All That Heaven Allows – 70th Anniversary + Intro

Screening as part of Too Much: Melodrama on Film

Master of melodrama, Douglas Sirk’s films were roundly dismissed by critics as sentimental ‘women’s weepies’ until critics reappraised his work in the 1970s in magazines like Cahiers du Cinéma. Many of his films, with their compassionate exploration of social issues, lush use of Technicolor, and signature frame-within-a-frame motif, are now thought of as masterpieces. All That Heaven Allows is one of his very best: pairing Jane Wyman as a lonely widow and Rock Hudson as the gardener she embarks on a May-December romance with, much to the disapproval of her children.

With an introduction by season programmer Kate Wood.