Loneliness may seem an unusual topic for film: it doesn't sound very dramatic or, for that matter, enticing. Yet it's a fundamental part of being human, one tied up with our desire for love, companionship or simply understanding. A universal theme, loneliness is crucial to the feeling of numerous films, from existentialist arthouse cinema to more commercially minded romances or comedieszcvx,m
It takes in psychotic loners, elderly widowers, confused teenagers and everyone else besides. As David Lean said: "I think loneliness is in all of us; it is a more common emotion than love, but we speak less about it. We are ashamed of it. We think perhaps that it shows a deficiency in ourselves."
