Depression on film
Steve Peterson points out you rarely see clinical depression in movies and TV. Which is odd, considering it’s much more common in real life than, say, retrograde amnesia.
What makes clinical depression un-cinematic is that it’s a negative affect: it’s characterized by a lack of motivation, a lack of action. Great writing can only do so much when you have a protagonist who doesn’t want to protagonate.
Shortbus has a clinically depressed character who goes off his meds — a decision that is as frustrating in a movie as it is in real life. While the character explains himself fairly well, he’s kind of a drag to be around. Again, realistic, but not particularly cinematic.
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October 27th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Reminds me of Mr. Jones, a film about a manic-depressive played by Richard Gere. Turns out test audiences liked Gere being manic but not depressive. The studio made director Mike Figgis recut the film and left Gere being depressed on the cutting room floor. When it was released, it was a critical and commercial disaster. Only when he appeared on BBC2 program Moving Pictures could Figgis set the record straight and rebuild his career.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
similar to Zach Braff’s Garden State
October 27th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
perhaps it could work if the other characters around the depressed protagonist shared the audience’s frustration with him?
October 27th, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Retrograde amnesia…… did you watch Unknown White Male recently?
October 28th, 2006 at 12:31 am
I think having a depressed character is fine, as long as there is a non-depressed character for them to interact with. Like Steve said, Garden State is a good example. I love that movie, but without Natalie Portman’s yang to Zach Braff’s yin it probably would not have worked.
October 28th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
About a Boy dealt with depression, though not as much as the book. At least with a novel, you have inner monologue as a tool. Although, Hornby wrote that book from the perspectives of Will and Marcus, not the mother character (whose name escapes me at the moment). All of Hornby’s books seem to touch on depression on some level. High Fidelity had less of that in the movie than in the book, probably because it’s not so cinematic. I remember one scene from that book that seemed to sum up Rob pretty well. He went to the cinema with his parents and was feeling like a loser and he got a sympathy nod of acknowledgement from a bigger loser who was also out with his parents. The inner monologue after that moment in the book was great, but it would have been tough to translate that to the film.
October 28th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
I get depressed watching films sometimes, does that count?
October 29th, 2006 at 2:58 am
Clinical depression once observed by the characters doctor would likely mean admission or commitment on a psych ward. That would provide plenty of “protagging”.
October 29th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I forgot about Garden State. Braff’s character was basically clinically depressed, and it worked. It relied on having other characters to drag him out of his funk.
October 29th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Would Lost In Translation also fit the bill?
October 29th, 2006 at 8:59 pm
I’d feel that Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers, and Garden State would all count — but there is a bit of distance created by the lighter tone of these films. Just a touch of “depression can be fun” — but they also show how people engage in the world in order to help themselves recover, so that’s a good thing.
Ordinary People is probably one of the most intense treatments of the subject.
And thanks for the link!
October 29th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
If Hornby’s latest book makes it to the screen, it’ll be hard to water down the depression. “A Long Way Down” is about four people who meet while trying to jump to their death off the top of the same building. And how about “Angela’s Ashes”? I haven’t actually seen it, but I hear they sucked the humor completely out when they made the movie. Can’t have been much left over but depression topped with a generous helping of more depression. But what’s our base example for a movie showing clinical depression? Do we need to see Mr. Doctor telling Mr. Patient that he’s clinically depressed?
October 30th, 2006 at 12:34 am
John,
How about a warning for spoilers? I really like to know as little as possible before viewing a film. Your earlier recommendation was enough to pique my interest, but I haven’t had a chance to see Shortbus yet. On depression, where do you draw the line between self absorbed, selfish characters who are nonetheless depressed, like Pink in The Wall, and someone with a clinical diagnosis and a prescription, like, say, Tony Soprano? I mean,there are many thousands of hero characters and garden variety protagonists that one could classify as clinically depressed, even though they don’t fit the definition of a textbook case who’s “a bummer to be around” (which is in itself a rather over simplified , stereotypical popular view of depression) and rather static dramatically. Thanks for the site. I think Tony’s depessive swings are a defining characteristic which make him so interesting and surprising. If he stayed in bed all day every episode it would be boring, but showing this exciting tough guy sleeping all day and feeling sorry for himself provides quite a bit of the show’s drama. In between going out and whacking guys, of course. Thanks for the site!
Himay
October 30th, 2006 at 8:09 am
I’d say Alexander Payne is a master of making depression interesting. Watch Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt and Paul Giammati in Sideways. Or look at Bill Macy in all of PT Anderson’s movies. Or Juliette Binoche in Blue. Or most characters in most of Tarkovsky’s films
Depression’s everywhere!
