What's the saddest film you've seen?

[Noodle Lizard]

Actually, y'know what?  I'm going for it.  I'm gonna do it.

Les Miserables.  Not by the end, but at various points throughout.  Well, two.  And even then, they're not sad, sad, just powerful.  I gu

Oh sod it.

[Revelator]

Ah, but which version of Les Miserables? There are 14,649,002 of them. Some are even in French. My favorite is the one for which Victor Hugo rose from the dead and traveled forward in time to direct.

[Noodle Lizard]

Ah, but which version of Les Miserables? There are 14,649,002 of them. Some are even in French. My favorite is the one for which Victor Hugo rose from the dead and traveled forward in time to direct.

The newest one.  I haven't seen any other film adaptations (might give the non-musical one a whirl).

[Doomy Dwyer]

I've written about this before, but I found 'Brokeback Mountain' exceptionally harrowing, and not just because I am a massive and notorious wranglerphobe. It was about halfway through when I started getting intense headaches and watery eyes. The final bit where the Heath Ledger starts fondling Jake Gyllenhaal's stolen shirt was all I could take and I flat busted out crying fit to beat Jesus slap bang in the middle of the cinema. Then Willie Nelson pies up singing 'He Was A Friend of Mine' and I started wailing and howling and muttering "You fucking cunts" over and over again at the injustice and the skillful manipulation of the whole darned thing. It was a great film, as I remember it.
     

[Harpo Speaks]

I started wailing and howling and muttering "You fucking cunts" over and over again at the injustice and the skillful manipulation of the whole darned thing.   

It made you Ang Lee.

[Brundle-Fly]

Another obvious choice but Cinema Paradiso. I've never seen the directors cut with the whole middle act reinstalled but have been told it might compromise my fondness of the original. That final scene made me an emotional mess for the rest of the day. I think Morricone's exquisite score plays a large part in that.
A mate's Italian wife loathed the film remarking it was a chocolate box version of rustic Italians that the Brits and Americans love to lap up. The italian equivalent of the Richard Curtis effect ?
Well, screwwww her, I love it.

[sirhenry]

I'm surprised that They Shoot Horses, Don't They? hasn't been mentioned. Sydney Pollack's best film by far, it is beautifully, hopelessly, relentlessly depressing. If you need to have a good cry, this is the one for you.

Spoiler alert

_{And if you find yourself considering that Pop Idol is just the latest equivalent it's even more depressing.}

[close]

[sirhenry]

And Toys.[nb]It's that song that does it[/nb]

[Ginyard]

Sophie's Choice.

But for endings its Blackadder IV, which, although not a film, I find sadder than anything else.

[Cerys]

Yup.  Just describing it to someone has been known to make me blub.

[Noodle Lizard]

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

Saw it.  Dry eyes, I'm afraid.  It was fine, but nothing that'll stick with me.

[Noodle Lizard]

Oh, you can have this one for free - The Road.  It's all very bleak, and with all these post-apocalypse films I can't help but think "IT'S OVER, JUST KILL YOURSELVES FOR FUCK'S SAKE", but the ending is particularly sad.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Good to see Brief Encounter being nominated. I don't think the notion of social conditioning and a constructed sense of moral righteousness as being the anatagonistic force to a relationship has ever been explored more profoundly.

Love does not conquer all, is the message. Very brave.

[Sam]

Another obvious choice but Cinema Paradiso. I've never seen the directors cut with the whole middle act reinstalled but have been told it might compromise my fondness of the original. That final scene made me an emotional mess for the rest of the day. I think Morricone's exquisite score plays a large part in that.

I love the film, and that scene in particular, which makes me cry. I wouldn't say it's sad though, more joyously bittersweet. Interestingly the music in that scene is Andrea Morricone, Ennio's son.

[Gulftastic]

The Depardieu 'Cyrano De Bergerac' made my eyes leak something awful. I had to watch the credits to compose myself before the house lights came fully up.

