What's the saddest film you've seen?

[paolozzi]

For me it is 'Garage'. I watched it alone one afternoon and I cried like a wimp. And for a week after, I was on the verge of crying everytime I thought about it. There is a scene where he is cocking up a cup of tea for the owner of the garage that is soul destroying in a very understated way.

Here's a trailer if anyone is interested:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvRqwgw2hpc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Serge]

Well, 'Lilya 4-Ever' which, for a while seems to be almost comically trying to pile misery upon misery on the heroine, before basically becoming the most bleak head-fucking film I've ever seen. A friend of mine watched it about 2 months ago and has been scared to watch any films since in case they upset her as much.

[Nuclear Optimism]

Schindler's List. The way some of the Jews survived etc etc.

[Icehaven]

Agree Garage is a killer. I know it's an obvious one but Withnail and I always makes me truly sad, at the end, not so much the speech but just after it, the walking off in tha rain and that music over the end credits. Just because after all the wonky camaraderie that constitutes the fun of the whole film, and you're just left with the beginning of this horrible loneliness.

[finnquark]

Oasis - South Korean film about a guy with a mild mental illness, and a woman with cerebral palsy who start a relationship. The ending in particular is stunningly sad, and incredibly beautiful too. I'd highly recommend it, a really interesting look at (South Korean) attitudes to disability and mental illness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(2002_film)

[Beep Cleep Chimney]

The Elephant Man, I reckon.

_*sniff*

[zomgmouse]

The only film I've ever cried on was My Friend Flicka; I was eight and haven't cried since.

Other sad films: I guess Bicycle Thieves/Umberto D., Pan's Labyrinth, Carrie, Au revoir les enfants.

[Steven]

Agree Garage is a killer. I know it's an obvious one but Withnail and I always makes me truly sad, at the end, not so much the speech but just after it, the walking off in tha rain and that music over the end credits. Just because after all the wonky camaraderie that constitutes the fun of the whole film, and you're just left with the beginning of this horrible loneliness.

Ah, Withnal & I is my favourite film, but I've never read the loneliness of the ending. Withnail seems one of those types who can be jovially verbose to a room of strangers, but never the life of the party as he never actually makes any emotional connection. Hence why he sells Marwood or Monty down the creek any chance he gets, he doesn't really feel anything for anybody other than as a symbiotic host or something. In that sense it's sad, but as Bruce Robinson said of Vivian McKerrel who Withnail was based on, he was very much like that, could keep a pub entertaining with any old shit as long as they would buy him a drink.

The ending is more of Marwood breaking free from the inevitable futility he's going to realise remaining with Withnail. And the original script had Withnail pouring Monty's wine down the barrel of a shotgun and having at it with Chateau le Gunpowder `66.

[Thomas]

And the original script had Withnail pouring Monty's wine down the barrel of a shotgun and having at it with Chateau le Gunpowder `66.

I haven't read it, but

Spoiler alert

that's how the original novel ends, isn't it?

[close]

[Steven]

I haven't read it, but

Spoiler alert

that's how the original novel ends, isn't it?

[close]

As far as I'm aware it was always a screenplay? Unless it was novelised afterwards?

Edit: Ah, it seems it was a novel that was never published, and Robinson was persuaded to adapt it to a screenplay, from what I can google in a few minutes.

[chocky909]

Bagpipes!

[Cohaagen]

It's either Silent Running or Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. SR sort of ends on an optimistic note but DR, uh, doesn't quite. A lot of Cronenberg's films have downbeat or ambiguous endings.

"Take good care of the forest, Dewey"

[paolozzi]

There's a few mentioned here I haven't seen that I'll definitely check out. I worked out the other day that I haven't cried in over a year, so I feel like a robot that needs my sadness levels topped up.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

No-one mentioned "Kes"yet? I last watched that film in my teens, and have refused point blank to watch it ever since. Absolutely devastating ending.

