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All That Heaven Allows

Hollywood’s master of melodrama, Douglas Sirk, is at his most devastating crafting this deceptively simple story of class-crossing romance into a florid explosion of style.

Melodrama 1955 89 mins

Director: Douglas Sirk

Rent for £3.50

Overview

Hollywood’s master of melodrama, Douglas Sirk, is at his most devastating crafting this deceptively simple story of class-crossing romance into a florid explosion of style. Jane Wyman plays the wealthy widow whose relationship with her earthy, honest gardener (Rock Hudson) causes a scandal among the New England social set.

Sirk’s unique approach to the soap-opera-style stories he was handed by studio bosses remains unmatched. Not only did he treat them with respect, but he imbued them with a distinct sense of colour, vibrancy and amplified emotional intensity, dashed off with a caustic strain of slyly inserted social commentary. Sirk’s mixture of earnest melodramatics with subtle irony would be a significant inspiration for German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and more recently Todd Haynes adapted the plot of All that Heaven Allows for his 2005 tribute to Sirk, Far From Heaven.

Director

Douglas Sirk

Featuring

Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson

Genres

Melodrama and Romance

Certificate

Contains no material likely to offend or harm

Country

USA

Language

English

Rent for £2.50

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