Thanks to these Movies about schizophrenia That I am going to present you, you will be able to have an idea of what this mental illness means.
Would you like to know how a person with schizophrenia acts, thinks, and feels? A good way to approach the interesting world of the mind is through movies. The advantages are that you can learn at the same time that you have fun, and you can turn a boring afternoon into a very enriching movie session.
As a small introduction, we can say that schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by discomfort, hallucinations, incoherent or disorganized language and behavior, delusions or firm beliefs about ideas that are irrational; Among many other symptoms.
It is not something temporary, but stable in time; And it is generally said that people with this disorder lose contact with reality and live in their inner world.
Not a few people suffer, nor the films that have included at least one character with this condition.
You may also like These psychology films .
1- Shutter Island (2010)
Directed by the magnificent Martin Scorsese and valued with a 7.6 in Filmaffinity , This thriller is set in the 50's.
It deals with two agents: Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) who are sent to a mental institution on a remote island with the mission to investigate the disappearance of a dangerous mentally ill assassin who mysteriously escaped from the hospital.
However, during the search, they will discover that everything is not as it seems, happening strange happenings that will make doubt the agents of their authentic mission there.
2 -"A Beautiful Mind"(2001)
It is based on a real case, and deals with John Forbes Nash, an eccentric and illustrious mathematician who developed revolutionary theories for science, winning the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994.
But I was immersed in a terrible disease, the paranoid schizophrenia , Which made his dedication to mathematics a real obsession.
Finally, when you get a place as a teacher, you will meet a student (Alicia Lardé) who will show you that love can be above mathematics.
But because of his incredible ability to decipher codes, he is hired by the United States Department of Defense to help them defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War. This film received 4 Premios Óscar and is cataloged with a 7.5 by the users of Filmaffinity .
3-"Naked Lunch"or"The Naked Lunch"(1991)
From the unusual director David Cronenberg, whose film is one of the most representative of what has been termed"body horror."
In this Kafkaesque film; We will see how William Lee, a pest exterminator, notices that his wife is stealing the insecticide he uses to get high.
They capture Lee for suspecting that he is the one who consumes the drug, but in the police headquarters he encounters a giant insect that orders him to kill his wife.
From there, the protagonist suffers a struggle oscillating between his hallucinations and reality, immersed in a world of strange creatures called"Interzone".
4 -"The Shining"or"The Shining"(1980)
You can not miss this famous film of psychological terror of the great Stanley Kubrick, which practically takes place inside a huge hotel in Colorado.
Discusses Jack Torrance ( Jack Nicholson ), An ex-alcoholic writer who accepts the work of caring for a lonely hotel during the winter months, since during that time it is closed and isolated by snow. He moves with his wife and son in order to find the tranquility necessary to write a novel.
But, the stay begins to become a nightmare by the incommunication, the isolation, the paranormal happenings and the mental problems that begin to sprout in Jack.
In this influential film, Kubrick has managed to capture the recesses of schizophrenia; Arriving to consider one of the best films of the history of the cinema.
5 -"Videodrome"(1993)
We come back with another Cronenberg movie; Where Max Renn (James Woods) is in charge of a television network that is maintained offering different and original contents.
Looking for materials for his channel, he finds recordings of torture of very real appearance, called"Videodrome". What the protagonist did not know is that the morbid images seem to cause damage to the mental health of those who look at him, altering his way of seeing the world forever.
"Spider"(2002)
From the same director, it is based on a novel by Patrick McGrath , Who also wrote the script for this film. It is set during the sixties and eighties, and deals with Spider (Bradley Hall), a boy who lived as his father murdered his mother and replaced her with a prostitute.
To prevent him from killing him too, he developed a lunatic plan that ended in a great tragedy.
Subsequently, after leaving the psychiatric hospital and being admitted to another center; Spider stops taking his medication, causing him to repress repressed memories of his childhood that will lead him to a maximum state of madness.
