To ask for the most profound films you have ever seen? *contains spoilers*

[username108]

Mine would be - Tokyo Story, Mulholland drive, Mary and Max, Good will hunting, Whats eating Gilbert Grape, Forrest Gump

The United Kingdom
Schindler’s List

The butterfly effect

Room- couldn’t stop thinking about it for days..

@ gettingfedupagain

Ok, all you people rating MULHOLLAND DRIVE, please explain it to me as it confused the life out of me

OK. I'll give it a go...

My first thought is Good. I'm glad you're confused by it.

I've watched it half a dozen times now and I still don't know what it's 'about'. But it deeply affects me each time I see it.

I'm not sure films have to have an explainable 'plot' to work. Why do they need one? Music doesn't need plot to move me. Why should film?

I just love the sense of bewilderment Mulholland Drive gives me. I love the dream/nightmare-like disconnectedness of it all. We are so programmed to try and make stories out of information we are given. It's our way of make sense of the world - and it's interesting and disturbing when we can't. Personally I suspect the whole of the film takes place inside one the characters' heads. A dream. And I suspect it's a different character's dream every time I see it.

None of it is real. It's all fake. (It's set in Hollywood after all!) But like the film director in it says : "So don't play it for real until it gets real" which is either the most pretentious piece of direction or a profound truth which I have still to unravel.

Hope that helps.

Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan.....I thought I'd have to leave during that opening 20 minutes or so, I'd never seen anything like it
More recently I watched a film about fire fighters in America, trying to contain a forest fire. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it was based on a true story in which a whole team bar one died after a fire turned and caught them out. I was so shocked, I hadn't anticipated that at all and it was incredibly upsetting as most were in their twenties and had young families.

I think Rain Man deserves a mention. I know it's probably partially responsible for certain stereotypes but it was the first time I'd really heard about autism and I was in tears by the end.

PsychoSyd Koyaanisqatsi
I came on to say the same. I’ve watched it countless times.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=PirH8PADDgQ

ladybirdsarelovely33
Pixar have some beautifully profound moments throughout their films about childhood, growing up etc. The imaginary friend in Inside Out, Sully leaving Boo in Monsters Inc, the opening sequence of Up.

For me, a lot have already been mentioned.
What's eating Gilbert Grape.
Lost in Translation.
Inside Out.
Girl, interrupted.

I would add Garden State. I watched it so many times in my mid 20s and I'm still not sure I actually understood it all but I always finished it feeling slightly more positive about my life and that things move on.

American beauty. Though Kevin Spacey stuff cast a shadow over it :(.

One flew over the cuckoos nest.

Only the Brave was the film I watched. True story and at the end they showed a picture of the actor who'd played one of the nineteen who died with a photo of the person they'd played and their info. Found by chance flicking through Netflix one day and ended up in tears. Brilliant film.

Philomena. It’s loosely based around real events. I cried and cried.

I came on to say The Killing Fields too. I saw it at the cinema as a teenager. It's the only film I've ever seen where at the end the audience just sat in a stunned silence... and then broke into applause. Very moving.

Agree with the PP who made the point that The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a very problematic text. IMO this is one of the occasions where the film was superior to the book. Herman is bolder than Boyne in his portrayal of the Nazis as normal citizens rather than 2D cardboard cutouts: lending the uncomfotable conclusion that they might be more like us than we care to admit. It's one of many reasons why it made for such uncomfortable viewing. Have to say I preferred Life is Beautiful and Europa Europa.

Beloved is one of my favourite books. I loathed the film.

Remains of the Day also wins points for me: it's a study in inhibition made so believable by Anthony Hopkins' performance. He was mesmerising.

Most profound and harrowing for me by a country mile is The Broken Circle Breakdown. This one's not a weeper but a full-on red eyes and snot fest. It's an unusually beautiful piece of film making, from the cinematography to the awesome soundtrack.

This thread is going to cost me a fortune on amazon prime 😂🙈

So, so many of these but Im a little ashamed to admit that the film that touched me the most was The Fisherking.
The bit where he tells the girl how much he knows about her has me in pieces every time.

Shawshank Redemption came to mind straight away.

Philadelphia did too.

The Green Mile
La Vita E Bella
My Neighbour Totoro
A Monster Calls
Pan's Labyrinth
Sixth Sense

Last year at Marienbad.
Dancer in the dark.

@mecabag
I was thinking the same.

So glad a couple of people have said Philadelphia. My favourite film of all time.

Requiem for a Dream is fantastic.
Brokeback Mountain breaks my heart.

For the people who have mentioned Hotel Rwanda, try Shooting Dogs. Same subject matter but a bit less "Hollywood". Very harrowing.

Does anyone remember the animation 'When the Wind Blows'? I saw it as a kid and it still haunts me.

Never let me go

So many brilliant firms mentioned.

Parasite - my number one film from this year, you know a film is great when you're still discussing it several days later. Not to mention that a few days after seeing it the first time i went to see it again, and noticed little things i didn't the first time. It gets better everytime you see it. Totally deserved it's Oscar.
The Counterfeiters
Breathing
Mozart and the Whale - one of the few films about autism i approve of. Josh Hartnett is surprisingly good playing an autistic guy. It's one of my favourites because it doesn't sugarcoat the reality of autism but it isn't relentlessly negative either. It's a unique autistic love story and you don't see many of those.
Stalingrad (the original german one, not the russian one from 2014)
A Taxi Driver
Joint Security Area
The Thirst
Any Day Now - one of only two films (the other being Parasite) that made me cry like a small child at the cinema. I mean proper unable to cry in silence crying. It's about a boy with down syndrome, his mother is a drug addict and he's left to wander. A gay couple end up fostering him, but it's the 1970s and they have to cover up that fact. They love and care for him more than his real parents ever will, but apparently that doesn't count for anything. To make it worse it's a true story. Yeah, the end was not a happy one.

Glad to see I, Daniel Blake on so many lists. I haven't seen it because, as a benefits adviser, it'd be a bit like a day at work.

Good call there to avoid watching it. I avoided watching it because i thought it would hit too close to home. Then i saw it was on the bbc, and i stupidly took a little look. Couldn't stop watching of course, that was the second most depressing saturday of my life. It made me realise that whilst I'm unfortunate in the sense of needing to claim benefits at least i have some idea about navigating the system and I'm not completely alone dealing with it.