Pessimistic films, part I

Philosophical or cosmic pessimism revolves around the conclusion that the phenomenon of life is not special to the universe, that suffering is intrinsic to sentient existence, and therefore, our ethical response should be to reject existence. The films I will present here show a universe that doesn't care about our suffering, our struggles, or our desires for improvement. These films can be interpreted from this perspective from beginning to end, or at least have striking passages that touch on this idea. While I will provide a synopsis of each film, I will not go into detail or analyze each character or scene. What I will provide is merely a general overview. This list is not exhaustive, and I plan to add new films in the future.

Warning: this list contains spoilers.

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The Sunset Limited, 2011, directed by Tommy Lee Jones

The film is based on a play by Cormac McCarthy, the same author of the book (which spawned the film) No Country for Old Men. The structure of The Sunset Limited is minimalist. The entire story takes place in a small apartment in a poor area of ​​the richest city in the world, New York. There are only two characters talking. During the conversation, we discover that the characters met that morning, and one of them, a religious man, prevented the other from committing suicide by throwing himself in front of a subway train. From there, questions arise about the religious faith of one and the extremely dark nihilism of the other. There is an excellent exposition of pessimistic thought in which the nihilist explains to the religious man that evolution inevitably produces animals capable of understanding the futility of the entire process of life and that the logical conclusion of this process is suicide. At one point, the religious man asks: “If I understand correctly, you mean that everyone who is not an imbecile should commit suicide?”, to which the nihilist responds affirmatively.

Chinatown, 1974, directed by Roman Polanski

A neo-noir classic, the film is set in the 1950s and follows Jake Gittes, a private detective who uncovers a plot by powerful individuals to acquire valuable land in California at a price far below its market value. During the investigation, Jake becomes involved with the daughter of one of these powerful individuals, Evelyn Cross, who was raped by her father, Noah Cross, when she was just 15. The rape resulted in a daughter. Jake tries to help the two women escape to Mexico, but the plan backfires. Noah and his henchmen discover the hiding place of his daughter and granddaughter in Los Angeles' Chinatown. There, the police are already waiting for them, ready to serve the powerful Noah. Evelyn refuses to return with her father and tries to flee by car with her daughter-sister. The police shoot at the vehicle, killing Evelyn with a shot to the head. Noah takes his granddaughter away and the police release Jake, as Noah's main goal was just to get his daughters back, especially his granddaughter, who he will probably rape for the rest of his life.

Aniara, 2018, directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja

The film is based on Harry Martinson's epic poem. In the not-so-distant future, Earth's ecosystems are devastated, and people are moving to Mars. Aniara, a luxurious spaceship, takes thousands of passengers from Earth to Mars in three weeks. On what was supposed to be a routine trip, Aniara is struck by debris from another spaceship and, to avoid exploding, ejects its nuclear fuel. This incapacitates Aniara, which can no longer be guided and is now heading in a random direction, toward the constellation Lyra. The captain and crew try to hide this to avoid panic among the passengers, but gradually the truth is revealed. Some passengers fall into despair, others into hedonism. In the fourth year, the number of suicides increases, and fertility cults emerge. The protagonist and her girlfriend, Isagel, take part in an orgy, and Isagel becomes pregnant. The protagonist is happy, but Isagel begins to lose hope. In the fifth year, after failed attempts to repair Aniara, Isagel drowns her baby and then commits suicide. In the tenth year, the protagonist receives a medal from the captain and notices that his wrists have bandages over cuts. The algae tanks, which were used to produce oxygen and food over the years, become contaminated. In the twenty-fourth year, the protagonist and a few survivors are in darkness, blind, meditating over the memories of warm sunlight. In the year 5,981,407, Aniara, devoid of life for millions of years, passes in front of a greenish planet in the constellation Lyra.

