If i remember correctly, you said the saddest film you have seen is Grave of The Fireflies? Do you honestly think that and 19 other films will be sadder than the most graphic (from what i've heard) account of the Holocaust?
Grave of the Fireflies didn't make me sad, surprisingly. I think because I went in with the expectations of it being incredibly depressing, since that is all I've heard. Sure it's a sad story, but not to the level of The Pianist where he walks down the alley while it rains the ashes of his dead family and friends. Heartbreaking.
If i remember correctly, you said the saddest film you have seen is Grave of The Fireflies?
No, the saddest film I ever seem is this:
I was stunned as if hit by a train for over a week. Seriously. While GofT is tied in the second place with Ikiru, Bicycle Thieves and Tokyo Story.
I know you didn't get GofT but art works that way. Let's see if I can get Shoah.
Do you honestly think that and 19 other films will be sadder than the most graphic (from what i've heard) account of the Holocaust?
Well, I am not particularly impressed by the view of simple piles of dead bodies. What moves me is realistic character development combined with a pure sense of humanism. Just stating: millions died here, etc, isn't that impressive from my point of view.
Grave of the Fireflies didn't make me sad, surprisingly. I think because I went in with the expectations of it being incredibly depressing, since that is all I've heard. Sure it's a sad story, but not to the level of The Pianist where he walks down the alley while it rains the ashes of his dead family and friends. Heartbreaking.
Well, I consider both sad but GofT is truly powerful. Like a shot in the arm.
Something like Shoah is completely different from a scripted movie. It brings you to a tragedy on an unthinkable scale in the realest and most immediate way possible outside talking to survivors or perhaps visiting the camps. It isn't a 'tearjerker'- a tearjerker is a movie designed to make you sad. Shoah is designed to tell you, as fearlessly and thoroughly as it can, what happened. It is a document of the evil humanity can display, of the murder of millions of innocents. There isn't a trace of added sentimentality or a moment when any attempt to wring tears is detectable; there is no need and it would not be appropriate. It is a complex and challenging film, masterfully crafted, but most intelligent and valuable for letting those who were there tell their stories.
It feels utterly wrong to put Shoah on some kind of sadness ranking against anything at all fictionalised or manipulated. I think that goes for any documentary of a real tragedy that does justice to its subject.
I don't know if cinema, or perhaps any art, can truly convey the enormity of the horror of the holocaust. Schindler's List is a very fine attempt, but even it seems just a little cheapening and trivialising at times- perhaps not because of any correctable flaw, just the possible impossibility of capturing what the holocaust was. The Pianist was a lesser attempt, I never felt it got close. Another film ranked in this 100, Life is Beautiful, was just an insulting disaster that shouldn't have been made and I feel that way about a lot of others. I suppose we should still try though.
Another film ranked in this 100, Life is Beautiful, was just an insulting disaster that shouldn't have been made and I feel that way about a lot of others. I suppose we should still try though.
Sorry, I disagree completely on that. To me, showing the story of a single family during the Holocaust is more powerful than showing images of hundreds of nameless victims, at least in movie terms. This is because no human brain could ever comprehend the number of victims during the Holocaust. When you develop a few characters so intensely, the audience grows with them, and forms a sort of relationship with them. It makes the loss of those characters so much more powerful, and forces an emotional response out of us. That's what Life is Beautiful did so well. Of course, The Pianist and Schindler's List had similar effects.
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Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood
It feels utterly wrong to put Shoah on some kind of sadness ranking against anything at all fictionalised or manipulated. I think that goes for any documentary of a real tragedy that does justice to its subject.
Yeah, it doesn't feel right for the victims of the holocaust to say that a documentary about their suffering was less or more sad than some fictional story. Among documentaries the saddest I watched was this:
I think that Shoah may be more serious than that. Well, in that documentary one of the band members' dad actually was a holocaust survivor and he talks about it so the two documentaries are not that different. A real tragic story of a second rate metal band.
