I did preface my remark with the words 'to me'. I'm not saying Art should only be chocolate box stuff. It can be as horrific, true-to-life, raw, tragic etc as it likes. I'm just saying I personally don't want to pay good money to be depressed, terrified, stressed or annoyed, plus driven to putting my fingers in my ears (haven't tried popcorn!)

At my age I want a nice, quiet, gentle, pretty and charming film suitable for old ladies. I think the modern term is 'vanilla'.

As to Thomas Hardy's novels - well, I studied the lot as part of my A Level and Uni courses, and was nearly driven to hanging myself, never mind Tess. While I loved the earthy, rural and historical content, the characters were apparently 'doomed' and one wondered why the final pages of the books weren't damp from the copious tears of their readers. Miserable stuff...

My husband and I once wandered in to an Odeon cinema and bought tickets for a film called 'Saw 5'. We had no idea what it might be about. After five minutes, we looked at each other and got up hastily, after having been shown a woman sawn in half alive by some psychopath.
The ticket lady stopped us and asked if we were all right. We were shaking, and she actually offered us our money back! (We accepted) My black husband was as white as a sheet. I was green.