Movies about Self delusion
Every time someone enters the movie theatre and sits on the chair, for the next two or three hours, they are induced to the act of delusion. When the screen lights up and you experiencing watching a film, your life stops existing and you give your time to someone else completely new, who lives on the other side of the canvas.
Delusion, a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact, has been greatly explored in film since the very beginning. It is utilised as a social critique, a plot device or to show the characters mental situation (being many times related to mental illness). This list features 20 films that, for several reasons, portray the character’s inability to distinguish reality from fantasy and how tragic, or funny, that can be.
1. The Wizard Of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
By Helping kids to understand life, turning adults into better people and inspiring directors and writers to create their own magic world, The Wizard Of Oz became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces and, although it was made in more than seventh five years ago, it still dazzles audiences all over the world.
The story is deliciously simple: a young girl named Dorothy (Judy Garland) travels to a enchanted foreign land with her dog Toto. She encounters the Good Witch who tells her that if she wants to get back home she must follow the yellow brick road and find the Wizard of Oz.
On her way she meets a Scarecrow who wishes to have a brain, a Tin Woodman that wants a heart and a Coward Lion in need of courage. As they fight the adversities on their way, the characters fulfil their wishes, and promises, in the most unique manners.
The movie works with delusion in several levels. Firstly, the predominant action of The Wizard Of Oz takes place in a dream, in which Dorothy fantasises about a colourful world filled with peculiar characters and majestic places, in order to escape her own reality.
Secondly, inside the dream, Dorothy discovers that the great Wizard of Oz is in fact a façade and the whole Land of Oz lives under false assumptions that their leader is a gifted man. Finally, the delusion of greatness, in other words, the constant seek for a better version of ourselves, when we can find that within.
It is impossible to explore the whole context of this film in an article such as this one, however the most important thing about it isn’t understanding every nuance of greater meaning but to experience the spiritual journey it allows you to have, no matter who you are.
2. A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
Based on the homonym play by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire narrates the disgraces of Blanche DuBois, brilliantly played by Vivien Leigh. The lead character arrives to New Orleans to live with her sister and is faced with a degraded home and an hostile environment caused by Stanley (Marlon Brando), her sister’s boyfriend.
Unable to come in terms with each other, Blanche can’t stand Stanley for his abusive nature and he doesn’t like her, considering her a phoney and thinks her pursue for his friend Mitch is suspicious. The claustrophobic situation intensifies as the characters reveal their true intentions.
Delusion is a state of mind shared by all the four main characters. Blanche hides her past life and acts as if she lives in a totally different situation, her lies and delusions are what keep her alive. Stanley believes he’s a good man and looks for forgiveness every time he shows his true colours, as if nothing had ever happened.
Stella lives in the hope that her soon-to-be husband finally changes his behaviours and they can be happy. Mitch is fooled into thinking Blanche is a completely different woman until he is shown who she really is.
A Streetcar Named Desire is, until this day, regarded as one of the best movies of all time, carried by the strong screenplay and the powerful performances.
3. Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)
There were very few films that explored the dark side of Hollywood before Sunset Boulevard. The movie was not only considered groundbreaking at the time, for the way it dealt with the themes of the consequence fame and delusion, but it is actuality still seen as a very important movie that hasn’t aged a bit.
This tragedy starts with the lead character’s body floating on a pool as he narrates the events that led him to his death. The lead character is a unsuccessful screenwriter (William Holden) who decides to take the job of writing the screenplay for the hopeful comeback of silent-era legend Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). From there on, the screenwriter is pushed to stay at her house as she falls in love with him and drags him into her very bizarre world.
At one point of the film responding the affirmation that she used to be a big star, Norma Desmond says: “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small”. This line of dialogue alone shows the state of delusion the lead character lives upon. In fact, the actress was big in the silent-era, but with the change to the “talkies” she lost her fame, the problem is she never quite realised that and kept living as if she is the great star, she once was.
4. Grey Gardens (Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, 1976)
There is no need to search through fiction to get a sense of what it is to live in a state of delusion or decay. Take a look at Grey Gardens, a documentary about the day-to-day life of mother and daughter, Big and Little Edie Beale, ex-socialites and relatives of Jackie Onassis.
In 1971, they were exposed in the news for living in deplorable conditions on their Summer house, in times having one of the most beautiful gardens in New York, and the incident caught the eye of filmmakers Albert and David Maysles (also responsible for Gimme Shelter) who were working on Jacqueline’s sister documentary and opted for showing the Grey Gardens duo.
