Saturday, November 24, 2007

For Friday, 30 November 2007

WRITTEN ON THE WIND

Friday's scheduled screening is  the Douglas Sirk melodrama, Written on the Wind (1956). The melodrama is an ideal genre in which to study mise-en-scene, because in the melodrama's conventions, style replaces substance, emotion replaces action. Instead of scene we get mise-en-scene. The displacement of action is shown in the often splashy mise-en-scene of bright colors, cluttered decor, and heightened emotions, as when Marylee feels emotional satisfaction after she's taken revenge on her father by her sexual misconduct (left).
    Because of its intense emotions and lack of action, the melodrama has been traditionally dismissed as a "women's film," "tearjerker," or soap opera. Douglas Sirk is almost unknown among the great directors, though his films have been recently "rediscovered."

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