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Mental Illness in Films

5 films to tune you in for NOUS 8 - The Play Issue. Curated and written by Courtney Button Edited by George Odysseos www.whiskeyinhand.com

Mental health is still one of the most under represented and misunderstood aspects of human wellbeing. The film industry has rarely been one to give even handed representations of mental illness, which has often acted as a shorthand for murderous psychopath. However, sometimes the movies get it right and, with the stigma of mental illness slowly being eradicated, there is now a plethora of films that tackle the subject with sensitivity and realism. Art is uniquely positioned in its ability to effectively convey the feelings and effects of mental ill health to people who wouldn’t otherwise have had that experience. Likewise, the medium of film acts as an effective distributor of this empathic thinking through its presence in mass media and access to large audiences. It is through art and film that the stigma of mental ill health can be broken down and the fog and fear around mental illness demystified. Here are five films that look at mental health from refreshing viewpoints.

Frank (2014)

Based very loosely on the life of Timperley legend Chris Sievey, known to most as Frank Sidebottom, Frank is a very funny but touching film that addresses some of the little talked about truths of mental illness. Jon, a wanna-be musician, ends up becoming the keyboard player for the band The Soronprfbs, whose lead singer and songwriter, Frank, constantly wears a giant papier-mâché head. Frank is a unique individual who see things in a different way to other people. He has a positive outlook on life and makes up songs about things like a pulled thread on a blanket. He is happy with who he is, and creates what some might call a rather esoteric brand of music, but it is music that he likes. Jon, meanwhile, uses the internet to gain popularity for the Soronprfbs. The pressure from Jon and expectant fans pushes Frank out of his comfort zone and out of control. The film shows the effects that pressure and expectation can have on the mental well-being of people. It also, despite Frank’s over the top head, takes a very real look at mental health and mental illness. When Jon finds Frank at his home and meets his parents Jon expects stories of an unstable childhood, of abuse or trauma, something to explain Frank’s behaviour. He doesn’t find it. Frank had a perfectly happy and healthy childhood. As Frank’s father reveals, ‘Nothing happened to him. He’s got a mental illness.’ Frank’s mental health isn’t the results of something that’s happened to him. It’s just who he is. It makes him highly creative and unique from other people.

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Ok (2006) Korean director Park Chan-wook is best known for his work on the excellent revenge thriller Oldboy. I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Ok is a completely different work. Cha Young-goon, a young woman working in a factory, is taken to a mental institution after she plugs herself into a power socket. She wasn’t an attempt at suicide, but rather trying to recharge her batteries as she believes she is a cyborg. There she meets Park Il-sun, a young man who is a kleptomaniac and who is often seen wearing a cardboard mask and scuttling like a crab. I’m a Cyborg is an offbeat romcom, kind of like When Harry Met Sally if Sally wore her grandmother’s false teeth and talked to strip lights and Harry had an itchy bum cheek whenever he played ping pong. The film has a heightened sense of reality, sometimes moving into fantasy, much like Amelie. More importantly, the film shows two people coming together and trying to help and make each other happy, not by trying to fix each other’s mental health, but by helping them cope with how they are. They find each other in this unusual situation and, rather than being scared or put off by mental illness, they are brought together by it. They want the other person to be happy and are willing to become part of their world to do so. Though there are of course doctors present in the institution there is never any talk of curing the patients of their mental illness, they are being helped in their efforts to live with their illness.

Harvey (1950)

Elwood P. Dowd is friendly, kind, caring, handsome and charming. He has time and kind words for everybody and a sunny outlook on life. He also happens to have an invisible friend who is a six foot three inch (we must be precise about these things) white rabbit named Harvey. This one fact causes him to be an embarrassment to his family and a pariah to the well-to-do members of the community.  They find his hallucination, if it is indeed such a thing, to be frightening and a cause for alarm despite the fact that Elwood wouldn’t even think of ever harming anyone. Harvey confronts the viewer not with the negativity of mental illness, but the reactionary behaviour of those who experience it from the outside. Elwood’s family only see the damage that it does to their standing in society and their prospects for marriage and friends. They even attempt to commit Elwood to an insane asylum. This ends up showing the deficiencies of the mental health system of the time (the film was made in the 1950’s) as Elwood’s sister is institutionalised as her upset at her brother’s condition is misdiagnosed as her own mental illness. Watching Harvey you never feel scared of Elwood or what he might do; rather, you worry what might happen to him as people attempt to tackle his mental health. The film asks you to confront your own perceptions of mental illness. This perfectly lovely man’s only crime is that he sees a giant invisible rabbit. Is that so wrong?

Inside Out (2015)

Pixar have always been at the head of the pack when it comes to animated movies with a wealth of intelligent, entertaining and funny films produced from their studio. Inside Out is one of their very best. Situated mainly inside the mind of a young girl called Riley, the characters of the film are the five core emotions that control Riley’s mind. Riley is hit with a life-changing experience when her family moves to a different city and she is faced with having to start a life in a place she doesn’t know far away from her friends. This causes a significant change in her character and becomes a formative experience. Pixar have always undertaken a lot of research when creating their films and if you’ve seen their Toy Story series you will know that they can handle emotional change better than anyone else. This time they spent months talking to psychologists and scientists to break down the mental changes that happen to children as they hit puberty. Inside Out looks at emotions and a person’s mental makeup in an intelligent way while making complete sense of a very complicated process. It is also tremendous fun, managing to include high brow quips about abstract thought and a recurring joke about an ear worm toothpaste ad jingle. The film has multiple layers and includes some interesting hidden easter eggs that you won’t see first time, such as references to Riley’s father’s anger problem and hints at Riley’s own sexuality.

It’s Such Beautiful Day (2012)

The Second animation on this list is from Don Hertzfeldt, the creator of the weird animation short Rejected. Bill, the main character, struggles with his fracturing psyche and failing mental health. The film takes us through Bill’s experiences with his life being narrated by Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt’s hand drawn animations and 2-D stick-figure characters offer a style that is almost the polar opposite of the rich computer animation used by Pixar, but Hertzfeldt makes it no less compelling or interesting. his animations are surreal but this adds to the fractured and confused nature of Bill’s mind. Hertzfeldt plays around with the frame of the film to illustrate what it is like for Bill in his world. Bill’s world mostly exists in a small circle which is surrounded by black. When Bill’s mental state fractures, such as when he is given new medication, the border to Bill’s world becomes animated, burning with fire or shattered by rapidly moving lines as Bill’s small circle shifts around the screen. Hertzfeldt really brings you in to Bill’s mental experience, also bringing in sound to reflect what it going on in Bill’s head. During one sequence the narrative voice splits into multiple layers that soon become unintelligible as you are bombarded by thoughts and noise. The title of the film is very relevant as Hertzfeldt manages to find beautiful moments in the mundanity of everyday life and through the chaos that is Bill’s mental illness. He also manages to find a lot of humour. It’s Such a Beautiful Day is a little seen, but wonderful film that is funny, touching and heartbreaking. For a 2-D hand drawn animation it contains a lot of humanity and heart. It addresses mental health much better than most live action films.

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