2 Comments
User's avatar
Scott Garbacz's avatar

Just out of curiosity--what would be the top 3 movies actually dealing with trauma?

I've been thinking of going on a grief-film kick lately, starting with Three Colors: Blue (maybe an odd choice, but hitting things from strange angles is one of the joys of films), and am not sure where to go next.

Expand full comment
Sarah Welch-Larson's avatar

That's a very broad prompt! Movies that deal with trauma could be about actually going through it in the moment, about the fallout, about recovery from physical or psychic injury, about grief...it's a malleable concept. Every other horror movie that's been released since 2017 is "about trauma." I don't know that I'd go with "top three" for that reason, but a few titles that run the spectrum:

Loss of a family member: After Yang (2023, dir. Kogonada). I wrote about this one from a personal angle for Bright Wall/Dark Room here: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2022/11/02/saying-goodbye/

Cultural (as opposed to simply "personal" trauma): Ida (2013, dir. Pawel Pawlikowski).

Injury/illness/Going Through It: Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, dir. Agnès Varda)

Expand full comment