Bleak, bleak cinema please

[mabuk]

Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Aurora by Christi Puiu. For the first 90 mins I had no idea what was going on.

For my taste, they both have flawless filmographies.

[man_westooth]

Never Let Me Go (2010)

[ImBlu_DaBaDee]

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[John1701D]

Originally Posted by ImBlu_DaBaDee

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

They wanted bleak, not putrid.

[Regulas314]

Man of Steel and Batman V. Superman are ultra bleak.

[D00mM4r1n3]

In China They Eat Dogs (1999) is fairly bleak other than the middle bit.

[Show spoiler]The protagonist's girlfriend leaves him setting off a serious of depressing events that result in him deciding to rob a bank that ends in his death.

[Jay Mammoth]

I Saw the Devil
The Wailing

[Regulas314]

Oh! I know a good one! When the Wind Blows (1986)! That one is positively SOUL CRUSHING!

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by Regulas314

Oh! I know a good one! When the Wind Blows (1986)! That one is positively SOUL CRUSHING!

Yeah that's great. Rewatched it the other day.

Grave of the Fireflies is another animated soul crusher.

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

Visitor to a Museum (1989)
Dead Man's Letters (1986)
On the Silver Globe (1988)
Pulse (2001)

I have seen all of them, Dead Man's Letters is incredible. I need to check out more of his films. They all look batshit.

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by atlantajoseph

Bergman excelled in this area:


Hour of the Wolf
Scenes from a Marriage

These are 2 Bergman's I haven't seen. Thanks. I'd also add 'Shame' as being quite a good, bleak Bergman.

[Alister_M]

Night at the Golden Eagle (2001)
Atroz (2015)
The Horseman (2008)
Coming Home in the Dark (2021)

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

Night at the Golden Eagle (2001)
Atroz (2015)
The Horseman (2008)
Coming Home in the Dark (2021)

Excellent, not seen any of these, thanks.

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by ZeTi

I also think THE TURIN HORSE is extremely bleak.

edit: Oh i almost forgot one my favorites. NATURAL ENEMIES. (1979)

I'm working my way through Tarr's filmography. Have seen Turin Horse, Werckmeister and Damnation. All amazing. Starting my Blu of Satantango soon.

His mentor (can't remember his name now) made a film called Twilight in the early 90s which is also amazing and quite bleak.

[ronboster]

In it's time Deliverance was considered pretty bleak.


Many from my list have already been mentioned. Here's some that I don't think have come up yet:

L.I.E.
Kids
Bully
Little Children
Happiness (I'm looking at you Dylan Baker)
AntiChrist
Speak No Evil 2023
The Mist (my son was of a similar age)
Manchester by the Sea
Gardens of the Night

Some Docs
Capturing the Friedmans
An Open Secret
Twist of Faith
Deliver Us from Evil
The Cheshire Murders
Child of Rage

[Martoto]

My Name Is Joe

[ArieS]

The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

[Pi905]

The Seventh Continent (1989) - You mentioned Haneke already, but if you haven't seen this yet, it is insanely bleak and hard to bare.

The Nightingale (2018) - It's relentless, and also very disturbing so I'll throw a warning out for that one.

Dekalog (1989) - You mentioned A Short Film About Killing, but if you haven't seen Dekalog in its entirety, every single one of the 10 parts except for one of them are bleak. A Short Film About Killing is a part of the original 10-part Dekalog, and it is very much worth seeing the rest of it if you enjoyed that film.

[critterdvd]

[scarletlion]

Originally Posted by Pi905

The Seventh Continent (1989) - You mentioned Haneke already, but if you haven't seen this yet, it is insanely bleak and hard to bare.

The Nightingale (2018) - It's relentless, and also very disturbing so I'll throw a warning out for that one.

Dekalog (1989) - You mentioned A Short Film About Killing, but if you haven't seen Dekalog in its entirety, every single one of the 10 parts except for one of them are bleak. A Short Film About Killing is a part of the original 10-part Dekalog, and it is very much worth seeing the rest of it if you enjoyed that film.

3 great ones. Watched dekalog on Blu last year. amazing. Though I prefer other kieslowskis

7th continent is easily the most disturbing haneke. bone chilling.