Far From Heaven as an homage to All That Heaven Allows: Melodrama and Social Critique Maisy Jessie Jacobs College

Melodrama, as a genre, only started to be considered critically in the 1970s and is still a difficult genre to recognise as many films prescribed to other genres often contain overt melodramatic elements. However, a few directors heavily associated with the genre have helped to pin down what one expects of a melodrama, examples of these being Douglas Sirk, Vincente Minnelli and Nicolas Ray. At the time of their creation, these films were often referred to as ‘women’s films’; their plots often centred around female characters and the home and were renowned for reducing their audiences to tears. The term melodrama comes from the idea of using music to punctuate moments of intense emotion and dates back to French and English theatre and novels in the 18thcentury (Grant, 2006, p75). Melodramatic filmmaking was suited to early silent cinema, not just because of the hyperbolic performances, but because directors had to use excessive lighting and mise en scene to convey emotion that could not be expressed through dialogue. With the advent of sound, melodrama flourished but arguably lost some of its extravagant visual style as directors were tempted to rely on dialogue. However, with the development of Technicolor and wide angle and...