Top 5 movies and TV shows on mental illness that every woman needs to watch

Top 5 movies and TV shows on mental illness that every woman needs to watch

Some movies and TV shows took a daring step towards portraying matters as complicated as

postpartum depression while others took a look at fading memories.

Mental illness is perhaps one of the most ignored facts about a person’s overall health. While the subject continues to remain a matter of dispute among several academic and culture circles, over the last few years a massive attempt has been made to spread awareness about the illness. Although over the years it has been discovered that women become easy victims of mental illness as compared to men. Several factors can work on this such as the gender discrimination, postpartum condition, and women’s tendency to suffer from frequent panic attacks.

The stigma around mental health has been one of the most demeaning factors when it came to raise awareness about mental illness. However, several attempts have been made in order to put an end to such stigma surrounding mental illness. Hollywood has increasingly made an attempt to bring out stories concerning mental illness. Several well-known directors and actors have participated in creating stories on screen that help bring out stories of individuals who suffer from mental illness, whose stories have remained obscure for the longest time.

As we watch more such stories, here are the top five films and TV shows that have helped depict the stories of women suffering from mental illness:

  1. Mother! - Darren Afronosky’s 2017 movie was a revolution on its own. Barely touching upon the concept which formed the tip of the story of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, the movie gives the tale of a pregnant mother who fears the welfare of her family when her husband begins to invite unknown guests in their newly bought house. Jennifer Lawrence’s The Mother suffers from paranoia when she tries to reason with her husband the cause behind her fitful panics. While the movie, on one hand, is an aesthetic charm in filmmaking, on the other hand it projected a new mother’s suffering from postpartum depression- something which was carried on only a year later in BBC One’s ‘The Cry’.

 

 

  1. The Cry - The four-episode long mini-series based on Helen Fitzgerald’s titular novel revolves around a mystery of a missing baby. As we are introduced to the young mother, Joanna (played by Jenna Coleman), her story begins with her difficulty in coping with pregnancy. The mother’s state of depression and the impending mystery of the missing baby run parallel in the story, and Joanna’s continuous falling in and out of that darkness forms the foundation of the show. Under several circumstances the show expresses the complex flood of emotions which she feels when she fears both her baby’s presence and absence. This can be treated like a much-needed modern retelling of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ where the author herself penned down the first sci-fi while being heavily affected by postpartum depression.

 

 

  1. Melancholia - Coming from director  Lars von Trier, the film is the second installment in von Trier’s unofficially titled ‘Depression Trilogy’- the other two in which being ‘Antichrist’ and ‘Nymphomaniac’. What strikes out von Trier’s second installment is the fact that the protagonist’s state of mind is depicted through the changes in the surrounding environment. When we meet Kristen Dunst’ Justine, she is already sitting in her bridal wear with leaves falling all around her, and a sundial with two distinct colours on either sides. Soon we see a horse collapsing in slow motion as Justine is being swept away by the river where her dress tangles in plants and leaves. This takes us back to the practice of associating emotion with nature as was done by the Romantics back in the 18th century.

 

 

  1. Still Alice -  Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland directed-indie movie brings out the story of a college professor suffering from Alzheimer’s disease- a condition where the patient suffers from dementia at the onset of old age. The movie, which is an adaptation of Lisa Genova’s 2007 novel, was basically made immediately after Glatzer was diagnosed with the disease. Hence, as expected the protagonist had a personal touch which made it easier to relate as compared to what we had seen in ‘The Notebook’ that was nothing more than a romanticized version of the suffering.

 

  1. To The Bone - The movie attempted something which was not attempted on cinema before. Picking up from a real life incident the Marti Noxon-directed movie follows a 20-year-old college dropout, Ellen played by Lily Collins, suffering from anorexia- a condition where a patient loses the interest and ultimately an interest to eat. However, Ellen’s case was even more complex as she also suffered from bouts of depression which would often make her resist the treatment. It finally came to a halt when Ellen heard her mother speak to her about her life, and she ultimately gave in to the treatment thus making an attempt to be cured of the disease.