What are your best complete downer movies

[avatar! | 1,819]

Pretty much anything by Ingmar Bergman. His films are pure art and absolutely amazing, but you absolutely  need to be in the right mindset to watch them. His most famous film is The Seventh Seal which is one of the world's greatest films, but most anything by him is magic - magic in a beautiful, nihilistic, and provocative way.

 

[Sumez | 2,967]

For some reason, Scandinavians are really good at making these kinds of movies. I'm from the country that spawned both Lars Von Trier and Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, The Neon Demon, Pusher), so I'm sure you'll believe me.

So here are some solid recommendations that might not be too famous outside of Europe. All of these are available with english subs, though I couldn't find English trailers for any outside of third one. I hope they still manage to purvey the atmosphere of the movies.

The Art of Crying

Actually a pretty heartwarming movie, but the conditions surrounding the story are incredibly horrible. It's essentially about a rural Danish family in the 70s suffering from an abusive and suicidal father, and it's the kind of movie that manages to turn awful situations into comedy, making you feel awful for laughing at it. It's incredibly well structured and one of my favourite movies of all time.

 

Lilja 4-Ever

One of the more famous Swedish movies, though most of it is in Russian. About a 16 year old girl from the USSR who is forced into prostitution.
This is one movie that never fails to make me cry.

 

The Celebration

 

The first big hit from Thomas Vinterberg who has more recently achieved a tiny bit of international fame through movies like Another Round, The Hunt and Submarino.
This is one of the original Dogma movies, a concept invented by Lars Von Trier in the mid 90s which sets up a bunch of very strict rules for how the movie can be produced, giving it a very raw lo-fi atmosphere. Handheld camera, only natural lighting, etc. It's hard to say what the movie is actually about without spoiling the whole thing, but let's just say it deals with supressed childhood trauma.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Sumez

[mbd39 | 2,025]

Speaking of Lars Von Trier, did he ever make a movie that isn't a total downer?

 

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

8 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Speaking of Lars Von Trier, did he ever make a movie that isn't a total downer?

 

In Dogville a bunch of bad people die and the dog lives at the end. It's a feel good movie!

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

But for real someone should send LVT help.

Help in terms of financing to make more of the most depressing, self-indulgent movies of all time baby!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,548]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Jacob's Ladder is an amazing movie, and I'm pretty sure Darren Aronofsky had nothing to do with it.

A safe bet considering Pi was his first movie, made years later.  JL was Adrian something or other.

@mbd39 And Antichrist was a feel good film, right? *insert bloody discharge scene*