Why sad movies make my world go round

Judy Garland in A Star Is Born

I've been on a real sad movie kick lately, and I can't even explain why. I am pretty content in my real life and I usually look to films as a form of escapism. So why on earth would I want to spend two hours with a story that will inevitably leave me feeling blue? I guess it's because, for me, those movies often have a bigger impact on me.

Don't get me wrong. I love happy endings too, especially when they are well-earned. In fact, many of my favorite movies come to a close with the good guys triumphing or the two leads falling madly in love. Still, it's the downbeat tales that stick with me

For instance, I recently saw Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru for the first time. It's about a mild mannered bureaucrat who learns at the beginning of the film that he has terminal stomach cancer and after wallowing in bit of self pity he goes about making his last days on Earth matter by trying construct a park for impoverished children.

Burt Lancaster in The Leopard

And then there's The Leopard, the gorgeous Italian film by Luchino Visconti. It's an elegant and subtle ode to a generation of aristocrats whose time is coming to an end.

It's a film about death but it's so beautifully rendered that I fell in love with its grandeur.

Even the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, which at first glance is a big bright Technicolor musical is actually a devastatingly dark backstage drama, where James Mason's hopeless drunk character threatens to destroy not just his life but the woman he loves, played brilliantly by Judy Garland.

What's my favorite sad movie? I don't even know where to begin. Last Tango in Paris has always left me somewhat emotionally pulverized, it's just that raw. Carlito's Way remains one of my favorite gangster films of all time because of it's epically tragic scenario -- a man desperately trying to go straight but whose underworld connections keep coming back to haunt him.

Marlon Brando in Last Tango In Paris

I suppose when I am looking for a good cry the 1984 film Paris, Texas comes to mind. There's just something about the fragility of Harry Dean Stanton in that film, how honest and true his performance is. There is nothing tear-jerky about that movie, it just feels like a real slice of life that actual people live.

I enjoy venturing into alternative realities that still resonate with the life I'm actually leading. I learn something from these stories, even if it's to appreciate the life I have more because at least I'm not Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice.

Sometimes I hear people saying they don't want to see a movie because they know it'll make them sad and it makes me roll my eyes the same way the "I hear it's long" refrain does. If a movie is great, it doesn't matter if it's happy or depressing, you'll get something out of it.

I might also be a total weirdo, because I do enjoy having my emotions moved to tears, and I also liked to be scared by a movie, which is why my favorite scary movies post is just around the corner.