[biggytitbo]

When the wind blows always cuts me up, even if it is a bit manipulative.

[Smeraldina Rima]

The Fly is the saddest film I've ever seen but Monsieur Hire, Chungking Express and Crumb register 9/10 tears of sadness.

[QDRPHNC]

Oh, you can have this one for free - The Road.  It's all very bleak, and with all these post-apocalypse films I can't help but think "IT'S OVER, JUST KILL YOURSELVES FOR FUCK'S SAKE", but the ending is particularly sad.

I read the book, couldn't bring myself to watch the film.

[chocky909]

Did anyone say Dancer In The Dark yet. It's a musical about injustice and the death penalty.

[Noodle Lizard]

Did anyone say Dancer In The Dark yet. It's a musical about injustice and the death penalty.

I did.  It's like 'Breaking The Waves' and 'Dogma' in that it's a few hours of an innocent woman being relentlessly fucked with (I think they're meant to form some kind of trilogy).  It almost comes off as a parody of depressing films because it's so unbelievably bleak, and I do have to admit to finding the very ending (presumably) unintentionally hilarious, but it deserves its place here for sure.

Plus you get to see Peter Stormare having a sing-song.

[acrow]

i think you mean dogville.

[sirhenry]

i think you mean dogville.

I don't know, if the 'innocent woman' is God, then that's a fascinatingly different interpretation of Dogma. I'd certainly never seen it that way before, it may be due a revisit.

[Hangthebuggers]

The Elephant man. The ending always pulls a wee string in my heart.

[Noodle Lizard]

i think you mean dogville.

Oh my days, I wrote 'Dogma'.  How embarrassing.

Yes, I meant 'Dogville'.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Kes. The ending, certainly. God, but his brother was a CUNT.

(The protagonist's brother, not Kes's. I'm sure that Kes's bro was lovely.)

[zomgmouse]

Good to see Brief Encounter being nominated. I don't think the notion of social conditioning and a constructed sense of moral righteousness as being the anatagonistic force to a relationship has ever been explored more profoundly.

Love does not conquer all, is the message. Very brave.

It's almost a film about how adultery is a good thing.
And also, it's interesting just how bland, when you look at it, their adultery really is - that even this breaking of the social convention of marriage is itself extremely conventional.

Also thought of another: L'Illusioniste (the animated one based on Tati). Boy that was depressing.
And there's a documentary about Orson Welles' unfinished projects called Orson Welles: The One-Man Band (the title is in reference to an unfinished short film/TV pilot thing that Welles did called One Man Band that was essentially a type of sketch film, featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor and Jonathan Lynn (I know, right?), parts of which are shown in the documentary, including one sketch about two tailors rudely fitting up Welles which really reminded me of the "Suit You" sketches in The Fast Show) which for me was pretty damn sad, just to see one person's enormous vision talent crushed by the system. I initially saw the documentary on Disc 2 of Criterion's release of F for Fake but later found it here.

[wheatgod]

Elephant Man and Brokeback, both good shouts.

Amour is extremely sad. There's the nice bits about it being a loving relationship, but this is overwhelmed by the gutting heat breaking nature of it all, and the inevitability of decay and death. I hope it does well at the Oscars.

[Junglist]

Riva, at the very least, should get best actress.

[wheatgod]

In a different way - tying in with the Die Hard and Cunt Phenomenon threads - watching the likes of Taken 2 and Die Hard 4.0 is a pretty sad movie going experience. Lacking in what made the originals special, toned down to 12A, the worst in $ interfering with art. Soul destroying.

[finnquark]

The Fly is the saddest film I've ever seen but Monsieur Hire, Chungking Express and Crumb register 9/10 tears of sadness.

Really? This is in my top 5 films, and I've never felt particularly sad about it. What do you find so upsetting? Is it the ending of the second story, which I always interpret as a happy ending, but maybe could be read another way?