What other films besides this one to avoid when you're depressed?

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This one and The Age of Innocence from the same year. I didn't find it unbearably sad and when I saw it in theaters back in 93, I didn't feel sad but troubled that Mr. Stevens did not go the extra mile and tell Miss Kenton how he feel. He just couldn't express that emotion at all. Lovely film, exquisitely acted but definitely tough to watch at times.

Films are not reality. Reality is not film. Film is only an approximation of reality.

Cool Hand Luke
Blue Valentine
Leaving Las Vegas
Picnic at Hanging Rock
In The Name of The Father
All That Jazz
Sonatine
Twilight Samurai
Caché

Pretty much anything financed in Australia.

... She's fast enough for you old man

I thought it'd be a great movie to watch while depressed, to let it out vicariously through the brilliant Ms Thompson.

Kids. Well done film but I would never watch it again. Also, Days of Wine and Roses. I had to stop watching about two-thirds through and go back to it another day, it was making me so depressed.

And, as someone else just mentioned, Leaving Las Vegas.

Whistle Down the Wind is fairly intense.

Never Let Me Go is another one. It seems as though all of Ishiguro's stories are DEPRESSING.

And I agree. ROTD is brutal. I tend to judge works of art based on whether I would watch/read them more than once. And frankly, few books or movies that are so punishingly negative will I put myself through that. 1984 is one. Some Kafka.

Lenny Bruce had a famous line about why he appreciated great church cathedrals so much: "The average guy lives in a *beep* house... he doesn't want to pray in one."

And that's how I feel about movies... if I want pain and suffering? I don't have to pay $10 for -that-. I can just stay home. :D

Besides K.I.'s stuff, I have wanted to re-watch The English Patient for a while, but I really do fear the ending.


Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement... Listen, kid, we're all in it together.

Off the top of my head, these are the ones that make me want to slit my wrist when I'm done watching them:

* Sophie's Choice (1982) (this is like the ultimate no-no to watch when depressed)
* Black Beauty (1994) (nothing good ever happens to that horse)
* Leaving Las Vegas (1995) (this one though isn't really an art film)
* Howards End (1992) (just depressing)

On the other end of the spectrum, when depressed, you simply must see Enchanted April (1991) and/or The Secret Garden (1993) (a children's story, but great for adults too) for a happy lift.

Random Thoughts: http://goo.gl/eXk3O