Male mental illness and suicide has present in film since its inception: for instance, it is included in two of Méliès films at the turn of the twentieth century (Suicide of Colonel Henry and The Dreyfus Affair, both 1899). However, what it looks like, and whether the male experience of suicide and mental illness is classified explicitly as ‘mental illness’, continues to change. The way in which male mental illness is represented onscreen reflects and shapes contemporary attitudes towards it. This is not just about what audiences may expect it to look like, but why it occurs and who is able to represent it.