blind girl mistreated by her brutal mother. Great film, but totally depressing.
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I'm with you, Bicycle Theif is one of the, if not THE most depressing film I've ever seen. In my history of cinema class I left only twice feeling like *beep* after viewing a film... Bicycle Theif was one time and Salaam Bombay was the other, just about as equally depressing.
share1.Mildred Pierce
2. They shoot horses, dont they
3. soylent green
4. 1984
5. night of the living dead
besctu, I'm glad you included Town without Pity - I thought I was the only one who remembered it. I also recommend Odd Man Out (1947), The Haunting (1963), When the Wind Blows (1986), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)(TV), and the Valse Triste segment of Allegro non Troppo (1977). I see others have already mentioned Grave of the Fireflies. I always have time for a good cry now and again.
shareI agree and for me: Cool Hand Luke and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg were very depressing.
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i haven't got ten but I will mention lila 4 eva...
http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/afrofilmviewer
der siebente continent, benny's video, funny games, caché (michael haneke), lilja4ever(lukas moodysson), elephant (gus van sant), dolls (takeshi kitano), la zona (rodrigo pla), hotaru no haka (Isao Takahata), 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile (Cristian Mungiu), philadelphia (jonathan demme),Au hasard Balthazar (Robert bresson), 21 grams (alejandro gonzalez inarritu), solyaris (andrej tarkovszkij), stroszek (werner herzog), control (Anton Corbijn) etc...
share"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
Where's the Razor Blade??? :-(
"The Opener of the Way is Waiting"
I'm sure I'll get yelled at for this, but most of Adam Sandler's movies (with the exception of "Punch Drunk Love," "50 First Dates" and "Wedding Singer") where he gets paid to act/direct/etc make me depressed LOL
shareA Patch of Blue ends in such a nice way, though. I can't help but watch it every time it's on TCM. I guess what's really depressing is the star's end in real life. (Elizabeth Hartman's suicide)
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Day of the Locust, which this film has a lot of similarities to.
shareRequiem for a Dream
Last Exit to Brooklyn
Once Were Warriors
Boys Don't Cry
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Glengary Glen Ross
No order:
Spetters
Clown (A short film from 1969, I cried every time I saw it!)
My Beautiful Launderette
The Bicycle Theif
The Elephant Man
Midnight Cowboy
Requieum for a Dream
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Charly
Gia
The Terminal Man
Awards and ribbons are no comfort on your deathbed.
Angel Heart
14 depressing movies
Angels Ashes
Dancer in the Dark
Forest Gump
Jesus Camp
Million Dollar Baby
The Killing (Kubrick)
Little Miss Sunshine (not the slightest bit amusing, repugnant)
The Magadlene Sisters
Moby Dick (Huston)
Persona (Bergman)
Short Cuts (Altman)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Wings of Desire
Withnail and I
The Wrong man (Hitchcock)
Thoughts on "depressing"
- Watching a movie fail in every conceivable way, for every second of it's running time is depressing (Cool World)
- For me, interminably boring movies without any forward momentum are depressing (Moby Dick, Persona)
- I do not think Splendor in the Grass, is depressing. It's saved by a really fine performance by Natalie Wood.
My sister and I howled through A Patch of Blue. It was such a hopelessly campy over-the-top, tug-your-heartstrings premise executed poorly. We were crying we were laughing so hard.
In no particular order:
Boys Don't Cry
Schindler's List (I can't believe that hasn't been mentioned yet!)
Million Dollar Baby
La Strata
A Place in the Sun
A Patch of Blue
All of the recent Star Wars Trilogies
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Au Revoir Les Enfants (based on director's childhood in Nazi-occupied France - poignant)
Dancer In The Dark (best actress Cannes - Bjork - Brilliant!)
Harold and Maude (Affecting, really)
Ordinary People
Leaving Las Vegas
Boys Don't Cry (Love Chloe Sevigny...)
So I can't come up with ten, but I strongly recommend these films!
No Order:
Artificial Intelligence
Radio Flyer
Starman
Any version of The Diary of Anne Frank
The Mighty
They Shoot Horses Dont They
The Poseidon Adventure
North Country
Dead Man Walking
Ethan Frome
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STROMBOLI, FAT CITY, and most of the movies directed by John Cassevetes.
- - SoundTrak
I haven't seen Stromboli, yet, but I want to. But I totally agree with your pick of Fat City as depressing. I found Susan Tyrell's character to particularly depressing, and I love the actress.
Great pick! And I was surprised to come across it as I don't think a lot of people have seen it.
Was Clown about a runaway dog that was adopted by an old blind man, and when the kid finds the dog with the old man he decides to leave him with the old man? I seem to remember this on a Kukla, Fran and Ollie show. Boy, am I old!
shareCitizen Kane
The Stranger
The Third Man
A Place in the Sun
The Country Girl
Written on the Wind
The Little Foxes
Wait Until Dark
Cape Fear
Niagra
Anybody list the "house of Sand and Fog" yet? I wanted to die after seeing that movie. The scene (slight spoiler) with Ben Kingsley praying for his son's life made me want to stop right there. I absolutely couldn't take anymore. (If you've seen it you know where it ends)
shareGood lists so far, here's mine.
in no particular order.
1. They Shoot Horses Don't They?
2. Requiem For a Dream
3. The Bicycle Thief
4. Umberto D
5. House of Sand and Fog
6. Midnight Cowboy
7. Elephant Man
8. Where The Red Fern Grows (I don't remember anything happy about that movie, even the times when you should be, you're really not.)
9. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
10. Sideways
"Sideways"? I would argue that "Sideways" is a positive look at dealing with depression. In the end, Miles was able to act, to move toward change -- something he hadn't been able to do before.
shareI agree with so many of the ones listed in this thread....
Might I add "The Deer Hunter?"
To Thurber67: Hi again, got your earlier message thanking me to post that ¨They shoot horses, don´t they¨ will air again on April 1st. Good to know my message will make a difference to someone.
¨The Deer Hunter¨ is indeed depressing but I didn´t include it in my list of depressing movies I posted further below (I´ve posted only one list but more than one message, above and below) because I didn´t get so attached to the characters as I did with the other movies I listed, which left me with a deep feeling of sadness that went on for hours and perhaps a day or two. I called that being a depressing movie rather than sad.