1955 Directed by Douglas Sirk
Predicated on a May-December romance. The difference here is that the woman, attractive widow Cary Scott, is considerably older than the man, handsome gardener-landscaper Ron Kirby. Throwing conventional behavior to the winds and facing social ostracism, Cary pursues her romance with Ron, who is unjustly perceived as a fortune-hunter by Cary's friends and family -- especially her priggish brother Ned.
i braced myself for disappointment at the start of this vaunted classic i've been dodging for years-- but i needn't have worried. it seems that growing up in soulless white suburbia, reading thoreau as a kid and knowing there was something- anything- beyond the nightmare of bourgeois conformity was just preparing me for this moment. i'm still stunned at how hard it hit me. my parents never understood but sirk did, and long before i was born
"Cary, let's face it: you were ready for a love affair, but not for love."
Lately I've been fascinated with melodrama, in particular the way its priorities differ from the expectations of what we might loosely refer to as a "good film". In general, we seem to want relatable characters in realistic situations which in turn evoke an emotional response; but in melodrama, everything is backwards. As Sidney Lumet once said, "In a well-written drama, the story comes out of the characters. The characters in a well-written melodrama come out of the story." Perhaps this is why the term has come to take on pejorative connotations in recent years: in melodrama, emotion comes first, even if it's at the expense…
God, the production design and cinematography, yes, and the withering portrait of repressive values, but sometimes I think that the artistic virtues of Sirk, of which there are many, are stressed as a means of justifying his chosen field of women's pictures, when even on a script level this is such a compelling movie, and so forcefully acted that its subtext, however key to the picture, is still the subtext under a direct swirl of emotions. It's all great, is what I'm saying. Why has it taken me so long to really dig into Sirk?
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Douglas Sirk captures gossip and high-class pettiness as vicious language destined to tear family units out internally, sizzling in an attempt to fulfill a reorganization of status and force outsiders to succumb to the dominance of social position. Ron's apathy provides a muted tension which only blares - in stunning, succulent color - when Cary's inner circle (both familial/societal) rises to the pitch of an attack, snarling and spitting when their own exterior is affected by a loving couple separated by class. As such, the middle portion of All That Heaven Allows should be seen as a Technicolor Horror, an angry, 'in the moment' response to a genuine romance. Kicker for me is when Ned answers Cary's phone call with a normal demeanor after previously being bathed in blazing red/electric blue light after shunning his mother. Words hurt, but in Sirk's world, they're currency for stature.
Film School Drop Outs – Weekly Challenge 2017 | Week 23 - Auteurs - Douglas Sirk
All That Heaven Allows was my first Sirk movie and it made me curious about the rest of his filmography. One thing that surprised me about the movie is that even though it is quite different from Fassbinder's remake Ali: Fear Eats the Soul both movies made me feel similar as I really wanted to talk about them afterwards but had a hard time trying to put my feelings into words.
What strikes me the most about All That Heaven Allows is that although the movie is more than 60 years old the subject matter is still relevant today when you think about how…
man sirk says some pretentious shit sometimes but this film was like wattpad fiction meets a hipster cinematography boi. I expected more man.
still don't understand that deer tho?????
Perhaps I was too distracted by its lush, sumptuous images, immaculate production, and soul-crushing realization of lives that can be innately dismissed for the ease of vain chit-chat to notice the exemplary performance from James Wyman the first time around.
That frost-tinted window is enough to label this an all-timer.
Love makes you do stupid things. Douglas Sirk levels of love turn you into a goddamn moron and make your kids fucking assholes and all your friends suck and Rock Hudson's death drive is a little too prominent for my liking. If this same story were told from his point of view it'd be an episode of The Twilight Zone.
It is gorgeous and a half, though.
Saw this in class and I liked it for all of the wrong reasons... Also rock Hudson hot
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