All That Heaven Allows (1955)
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Review #1,398 |
THE SCOOP
Director: Douglas Sirk
Cast: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Gloria Talbott, William Reynolds
Plot: An upper-class widow falls in love with a much younger, down-to-earth nurseryman, much to the disapproval of her children and criticism of her country club peers.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Awards: -
Runtime: 89min
Rating: Not rated (likely to be PG)
Distributor: Universal Studios
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“Cary,
let's face it: you were ready for a love affair, but not for love.”
There’s a certain conflicted feeling of joyful
melancholy emanating from the colourful seams of All That Heaven Allows. On
one hand, there’s a deep sense of elegy, caused by the worst of social
toxicity. On the other hand, there’s a
blissful sense of infinite possibility, a feeling of rebirth.
Douglas Sirk, whose film has since been
re-evaluated by critics and historians alike to be one of the finest Hollywood
melodramas ever made, also suffered the ignominy of being disregarded as a
moviemaker who made ‘weepies’ for women.
Through critical appraisal by the Cahiers du Cinema group, in particular
from the lens of auteur theory, as well as New German Cinema great R.W.
Fassbinder’s relentless admiration of his works, only did Sirk achieve the
rightful acclaim that he deserved.
The much beloved work, All That Heaven Allows, stars
Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, reunited again after Sirk’s Magnificent Obsession (1954).
She plays Cary Scott, an upper-class widow living comfortably with her
college children, but never really fitted with her social circle of snobbish
and gossipy elites.
She meets Ron Kirby, a much younger man who
prunes trees in the neighbourhood. They
fall in love, but Cary gets the inevitable barrage of animosity from her
disapproving family and friends, giving her conflicted thoughts. This is also loosely the subject of
Fassbinder’s homage, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), and Todd Haynes’ more direct artistic tribute, Far from Heaven (2002).
Sirk has imbued his picture with light and
shadow, and an almost expressionistic colour palette that gives it an emotional
tonal quality. It is something that
Hitchcock would find himself experimenting in Vertigo (1958), deepening his film’s sense of mystery and
foreshadowing. But Sirk’s film is warm
and tender, accompanied by a lush orchestral score that tugs at the
heartstrings. Some might find the
treatment plainly manipulative without any context to leverage on, but the film
is ultimately a melodrama and must serve that purpose.
Sirk, however, took it further despite being
possibly restricted by the studio system.
He made a progressive film about a thinking woman. He also made a film that challenged social
norms. In a single virtuoso scene
involving Cary and a surprise gift from her children, Sirk literally makes us
reflect on the lives that we are leading—are we really happy or are we a sorry
sight?
Verdict: Sirk’s much beloved and highly-influential
work is no doubt one of the finest Hollywood melodramas ever made.
GRADE: A
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