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kittiwakeIn the cinema today, before the film started, they were playing the music from "Carrington", a very sad and haunting theme. It is unusual for me to remember the music in films at all, even when I'm watching them for an evening class and should be paying attention to such things. I started thinking about my favourite sad films, so here are some of them for your delectation and delight.
All About My Mother
The most moving of Pedro Almodavar's films, it is about coming to terms with grief and letting love and hope back onto your life.
Carrington
The sad and haunting music runs through this film, based on the strange relationship between the painter (Dora) Carrington and the writer Lytton Strachey, who were part of the bohemian Bloomsbury Group in WWI and afterwards. It is a sad love story about a group of eccentric people with Carrington and Lytton at the centre.
Fairytale: A True Story
This film is imbued with terrible sadness. It is set during WWI, and the willingness of so many people to believe in the fairy photographs is shown to be due to the need to believe in something in the midst of so much death, be it theosophy, seances or fairies at the bottom of the garden. Although the fairies appear in the film, it is clear that the girls are imagining them, due to their own sadness (one has a dead brother, the other's father is missing in action), while the reason that Elsie can't admit that the photos are fakes, is that they are proving so much comfort to her bereaved mother.
The Limey
Terence Stamp as Wilson an English criminal recently released from jail, in LA relentlessly tracking down the man he holds responsible for his daughter's death. His unstoppability and the repetition of the phrase "Tell him I'm coming!" as he works his way through LA gangland, reminds you of James Coburn in "Point Blank". But it is what he discovers when he finally meets him at the end of the film that makes the film so poignant. I won't say more because it really would spoil it. If you hate violent revenge thrillers don't bother, but I'd recommend it to everyone else.
Magnolia
The film takes place over one day and involves the loosely connected lives of a group of Californians (similar to the film "Short cuts"). Some of them are losers in life while others are supposedly successful, but none of them are really happy with their lives and all of them come to some kind of crisis/catharsis on that day. The part with < careful spoiler avoidance > the song </ careful spoiler avoidance> was especially moving. Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a sex guru, but the whole cast were brilliant. One amusing note - although I'm a fan of Forteana, it had never occurred to me that a rain of frogs would be quite so violent
My Life as a Dog
Ingemar's mother is terminally-ill so and he is and separated from his older brother and his beloved dog and sent to live with relatives. His uncle and aunt live in a country town and work at a glassworks and there are a lot of other children for him to play with, so he enjoys living there, but there is always the underlying fear about his mother's illness. It is set in the year that the Russian's sent a dog called Laika into space, so he worries about her fate as he thinks about his own dog.
Odd Man Out
I only have seen this once on television, many years ago, but it made a strong impression on me. Remembering James Mason as a fatally wounded IRA man on the run in the back alleys of Belfast, desperately trying to avoid the police and get to safety, is guaranteed to make me cry.
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Western is one of my least favourite genres and this is probably the only Western that I would admit to liking. The harmonica theme that haunts the whole film grates on you like the sound of nails on a blackboard, but is a vital component of the film, which has one of the best opening scenes ever.
Wings of Desire
The angels' attempts to comfort the unhappy inhabitants of Berlin are sometimes successful and sometimes not. They are always perched above the city, looking down on the loneliness and despair of mortal men, but that does not stop occasional angels from wishing to become human. The quiet, unchanging existence of the angels is shown in black and white, whereas human life is full of colour and movement.
All About My Mother
The most moving of Pedro Almodavar's films, it is about coming to terms with grief and letting love and hope back onto your life.
Carrington
The sad and haunting music runs through this film, based on the strange relationship between the painter (Dora) Carrington and the writer Lytton Strachey, who were part of the bohemian Bloomsbury Group in WWI and afterwards. It is a sad love story about a group of eccentric people with Carrington and Lytton at the centre.
Fairytale: A True Story
This film is imbued with terrible sadness. It is set during WWI, and the willingness of so many people to believe in the fairy photographs is shown to be due to the need to believe in something in the midst of so much death, be it theosophy, seances or fairies at the bottom of the garden. Although the fairies appear in the film, it is clear that the girls are imagining them, due to their own sadness (one has a dead brother, the other's father is missing in action), while the reason that Elsie can't admit that the photos are fakes, is that they are proving so much comfort to her bereaved mother.
The Limey
Terence Stamp as Wilson an English criminal recently released from jail, in LA relentlessly tracking down the man he holds responsible for his daughter's death. His unstoppability and the repetition of the phrase "Tell him I'm coming!" as he works his way through LA gangland, reminds you of James Coburn in "Point Blank". But it is what he discovers when he finally meets him at the end of the film that makes the film so poignant. I won't say more because it really would spoil it. If you hate violent revenge thrillers don't bother, but I'd recommend it to everyone else.
Magnolia
The film takes place over one day and involves the loosely connected lives of a group of Californians (similar to the film "Short cuts"). Some of them are losers in life while others are supposedly successful, but none of them are really happy with their lives and all of them come to some kind of crisis/catharsis on that day. The part with < careful spoiler avoidance > the song </ careful spoiler avoidance> was especially moving. Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a sex guru, but the whole cast were brilliant. One amusing note - although I'm a fan of Forteana, it had never occurred to me that a rain of frogs would be quite so violent
My Life as a Dog
Ingemar's mother is terminally-ill so and he is and separated from his older brother and his beloved dog and sent to live with relatives. His uncle and aunt live in a country town and work at a glassworks and there are a lot of other children for him to play with, so he enjoys living there, but there is always the underlying fear about his mother's illness. It is set in the year that the Russian's sent a dog called Laika into space, so he worries about her fate as he thinks about his own dog.
Odd Man Out
I only have seen this once on television, many years ago, but it made a strong impression on me. Remembering James Mason as a fatally wounded IRA man on the run in the back alleys of Belfast, desperately trying to avoid the police and get to safety, is guaranteed to make me cry.
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Western is one of my least favourite genres and this is probably the only Western that I would admit to liking. The harmonica theme that haunts the whole film grates on you like the sound of nails on a blackboard, but is a vital component of the film, which has one of the best opening scenes ever.
Wings of Desire
The angels' attempts to comfort the unhappy inhabitants of Berlin are sometimes successful and sometimes not. They are always perched above the city, looking down on the loneliness and despair of mortal men, but that does not stop occasional angels from wishing to become human. The quiet, unchanging existence of the angels is shown in black and white, whereas human life is full of colour and movement.