The most interesting thing about this film is that no brilliant mind could ever thought of such characters as Big and Little Edie, these women were too out of his world to ever be invented. The documentary doesn’t try to accomplish anything in particular and let’s the two eccentric and fascinating leads carry it with their rumbling about accomplishments and regrets, as they face a house that reflects what society has done to them.
For 100 minutes, the viewer is consumed by a very complicated relationship between mother and daughter and their illusions of greatness as they go through life in their own unique way.
5. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
Aronofsky is no strange to the theme of delusion, being somehow portrayed in every single one of his films, but Black Swan takes the lead character’s state of deluding into a whole another level.
Nina (Natalie Portman) is a ballet dancer in New York. Following the principal ballerina departure, in a ballet company, she is casted as the lead dancer in the adaptation of The Swan Lake. Nina can accomplish the white swan easily, but her difficulty to let go of herself causes doubts to director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) if she can play the black swan.
The arrival of a new dancer (Mila Kunis) who threatens to take Nina’s spot, and the constant practice to perfection, take Nina to a breaking point, in which she starts physically transforming into the the black swan.
Arguably one of the best american films of the 21st century, Black Swan is a mysterious and alluring film that pulls the viewer to the centre of the action, as they witness Nina’s descent into madness, and the loss of her own identity, in order to play the black swan. The movie is very affective in showing the character’s delusion with some chilling scenes like the finger cutting, the mirror reflection and, mainly, the climatic final dance.
6. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
“Are you talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here” is one of the most frequently quoted lines in cinema, but few times it is given the right importance to its meaning. De Niro improvised the line while shooting and, perhaps because he was so in character, he understood that it sums up the character’s motivations and reasons why he turned out the way he did.
A mentally damaged Vietnam war veteran decides to work as a taxi driver by night, putting his wasted time with insomnias to good use. As he examines the current state of the city, and awkwardly connects with a beautiful campaign volunteer, for a presidential candidate, and an underage prostitute, violence seems like the only viable solution for his situation.
The cab driver is one of the best cases of anti-heroism in cinema. Excluded by society and living in a city in constant change, the audience sees that every cab ride around New York is like a travel inside the character’s mind, with confusing streets and roads leading up to no where. Roger Elbert described the character in the best way: “We have all felt as alone as Travis. Most of us are better at dealing with it.”.
5 great movies about deception
When scandalous tales of fraud involving superstar athletes Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o were exposed in the last week, connections to films were immediate and obvious. The story of Notre Dame Football hero Te’o falling for a fake dead girlfriend on the Internet called to mind the documentary “Catfish.” And disgraced cyclist Armstrong, who has finally admitted to doping in winning the Tour de France a record seven times, is already the subject of a biopic that’s in the works.
It’s a huge topic that’s been explored in myriad ways on screen, and you’d probably come up with five entirely different choices, but here are my picks for five great movies about deception:
— “Vertigo” (1958): Speaking of fake dead women. . One of Alfred Hitchock’s best, it also feels incredibly personal — stylish and frightening, of course but also achingly sad. Yes, Jimmy Stewart is being manipulated, being duped into serving as part of a murder plot. And he’s foolish enough to let himself fall in love with Kim Novak’s doomed, quintessentially icy Hitchcockian blonde not once but twice. But he’s also deceiving himself, allowing his need for love to feed his obsessive quest to recreate that sensation all over again. Much is made of some of the film’s most famous images — the push/pull effect as Stewart’s character fights off his vertigo in the bell tower, the eerie, neon-green haze of the hotel room. But at its core, “Vertigo” is about needing to feel secure and loved.
— “Some Like It Hot” (1959): Named the greatest comedy of all time by the American Film Institute, the Billy Wilder classic is also predicated on one big, wacky lie. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon pretend to be women to escape the clutches of mob thugs after they witness a massacre. Musicians Joe and Jerry change their names to Josephine and Daphne and join Sweet Sue’s All-Girl Orchestra, where they befriend sexy singer Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe in one of her most Marliynish roles ever. The laughs come from how utterly unbelievable these men are as women, but also from how they try to maintain this elaborate ruse as both their emotions and their enemies close in on them.
— “The Usual Suspects” (1995): The movie itself is one big lie — a seemingly simple caper mystery that grows enormously complicated with layer upon layer of twists and tricks. I am not even going to begin to try to explain the plot — if you’ve seen it, you know it, and if you haven’t, you should. And then you, too, can say out loud, “A ha!” It’s the movie that put director Bryan Singer on the map and it won both of the Oscars for which it was nominated: for Christopher McQuarrie’s clever and complex original screenplay and for Kevin Spacey’s chilling supporting turn as the chatty (and unreliable) witness Verbal Kint.
