The best psychological films with meaning

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Psych films are undeniably gripping but hard-hitting films, much of the fascination of which comes from exploring the psychological characteristics of the protagonists. The best examples of the genre are based on stories that have everything: skeletons in every closet, pianos behind every bush, and cockroaches in the heads of the characters. The list of the best psychological films is quite extensive, as for those presented in this publication, it includes the most popular film projects created in the three most intriguing genres: drama, detective, thriller.

Like a skein of tangled threads

The best psychological films are mostly made by authors at the intersection of two or more film genres, for example, the following films are classified as “detective/thriller”:

"Infernal Affairs (2002). Unfortunately, the Hollywood remake of The Departed has ousted the masterpiece of the Hong Kong film industry from Alan Mack and Andrew Lau from most viewers. MainThe castling characters are a criminal embedded in the police and a law enforcement officer embedded in a drug cartel. One day, fate brings them together, involving them in the hunt for "moles" - for themselves.

Also among the best psychological films-detective-thrillers is the most original work of Christopher Nolan "Remember" (2000). The protagonist of the picture is a man who, after a serious injury, has lost the ability to store long-term memories. He is able to remember everything that happened before the injury to the smallest detail, but his memory does not record further events. This feature does not stop the hero in search of the culprit of his condition and the death of his beloved wife. He creates a system of mental "cues" so as not to get confused. But is it really needed? Here is the question.

Recesses of the Soul

The best psychological films with meaning in their genre oscillate between thriller and drama. For example, the tape "Lollipop" (2005), which is a real gem in the track record of director David Slade. In the plot of this chamber, but extremely tense picture, there are two main characters - a minor fashion model who slipped sleeping pills on the photographer and the man himself, who woke up tied to a chair and accused of pedophilia, rape and murder. He is trying to prove his innocence, but which of the characters is telling the truth, the viewer will find out only in the finale, as well as the moral of the tape.

Before becoming famous with "Bunker" German director Oliver Hirschbiegel created the movie "Experiment"(2001).

The painting is based on the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. Its essence was to divide the participants into two groups - "prisoners" and "guards". Despite the fact that initially all the participants were mentally he althy and belonged to the same social category, in a few days they reproduced all the cruelest unwritten prison rules.

Unusual Drama Thrillers

Reservoir Dogs (1992), one of the strongest directorial debuts in the history of the world film industry, should certainly be attributed to the best psychological films. Quentin Tarantino learned the basics of the profession in the process of creating his first masterpiece. In the center of the story, a gang of criminals, after an unsuccessful attempt to rob a bank, are trying to find out who betrayed them and handed them over to the police.

Fargo (1996), a wonderful mix of psychological thriller and black comedy by the Coen brothers, tells the story of a provincial car salesman who orchestrates the kidnapping of his wife in order to collect a ransom from his we althy but stingy father-in-law. But since he lacked experience and criminal talent in general, the plan fails in the most epic way.

In 2010, Darren Aronofsky shot the most unexpected project among genre hits - a psychological thriller about the ballet "Black Swan" (2010). The main character is a professional ballerina, a reserved and reserved girl. The choreographer is sure that she is capable of excellently performing the part of the White Swan, butfrank passionate part of the Black Swan is beyond her power. Trying to liberate herself to embody both sides of the character, the girl practically loses her mind with all the ensuing consequences. Listing psychological films with meaning, this breathtaking picture should definitely be included in the list of the best.

Cult masterpieces

Perhaps the best project of Luc Besson "Leon" (1994) belongs to the golden fund of world cinema. A film about an Italian killer who has not really grown psychologically since he mastered the profession of a hired killer and refused to communicate with people will not leave indifferent even the most inveterate cynic. Fate brings Leon with a 12-year-old girl, whom he saves from a raid of bandits who kill her entire family. While the little girl is making plans for revenge, an adult man cannot understand what to do with a determined child. The picture does not have a happy ending, this is its meaning and value.

Continues the list of the best films psychological thriller Jonathan Demme "Silence of the Lambs" (1991). A young FBI trainee girl must ingratiate herself with a cannibal maniac so that he draws up a psychological portrait and brings the investigation to another, while the murderer who is committing atrocities is free. D. Demmi's project is not the first Hannibal Lecter film, but it was this stunning, impeccably crafted project that made Lecter one of the most charismatic, creepy yet lovable villains in the history of the global film industry.

