13 saddest movies you should definitely see

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These pictures will be a real emotional test.

1. Cranes are flying

• USSR, 1957.
• War drama.
• Duration: 97 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 3.

Veronica and Boris love each other and are going to get married. But war intervenes in their lives. The young man is taken to the front, and the bride does not even have time to say goodbye to her beloved. Meanwhile, Mark, Boris's cousin, has plans for the girl and is going to achieve her in the most disgusting way, regardless of the opinion of Veronica herself.

Watching the masterpiece drama by Mikhail Kalatozov will be a powerful emotional experience for the viewer. And it doesn't matter how many times you see him: in any case, it is impossible to hold back tears.

The genius of the director is that he managed to convey the horrors of war, almost without showing the life of the front. Instead, Kalatozov, together with cameraman Sergei Urusevsky, focused on everyday scenes and the main character's feelings.

2. Schindler's list

• USA, 1993.
• War drama, biography.
• Duration: 195 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 9.

The film is based on the real story of the wealthy industrialist Oskar Schindler. During the Second World War, as a member of the Nazi Party, he spent a lot of energy and money to rescue Jews from concentration camps.

With Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg proved that he can shoot not only entertaining blockbusters about dinosaurs and sharks, but also serious dramas. Outstanding actors Liam Neeson and Rafe Fiennes helped make this story perfect.

3. Bridges of Madison County

• USA, 1995.
• Drama, melodrama.
• Duration: 135 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

At the end of World War II, Italian Francesca married an American and had long come to terms with the fact that she was a simple wife of a farmer. Her monotonous existence is disturbed by photographer Robert Kinkade. Love breaks out between him and Francesca, but they have only four days for the relationship.

Clint Eastwood often appears in the lead roles in films that he himself shoots, and this time the magnificent Meryl Streep performed with him. I must say that in the hands of this skillful director, even a story about an ordinary adultery turns into a heartbreaking drama.

4. Green mile

• USA, 1999.
• Drama.
• Duration: 189 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 6.

Paul Edgecombe works as a death row warden at Cold Mountain Prison. One day, John Coffey comes to them, convicted of rape and murder of two little girls. At first, the newcomer surprises Edgecomb with his height and astonishing calmness. But then it turns out that the giant is also endowed with a special gift.

After the success of The Shawshank Redemption, director Frank Darabont again turned to the work of Stephen King and was right. The touching story conquered both the fans of the writer and those who met the characters only on the screen.

5. Dancing in the dark

• Denmark, 2000.
• Drama.
• Duration: 140 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 0.

Selma, an immigrant, often imagines herself as the heroine of a Hollywood musical; she alone brings up her son and gradually goes blind due to a serious eye disease. In addition, it turns out that the disease is inherited. In the hope of saving her child, the heroine works tirelessly, but falls under the pressure of the US law enforcement system.

Dancer in the Dark, along with the films Breaking the Waves and The Idiots, entered the Heart of Gold cycle, which director Lars von Trier dedicated to female self-sacrifice. In tandem with the Icelandic singer Björk, he managed to perfectly tell a simple human tragedy, in the finale of which it is impossible to hold back tears.

6. Brokeback Mountain

• USA, 2005.
• Drama.
• Duration: 134 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

USA, 60s. Two young guys are hired to graze sheep on Brokeback Mountain. One night, they have an intimate relationship and fall in love. After that, the cowboys go home, get married, raise children, but at the same time continue to meet occasionally.

Ang Lee told the story of forbidden love quite simply, without pathos, and Heath Ledger still plays an extremely laconic and stingy character on emotions. Nevertheless, the final shots, in which one of the heroes sets his shirt into a friend's bloody jacket, went down in the history of cinema as one of the most heartbreaking scenes.

7. Candy

• Australia, 2005.
• Drama.
• Duration: 103 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 2.

The up-and-coming artist Candy falls in love with the poet Dan. Young people are happy together, but drug addiction puts an end to their future. And the lack of money brings the couple to the very bottom of life.

Director Neil Armfield has undeniably succeeded in this hopeless story of self-destruction. At the same time, the picture cannot be called an ordinary film about the harm of dangerous hobbies. And love, as can be seen from the plot, does not always serve as a medicine.