— “Infernal Affairs” (2002): A loyal young member of the mob infiltrates the police force and an undercover cop works his way deep within the mafia. Years later, each man must sniff out the mole in the other’s organization — each man must find the other. Sound familiar? That’s because this hugely suspenseful Hong Kong thriller was the basis for “The Departed,” the 2006 film that finally earned Martin Scorsese his long-overdue Academy Award for best director (along with prizes for best picture, adapted screenplay and editing). The lies and cover stories must remain airtight, even as crises of identity and purpose begin to creep into the characters’ consciousness. Andy Lau and Tony Leung are both great as two sides of the same coin who must tap into their resourcefulness as the danger of being exposed increases.
— “Compliance”: This movie made me so angry while I was watching it. How could anybody be so stupid? How could anybody be tricked into falling for such outlandish manipulation? But that’s where the power comes from in writer-director Craig Zobel’s startling film with its understated performances: This did happen, over and over, across the country. He’s just exposing an element of human nature we’d rather suppress. A prank phone caller pretending to be a police officer (Pat Healy) tells the middle-aged manager of a fast-food restaurant (Ann Dowd) that a young, pretty employee (Dreama Walker) has stolen money from a customer, and leads her though a series of increasingly invasive, degrading investigative steps. Everyone goes along with this charade — no one thinks to question it — and all you can do is sit in your seat and watch, and squirm.
THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND Movie: A Study in Self-Delusion
Those who know me personally already know that I have no adoration for the hippies of yesteryear. The little documentary I chanced upon the other day, THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND on Prime, is a perfect example of why.
Let me be the first one to admit that I don’t like war. I don’t think any rational person loves the idea of a war. However, the whole idea of protesting a war by BLOWING UP BUILDINGS is abhorrent and ridiculous to me. You don’t protest violence with more violence. Not unless you’re so far out of touch with reality that you can’t realize the veracity of that statement.
These nuts who were in The Weathermen – an extremist offshoot of the hippie protest antiwar group Students for a Democratic Society – are beyond the pale in terms of not having the basic common sense that God gave to a goat. And all goats want to do is eat.
These complete lunatics think if they plant bombs at certain targets, like governmental buildings, they’ll change the world, one explosion at a time. Whoa, boy! They were too stupid and/or narcissistic and/or delusional to realize they were only making total asses of themselves. They were just making themselves targets of investigation by the FBI. Surprise, surprise, Weathermen! If you blow a government building to smithereens, PEOPLE ARE NOT GOING TO ADORE YOU!
At one point these self-proclaimed druggie peaceniks plan on blowing up a dance for non-commissioned officers at Fort Dix. My parents might very well have been at that dance. It doesn’t happen, though. Their bomb-makers at thier townhouse in Manhattan are so screwed up, probably on LSD or worse, that they blow their townhouse up instead.
Yesterday I just happened to be in Manhattan and found the new townhouse that was rebuilt on the site of the one these morons destroyed. It’s just unbelievable that this sort of event ever happened in the first place.
The group subsequently went into hiding which was good news for the rest of humanity. Unfortunately when they were found or turned themselves in, most didn’t go punished because of problems in the way the FBI handled their investigation! They live among us again, though I’d never want to know any of them socially.
However, here’s the best part of the movie. One of these totally self-deluded jerks states in the movie, as if flabbergasted by the very thought, that the American public has been “conditioned” to believe anyone who uses violence to make a statement is either “a criminal” or “mentally ill.”
He ještě doesn’t realize, not even in 2002 when this movie was made, that he belongs in a jail for the criminally insane.
Sdílet tento:
- Kliknutím sdílejte na reddit (otevře se v novém okně)
- Kliknutím sdílejte na Twitteru (otevře se v novém okně)
- Kliknutím sdílejte na Pinterest (otevře se v novém okně)
- Kliknutím sdílejte na Tumblr (otevře se v novém okně)
- Kliknutím sdílejte na Facebooku (otevře se v novém okně)
- Kliknutím odešlete odkaz příteli e-mailem (otevře se v novém okně)
- Moře
We collect Movies about Self delusion rating based on ratings and reviews on popular services. To collect Movies about Self delusion we analyze rendition, popular services, comments, people reviews, forum comments and make our own rating. If you think there is a movie missing in the selection, you can leave a comment with the name of the movie that should be included in the selection. Let’s make a rating Movies about Self delusion together!