John you should watch my first feature “Nu.” which was released a couple of weeks ago at the Dutch Film Festival. It’s about my own experience with depression.. it was a real challenge to make someone who is outwardly passive and quiet interesting on the screen. I used a voice over for both the (non-)protagonist and his lost girlfriend through the entire movie to bring him alive. It seems to have worked since we won an award in the debut category. Hope perhaps one day you guys across the pond will be able to see it.
October 30th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Interesting point.
The movie I thought of was “Rain Man,” with Dustin Hoffman as the autistic savant brother of Tom Cruise’s character. I recall some reviewers condemning the movie as uncinematic, on similar grounds: autism is similarly un- if not anti-dramatic — there’s no conflict in the character or between the character and others or the world.
Yet the movie worked: Cruise’s character (and his performance) was the key to making it dramatic.
But the basic point, of its uncinematic character, is something I’ve thought about also with regard to psycho movies — movies where the central character is a psychotic. These can be done well, as “Silence of the Lambs” shows. But so often they become fundementally undramatic, no matter how much spatter, because the psycho is one-dimensional.
October 30th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
The one time I thought a deeply depressed person worked as an engaging character (if such a thing can even exist) was in “Prisoner of Second Avenue”. Leave it to Neil Simon to find gold in that sort of mental state:
Mel: God… God… God… God…
Edna: Mel?
Mel: Huh?
Edna: Can’t you sleep?
Mel: If I could sleep would I be laying here calling God at 2:00 in the morning?
October 30th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Prozac Nation was a film that dealt with this, and while it was an interesting topic/book, I think it failed because of the very reasons you mention. I also think that a lot of times, depresssion can be a very selfish illness, and in Prozac Nation, C. Ricci was the ultimate self absorbed protagonist. It was really hard to stay on her journey without finding her annoying. Same with G. Paltrow in Proof–too much crying, yelling and being miserable in a non-action oriented way…
October 31st, 2006 at 4:09 am
Prozac Nation!
October 31st, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Catch and Release didn’t look like Boulder ’cause it was shot in Vancouver.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:12 pm
To me what John says about SHORTBUS applies 100% to LOST IN TRANSLATION. Granted, those characters weren’t “clinically” depressed (I don’t think), but they sure as heck were a “drag to be around”. boo-hoo I’m in tokyo and i’m bored! I never got that movie. And how she could win best screenplay for a 15 page outline is beyond me…
October 31st, 2006 at 6:15 pm
In our Indie film Dead Horse, we had Daniel Von Bargen (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0901926/) playing an alcoholic manic/depressive hell bent on killing his married girlfriend’s husband.
For the manic side of his characters personality we had him play to dangerous and edgy, and for the depressive side, comical — DVB did a great job with the role.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:17 am
“The Man Who Wasn’t There,” which would have been unwatchable without the voice-over.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:02 pm
It might have something to do with the fact that a large part of the audience would rather see movies about things that aren’t common in real everyday life…things such as mutants, etc. They can see a depressed person when they look in a mirror. They go to the movies to avoid that mirror. (Ahem) Not me, of course…
November 1st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
As Kilroy points out, Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue is essentially a comedy about a man who has a nervous breakdown.
November 2nd, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Depression is not exactly something to associate with entertainment. Still, got to see the funny side, right? Well, not really.
I’d mention Adam Sandler in P.T. Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love as a sufferer.
As for Paul Giammati in Sideways, oh man, the scene outside the church where he’s listening to his ex-wife’s news and trying to stay upbeat and positive. Just that little tick and tremor around his mouth as he forces a smile shows the character is so close to losing it big time. What a marvellous performance.
Whatever the film, however much people think it is a downer, it’s a subject that is certainly better to watch than to have.
November 4th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
I’ve written a screenplay, Guru Trap - A Twisted Love Story, about a charismatic man who struggles to overcome his life-long pattern of seducing, then breaking the hearts of young women.
The lead character spends half of the second act massively depressed and actively suicidal. But how he and those around him deal with his decent into hell, makes for a good movie. Cinematic, and without any voice-over.
smiles
November 23rd, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I’m a depressive who has written a half-hour sitcom which I’m too depressed to send anywhere. That fact need not detain us.
I would add to the recommendations for ‘Sideways’ as relates to this topic.
I would also recommend ‘Withnail & I’ by Bruce Robinson. The Withnail character is more despairing and frustrated than clinically depressed, using booze to medicate himself throughout. In my top ten favourite films of all time.
You could probably add in Spacey’s character in ‘American Beauty’. The lead character in David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’ is none to cheery either.
But to really get to depression I’d probably aim for other arts forms: the plays of Samuel Beckett, the poetry of Philip Larkin.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Nice Blog. I have been looking for blogs and such that I can relate to. I invite you to come to my blog and join me in my delightful spiral into death depression and nothing.
Thanks for your time. Remain happy ?