Table 1 Details about the movies described in the examples
From: Cinema in the training of psychiatry residents: focus on helping relationships
Title, original title | Country, year, directed by | Duration | The movie plot |
|---|---|---|---|
The seventh floor (Il fischio al naso) | Italy, 1967, Ugo Tognazzi | 108’ | Based on a story by Dino Buzzati. A successful businessman, Mr. Inzerna, occasionally develops an unusual physical disturbance: his nose whistles, whenever he breathes. The whistle is cured in a private, luxurious hospital, but new health problems emerge and Mr. Inzerna continues to be cured by the hospital’s staff. In a steady progression, he is first requested, then forced to move from one floor to another. Each floor is less elegant than the lower one, the staff is less appealing and the medical condition of patients is more severe. Inzerna loses his confidence and vitality progressively, and he will eventually die when he reaches the seventh floor. |
The Closet, (Le placard) | France, 2001, Francis Veber | 84’ | François Pignon is a dull and colourless man working as an accountant in a rubber factory. When Pignon finds out he is about to be fired, his new neighbour, a retired psychologist, suggests him to spread the rumour that he’s gay, believing that the factory management will no longer fire him if they fear being sued for sexual discrimination. Everybody in Pignon’s life reacts to this news differently, according to their own prejudices and personalities. At first the way people look at Pignon changes, but in the end it is him who really changes and becomes more assertive and manly. |
M | Germany, 1931, Fritz Lang | 117’ | Hans Beckert kills the little girls he lures with sweets and toys while whistling a music theme from Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Both the police and the organized crime are on Beckert’s tracks. The latter decides to chase the murderer, with the support of the beggars association, in order to stop the great losses due to the intense search of the police. The criminal organization catches Hans, who is recognized by a blind beggar because of his whistle, and quickly arranges a sort of court to judge him. |
The remains of the day | UK, USA, 1993, James Ivory | 134’ | Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. In post-WWI Britain, Mr Stevens is an inflexible butler whose world made of manners and decorum is challenged by the arrival of Miss Kenton, a housekeeper who eventually falls in love with him. |