Detective, drama, thriller in one bottle

Heaven and Hell (1963), a brilliant Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, rarely ranks among the best psychological films. This is because this work is somewhat weaker than the wonderful paintings "Ran (Trouble)" and "Seven Samurai", but in its genre this is an unusually successful canvas. The film introduces a powerful businessman who is trying to gain control of a corporation and ensure that the brand that has been built up over the years will not be discredited by the co-owners. At this moment, the man's son is kidnapped and a huge ransom is demanded. Watching his offspring play nearby, the businessman thinks he has been played. But it turns out that the criminals mistakenly kidnapped the son of his driver. The main character is faced with a choice - to save someone else's child or his life's work.

The most erotic film among the best psychological detective films is still considered the work of the Dutchman Paul Verhoeven "Basic Instinct". The director managed not to lose psychologism in the cinema among the scenes of "nudity". The central character is a police detective investigating a sexually motivated murder. The mistress of the deceased falls into the field of suspicion. But the further he plunges into the investigation, the more he becomes convinced that such a smart woman could not have set herself up so stupidly.

Not made in Hollywood

The Argentine film industry is virtually unknown, although it produces great productions. Such is the film by Juan José Campanella "The Secret in His Eyes" (2009). The story is about hunting.police on a rapist and a maniac-killer at a time when the special services used criminal elements to crack down on objectionable and dissidents.

The most powerful project in the history of South Korean cinema is Park Chan Wook's "Oldboy" (2003). In the center of the story is a man serving a prison sentence for 15 years without trial or sentence. Throughout this period of time, he supported himself with thoughts of revenge and reprisals against those who threw him behind bars. The hero decides to escape, but once outside his dungeon, he realizes that the long imprisonment was only the beginning of sophisticated bullying.

Michael Haneke's "The Hidden" (2005) has received numerous international awards, so it should definitely be on the list of the best psychological films. The movie tells the story of a hero whom an attacker is trying in every possible way to piss off by sending him a video of his family and terrifying drawings. Since the letters do not contain direct threats, the police are unable to help the man, and he begins to get to the bottom of the truth on his own, remembering his long past.

Crawling into memory

David Fincher's darkest work "Seven" (1995) is based on the investigation by the main characters of the atrocities of a serial killer, positioning his murders as a punishment for mortal biblical sins. Two police officers imagine themselves as hunters, not noticing how they become the object of close attention from the villain, his new game, which the murderer perfectly manipulates.

Francis Ford Coppola's project called "Conversation" (1974) is little known to the domestic audience. Although fans of the genre should strongly recommend watching it, because the tape perfectly depicts the paranoid state of a person who knows that the US intelligence agencies are watching most Americans. The wiretap specialist is trying to decipher the conversation he recorded, as he is tormented by its ambiguous content with a hint of a possible murder.

Animated thriller

Who said that the best psychological films have to be exclusively artistic? Probably the one who was not lucky enough to watch the animation project of the Japanese animator Satoshi Kon "True Sadness". The master of cartoon films for adults, with his debut work, made the whole world talk about his original talent. The cartoon is about a young pop star who decides to leave teenage music, wanting to become a serious dramatic actress. But her fans regard this move as a betrayal. At the same time, people begin to die in her entourage at the hands of a sinister maniac. The heroine herself practically does not distinguish reality from illusions, therefore she suspects that she herself committed all the murders.

Melodramatic thriller

To be honest, one cannot be completely sure that Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Vertigo (1958) still deserves a place in the list of the most successful thrillers due to the age of its creation. Although this is an amazing painting about the cunning psychological game that criminals play withas a private detective suffering from fear of heights, bouts of dizziness and guilt never ceases to amaze and amaze. It may seem a bit too slow compared to modern genre examples, but this is a small tribute for the chance to join one of the most influential, famous and significant pictures in the history of the world film industry.

Dramatic thriller and thriller at the same time

The Professional (1981) is a brilliant production by Georges Lautner with divine musical accompaniment by Ennio Morricone. The unsurpassed master Jean-Paul Belmondo delightfully played a French special agent who escaped from a foreign prison and returned to his homeland. He finds out that he was betrayed by the immediate leaders of the operation. As a real professional, the hero declares that he intends to complete the once entrusted task - the murder of an African leader objectionable to France. But the situation has changed and now the politician is honored by the French authorities, so they declare a hunt for their agent.