|
|
Post by mortsahlfan on Sept 16, 2021 16:28:47 GMT
I'm going to focus on movies pre-1980... If you Google "IMDB lists (whatever you're looking for)" you not only get multiple lists, but you can then filter certain things, like movies you saw, which is an easy way to pull up movies you've rated, especially on those lists with hundreds or even thousands of movies. You can also find out where they're playing, like the "Prime" filter check-box.. I like to put the movies out chronologically, because I like to see how the movie industry dealt with mental illness from the beginning, and see how it progresses. It can also be helpful to arrange the results by user ratings (and then "Movies I Haven't NOT Seen") if you're looking for something you never saw, and want to go with the probabilities. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and "A Woman Under The Influence" are in my Top 10 all-time, but I highly recommend the latter because it's different. John Cassavetes' movies always featured people, inside-and-out, but he doesn't spoon-feed. I like a director who respects the audience, and doesn't dumb things down, or the typical, "I'll give them what they want" -- how condescending. And it's on YouTube! www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUNRbcVCqt0The Swimmer (1968) -- Never saw a movie like this! I think I saw it three times in two days. You can purchase it from YouTube, but it might be on Comcast. I'll paste the trailer www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgXRCGSabYThe Happy Ending - 10/10 There's a little "lull" somewhere, but it makes sense when you're finished, because it's mostly about depression. I don't wanna say too much in case you or anyone else watches it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3IBSS76Pzs-Sult (one of the most unique movies centered around a poor writer with problems that aren't very defined. I'm sure you'd come to certain conclusions, but I don't wanna spoil anything www.youtube.com/watch?v=USZrGQTm6iU"A Child Is Waiting" - 10/10 (centered around children.. definitely pulls on the heart strings. Judy Garland is great, I just got chills as I typed this!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwBPOiA7X84"The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is also in my Top 10 all-time, but it's a movie about a lot of things. Every universal theme is expressed in a very simple story. Even when I go online to look it up, it's listed under so many different genres, accurately. "Taxi Driver" is another one. "A Streetcar Named Desire" Ingrid Bergman's movies usually center around characters and mental illness. Aki Kaurismaki's characters suffer depression, but the movies are comedy-dramas. Very minimalist, centered around everyday stuff -- work, relationships, disappointments. Especially the movies starring Matti Pellonpaa who unfortunately died at 45.
|
|
|
|
Post by Catman on Sept 16, 2021 16:31:46 GMT
How about The Snake Pit?
|
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Sept 16, 2021 17:11:17 GMT
The ShrikeJosé Ferrer directs and stars as a failing theater director driven into a mental hospital by his passive-aggressive wife, a cast-against-type June Allyson. 
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 16, 2021 17:46:03 GMT
Jose Ferrer seemingly had an interest in mental health themes. In addition to the Shrike ( who thought of making cuddly little June Allyson the passive aggressive wife ? ) there’s Whirlpool with Gene Teirney as a kleptomaniac in treatment with Ferrer , another manipulative shrink. Then there’s the Caine Mutiny with Bogart a commander with PTSD descending into paranoia. Ferrer plays the defense lawyer who hammers him, though he has respect and sympathy for him.
Sherlock’s Holmes Faces Death has Watson in a convalescent home for soldiers with PTSD. Two of my favorite british bit players, Gerald Hamer and Vernon Downing , appear as soldiers who are afraid of noises and spy on everything and everyone in the house. Watson, as a general practice doctor appears to be the only support they are given to get over their trauma.
In Love Letters Joseph Cotten plays a soldier convalescing from physical wounds but it is clear he is suffering emotional damage and inability to connect. His attraction to the girl with a made up past and a lonely cottage are his cure. Again no shrink.
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 16, 2021 18:27:33 GMT
Hitchcock’s Spellbound is about a dysfunctional mental health facility. It features several patients and 4 psychiatrists, plus some wonderful depictions of mental delusions.
Now Voyager is about a woman in neurotic free fall , thanks to her abusive mother, and her treatment by a caring doctor. Claude Rains the doctor spends most of his lines classifying his treatment as not psychiatry ,but help for those who have wandered off the path, and his facility , Cascades as a place where people go to rest. Today the first step in treatment is to recognize that you have an actual problem with a name. This relieves anxiety and guilt and allows treatment to go forward. In Now Voyagers, patients seem to find comfort in the idea that there is nothing much wrong.
