Saddest Movie Ever?
Something about the way Gwynplaine must face the world with a the smile that causes him so much agony makes for incredibly painful viewing... it makes me want to cry for him every time I watch it.
shareI completely agree. That scene where he's looking at himself in the mirror and slowly closes the doors over it gets me every time.
Have you read the book by Victor Hugo? It's a lot sadder--the movie basically followed it up until the end; in the end of the book, Gwynplaine and Dea are, briefly, happily reunited on the ship, and then, Dea suddenly dies and Gwynplaine is so distraught from this that he drowns himself.
Nevermore!
The ending of the book The Man Who Laughs isn't as bleak, in my opinion, as the book ending of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Knowing this about Victor Hugo's work, and not knowing whether Hollywood would insist upon a happy ending in this film, I found the end chase sequence truly exciting and suspenseful.
Saddest movie ever? I don't know. I think "Broken Blossoms" and "Laugh Clown Laugh" are sadder. And I suspect I will find the modern animated film "Grave of the Fireflies" even sadder, when I get around to watching it.
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There was certainly a poignant sadness throughout. To me, though, the ending really makes a movie sad or not. Therefore, Anna Karinina & (more recently) Remains of the Day, to me are much more crushingly sad -- even depressing.
shareI totally agree with "patconolly" regarding "Broken Blossoms" and "Laugh Clown, Laugh"; these two were great silent film tear-jerkers. "The Man Who Laughs" definitely has some tear-jerking scenes of its own, but soft-hearted me is glad that at least in this case, Hollywood didn't stick to the book and changed the ending to a happy one.
To me, there's enough unhappy endings in everyday life, and movies can take you away from reality, if only for a little while. That's why I primarily watch silent comedies, but Lillian Gish, Lon Chaney, and Conrad Veidt were among the very best of silent films' dramatic actors, hands down. :-)
"Think slow, act fast." --Buster Keaton
IMO The Man Who Laughs's ending gets me the most of those depressing Hugo adventures.
You think happiness finally there, bam Dea dead, Gwynnplane suicide, Homo howling...aahhh. It's like going through a dark tunnel seeing the opening and the light of day and then crash cave in! But as you said after knowing Hunchback and Les Mis before hand i really should have been expecting that it wasn't going to work out in the end without a slap to the heart strings.
Gamefaqs has a far worse population than IMDB