[Noodle Lizard]

I'll copy my list from my earlier, obsolete thread later, guys =(

[kidsick5000]

I'll copy my list from my earlier, obsolete thread later, guys =(

If we can turn that into a screenplay, we may have a new contender

[Noodle Lizard]

If we can turn that into a screenplay, we may have a new contender

=(

Breaking The Waves - well, it's just relentless.  Silly ending aside, it doesn't get much bleaker than this.
Lilja 4-Ever - equally relentless.
Once Upon A Time In America - as one of the best films ever made, it also qualifies high on any list of "most x film ever made".  This is no exception - some scenes are truly painful.
The Green Mile - sure it's a common choice, but it's common for a good reason.  The last half hour is perfectly-executed tearjerker material.
The 25th Hour - the final sequence never fails to give me goosebumps.
Withnail & I - seems like a strange choice, because it's also one of the funniest films I've seen, but the ending is extremely sad for me.  I suppose it's easy to relate to in one way or another.
Leaving Las Vegas - maybe another obvious choice, but as well as being one of the few films Nicolas Cage is worth watching in, it's bloody sad.
Irréversible - just plain depressing.
Dancer In The Dark - another Von Trier one.  Not one of his best, if you ask me, but there's no denying that it's relentlessly bleak (though the very ending is unintentionally quite funny).  And Bjork can actually act a bit.
The Wrestler - as far as Darren Aronofsky films go, most people would probably cite 'Requiem For A Dream' as the most depressing.  Not me.  It was far too over-the-top and sensationalistic - not a terrible film, but very overrated in many regards.  'The Wrestler', however, drew a metaphorical tear from me - maybe because of the parallels with Mickey Rourke's own career which adds a certain poignancy to it.
In Bruges - another strange choice like 'Withnail & I' in the sense that it's generally very funny, but once everything goes tits up towards the end, it gets pretty heavy.  Maybe not one of the saddest, but I wanted to include it anyway.

[Wet Blanket]

Late Spring, Edward Scissorhands and all of Don Bluth's 1980s output.

[madhair60]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

[The Masked Unit]

Barely Legal 7 made me cry.





























































Cry spunk out of my cock, that is.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I think Naked is the saddest film I've seen. Just bleak with Johnny burning another bridge, and limping off into the sunset to continue his miserable life.

Withnail & I has an unbearable ending for me. I didn't understand what University was until a couple of my closest friends pissed off for three years to have an exciting life with new friends, whilst I was stuck in my shitty town in a shitty job pushing trolleys for a living. The sense of losing friends as they become upwardly mobile to a life that you aspire to, but that you can never attain, is one of the most profoundly sad things a person can experience.

[Paaaaul]

The Secret Adventures Of Tom Thumb,as seen in my avatar,is cripplingly sad. 60 minutes of disease, greed, rejection and evil seen through the eyes of a 'slow' genetic mutant.

[Noodle Lizard]

I've heard 'Grave Of The Fireflies' is pretty hard-going.  I may give that a watch later on.

[paolozzi]

I've heard 'Grave Of The Fireflies' is pretty hard-going.  I may give that a watch later on.

Yep. It all ties up at the end and makes you feel awful. Great stuff.

[acrow]

when the wind blows is definitely up there.

[NoSleep]

Gallipoli by Peter Weir.

[Sam]

The end of Shane Meadows's Twentyfourseven. In many ways his best film, and one he's been remaking ever since.

[Revelator]

Sansho the Bailiff, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It has the force of classical tragedy and anyone who watches it on Mother's Day will be emotionally destroyed.

[Gilius Thunderhead]

when the wind blows is definitely up there.

That film is fucking hilarious! Are you joking? The ending especially. Well, it made me chuckle anyway.

[zomgmouse]

Brief Encounter, maybe?
This Sporting Life. Darling (pushing it, perhaps, but the ending was especially sad, I thought). A lot of the "British New Wave", in fact, thought I've not seen too many of the films from it.
The ending of The Third Man was fairly sad.