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.

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

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.

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.