This has probably been done before, but I think it's always wonderful to discover a work of art that really makes you happy. But before that, let me expose a theory about unhappy ends in cinema.

Sorrow is, of course, unfortuntely, always present in some way or another in real life. However I find that almost all of the "great movies" of the XXth century rely too much on sorrow. It's easy to make a spectator cry or feel sad, disturbed, or nervous. Brilliant movies such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, Virgin Suicides, Children of men could have ended more happily, without loosing their artistic power. This almost suggests that a movie needs an unhappy end to be nominated for Best Picture at the oscars... Critics often condemn happy ends by calling them "immature" . Why ?

The movies mentioned above claim to be realistic somehow. Yet is it truly realistic, and real, that humen beings despair so easily, without fighting on, or keeping any hope ?

It seems to me these works rely too much on our own fragility as individuals, giving no answers, instead of showing us (even if the characters do die, or tragedy does appear) that, one way or another, there is always some kind of hope.
This doesn't mean I reject all "unhappy ends" ; I just can't accept the philosophy of fatality so common in today's "films d'auteur".

Anyway,  back to the list ! ( movies and books are what I know best)

Movies with unhappy ends... but a positive message :
-Amadeus
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (the ending is ambiguous)
-Schindler's List
-Shakespeare in Love
-City of Angels
-Swept from the Sea
-Munich
-The Deer Hunter
-Van Helsing
-Tristan + Isolde

Literature of that nature :
-Romeo and Juliet
-Keats' Ode on Melancholy
-The Silmarillion by Tolkien

Now for feel-good movies with HAPPY ends (in no particular order)

-Lucky You
-Shooting Fish
-The Lord of the Rings
-Serendipity
-Garden State
-The Holiday
-Minority Report
-The Abduction Club
-A Beautiful Mind
-Cinderella Man
-Elizabethtown
-The Indiana Jones movies
-Kingdom of Heaven
-L.A. Confidential
-The Shadow
-The Russia House
-The Rocketeer
-The Shawsank Redemption
etc...

Literature with happy ends :

-Lord of the Rings
-Girl, Interrupted (the narrator finally heals)
-Everworld (an extroardinary fantasy, one of the best I've ever read, though the ending is less satisfying for some of the characters)
-The Travis McGee novels usually end well
-Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare ! What a genius...)
-Most of Walt Whitman's poetry is very positive (such as the quote under this post)

Do you agree with my "theory" ? What are your favorite uplifting works of art ?

Hi Romantic Poet(love the name),just a few thoughts,I do see your point in some cases but I have to admit I have always been more of a unhappy ending type.That being said I don't think its always a must for a good film or piece of literature.
I admit for example after reading something that is very dark I will sometimes go to something a bit more happy.For example after reading the book LA Confidental(do you really consider that a happy ending?considering how much was allowed to be covered up,the book is 10 times more bleak but thats James Ellroy for you)I went to issac asimov's 'I Robot' cause well I just wanted to totally escape and I really did enjoy that.Another time after reading alot of Raymond Chandler I went to 'Dune'.I see a place for both,sort of the ying and yang of human nature,one side can easily be abused,like so many dull and predictable comedies nowdays that seem to come from a cookie cutter.In the face of some of those I will take 'Chinatown' any day.By the same point,I will happily follow it up with The Lord of the Rings or even a bit of a guilty pleasure A Hard Days Night(happy ending there totally)but then I love,love The Beatles I just can't stay depressed when they break into "Its been a hard days night and I've been working like a dog"

Hi Sebastien,

I like this thread!

How about some silly comedies such as A Fish Called Wanda?

I enjoy and miss listening to the Beatles.

Sebastien, have you seen one of my favorite films of all time, The Big Blue. Directed by a French director, forgotten his name.

Some films really piss me off because of their unnecessarily sad and illogical endings. Cuckoos' Nest turned to crap once it got to the ending, but i think Schindlers List's ending (which was a true story, but i had never heard of him before) actually improved the film alot; almost made me want to start a new religion with Oscar as the icon.

I love art. I love in particular Klimt, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Les Fauvres, etc etc.

Love the piece 'Flaming June' by some British painter....forgotten his name..and Rosetti's fairy fale women.

It's by Frederic Leighton. It resides in Puerto Rico, but I saw it at a travelling show in DC once. It's breathtaking.

I really get breathless with paintings too; that's what i call real artistry.

Robin, what kind of art do you like? Music?

I like all forms of creative beauty, just like You.

I can just die when i see one of those really large and wide photos (for example) of a beautiful sunset in the horizon over a nice landscape. It's like watching the stars for me. I am really sensitive to beauty and i've dropped my jaw so many times over some things people over at devaintart.com create that i'm starting to wonder if it's time to replace it with a metal jaw soon.

The ending of a movie, the perfect match of a musical score with a betufil scene in a movie with a landscape, the utter excellence of detail in a painting of a persons eye; i'm not at all ashamed to admit that i can shed tears of happines sometimes that i have been able to view something so wonderful. I'm a real artist-appreciator.

Robin,

That's awesome. I'm like you--I also appreciate nature's beauty. Have you ever seen the Bluest Blue pictures at Flick.com? They are really amazing!