Mental illness in films - questions to discuss.I'm going to prepare the presentation on my conversation classes. And I need your help! The topic of the presentation is: "Mental illness in films" and I'm looking for some question to discussion. I've found one article about it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6043231/Heath-Ledgers-Joker-exacerbates-stereotypes-about-mental-health.html
One of the questions that based on this article is: Are people with mental ilness always dangerous like evils? Because they are showed in that way in many films.
And I have a favour to ask of you: do you have some ideas of other questions to discuss connected with this topic?
I hope that you will have some ideas :roll:
Tha' should be an interesting class, Haurka! I think I personally would have to agree with the premise that alot of films use stereotypes of people with mental illnesses for the 'dramatic' value. I would turn to films such as that made by Stephen Fry about what it is to have a Bipolar disorder, to gain some insight into real mental illness.
Interestingly, also, The article mentions One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as a film criticised for stereotyping the mentally ill. On the contrary, I believe that book/film showed well how society and the health system stereotypes them. My mother was a paranoid schizophrenic and Cuckoos Nest was always her favourite book/film.
Maybe something along the lines of whether or not mental illness is protrayed realistically in films or altered for entertainment value? Maybe a comparison between more realistic portrayals or those like Horror or Crime movies that use it more for a criminal purposes. Some movies you could use would be The Snake Pit, The Bell Jar, David and Lisa, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. There are a whole bunch more and a great list on Wikipedia under Mental Illness in films. A lot of great movies to choose from and it may give you some more ideas for a talk.
Personally, I'd take GG's advice and venture into dealing with whether or not mental illness is protrayed realistically in films or altered for entertainment value and comparing between more realistic portrayals or those like Horror or Crime movies that use it more for a criminal purposes. BTW, I think that the Heath Ledger's Joker is a good example of mental illness altered for entertainment value (come on, Batman movies are not meant to be realistical).
Good suggestions, ladies. Maybe a look at soap opera's as the flip-side, as (certainly in the UK) they often try to cover the subject sympathetically.
I don't know,maybe a show like "Criminal Minds" that's currently on tv would be helpful as well. Let us know how things go on your project,sounds very interesting.
I'm going to use the films: "fight club" (schizophrenia), "the dark knight" (???), "forrest gump" (autism), "memento" (memory lost), "a beautiful mind" (schizophrenia), "primal fear" (dissociative identity disorder) and "warriors" (post-war trauma). These films I have got in my collection and I can cut some of them to use fragments showing mental illness. But I need more questions to discuss during my classes.
Thanks for your help. I definitely like some of your ideas :applaud: . They will be very helpful. I'm waiting for more of course because these ones are really great!
Post traumatic stress is an interesting one. Certainly, in the case of Warriors, there was no overdramatisation of the causes, symptoms and effects of PTS. Maybe you could compare the two and ask if there is any need for exaggeration when mantal illness is portrayed so realistically and effectively?
Let us know how things go on your project,sounds very interesting.
OK, so I let you know now :) I was waiting for some comments from the teacher but the presentation was a little bit longer that it had been expected to be (I think that this topic is interesting for many people so the discussion during the classes was very animated) and he was going to comment the presentation during the next classes but finally I think that he forgot about it, unfortunately... I'm very curious whether it was good enough or not. But my friends were delighted. They compared our presentation with the second one which was presented then and they said that they saw two different presentations: one very well prepared (this was ours :mrgreen:) and the other not prepared (the second one - it was (un?)prepared by two girls and it was about women who look like "Arnold Schwarzenegger in skirt").
What was the most stressful for me (and it is always very stressful thing) was speaking in English. I made the introduction to our topic and I hate public speech no matter in which language I have to do this. I prepared so many things to say and I didn't say almost half of them ;). But the first stress is behind me. The next presentation is about idols and role models (another interesting topic :)) and the third is about censorship (I don't know anything interesting about it :roll: ).
So thank you girls for your questions, they were very very helpful for me :).
Haurka, Sounds as though you had the class right in the palm of your hand,since they were all so antimated. Congratulations! Those other topics sound most interesting,and I'm sure you will find quite a bit of material about each of them. I know what you mean about getting up to speak before a group.......I think maybe that's partly why I became a teacher 'way back when. It was a type of "acting job" for me.
I'm glad to hear that it went so well for you.