The main trump card of the tape is definitely the game of the late Heath Ledger, who was never afraid of difficult roles.

8. Hachiko: The most loyal friend

• USA, UK, 2009.
• Drama.
• Duration: 93 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

Music professor Parker Wilson is very fond of his dog Hachiko, whom he found as a puppy. Every day the dog escorts the owner to the station and meets him there. The idyll is destroyed when Parker dies during his lecture. But Hachiko continues to wait for the owner and does not want to leave his usual place.

The name of the dog has long become a household name all over the world. Even in Russia, speaking of a heavy dog's share, Hachiko is perhaps now remembered even more often than White Bima Black Ear.

9. Boy in striped pajamas

• UK, USA, 2008.
• War drama.
• Duration: 94 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 8.

The German boy Bruno lives in Berlin and knows nothing about the horrors of World War II. But when his father gets a promotion, the family is forced to move to a remote province. There Bruno has no one to play with, so he explores the surroundings and finds a strange farm with unusual people who walk in pajamas with serial numbers.

Mark Herman's tape was filmed extremely simply, without any directorial delights. But this is its main advantage. Indeed, in contrast, the ending looks so heartbreaking that it is unlikely to be forgotten.

10. Lonely man

• USA, 2009.
• Drama.
• Duration: 99 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Professor George Falconer recently buried his beloved Jim. Now he lives by inertia, from time to time contemplating suicide. But his young student Kenny intends to give the man a sense of existence.

Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, who played the protagonist's girlfriend, have created an incredible acting tandem. They managed to convey all the pain that only two infinitely lonely people can experience.

By the way, the world first of all knows the director Tom Ford as a fashion designer. So the film, in addition, can be safely called one of the most aesthetic dramas in the history of cinema.

11. Dallas Buyers Club

• USA, 2013.
• Drama, biography.
• Duration: 117 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 0.

USA, mid-80s. Texas gimmick Ron Woodroof suddenly finds out that he has terminal AIDS. But the man is not going to lose the disease in the fight for life. Having stepped over his homophobia, he teams up with the transvestite Rayon and illegally obtains drugs in Mexico that have not yet been approved in the United States. At first, Woodroof cares only about himself, but gradually Ron realizes that he can save other HIV-infected people.

Jean-Marc Vallee knows how to shoot stories about people with iron willpower like no one else. At the same time, he does not try to make a saint out of his hero. But the film, thanks to this approach, takes even more of the soul.

In addition to the story itself, the picture is worth seeing for the sake of the actors' play. It was this tape that helped Matthew McConaughey finally get out of the role of a guy from rom-coms. Jared Leto also showed no less fantastic transformation, and both actors were awarded Golden Globes and Oscars.

12. Still Alice

• USA, 2014.
• Drama.
• Duration: 101 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

Linguistics professor Alice Howland has built a brilliant scientific career with an excellent husband and three grown children. But everything changes after a woman, unexpectedly for herself, is lost in a well-known university campus. Doctors give her a terrible diagnosis, rare for her age, - Alzheimer's disease.

While the disorder is early on, Alice manages to lead an almost normal life. But gradually she forgets even the simplest words, and the faces of loved ones are erased from her memory.

For her impeccable performance, Julianne Moore has collected all possible awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe. The actress amazingly managed to show a picture of slow intellectual decay, which will pity the most notorious cynic.

13. Marriage history

• USA, UK, 2019.
• Drama, melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 136 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 9.

Charlie and Nicole are about to get divorced. They are still dear to each other, so they want to disperse peacefully, without lawyers. But unwillingly, the spouses still come to a painful divorce process.

At first glance, the audience has a very simple story - so much so that even the name hints at its ordinariness. But at the same time, the film came out absolutely heartbreaking. In an ordinary Hollywood picture, such characters would have a happy ending. But here it immediately becomes clear that the family happiness of these two is doomed.

The hardest thing to watch is the monstrous scene in which deep inside feelings burst out and the heroes played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson mercilessly wound each other with words.