Bereavement And Melancholy in Cinema: A Comparative Review Between Turkish and American Cinemas

Abstract

Cinema is one of the most vivid and sensational reflection tools in the art world since it reverberates almost all emotions concerning human beings and their experiences. One of these emotions is grief due to the loss of our beloved ones and in the same way as existence and life, it is a striking issue covering lots of films and thus the concept of mourning and sorrow are the most outstanding and common themes having a profound impact on cinema audiences. In other words, despite cultural and social differences all around the world, grief and pain are intense and universal emotions. Understanding and interpreting the contexts in which these emotions are addressed in different cinema cultures is essential to reveal the cultural projections of cinematic narratives. As part of this idea, the main purpose of this study is to illustrate how Turkish Cinema and American Cinema approach the concepts of bereavement and lament. Accordingly, four well-known films, Canım Kardeşim (1973) Babam ve Oğlum (2005), Rabbit Hole (2010) and finally Manchester by the Sea (2016) have been determined via purposeful sampling method and analyzed by focusing on remarkable similarities and differences in terms of loss and death with the aid of descriptive analysis. As a result of reviews of the films, it has been observed that the Turkish approach to death and loss includes melodrama, emotional abuse, and local connotations while the American one involves a more realistic point of view underlying individual crises, mental collapses or devastations.