I don't know if cinema, or perhaps any art, can truly convey the enormity of the horror of the holocaust.
Sorry, I disagree completely on that. To me, showing the story of a single family during the Holocaust is more powerful than showing images of hundreds of nameless victims, at least in movie terms. This is because no human brain could ever comprehend the number of victims during the Holocaust. When you develop a few characters so intensely, the audience grows with them, and forms a sort of relationship with them. It makes the loss of those characters so much more powerful, and forces an emotional response out of us. That's what Life is Beautiful did so well. Of course, The Pianist and Schindler's List had similar effects.
Indeed. We feel about the people we "know". We don't feel really sad about the thousands of people that die every day in Africa from AIDS or war but we can feel really sad if someone close to us dies. While the real fact is that the human suffering over all of Africa is certainly greater than the suffering of a single person we care about those we know.
Sadness is also psychological so something can make you sad without even making any sense in real world terms. Such as a musical composition.
Anyway, I will watch Shoah and see how good it is. I expect it to be at least a movie and the saddest documentary I ever watched. Let's see if it cracks my set of saddest movies (many which involve WW2).
I haven't watched Life is Beautiful, now I am interested.
Holocaust wasn't the only atrocity of twentieth century. Stalin's cleansings, Tutsi and Hutu conflict, Nanking rape and Mao Tse Dong's politics to only name a few and there are movies about them, both documentaries and feature films, which is good, because we have to remember about the victims, but personally I prefer documentaries, because feature movies tend to add fictional characters and change the story, even if only a bit.
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.
Shoah is NOT a movie. It's a living record. It's not graphic in it's imagery. It's all done with interviews. It's emotional in watching these people relive it all in their faces. A very different emotional connection than just showing the graphic images we have all seen.
It's just a cartoon, Guap. The Holocaust was real.
Yes, but that doesn't mean someone will feel it more. You can recognise how tragic and awful something is without feeling it or without feeling it in the way might with something else or even the same thing presented in the different way.
We feel about the people we "know". We don't feel really sad about the thousands of people that die every day in Africa from AIDS or war but we can feel really sad if someone close to us dies. While the real fact is that the human suffering over all of Africa is certainly greater than the suffering of a single person we care about those we know.
Sadness is also psychological so something can make you sad without even making any sense in real world terms. Such as a musical composition.
100. Con Air - Not seen 99. Dong aka The Hole - Not seen 98. Speed - 97. Beauty and the Beast - 96. Edward Scissorhands - 95. F#cking Amal aka Show Me Love - Not Seen 94. The Sixth Sense - 93. Short Cuts - (MY LIST) 92. Sling Blade - Not Seen 91. Heavenly Creatures - Not Seen 90. Dark City - Not Seen 89. Scream - 88. The Sweet Hereafter - Not Seen 87. Rushmore - 86. The Fifth Element - + 85. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - Not Seen 84. The Player - (MY LIST) 83. Point Break - Not Seen 82. Batman Returns - 81. Farewell My Concubine - 80. Nema-ye Nazdik aka Close-Up - Not Seen 79. Naked Lunch - Not Seen 78. Duo luo tian shi aka Fallen Angels - + 77. JFK - Not Seen 76. A Brighter Summer Day - Not Seen 75. Happiness - 74. Starship Troopers - Not Seen 73. Life Is Beautiful - Not Seen 72. Donnie Brasco - Not Seen 71. All About My Mother - (+) 70. Before Sunrise - (+) 69. La Haine - Not Seen 68. Army of Darkness - Not Seen 67. The Nightmare Before Christmas - (+) 66. Trois couleurs: Bleu - Not Seen 65. Whisper of the Heart - Not Seen – (+) 64. The Boondock Saints - Not Seen 63. Funny Games - Not Seen 62. As Good as It Gets - (-) 61. Twelve Monkeys - + (MY LIST) 60. Babe - Not Seen 59. Dumb and Dumber - Not Seen 58. The Double Life of Veronique - Not Seen 57. The Lion King - (+) 56. Underground - Not Seen 55. Hoop Dreams - Not Seen 54. Trois couleurs: Rouge - Not Seen 53. Toy Story 2 - 52. Breaking the Waves - Not Seen 51. Hana-Bi - Not Seen 50. Total Recall - Not Seen 49. Ed Wood - (MY LIST) 48. Dazed and Confused - (-) 47. True Romance - 46. