| Dear members of the Film-Philosophy salon, I wonder whether I may misuse this honorable forum for a scientific investigation. For a psychological experiment on the pleasures of sadness, we are currently looking for scenes in contemporary films and televsion series in which a protagonist receives the sad news that a loved one has died. Examples can be found in diverse genres (from melodramas to war movies) and films ranging from "21 Grams" and "La stanza del figlio" to "Brothers", "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Messenger" Since we need a sample of roughly 50 of those scenes, I would like to ask you for your film expertise: Do you recall other movies in which we might find such death-news scenarios? We are currently scanning an enormous list of films, but maybe the wisdom of the (film) crowd could draw our attention to films we have overlooked. Thank you very much. With best regards, Julian Hanich (Freie Universität Berlin) |