Chances are you’ve found yourself scrolling the “emotional movies” section of your favourite streaming service. Why do we sometimes gravitate towards these sad movies?

For most people, watching them is a pleasurable experience, says Brenda Austin-Smith, a professor in the Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media at the University of Manitoba.

“And yet some of those emotions are not emotions that we could think of as positive emotions.”

By interviewing moviegoers of diverse ages and backgrounds—all women—she uncovers the complexities behind their appeal.

“It’s not the kind of pleasure that comes from, say, a comedy, but there is a deep sense of connection between the viewer and the film. And I want to know more about where that sense of connection comes from. It’s very much bound up in personal experience.”

Often it relates to the unique association we have to the plot, characters or the era of when we first watched it. A movie will take us back to something significant in our history. Austin-Smith likens it to “a treasure chest of memory.”

“Sometimes mentioning a film or watching a film awakens things and allows people to share meaningful—deeply meaningful—experiences that are connected to some of these images. It’s a way of getting at personal histories and the way we attach personal histories to culture that we can’t get to any other way.”

In short: movies hold great power.

Austin-Smith interviewed one woman who would watch with her daughter who doubled as her caregiver when she was sick. But it was the daughter who would pass away, unexpectedly, and the mom who found herself revisiting these movies that took her back to this precious time together.

Another moviegoer who was in England during the Second World War said these films, at that time, offered an emotional release from the threat of bombing. She and her friends would cry in the theatre and then feel able to carry on with a stiff upper lip, as was expected during hardship.

“The tears she shed for the heroine became, indirectly, the tears she shed for herself,” says Austin-Smith.

Here’s a scene from Now, Voyager starring Bette Davis, which was among the Hollywood genre from the 1940s and 50s known as “weepies.” Brenda Austin-Smith says, “Women who watch these weepies often cried as much in anger as in pity at the plots that trapped the female protagonist in hopeless relationships or forced her to give up her child.”

Another research participant told Austin-Smith the plot of one typical mid-century movie made her so sad because she saw traits of her mother in the protagonist. Her mom had stopped eating following the death of her dad from cancer and, six weeks later, she was gone as well. The movies helped her realize that her mom’s quiet suffering was actually her never realizing her own value.

“This viewer’s anger at what she saw as her mother’s acceptance of a subordinate identity expressed itself in tears while she watched these films, as if she were watching her mother’s life and understanding for the first time,” says Austin-Smith.

For another, crying at a movie became a reminder that she was emotionally healthy, unlike when she was battling depression and found herself unable to show any response to the outside world, good or bad.

“Instead of regarding emotional response as a sign of weakness or a sign of infantilization, it is the sign of health and human connection with others,” says Austin-Smith, who recalls watching movies as a kid with her mom, who would let her skip school on occasion if something particularly good was on.

Even if these old “weepies” are full of outdated gender roles and suffering heroines, this genre became a testimony to the endurance of women. A reminder of how far our grandmothers have come, says Austin-Smith, who has designed curriculum on a variety of topics, from cult films to teen comedies.

She’s quick to caution anyone who dismisses movies as mere entertainment or escapism.

“Films are not necessarily always recognized as meaningful. It’s just something that we do on a Friday or a Saturday to kill time or for distraction. But it’s meaningful and important to understand how this medium is affecting us.”

One thing she has her students do is watch an old, sad movie with a relative, armed with questions to learn about their loved-one along the way. That introverted parent or grandparent who doesn’t talk much isn’t just sitting there mindlessly watching a movie, reminds Austin-Smith.

“They are processing things.”

She recommends asking questions, like: ‘Why do you like this film?’ ‘Did you ever dress that way?’ Did you ever cut your hair that way?’ ‘Where were you when you first watched this film?’ These conversations open a window into the different dimensions of someone’s life.

Her students would come back with comments like “I didn’t know my auntie went through that” or “I had no idea about that with my mom.”

Foundations is a research theme prioritized in UM’s Strategic Research Plan. Brenda Austin-Smith’s work is an example of how foundational research is the bedrock of our understanding of the humanities. “It’s the foundations of human culture,” she says.

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