Taking recommendations for excruciatingly sad & artistic movies
(5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)
Loading...Hello everyone,
Christmas comes and, with Christmas, comes the obligation to sometimes offer gifts to persons to whom you have to show consideration even if you don’t like them.
In this regard, I’d like to ask you guys : would you have recommendations for artistic excruciatingly sad movies ?
Like the Grave Of The Fireflies, but not in anime. You know, the kind of movie, when you see it you realize you’ve seen a work of art, but on top of all, you want to die, or at least return to bed and bury yourself under a dozen blankets until the month ends.
Thanks if you have an idea about it that you can share in a comment, I need inspiration ! 
some that i can think of
Memoirs of a Geisha : pretty sad the whole way through
Legend of the Fall: kinda sad too but good
Basic Instinct 2: sad because that movie sucked (wasted 2 hours on the promise of titties and the titties were not good. I'll just stick to 2d)
Hum, well, you can try "the red violin" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Violin ), if you don't know it yet…
Since there's some anime-element here, I'd recommend Death Note; L, Change the WorLd.
In my opinion it's got a fairly sad postmodern ending, don't know if it matches up to your emo-taste ;]
Babel
Yeah, Babel is a good one!
I tend to try and forget that kind of movie. I would have immediately recommended Grave of the Fireflies, but obviously you already are aware of that one.
I must say, either this person has an interesting taste in movies, or you REALLY do not like them.
In conclusion: Sorry, but I can't help on this request.
Requiem for a Dream
also http://www.avclub.com/articles/not-again-24-great…
That was one screwed-up movie. In a good way
Yeah, that's about the saddest movie possible, I think.
Wow, I'm surprised how shitty this list is, let's get some REALLY good movies in here:
Johnny's got his gun
Requiem for a Dream (already posted)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Color Purple
The Deer Hunter
Ordinary People (holy shit, one of the saddest, most beautiful, and depressing movies ever)
Schindler's List (very sad and beautiful in it's own way, one of the best movies of all time, if not the best)
How Green was my Valley
The Best Years of our Lives (holy shit beautifully depressing)
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Pianist
there are a lot more too, but these are some big name titles, I assume you've seen, oh and of course you've seen It's a Wonderful Life, but if not, that's number 1 man, number 1
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou) is awesome. The most depressing movie I saw since The Grave Of The Fireflies
Western Front is a classic. There are two versions though. And the book is waaay better than both of them
The Pianist! it's a kick in the ball and you will thank that!
Two pop to mind:
1) Baraka – The arc of human history illustrated by the religeous and spiritual expression of our species. It's beautifully shot, with the narrative arc of images well supported by the soundtrack. The movie is an indelible record of our aspirations and failings.
2) Curse of the Golden Flower – The inexorable tragedy of the ending will stay with you for weeks.
Go with Curse of the Golden Flower for sure!
I mean it's by Jay Chou, how can it not be good lol.
Also, try "The Secret That Cannot Be Told" also by Jay Chou, aka just "Secret".
"What Dreams May Come"…Won Oscar… http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/ and "The Joy Luck Club" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/ are two movies that really got me when i first saw them. Lots of emotion in the two, and if you want art… What Dreams May Come will please you for sure.
Precious
Old Boy (Highly Recommend)
The Green Mile
Requiem for a Dream
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
Monster's Ball
Brian's Song
8mm
Children of Men
No particular order
I thought that "Mrs. Vengeance" was sadder than Oldboy
La vita è bella
Ditto. It'll make you laugh too… but that makes you cry harder
"What Dreams May Come"…Won Oscar… http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/ and "The Joy Luck Club" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107282/ are two movies that really got me when i first saw them. Lots of emotion in the two, and if you want art… What Dreams May Come will please you for sure.
