A while back I posted about a film series I want to do at my local library. Well, it's going to happen! If you are in or near Belfast, Maine, email me and I will tell you when it will start. When I posted about it here a couple of people asked if I would consider doing the same thing through this blog, sort of like the way I blogged about In Treatment. That sounds like fun, so I am willing to give it a go.
Here's how we will do it. At the beginning of the month, I will post the title of the film for that month. If you want to watch it, you'll have a couple of weeks to get the DVD. Then the third week of the month, I will post some comments. I will need you, my readers, to comment so we can get a discussion going.
I'll post the title of the first film on October 1. In the meantime, here is the whole list as I proposed it to the library:
Psyche Goes to the Movies:
Mental Health & Madness in Film
Film makers have been intrigued by psychiatry, psychotherapy, mental health and illness for decades, from Bedlam, Spellbound, and The Snake Pit in the 1940’s through What About Bob?, Analyze This, and Prime of more recent vintage. The portrayals of mental illness and of treatment range from caricature to spot on and everything in between.
The series I propose consists of 21 films in three broad categories -- Psychotherapy, Mental Illness, and PTSD. All of the films listed are available in DVD.
The films are:
A. Psychotherapy or Shrinks in Flix
1. What About Bob?
2. Analyze This
3. Ordinary People
4. Mumford
5. Prince of Tides
6. Prime
7. The Treatment
B. Mental Illness
1. Don Juan De Marco
2. The Caveman's Valentine
3. Now, Voyager
4. What Dreams May Come
5. Nobody's Child
6. Angel at My Table
7. I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
C. PTSD -- resulting from war and civilian catastrophe
1. Behind the Lines
2. Captain Newman, MD
3. Coming Home
4. Home of the Brave
5. The Fisher King
6. Fearless
7. Reign Over Me