Just when you thought cinema is all about escapism. To divert ourselves from the humdrum and trivialities of life by checking out the latest flights and fancies of Pixar film and emerge with wings on our heels and grins as wide as a continent. Cinema is, indeed, a playground of ecstasy and rapturous pleasure, from Gene Kelly’s tap-dancing in the rain to Julie Andrews’ running atop hills in sheer delight. But once in a while, a film arrives to douse all the lights and splash our grinning faces with a bucket-load of freezing cold water, waking us up to the shock of reality.
Enlisted here are films which serve as cinematic treatises to the harsh side of life, that human existence is really futile and that the world is really a ruthless place to live in. These are films which are inherently bleak that you won’t be able to smile for days (or weeks), and no – I’m not talking about High School Musical or Twilight rubbish here (although it makes anyone with an inch of a brain and preferably past adolescence depressed enough watching them) or mere shameless tear-jerkers like Titanic. No. I’m talking about human tragedy of Sisyphean proportions here. Films that expose the incontrovertible frailties of man, the darkness of the human soul and the pointlessness of mankind’s toil. Because nothing lasts and every one does not really live happy ever after, as we’ve all been told.
So stay away from sharp, pointed objects, ropes and chemical weapons if you haven’t seen these. And since Christmas is almost here, if you think you’ve had excessive cheer, pretentious crackers and too much turkey and feel the need to be slapped back to Earth – these are the perfect antidotes to give you the reality check. If otherwise gloomy, watch these and you’d think your life is not the worst case scenario. Honestly.
#10 – 21 GRAMS [2003]Three interlinked stories. Three humans seeking redemption – but barely gets any. Sean Penn’s character faces mortality with his heart-transplant, Benicio del Toro’s ex-convict discovers faith from being a drug-addict and alcoholic, and Naomi Watt’s mother suffers grief and returns to drug relief. This is Alejandro Gonzales-Innaritu’s dissertation on misery, mortality and the worthlessness of the human body. He claims that death has the equivalent of 21 grams, the weight of our entire lives lost.
#9 – SOPHIE’S CHOICE [1982]Meryl Streep’s Polish woman is ridden with a past torment, a horrible choice she had to make, that even when she tries to live in a present America, her past overshadows every relationship she makes. Clue: she unwittingly gives up a child to be killed in a Nazi concentration camp. She lives with her lover, Kevin Kline’s Nathan, but even he is suffering a mental turmoil – so in the end, they’re better of drinking cyanide and go to sleep without ever waking up again.
#8 – SCHINDLER’S LIST [1993]Okay, it’s a hopeful story of one man who knew he could make a difference and save the lives 1,100 Jews. But let’s not forget the 6 million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. In Steven Spielberg’s uncompromising, uncommonly bleak portrayal of the indescribable Holocaust, we witness few of cinema’s most heartwrenching moments, humans being killed like chickens – with Ralph Fiennes’ Amon Goeth remorselessly shooting people from his veranda. Even the shower scene alone, despite devoid of onscreen gassing, has enough terror to make our skin crawl.
#7 – LILYA 4-EVER [2002]This grim Swedish piece of miserablism is more despairing than the harshest of Swedish winters. Young Lilya is abandoned by a selfish mother, living off in a shithole apartment and forced to descend into prostitution. There’s a silver lining in the dark cloud, meanwhile, as she is swept by a hunk stranger who promises her a better future, only to be sent off to a sex-market of peopled with miserable old men wanting that quick, young-flesh fuck. Hope is sorely absent in this story.
#6 – LEAVING LAS VEGAS [1995] Nicholas Cage’s failed writer faces failed marriage and escapes to Las Vegas. And no, he’s not there to play some casino. He aims to drink himself to death. Meanwhile, he meets Elizabeth Shue’s good-hearted prostitute who wants to save him. He says no, and that nothing could ever change his intentions. They have sex while he is dying – and that is perhaps one of the most anguishing acts a person can ever do, to perform the last act of pleasure with a dying lover.
