Gaslight (1944) Ingrid Bergman is amazing. She is beautiful in that very Swedish kind of way. Anyone that uses the term “gaslight” and has not seen this film. Wow. I would highly recommend checking it out. It is old, but has aged very, very well. And the plot is incredibly applicable to the BPD family experience. Charles Boyer plays Gregory Anton, the evil count chocula demeanored SP husband, and his wife Paula, is played by the lovely Ingrid Bergman. The count systematically gaslights his wife by constantly staging events, intentionally designed to make his wife question her own sanity. Sound familiar? From my own BPD relationship, I personally recall many instances of my upbd wife telling me, after a particularly hurtful rage, “I never said that” or “you have a very vivid imagination” or “you are the sick one” to the point where I questioned it myself. In hindsight I had to be in a pretty bad place to seriously question my own sanity. I highly recommend this film. You can watch the 1940 British Version of Gaslight on You Tube for free. I did not see this film. I opted for the Ingrid Bergman Version, which was fairly difficult to track down. Finally found a copy at a local video store after exhausting all online/instant watch options. The British version however, is supposed to also be very good. But there is no Ingrid Bergman in that one.
Spotlight on the Spotless Mind (2003)I had to watch this one film in segments for some reason. Very good film and one compelling concept: Come out of the FOG instantly by using memory erasing software. How tempting would that be? Kirstin Dundst costars in this film with Jim Carey and Kate Winslet, the second time both actress have appeared in films on this list. Dunst is as watchable in this film as she is in Melancholia (2011). She seems very capable at portraying a personality disordered individual. Very capable. And Kate Winslet plays a different shade of a pwBPD. Her BPD portrayal in this film is vastly different from her BPD character in Revolutionary Road. While watching her performance I could not help, but keep thinking of Gloria Swanson as BPD Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd (1950). The characters are strikingly similar. Chihiro your comment about when Jim Carey's character Joel, is a child under his mother's kitchen table saying
“"why do I have this incredible need for her to see me (meaning his mom)? It's so powerful." It's that same need, the need of a child for his mother's undistracted attention, that fuels our compulsive need for the love of our persons with BPD. This was a lightbulb moment for me." This was a
moment for me as well, or I feel it's about to be any way. My mother is NPD and your observation has been a recurring thought since you recommended this film. Is this why I'm attracted, drawn like a magnet, to BPD women? Just tonight I was unharactheristicly chatting with a girl in a shop that was wearing teeth whitening strips
, was displaying her ample breastsred-flag , and was chatting me up in a very nice, very forward wayred-flag . At this point, I am thinking she probably BPD or some other _ _ D, but god at this moment, do I want her to keep looking at me .
Factory Girl (2006) Sienna Miller is great as Edie Sedgwick. Andy Warhol comes across as the biggest D-Bag in the 60's (next to J. Edgar ~). Still dig his art work? Using the term “his” very loosely, but man what a Vulture. Fairly interesting film, if you don't mind the image of one of your favorite Pop Artists ruined. But other than that, it is an interesting film, although it did not resonate with any of my own personal experiences with BPD. And that is what his exercise has been about for me.
I have found watching films that depict BPD behavior to be very helpful in putting my own experience into perspective somehow, or maybe it is just that misery loves company, and I am like a rubbernecker on the interstate careening his neck to gawk at a gruesome scene. It is strange how comforting these films have been for me. Anyone who has read this far, thank you . And I hope that by watching some of these films, we've all listed, maybe will be helpful to others here as well.
