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Frames of mind: reality or fiction?

Though society's attitude to mental health is becoming more positive, it is still problematic. It's easy to claim that films offer a negative portrayal of mental issues, but are they simply a reflection of that attitude? Addiction, anger, anxiety, depression, phobias, psychoses, schizophrenia, self-harm – these are not light-hearted issues and as such cannot easily be portrayed positively.

In March and April we reflected on the dramatisation of mental health issues in film and television throughout cinematic history. We do not claim we can do justice to this topic but we hope to at least inspire an interest in the positive portrayal of mental health – beyond titles such as As Good as It Gets (1997), A Beautiful Mind (2001), A Mind of Her Own (2006), Rain Man (1988), Spellbound (2003), Taare Zameen Par (2007), Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), and others.

Our display was prompted by the publication, in late 2009, of New Horizons, a cross-government programme for the improvement of mental health care, and was linked to BFI screenings of the following three titles.

Alice

Alice in Wonderland

In March 2010 audiences got the chance to appraise the much-anticipated Alice in Wonderland, as directed by Tim Burton. The BFI also offers, via YouTube and BFI Southbank, previous filmic incarnations of this literary classic.

Here in the library we travelled back to the time of the magic lantern show. On display, a copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, marked for a 42 slide show and bearing the stamp of H. Woodruff, Lantern Manufactury & Hire Department.

Alongside it, on the theme of addiction, some cautionary tales from the temperance movement and on the perils of smoking.

Hamlet

Hamlet

Depression, anxiety, suicide. Were you lucky enough to get tickets for the live performance of Hamlet, from New York's Metropolitan Opera, this March? There are numerous studies of Shakespeare on film and television, so – regardless of whether you are a fan of the animated tales, Branagh, Jacobi, Olivier, Tree, or Zeffirelli – you are sure to find something worth exploring in our collections.

Psycho

Psycho

Hollywood loves psychiatrists, and their patients. It is also fair to say there has been an abundance of films linking violent behaviour to mental health issues. If you are looking at states of mind you can do worse than look at any of Hitchcock's films. The BFI Southbank's season on Hitchcock's celebrated film Psycho, includes such classics as M (1931), Les Diaboliques (1954), and Peeping Tom (1960). It seeks to affirm the film'Fs place within a variety of cinematic traditions and invites us to re-familiarize ourselves with its thought provoking richness.

  • Psycho: a classic in context season at BFI Southbank, 1 – 30 April 2010
Last Updated: 11 May 2012