Melodrama and Heaven Allows
Both Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Todd Haynes have drawn on Sirk’s film melodramas in their films. Discuss the differences and similarities between their uses of Sirkian melodrama in their films Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Far From Heaven. In developing your analysis you should engage with theoretical debates about these filmmakers’s work and theories of melodrama, and you should support your analysis through close reading of the films
Douglas Sirk, a Danish-German film director, is best known for being the father of Melodrama. He is commonly referred to as a master of the weepie (Willemen 1972) and has been an inspiration and paved the way for other directors to use and adapt his work. One film that has been embraced and recreated is All that Heaven Allows (1955). Two directors have adapted this film and they are Todd Haynes with Far From Heaven (2002), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). They remake All that Heaven Allows in a way that uses similar concepts as Sirk does and also adapting their films to the themes and social aspects of the time they are representing (Skvirsky 2008). All that Heaven Allows Reflects on social class and age difference, where as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul demonstrates racial and age difference and Far From Heaven deals with race and homosexuality. These films are acknowledged as social melodramas, where their purpose is to encompass serious social problems that they wish to convey. Linda Williams defines several components of Sirkian qualities that are central to the melodramatic mode. They are a space of innocence, recognition of the victim-heroes virtue, and the characters struggle between their own virtues and the imposed paradigms of society (Williams 1998). I will use these concepts to compare and contrast these two adaptations of All that Heaven Allows to establish their basis as melodrama films.
According to Linda Williams, melodrama film begins in a space of innocence and also strives
Douglas Sirk, a Danish-German film director, is best known for being the father of Melodrama. He is commonly referred to as a master of the weepie (Willemen 1972) and has been an inspiration and paved the way for other directors to use and adapt his work. One film that has been embraced and recreated is All that Heaven Allows (1955). Two directors have adapted this film and they are Todd Haynes with Far From Heaven (2002), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder with Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974). They remake All that Heaven Allows in a way that uses similar concepts as Sirk does and also adapting their films to the themes and social aspects of the time they are representing (Skvirsky 2008). All that Heaven Allows Reflects on social class and age difference, where as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul demonstrates racial and age difference and Far From Heaven deals with race and homosexuality. These films are acknowledged as social melodramas, where their purpose is to encompass serious social problems that they wish to convey. Linda Williams defines several components of Sirkian qualities that are central to the melodramatic mode. They are a space of innocence, recognition of the victim-heroes virtue, and the characters struggle between their own virtues and the imposed paradigms of society (Williams 1998). I will use these concepts to compare and contrast these two adaptations of All that Heaven Allows to establish their basis as melodrama films.
According to Linda Williams, melodrama film begins in a space of innocence and also strives