Tender is the Night , though badly cast in my view, is an interesting representation of a playboy psychiatrist and his mentally ill wife. It’s the first film I can recall where the father’s sexual imposition on a daughter is discussed on screen as the cause of the mental illness. It came out at the same time as BUTTERFIELD 8 and Marnie, both of which featured early sex abuse, though not by the father. For fans of Fitzgerald it is interesting that Fitzgerald cast himself as his wife’s psychiatrist, when it is all too likely that his control and suppression, and their hectic life added to her illness. It’s interesting too that Tender is the Night ends with Dick a pretty hopeless alcoholic and Nicole more or less recovered and with another man.
|
|
|
|
Post by london777 on Sept 16, 2021 18:34:18 GMT
ki Kaurismaki's characters suffer depression, but the movies are comedy-dramas. Very minimalist, centered around everyday stuff -- work, relationships, disappointments. Especially the movies starring Matti Pellonpaa who unfortunately died at 45.
I don't remember any Kaurismäki movies where a character is clinically depressed. They are Finns. That is how Finns are all the time. I used to live there. If someone is depressed because of real problems such as debt, relationship break-up, death of friends or loved-ones, that is not a mental illness. In such cases they would be mentally ill (or at least, rather odd) if they were not depressed. Great to see you giving Kaurismäki a plug, though. He is not talked about enough on this board. And in case anyone might be put off by your characterization of his films, I would advise that they are warmly humane, life-affirming, and often wryly comic.
|
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Sept 16, 2021 19:29:57 GMT
I recently got around to seeing The Three Faces Of Eve for the first time.  Joanne Woodward, as passive, dowdy Eve White, is unable to account for memory gaps and consults compassionate but all-business psychiatrist Lee J. Cobb, who uncovers two additional personalities: brazenly flirty Eve Black, and quiet but seemingly well-adjusted Jane. At home, concerned but impatient and simple-minded husband David Wayne is no help at all. But when recall of a long-buried childhood trauma is recovered, her condition clears up in short order, and she's free to begin rebuilding her life. Only days later, I stumbled upon Lizzie, a film of which I hadn't known, and which was released nearly six months prior to Eve in 1957.  Eleanor Parker, as passive, dowdy Elizabeth, is unable to account for memory gaps and consults compassionate but all-business psychiatrist Richard Boone, who uncovers two additional personalities: brazenly flirty Lizzie, and quiet but seemingly well-adjusted Beth. At home, concerned but alcoholic and self-indulgent aunt Joan Blondell is no help at all. But when recall of a long-buried childhood trauma is recovered, her condition clears up in short order, and she's free to begin rebuilding her life. After some consideration, I've satisfied myself that the independently-produced Lizzie is a more compelling piece than the big-studio, 20th-Fox Eve, and it displayed the best work by far up to that point in her career that I'd seen from Parker, who'd never much moved me during the first decades of her film appearances. And it was interesting to compare both the similarities and differences of the two. |
|
|
|
Post by timshelboy on Sept 16, 2021 19:56:17 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 16, 2021 21:01:42 GMT
Suddenly Last summer is a terrific entry in the Psychiatrist as hider of family disorders.in this case Montgomery Clift , as tge shrink , is resisting all efforts by the family, represented by Katharine Hepburn, to erase Elizabeth Taylor and her memories before she can tell what she knows about the death of Hepburn’s fragile poet son,Sebastian. First I always think Clift would have been perfect as Sebastian, who never appears on screen. It always muddles my thoughts about this film. Second I wonder if the story of Rosemary Kennedy was known when this was made. Both Williams sister Rose, and Rosemary Kennedy suffered a lobotomy as treatment for mental illness. Kennedy biographers have suggested that the lobotomy was an attractive choice of treatment because it promised that Rosemary would become docile and not create disruptions.
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 16, 2021 21:09:35 GMT
DAVID and Lisa - haven’t seen it but it was a hallmark teen drama for my generation, love between two fragile teens in a mental 8nstitution
Marat Sade. - a play about the murder of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday produced in a sanatorium by inmate Marquis de Sade. Wonderful piece of theater.
Dracula starring Frank Langella is set in an insane asylum where Lucy’s father was the chief physician.
The Pumpkin eater is built around the mental health of Ann Bancroft
Amadeus - Salieri is ending his life in an asylum
|
|
lune7000
Junior Member
@lune7000
Posts: 1,091
Likes: 678
|
Post by lune7000 on Sept 17, 2021 1:20:15 GMT
Suddenly Last summer is a terrific entry in the Psychiatrist as hider of family disorders.in this case Montgomery Clift , as tge shrink , is resisting all efforts by the family, represented by Katharine Hepburn, to erase Elizabeth Taylor and her memories before she can tell what she knows about the death of Hepburn’s fragile poet son,Sebastian. First I always think Clift would have been perfect as Sebastian, who never appears on screen. It always muddles my thoughts about this film. Second I wonder if the story of Rosemary Kennedy was known when this was made. Both Williams sister Rose, and Rosemary Kennedy suffered a lobotomy as treatment for mental illness. Kennedy biographers have suggested that the lobotomy was an attractive choice of treatment because it promised that Rosemary would become docile and not create disruptions. That is a movie that has one big mistake in it IMO. Liz Taylor is said to be used as bait for young men at the beach- which is completely realistic. But she was a recent replacement for Hepburn who performed the same role for her son- not very convincing. Hepburn was a bit old by then and even when she was in her prime she looked like a bag of bones (swimsuit scene in The Philadelphia Story). I can't see her attracting many teen boys.