Seven, 1995, directed by David Fincher

Detective William Somerset, who is about to retire, takes on one last case with newcomer detective David Mills. The case involves a serial killer who murders his victims according to the seven deadly sins. The first victims represent gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, and pride. Over the course of the investigation, Somerset and Mills become close. Somerset is invited to dinner by Mills and his wife. Days later, she reveals to Somerset that she is pregnant with Mills's child, something Mills doesn't yet know. Before the detectives can get any closer to the mysterious killer, he turns himself in to the police and, through his lawyer, reveals that there are two more victims buried in the desert outside the city. However, the killer will only reveal the location if Somerset and Mills go alone with him to the location. Arriving there, a delivery truck appears on the dirt road. Somerset intercepts it, leaving Mills with the killer, who is handcuffed and on his knees. Somerset opens the box handed to him by the truck driver, who had nothing to do with the story, and inside sees the head of Mills's wife. Somerset rushes to try to disarm Mills, but the killer reveals what he did, adding that Mills's wife was pregnant and that he killed her out of envy (one of the deadly sins) of Mills's life. Somerset tries to convince Mills not to shoot the killer, but Mills breaks down and empties the clip into the lunatic's head, becoming wrath, the seventh deadly sin.

The Vanishing (Spoorloos), 1988, directed by George Sluizer

Rex and Saskia are a couple traveling between the Netherlands and France by car. After a roadside argument in which Rex gets out of the car and leaves Saskia alone, they make up, and Saskia makes Rex promise never to abandon her again. Further along, at a busy roadside gas station, Saskia disappears after going to buy soda. Three years pass, Rex has a new girlfriend, but he's never let go of finding Saskia, paying for posters and even appearing on TV to beg the kidnapper to at least tell him what happened. The kidnapper, a university chemistry professor, contacts Rex and offers to show what happened to Saskia. He picks up Rex in the Netherlands and, on the drive to France, tells Rex that he discovered he was a sociopath as a teenager, but that he went on to have a family and live a normal life. One day, while out with his daughters, he saved a little girl from drowning. There, he begun to wonder if, beyond saving a life, he was also capable of something horrible. He offers Rex the chance to know exactly what happened to Saskia, but only if Rex takes a sleeping drug. Rex is reluctant, but his anguish compels him to take the drug. Moments later, he awakens to find himself buried in a coffin and despairs. This had been Saskia's fate years before: to die slowly, buried alive. The killer goes on with his life as normal.

Melancholia, 2011, directed by Lars von Trier

The film begins at Justine's disastrous wedding reception at the mansion of her sister and brother-in-law, Claire and John. Various dramas ensue, and Justine's marriage ends right there. However, before all the commotion, John, who enjoys astronomy, notices that a star is missing in the sky, but no one pays attention. In the second part of the film, Justine, who is deeply depressed, is brought to the mansion. We then discover the reason why the star was obscured that night, months ago: a rogue planet, drifting aimlessly through space, was blocking its light, heading toward Earth. Claire fears a collision, but John tries to reassure her, stating that the scientific consensus is that there is no danger, as the planet, named Melancholia, will pass Earth without hitting us. Melancholia is several times larger than Earth, and if it were to collide with us, it would annihilate all life. In an iconic passage, Justine tells Claire that there is no life outside of Earth, that she can sense that we are alone in the universe. She also says that all life is evil and deserves to end, something she claims Melancholia will do when it collides with our planet. Finally, the day Melancholia collides with Earth arrives. John, who believed in the scientific consensus, realizes that Melancholia will actually collide with Earth and commits suicide. Claire, desperate, clings to Justine in her final moments. Justine, however, is at peace with total annihilation.

The Mist, 2007, directed by Frank Darabont

Adapted from a Stephen King short story, the story takes place in a small town in the American countryside that is covered by a mysterious mist, harboring within it abominable and bloodthirsty monsters. Dozens of people take refuge in the town market. Desperate and divided by religious fanaticism, some humans begin to want to kill each other. A group of sensible people, including a father, David, and his young son, manage to escape the chaos by getting into one of the cars in the parking lot. Led by David, they drive for hours searching for the end of the mist, but find only death and destruction. The mist and the monsters seem to have taken over the planet. Armed with a single revolver and a few bullets, the adults decide to commit suicide, while David's son, the only child, sleeps. David shoots everyone, including his son, but runs out of bullets. Desperate, he gets out of the car, expecting to be devoured by the monsters, but nothing happens. That's when we see a large battalion of heavily armed armored vehicles and tanks, killing and setting fire to the creatures. Seeing that they were about to be saved, David begins to scream.