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 45. Clerks - Not Seen 44. Jackie Brown - 43. Sonatine - Not Seen 42. The Straight Story - Not Seen 41. Barton Fink - (MY LIST) 40. Man Bites Dog - Not Seen 39. Naked - Not Seen 38. The Truman Show - (+) 37. Miller's Crossing - (-) (MY LIST) 36. Casino - (MY LIST) 35. Dead Man - Not Seen 34. Jurassic Park - 33. Trainspotting - Not Seen 32. Braveheart - Not Seen 31. Chungking Express - + 30. American History X - (+) 29. Toy Story - 28. The Thin Red Line - Not Seen 27. Good Will Hunting - 26. Being John Malkovich - (+) 25. Groundhog Day - + 24. American Beauty - (MY LIST) 23. Léon: The Professional - (MY LIST) 22. Princess Mononoke - + 21. Heat - - 20. The Usual Suspects - - (MY LIST) 19. Terminator 2: Judgment Day - 18. Saving Private Ryan - Not Seen 17. Forrest Gump - 16. The Silence of the Lambs - (+) 15. Eyes Wide Shut - (MY LIST) 14. Fargo - (MY LIST) 13. Boogie Nights - (MY LIST) 12. Unforgiven - (MY LIST) 11. The Matrix - (+) 10. Schindler's List - (+) (MY LIST)
Unforgiven is an amazingly well made western. It's more melancholic than every western I've ever seen and Eastwood is PERFECT in this film, playing a retired bounty hunter who both despises and in some strange kind of way still longs for his own past as a ruthless killer. It's also one of the deepest revenge pictures I've ever seen. Normally the theme of revenge is quite shallow and merely a vehicle for an action film, but here it is portrayed in a realistic and very convincing way. GREAT film! It was on my list.
The Matrix is entertaining and very awesome to look at. The first time I saw it, I was MINDBLOWN by its action sequences and of course its original premise (for that time). I can understand the criticism that it indeed leans more towards the action aspect of it all than to the story, but I really didn't care that much, as it was very cool to look at. It's not a favorite anymore and it didn't make my list, but it's still a hell of a movie!
Well. What can I say more about Schindler's List that hasn't already been said? It's an amazing dramatization of the holocaust by Steven Spielberg. He made it into an emotional rollercoaster and didn't shy away from showing the immense horror of it all. Film-wise it is also one of the most perfect films I've seen. Unbelievable. It shows that Spielberg really deserves all the credit he gets for his work. Besides being the king of good blockbusters, he also knows how to put together a film in a way that very few directors can. The only reason why I don't give this film a maximum rating is because I felt that he should have kept the real darkness from the holocaust in his main story, because in reality, "Schindler's list" was a much more obscure 'event' than as it is depicted in this film. A lot of Jews had to buy themselves on the list for instance (not towards Schindler, but towards the one who was in control of typing up the list, etc. In the film it is all a little more 'pure' than it was in reality. I do get, though, that this film is about the 'one lit candle' in the middle of one of the most gruesome periods in modern human history, and I respect and understand Spielberg's affection towards that small piece of hope. Definitely a masterpiece and a very strong film. It made my list.
I also consider this one of the best cinematic moments of the '90s (together with the later revelation of the girl's faith):
I haven't watched Life is Beautiful, now I am interested.
I'd recommend it. It's actually pretty comedic throughout, so it's not a totally depressing movie. But it definitely gets nightmarish through to the end, as you might expect.
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Well, in that documentary one of the band members' dad actually was a holocaust survivor and he talks about it so the two documentaries are not that different. A real tragic story of a second rate metal band.