Foreign Films:
10 Promises To My Dog (Japanese)
The Way Home (Korean)
Magnifico (Philippines)
American Films:
A Walk to Remember
Gran Torino (gives you that epic feeling)
Remember the Titans
Titanic
The Namesake
Bridge to Terabithia
The Cure
My Girl
Any Uwe Boll film will make you want to put a gun in your mouth…
Seriously though, these are my recomendations
Lord of the flies
Blue – from the Three colors thrilogy
The house of the flying knives – (everyone in love dies)
Hero – (sad, yet inspiring)
Soilent green – (apocalyptic)
Pan's Labyrinth
Amores perros (They preserved the spanish title for the american market)
Requiem for a dream – warning, this is not for the queasy, but its a great movie
I know many more but these are the ones that came quick to mind.
Oh, oh!! I forgot 2 great ones.
Cinema Paradiso… Beautiful, it brings you from joys to tears to sadness
Il Postino (the postman of Neruda, I believe is the english title), sad too
I am Sam, anoying sad movie.
I've seen this Will Smith movie, with his son, where he loses all the money, and i was dloading porn so i cant remember the name
A la recherche du bonheur… mais ça fini bien, trop bien pour compter dans cette liste, super film en fait !
I would recommend "Wit" though I dunno how easy it is to find. If you were looking at anime series, then Witchblade is a good one to make you feel like shit by the series end.
Cosigned on Wit. It is easily the most emotionally devastating fictional motion picture I have ever seen. Emma Thompson's performance is flawless from beginning to end, and the ending will leave you a wreck. The first time I saw this movie, I was so completely unprepared for what it did to me that I had to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation immediately afterwards just to get myself back on a stable emotional keel. And this was in July.
A close second, by the way, is the final episode of the first series of Gunslinger Girl, but that's an anime series.
Empire of the Sun
Tideland
* In the Mood for Love – the most grown-up love story. Words can't describe how good this is.
* Raise the Red Lantern – like Curse of the Golden Flower (same director – Zhang Yimou), but its tragedy cuts cleaner because the photography is so minimalist.
* Just Run (¿Tú qué harías por amor? is the original title)
Gonna add “Bucket List” and it was mentioned earlier; “Pursuit of Happiness” both have that feelgood elements in them. Bucket list would be the sadder of the two.
The only movie that I can think that is sad and somewhat artistic is "Let the Right One In", not the LAME American remake. The foreign version is better, I suggest hearing the Swedish audio and reading the English subtitles. The movie was highly praised. here is a link
[http://www.dvdempire.com/exec/v4_item.asp?partner_id=10007594&item_id=1447494&utm_source=google&utm_medium=portal&utm_campaign=de_free]
If you do decide to check it out, get the one with the Theatrical Subtitles.
The Notebook
Now the link works
http://www.dvdempire.com/exec/v4_item.asp?partner…
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9qs6k/…
Browse through this list. Honestly. 10x more people giving good replies.
Personal Suggestion:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The Fountain
Enjoy
Salton Sea
The Last Samurai
Crouching Tiger hidden dragon is fantastic and sad.
Children of Men the film is dark and very sad.
It's a mini series not a movie, but Generation Kill will pull your heart strings
Wow, a fair number of the movies mentioned above are really not that sad. Geisha, Pursuit of Happyness, Bucket List, Crouching Tiger, and a bunch more are not nearly on the level of Grave of the Fireflies.
For crushing despair:
Memento (2000 Christopher Nolan) <– the mystery/detective element may reduce your sadness quotient
Happiness (1998 Todd Solondz)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995 Todd Solondz)
Dancer in the Dark (2000 Lars Von Trier) <— warning, shot with a handheld, you need to be resistant to motion sickness
Oh, the 1997 version of Lolita with Jeremy Irons is pretty sad as well.
What wrong with anime films?
Look up the name "Makoto Sinkai"
Pick 1 of his 3 movies. Any movie, just pick one. Prepare some Kleenex.
Off the top of my head….
Ild say Big Fish
The elephant man.
"Antichrist" is pretty brilliant it stars charlotte gainsbourg and willem defoe. it's about a therapist and his bat shit crazy wife/patient taking a vacation in the woods and she freaks out and there's all sorts of pagan shit and spiritual death/rebirth shit going on. pretty sweet.
They’ve been said, but if you see the same stuff multiple times in the comments, it’s sure to have an effect.