Vivarium, 2019, directed by Lorcan Finnegan

Tom and Gemma visit a real estate agency and meet a strange employee named Martin, who introduces them to the concept of Yonder, a neighborhood of standardized houses. Martin convinces the couple to check out Yonder, and after visiting a house, Tom and Gemma are abandoned there. The two try for hours to leave Yonder, but no matter which route they take, they end up back at the same house. One day, a box containing a baby is left in front of the house. Inside are instructions telling them to raise the baby. Other boxes mysteriously arrive with food. The baby grows faster than a human child. Tom tries to kill the boy, but Gemma won't let him; however, as the months pass, she regrets it. The boy grows into a strong adult who dresses like Martin, and looks just like him. Essentially, the couple's job was to raise the baby of this strange alien species. Tom dies, and Gemma sees other couples imprisoned in other compounds, but it's all in vain. Nearing death, she asks what the mother's role is. The new Martin responds that a mother raises the boy and dies. In the end, the new Martin arrives at the real state agency just in time to put the old Martin in a body bag.

Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna), 1962, directed by Ingmar Bergman

The film begins with Lutheran pastor Tomas finishing a midday service in a Swedish village. Among those present are Marta, who dated Tomas after his wife's death, Jonas, a fisherman, and Karin, his wife, who is pregnant with another child. Also present are the organist, Fredrik, and the sacristan, Algot. After the service, Karin takes Jonas to talk with Tomas. She reveals that Jonas is depressed and frightened by the state of things in the world, especially the threat of nuclear war. They talk briefly, but Jonas promises to return in half an hour so that he and the pastor can talk alone. After the couple leaves, Marta enters the office to comfort Tomas. He says he doesn't know if he can help Jonas, since he is just as depressed and faithless. Half an hour later, Jonas returns. Tomas initially tries to counsel him, but eventually confesses that he also has no faith and feels abandoned by God. He recounts that, as a young man, he witnessed the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and was unable to reconcile the image of a benevolent God with the atrocities he witnessed — so he decided to ignore them. He asserts that the world becomes intelligible when we deny God's existence, because then the cruelty of existence and of humankind doesn't need to be explained: it just happens, without a reason. Jonas leaves and commits suicide by blowing his brains out with his rifle. Later, Algot speaks alone with Tomas and asserts that much is said about Jesus' physical suffering and little about his mental suffering. Algot recalls that, while hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out to God and received silence in return. He asks Tomas if God's silence is worse than physical pain, to which Tomas answers yes. Meanwhile, Fredrik tells Marta that it's best for her to leave that place, lest her dreams be destroyed like all the inhabitants there.

Network, 1976, directed by Sidney Lumet

The film, set in the 1970s, revolves around Howard Beale, a widowed, alcoholic news anchor who decides to air his frustrations when he receives the news that he will be fired due to low ratings. His speech generates strong commotion and a surge in viewers. The network executives then begin to use Beale as a sensationalist presenter. Despite seeing himself as an idealist, we discover that he is simply being used by those in power. When he goes off script one night, he ends up damaging the flow of money among the powerful. For this, Beale is reprimanded by the owner of the television conglomerate, Mr. Jensen. Jensen explains to Beale that there are no democracies, no dictatorships, no capitalism, no communism, no socialism, but rather a flow of money and power that controls all human will, regardless of creed, culture, religion, ideology, and that this flow has no purpose, it has simply occurred since human beings emerged from the slime.

Meal Ticket (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), 2018, directed by the Coen brothers

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a film composed of short stories set in the Old West. I'll discuss the third one, titled Meal Ticket. The story follows two men, one old, the other young and disabled, having been born without arms or legs, making him completely dependent on the old man. They are traveling entertainers, traveling from one small town to another in a wagon driven by the old man. In the town squares, the young man performs, reciting poems by Percy Shelley and speeches by former presidents. At first, they draw large audiences. Over time, the audiences dwindle. The old man begins drinking and becomes irritated by the burden of caring for the disabled young man. One night, the old man sees an excited audience watching a chicken that supposedly knows how to do math. After the performance, he buys the chicken, not realizing it was all a cheap trick. Then, on a deserted dirt road between the snow-covered mountains, the old man stops the cart next to a bridge that crosses a river and, after thinking for a moment, throws the poor disabled man into the icy waters.

by Fernando Olszewski