Written as part of the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join us by picking three movies that fit the week's theme - it's fun and easy!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Movies with devastating crushing endings that make you want to weep, huh? Well... I've already used
Dancer In The Dark and
Imitation of Life in other weeks... And to be honest, most movies with devastating crushing endings just make me feel depressed and/or angry, and most movies that make me want to weep do so from something that may be sad, but is also beautiful in a way. This topic calls for something beyond both of those. It took some digging and soul-searching, but I found three films that will give you the ugliest of ugly cry-faces:
West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961) In my opinion, the best screen version of
Shakespeare's immortal
Romeo & Juliet. And it's even more devastating than its original source material, in part because it allows Juliet (in this case, Natalie Wood's Maria) to live. Watching Maria take her anger out on those who allowed the tragedy to happen, only to crumple to her knees in tears after she is unable to pull the trigger proves far more devastating than Shakespeare's original double-suicide ending. Add in the underscore, a mournful reprise of Tony and Maria's love theme (which was, let's be honest, already a pretty sad song), and it's definitely a recipe for weeping.
La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954) I love many things about
La Strada, beginning with my beloved Giulietta Masina's great performance as the simple Gelsomina, a young woman who gets sold to a brutish strongman as replacement for her sister (who died while working for him). He teaches her to play instruments and clown a little to help him make money. Eventually she meets another street performer, a clown and high-wire artist, and a love triangle emerges. Anthony Quinn's primal wail by the water after learning the fate of his beloved Gelsomina is as heart-wrenching a sound as was ever put on film.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1928) There are great films, and then there is Carl Th. Dreyer's
The Passion of Joan of Arc. There are great performances, and then there is Falconetti in
The Passion of Joan of Arc. There are films with devastating, crushing endings that make you want to weep, and then there is
The Passion of Joan of Arc. Do yourself a favor and watch it with noise-cancelling headphones on. There isn't a more stunning silent experience in cinema.