Schindler’s List
Requiem for a Dream
These two movies leaped to the forefront of my mind after reading the post.
Try 'ong bak 2' ! entendons-nous bien : quand je regarde un film de "karaté" j'attends que les méchants soient punis, à la fin ! bordel de merde ! ce film m'a énervé au plus haut point !
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
( a guy wakes up in a hospital only to find out that he can neither move his entire body nor speak and his only means of communication is the blink of his eye )
others movies already mentioned
Schindler's List
The Pianist (both movies set during the holocaust in ww2)
and also
Requiem for a Dream
call me mad, but the pianist (after he loses his family) is a very dark humor movie for me….
The Road
A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible
Oh dear Lord, The Road…
Just… The Road…
This is the movie i am going to watch before i commit suicide.
Wow that's a lot of movies for you Oliv. Half of them don't count in my book as artistic, but after all, artistry is subjective.
So I'll drop my 2 cents trying not to repeat some previous good suggestions.
Chunking Express (and pretty much any Wong Kar Wai movie, enjoyed everything I've seen so far)
2046 (Wong Kar Wai also)
Amores Perros (that was gut wrenching)
21 Grams (same director as Amores)
I think movies by Kim Ki Duk (korean) are really good, sad and definitely artistic but they are very peculiar.
And go for some French cinema
Irreversible (I was literally in pain after it. Beware though it is NC-17)
I agree with Irreversible.. Although it maybe even too much. You will feel depressed for atleast a week. You will still feel it's a good movie but regret that you have seen it.
I recommend some czech movies. They're known to be like that
http://sueczech.wordpress.com/2007/03/17/really-g…
I would say:
Stay
Vanilla Sky(not really artsy, a remake, but still thought provoking and sad)
Magnolia
Seven
Tideland(Terry Gilliam is awesome)
The Chaser
Vivre d'Akira Kurosawa, le réalisateur de Kagemusha. Il considère Vvire comme son chef-d'œuvre. D'ailleurs, si tu as suivi toute l'histoire pour la mort de Satoshi Kon, l'histoire est à mettre en parallèle.
I recommend any of these, they're very beautiful and all very sad. Some of them I've only watched once because even though it was good it was just too depressing. I don't think any of them really have a happy ending but they're all so good in my opinion:
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
Rashomon (1950)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Onibaba (1964)
Solaris (1972)
Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Not One Less (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
Water (2005) (depressing Indian movie about widows)
Lust, Caution (2007) (this has some pretty graphic sex/violent scenes in it though)
Kaidan (2007)
La Vie en Rose/La Mome (2007)
All about Lily Chou-Chou directed by Shunji Iwai. His masterpiece.
Well, someone post Solaris, In fact, everithing by Andrei Tarkosvsky will fill your demands.
"The Green Mile" (1999) – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/
"Million Dollar Baby" (2004) – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405159/
"Gladiator " (2000) – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/
"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (2001) – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173840/
Elfen Lied for an anime but the manga wrapped it up alot nicer.
Hachiko. It might be super artistic, but the entire film is sad.
"A.I" of Kubrick/spielberg…damn that movie "almost" make me cry…
"savior" (w/ dennis Quaid)of the war in the former Yugoslavia.
"million dollar baby", "Boys don't cry", "Dark Blue Wold"
these are my top of mind right now.
Dunno about artistic but Lilya 4-ever is one of the best and most sad movies I have seen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilya_4-ever
I typically avoid those types of movies, but here:
Chunking Express
Last Samurai
Paths of Glory (possibly one of the saddest endings ever, its a slow painful sadness)
Lord of the Rings [no, I'm not joking. There is a lot of sadness in those movies. The death of Gandalf, Frodo leaving Sam behind, Leaving for Valinor…]
We Were Soldiers (very sad, the reality is terrifying).
Oh, before I forget, another brilliant movie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Security_Area_…
This one made me cry rather unexpectedly.
Anything by Ingmar Bergman. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who find Bergman boring and those who don't. Even the ones that enjoy Bergman admit his movies are depressing as hell.
Damn, one of my teachers in college defined him as "the saddest man of all 20th century"…