Cover Photo: Courtesy of Gibraltar Productions
Courtesy of Gibraltar Productions

How Truthful Depictions of Suicidal Ideation Help Me Resist My Own

If we’re going to spend so much time with suicide in pop culture, I do believe we are owed an honest reckoning with what ideation is, as well as depictions that are truthful rather than dangerous.

The Room

The Room

The Virgin SuicidesThe House of the Devil

Harold and Maude

One example that comes to mind is the aimless melancholy of Louis Malle’s The Fire Within, as Alain (played by Maurice Ronet with surprising tenderness) can’t help but feel alone despite the support of those around him. Its one of the rare depictions of a suicidal character that feels genuine. 

Melancholia

MelancholiaAnnihilation

No Home Movie

No Home Movie

The Fire WithinMelancholiaNo Home Movie

Jake Pitre is a freelance writer and academic based in Ottawa, Ontario. His work has appeared in Pitchfork, Real Life,  Buzzfeed News, the Globe and Mail, Lapham's Quarterly, the Outline, and Hazlitt.