Are the most moving movies usually the most depressing to watch?

kateychan wrote: In a way American History X was super moving, god I cried like a lil bish at the end. and the scene where derek is in the shower, having a flashing back with him and danny as kids on the beach.. like the big brother always gonna be there for his best friend and youngest brother.. idk.. gets me every time. incredibly moving and just intense.[/
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Worst skinhead movie ever made. Poseur

Yeah I like those movies that make you think. I'm a bit undecided on the ones that leave you guessing as to what the ending is though. On one hand, it is nice when everything is wrapped up, but I do like the discussions that movies with open endings allow.
In all honestly, for me, a movie has to be interesting to be moving. For example, if a movie is too depressing to watch, I will shut off from it, I won't be 'moved' by it. The end result will be that I put it out of my memory. Sometimes something nice (just not shallow) can also be moving. However, I do agree that the best stories have balance of tragedy and happiness.
And yes, I do like moves where the ending maybe is a bit tragic but is fitting with the whole story (for example, the main character may die, but it's fitting it that was the only way for all loose ends be tied up, and for other characters to be happy/continue with their lives/receive closure).

I tend to believe a moving movie is one where the character overcomes great adversity and is in the end rewarded for his troubles. Silver Lining Playbook is such a movie.

lol im kinda of a sucker for these kinda of movies.. really a big fan of noir genre, film noir, neo noir, tech noir, and cyberpunk.. something about anti-hero, femme fetale, and the dark silhouetted figures make a more lasting memory for me, even if it can be depressing at the end with lack of closure.

Irony.

Some ironic pictures I've seen:

1. A Clockwork Orange (title itself is ironic)
2. Pulp Fiction
3. The Ninth Gate
4. Vetigo
5. Return of the Jedi (Vader redeems himself in the end, highly unexpected)
6. The Shining (Kubrick's take)
7. Metropolis (Fritz Lang)
8. Rear Window (more Hitchcock)
9. The Usual Suspects
10. Taxi Driver

etc.

anonX wrote: lol im kinda of a sucker for these kinda of movies.. really a big fan of noir genre, film noir, neo noir, tech noir, and cyberpunk.. something about anti-hero, femme fetale, and the dark silhouetted figures make a more lasting memory for me, even if it can be depressing at the end with lack of closure.

Just read wikipedia on film noir, tech, and future noirs. So much diversity there. Could you give 1-3 unifying attributes common to the following movies which would demonstrate noir heritage. Just trying to put my thumb on it. You seem to know a lot about the genre, and could probably distill it. Been hearing the term film noir for years, and don't understand it, although I like many of the movies that reside within that categorization. Is it basically surreal, dystopian, depressing?



Heat
Minority Report
Reservoir Dogs
Basic Instinct
Memento
The13th floor
Bladerunner

Torakichi wrote: Been hearing the term film noir for years, and don't understand it, although I like many of the movies that reside within that categorization. Is it basically surreal, dystopian, depressing?

The term Noir in the context of film used to categorize gritty, dark detective crime dramas such as The Maltese Falcon and Sunset Boulevard.

The style has evolved over time and can be seen in movies such as Chinatown, The Fugitive, Mulholland Drive, and even Minority Report.

A good example of it in manga/anime would be Cowboy Bebop.

Get the picture?

Thank you Manimal.

anonX: I read up on cyberpunk, then reread the film noir, future, and tech noir wikiblurbs again.

Think I got it.

Old school noir is the gritty detective genre that carries over into modern versions like Heat & Basic Instinct.

Cyberpunk is futuristic, and explores social issues through dystopian themes.

The precurser to film noir in terms of cinematographic style is german expressionism which uses lighting, shape, angles, form etc. to highlight percieved experience. Wiki uses the word mentonym by definition, but alludes to the externalization of subjective experience in german expressionism. Mentonym, (i think that is the word) is a word that is used synonymously with what it refers to, I guess like coke for cola. The gist is as it relates to german expressionism, it is a self referential, but externalized representation of a subjective experience. Hence the disjointed timelines, and reality blurring ethereal scenes in the noir genre.

For example in Heat, the use of setting, the whole railway sequence in the beginning to set the mood, then the radio station call sign playing over the muffled roar of diesel, captures a typical as you live it experience of an LA native. The whole Neil meets girl book scene, the panoramic nightime, la skyline, the huge windowed beach front estate at dawn, the deafness as waynegro confronts the security gaurd he pops, the highway chase scene with pacino, and final shootout is all 3rd personish, but also switches into a first person experiential perspective. Boilerplate noir plot template, character juxtaposition, and fly on the wall/1st person juxtaposition a subtler version of that sort of surrealist portrayal of experience approach that came from german expressionism.

Mullholland Drive does not have noir plot, but has that what is reality thing that switches perspective through time, mental states, and vantage point like memento or the machinist. Sort of an amping up of subjective experience in a shattered mind.

So this question of what constitutes reality, social commentary harkening back to the german socialist post industrial film Metropolis, and expressionist "Noir" cinematography colliding with the future, and technology makes cyberpunk, with tech noir or neo noir being the catchalls for films like lawnmowerman, the 13th floor, fight club, mullholland drive, and the machinist.

Makes me want to see Chinatown for the first time, and rewatch all of those movies, and anime lumped in in sequence to watch this whole thing evolve

Speaking of Mulholland Drive, did anyone else get freaked out by that movie or what? I've seen it more than once and each time it scares the hell outta me. Don't know why, really. I mean, it's not particularly scary. D. Lynch just knows how to tap into the dark side of the human psyche. I guess that's what's so terrifying about that film.

jawnmatsu wrote:

kateychan wrote: In a way American History X was super moving, god I cried like a lil bish at the end. and the scene where derek is in the shower, having a flashing back with him and danny as kids on the beach.. like the big brother always gonna be there for his best friend and youngest brother.. idk.. gets me every time. incredibly moving and just intense.[/
quote]
Worst skinhead movie ever made. Poseur

booo, i like it.