#5 – IRREVERSIBLE [2002]Frenchman Gaspar Noe tells this revenge tale backwards, Memento-like, showcasing a grim depiction of the doomed fates of his characters. The violence portrayed here is almost unwatchable, as are the lives involved, with an initially given knowledge that they all suffer tragic consequences. If that is not enough, the camera sits down for the entire 20-minutes with Monica Belluci being raped and beaten to death without any sign of mercy. The conclusion is the film’s beginning with Belluci discovering she’s pregnant – but we, the audience, know that nothing will ever be the same for the lives of these human beings. "Time destroys everything."
#4 – GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES [1988]Crafted by the Japanese animation studio that gave us Spirited Away, one could assume that this is another Studio Ghibli childrens’ fairy tale. How very wrong. Perhaps the most depressing animated film ever made, Grave of the Fireflies tells the suffering of two war-ravaged Japanese children, with parents who perished during the war, and left to fend themselves hunt for food and solace. A spoiler: the cute younger sister dies first, and then the older brother follows suit by becoming a beggar first and then dies of starvation. This is one of most powerful testaments against war, with children as victims – and this will have you shaking uncontrollably with angry tears streaming down your face.
#3 – THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? [1969]Shot during the Great American Depression, there’s not a more suitable era to be glum than this period of skint existence and desperation that humans who badly need to survive enlist themselves in a marathon dance that could cost their health, or worse their lives. The contestants dance endlessly, whilst the showmaster makes sure the audience are entertained. Each one begins to deteriorate from health and slowly slips into near-death. But Jane Fonda’s cynical Gloria Beatty fights to survive in the contest, even harrowingly outlasting the film’s most shocking scenes, the “Derby” run, yet only to discover the cold-blooded ethos of the entire showbusiness. So she ends her suffering once and for all.
#2 – REQUIEM FOR A DREAM [2000]The title says it all. Darren Aronofsky’s bitter, unpleasant cinematic experience will leave a vitriolic aftertaste at the back of your mouth. The characters personal agonies here are all self-inflicted, it makes it all the more disturbing. Ellen Burstyn’s old-aged mother Sara aspired to be on television, and hopes to fit in her red dress, so she takes slimming pills. Turns out they’re slowly embalming her from within. On the other strand of the narrative is Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly’s relationship deteriorating due to drug abuse, leading them to a downward spiral to drug hell, with Leto’s arm rotting off and Connelly ending up in an underground sex orgy – told with a climactic background of operatic, diabolical musical score. If there’s one positive thing that comes out of this film, it’s that you’d never want to touch drugs in your entire life.
#1 – DANCER IN THE DARK [2000]Imagine Gene Kelly singing in the rain. And then Julie Andrews warbling that the hills are alive. Good, because you need to envision them when you finish watching Lars von Trier’s gruelling anti-musical Dancer in the Dark. You’ll need much lighter musicals to serenade you to sleep after this. For this is not just a film - it's a an experience to brave through, and Von Trier does not push easy buttons here. The Danish provocateur slams an indictment to the corruption of society, the American legal system and the fallibility of human beings. Icelandic pop queen Björk squeals her lungs out, torments and personal hell in this tale of a woman-going-blind whilst being wronged by her own fellow neighbours. She’s a Czech immigrant, a factory worker in America, who suffers a rare genetic disease that slowly claims her sight. She saves up her stash of earnings for the operation of her young boy who inherits her sickly genes, but only to be stolen by a local policeman. All of this happens while she pretends that everything is a Hollywood musical, a fantastical projection of a world where nothing can go wrong. Nevertheless, in the real world, everything can go wrong. She unintentionally kills the corrupt policeman and gets sentenced to death. You’ll never see a more devastating interpretation of Sound of Music’s My Favourite Things given the film’s context, with the doomed heroine singing this piece as a diversion from the ghastly circumstance she’s in. You will find yourself unable to smile after viewing Dancer in the Dark. No joke.