This film was nominated for the Palme d'Or (best film) at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
"Donnie Darko"(2001)
From Richard Kelly, is a psychological thriller that deals with an American boy with schizophrenia named Donnie, in which one night appears in his garden a mysterious giant rabbit that asks him to leave his room. Donnie comes, saving himself from death for a piece of a plane that was going to fall into his room that very night.
It seems that the rabbit talks about the end of the world and pretends to manipulate him to commit a series of crimes.
It is ideal for you if you are interested in films that make you think.
8-"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"or"Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"(1975)
American film directed by Miloš Forman, in which important actors like Jack Nicholson or Danny DeVito.
It deals with a character who is sentenced to prison, but gets rid of it by being classified as mentally unbalanced. In fact, it's all a farce to avoid going to jail, pretending to be an uncontrolled lunatic that causes several wars between staff and patients.
"Clean, Shaven"(1993)
It is a drama of Lodge Kerrigan, which is about Peter Winter, a schizophrenic tormented by his past who escapes from the psychiatric hospital to find his daughter, who is in the custody of adoptive parents.
During the search he will come to confront violently against defenseless people and against himself.
Thanks to this film you can get a good overview of how you can be a person with schizophrenia.
10-"K-PAX, a universe apart"(2001)
It is an interesting science fiction film directed by Iain Softley, which goes from a mysterious psychiatric patient named Prot who claims to come from the planet"K-Pax".
To the surprise of his psychiatrist, Prot becomes very convincing and even begins to shake the schemes of those around them; Causing them problems to differentiate reality from fantasy.
eleven- " Mirrors"or"Reflections"(2008)
Directed by Alexandre Aja, this film is especially recommended for those who enjoy the horror genre and want to know more about schizophrenia.
It's a remake of the Korean film"The Other Side of the Mirror,"and it's about a security guard who's having a hard time in his life, and who's accepted the job of watching over a haunting, dilapidated shopping mall.
One day, patrolling the warehouses, he is trapped observing his own reflection in some mysterious mirrors. At that moment he begins to see horrible images of the past reflected in the glass, leading the protagonist to despair.
12-"Angel baby"(1995) - Full cast and crew
Two schizophrenic patients, Kate (Jacqueline McKenzie) and Harry (John Lynch) meet during group therapy and fall deeply in love, struggling to maintain a relationship that is seen as crazy.
Later, Kate becomes pregnant, being forced to leave the treatment; Which leads to conflicts and continuous wars that will lead them to a crash failure.
13-"Some voices"or"some voices"(2000)
Ray is a boy with schizophrenia who leaves the psychiatric center where he was staying, being in the hands of his overprotective brother Pete.
Ray, tries to reinsert itself in the society helping to his brother in the familiar business, in the home and even in his love life; Although without obtaining great results.
But, unexpectedly, crosses in the life of Ray a Scottish girl blatant and unbalanced that will reintroduce the protagonist in the madness.
14-"Veronika Decides to Die"or"Veronika decides to die"(2009)
It's a movie drama directed by Emily Young , Which is based on the work of Paulo Coelho.
It is about Veronika, a young woman who apparently has everything in her life and has tired of living. After trying to commit suicide, he enters a mental institution where he is informed that he has little time to live because of the drug overdose he took.
During that period of time, Veronika knows to diverse patients and their curious histories; Among them, a schizophrenic that will make him change his point of view.
15-"Benny & Joon, the love of the innocent"(1993)
It is a film by Jeremiah Chechik, in which Joon, a sensitive and delicate girl, develops schizophrenia after the death of his parents. That is why his brother Benny, who is a frustrated mechanic, gives all his care to her in an excessive way, overprotecting her.
This strong union between the brothers is threatened by the arrival of Sam (Johnny Depp), an extravagant boy who after a strange bet in a game of poker has to live with them.
Little by little the conflicts arise as the love between Joon and Sam is born.
Actually in the film it is not specifically mentioned that Joon has schizophrenia, but is made evident by his auditory hallucinations, need for medication and routine.
Here we have only included 15 films related to the schizophrenia , But surely you know some more.
Have you seen them all? Which ones would you include in the list?