Top 5 Pessimistic Movies

[hoelk]

Stroszeck (1977, Werner Herzog)

probably most Fassbinder movies (i especially liked in a year with 13 moons and fear eats the soul)

Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker should qualify as sufficiently pessimistic if you regard it's message as a whole and is probably the best film I ever saw.

Honorable Mentions (I'm not sure if those qualify for the pessimistic topic to well):

Lars von Triers "The Antichrist" and Gaspar Noe's "Enter the Void" (Im sure they have already been suggested somewhere I just wanted to give them a "+ 1")
Probably also Takeshi Kitanos "Dolls" (which is more sad than pessimistic)

[Gray House]

I think I will often be returning to this thread when looking for movies to add to my Netflix queue. A few already mentioned I particularly liked are They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Melancholia, and Enter the Void.

Woody Allen movies are generally somewhat lighter than many of the movies mentioned here, but some also have philosophically pessimistic themes, such as Stardust Memories, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, and Match Point.

i am pleased someone mentioned stroszek here. i neglected to put in on my previous list, though it became an immediate favorite of mine after one viewing. very bleak, and also a very fitting tribute to the american pipe dream.

[tanzmusik]

Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988)
Shoah (Lanzmann, 1985)
Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)
The Cremator (Herz, 1969)
Kes (Loach, 1969)

[MagnusTC]

Pessimism among penguins...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWH_9VRWn8Y

[tanzmusik]

That is one of my favourite moments of any Herzog film.

[Malone]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. Much appreciated. How I forgot No Country For Old Men and Seven in my original list is beyond me. And Melancholia. I also should mention Ivan's XTC, a contemporary adaptation of Tolstoy's 'Death of Ivan Ilich'. Bleak as bleak can be.

i just wanted to add a norwegian film entitled zero kelvin to my list. a very bleak film, set against the backdrop of an arctic landscape. cruel and without hope.

[Evil Steve]

In no order:

1) Irreversible
2) Day of the Locust
3) Brazil
4) Shame [Bergman]
5) In a Glass Cage

[Evil Steve]

And what the hell, for good measure, off the top of my head:

A Clockwork Orange
Island of Lost Souls
The Brood
Taxi Driver
Chinatown
The Thing [Carpenter]
The Seventh Victim
Naked Lunch
Martin [Romero]
Once Upon a Time in America
Weekend [Godard]
Inland Empire
The Devils
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Double Indemnity
The Exterminating Angel
Possession [Zulawski]
Vertigo
Nashville
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Kiss Me Deadly
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Fellini Casanova
The Trial [Welles]
Eyes Without a Face
The Man Who Wasn't There
Seven
Dr. Strangelove
Prince of Darkness
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Detour
Mulholland Drive
Brewster McCloud
Cries and Whispers
Macbeth [Polanski]
Britannia Hospital
The Witchfinder General
The Third Man
Dead Ringers
The Ruling Class
No Country for Old Men
The Honeymoon Killers
The Wicker Man
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Out of the Past
Mother Night
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Straw Dogs
The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Veronika Voss
The Conversation
12 Monkeys
Inserts
Deliverance
Last House on the Left [Craven]
Los Olvidados
Little Murders
The Parallax View
Joe
The Prowler [Losey]
Deadgirl
Midnight Cowboy
Being John Malkovich
In the Company of Men
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Conformist
Scarlett Street
The Proposition

Okay, I'll stop now...