Representation Of Mental Illness In Film

Representation of Mental Illness in Film

Our idea for our film opening is to include a girl who is portrayed to have gone 'crazy'. This is due to her having a mental illness. To create this portrayal we do not want it to be cliched or inappropriate/offensive in anyway. To do this we need to research different representations of mental illness in other media texts.

Old Representations of Mental Illness:

Most of the older representations of mental illness like in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Girl Interrupted' are regressive portrayals. They are set in psychiatric wards and kept away from the outside. They are not recognized as having a mental illness but are referred to as 'crazy' and 'insane'. 

The characters portrayed can be similar in character due to the fact that they all seem to have hints of bipolar disorder even if they do not have the illness. Many suddenly lash out and shout and become violent, sometimes for no real reason. This old fashioned portrayal is meant to show people with mental illness as almost outcasts of society. They are locked away in the psychiatric ward and don't even seem to be getting help or proper medication to make them better.

New Representations of Mental Illness:

Modern representations of mental illness like in 'Black Swan' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' are progressive portrayals and are normally set in everyday life not even mentioning psychiatric wards. Mental Illness in movies is normally only kept to a minimum amount of people and sometimes they don't even realise they have and illness or are reluctant to except it.

 People who have mental illnesses are not kept away from society and the rest of the world. They are also seen as more 'normal'. However, there is still a stigma behind mental illness which means people to get treated with more caution and are not represented equally.

Our Representation of Mental Illness:

Our portrayal is set in modern times so it may be better if our portrayal was progressive. This means no straight jackets or mental institutions. We could just have the girl in handcuffs and being questioned or in police holding to show she has done something serious instead of dramatising mental illnesses.

If something like a straight jacket is really wanted then we would probably have to set the opening in older times. This would mean we would need to closely control mise en scene which may make it more difficult.

However, we are challenging stereotypes and general norms used in film. It is not normally a young school girl represented in films with mental illness, especially not with the severity or our portrayal.