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 17, 2021 1:35:17 GMT
Mom drew the boys with money I always assumed. It was all more controlled and did not tear loose all the boundaries
With mom at home Elizabeth was more alluring and excited more violent reactions, and Sebastian was giving in to more violent temptations.
That’s my take anyway.
|
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 17, 2021 2:26:00 GMT
Two "Great" European films both portray central to their story a mentally challenged character the ostracized "village idiot" ... Biće skoro propast sveta , It Rains in My Village (1968) Yugoslavia Dir. Aleksandar Petrović. The contemporary story unfolds in a remote peasant village in communist ruled Yugoslavia. Eva Ras gives a compelling heart-braking performance as Gotza, a childlike whimsical "village idiot" whom a handsome pig farmer, Tricha, is tricked into marrying...  Atunci i-am condamnat pe toţi la moarte , Then I Sentenced Them All to Death (1972) Romania Dir. Sergiu Nicolaescu Amza Pellea gives an outstanding performance in this powerful drama as Ipu, the village idiot. He spends his time with a young boy fishing and play acting out the French Revolution in the local ruins. Set during World War II their carefree lifestyle is turned upside down when a German soldier is found murdered on the outskirts of their Romanian village. The German superiors threaten the villagers that unless the perpetrator is handed over by the following morning they will all face serious reprisals. In order to avoid this, the village intellectuals try to convince Ipu to take the blame for the murder and save them all...   |
|
|
|
Post by kijii on Sept 17, 2021 2:54:01 GMT
Equus (1977) / Sidney Lumet based on a play by Peter Shaffer
This movie just blows me away!! I have seen the movie several times and also seen the play on stage. The story seems impossible, yet when I think about it, it is possible for an over-protected only child, raised by an overly religious mother.
The story has two dimensions, at least, viewing both the trouble with the boy and the psychiatrist who is investigating the roots of the boy's obsession.
While thinking about this movie, I started to think about..
Agnes of God (1985) / Norman Jewison.
Here is yet another strange story that plays like a detective novel. Starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly in the title role.
|
|
|
|
Post by bravomailer on Sept 17, 2021 2:54:23 GMT
Though I’ve not seen it, Sybil (1976) is a highly regarded TV movie that brought considerable respect for Sally Field.
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 17, 2021 3:53:33 GMT
Though I’ve not seen it, Sybil (1976) is a highly regarded TV movie that brought considerable respect for Sally Field. Astonishingl performance by Field. An important first step away from the Flying Nun
|
|
|
|
Post by mortsahlfan on Sept 17, 2021 13:59:05 GMT
I forgot to list "David And Lisa" (same guy who directed "The Swimmer" and "Ladybug, Ladybug")
|
|
|
|
Post by london777 on Sept 17, 2021 17:24:33 GMT
This a rather gushing piece about Amélie (original title: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) (2001) directed and co-written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet on its twentieth anniversary: BBC website article about AmélieI like the film, but not in the same way this reviewer does. I think it best makes sense as a study of a young woman with psychological problems arising from her childhood. I would not find such a person charming in real life, but rather annoying and infuriating if exposed to her too much. The garish photography, quaint settings and quirky characters remind me of Wes Anderson films, though Amélie is not as 'camp'. |
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Sept 17, 2021 23:33:06 GMT
Johnny Barrett's escalating mental decline among the inmates of Shock Corridor (1963) leads to a harrowing diagnosis...  |
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Sept 18, 2021 0:10:59 GMT
Did we mention Psycho?
Mental illness in film before 1980 seemed to concentrate on certain colorful illnesses. Multiple personality, kleptomania, easy to film and full of dramatic possibilities. Deep depression and melancholia, Catatonia, are all useful plot devises as ways to move someone out of the story, but not very interesting to film. Amnesia is also a nice way to sideline a character, but has many dramatic possibilities as the amnesiac re enters his/her life, or starts to regain the lost memories. Mania is interesting, but hard to make part of a story , as it is so disruptive .
|
|
