This film is currently unavailable

This film is certified

Contains no material likely to offend or harm

I accept this guidance

Title of error

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

That Night's Wife That Night's Wife

Crime 1930 64 mins Silent Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Young father Shuji turns to crime to pay his daughter's medical bills in Ozu's masterly early drama.

Rent for £2.50

A Mother Should be Loved A Mother Should be Loved

Melodrama 1934 74 mins Silent Director: Yasujirō Ozu

The surviving, incomplete version of Ozu's moving silent drama about a young man struggling to deal with a disturbing family secret.

Rent for £2.50

Tokyo Twilight Tokyo Twilight

Drama 1957 141 mins Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Abandoned by their mother, sisters Akiko (Ineko Arima) and Takako (Setsuko Hara) live with their father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu). When Akiko falls into desperate trouble, she turns away from her family.

Rent for £3.50

A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire

Melodrama 1951 125 mins Director: Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan’s game-changing film of Tennessee Williams’ stage hit brought Brando – and the Method – to the attention of filmgoers worldwide.

Rent for £3.50

Pink String and Sealing Wax Pink String and Sealing Wax

Crime 1946 90 mins Director: Robert Hamer

Gordon Jackson stars in a seething tale of family conflict, murder and blackmail in Victorian Brighton.

Rent for £3.50

Blanche Fury Blanche Fury

Melodrama 1948 94 mins Director: Marc Allégret

Valerie Hobson stars as the scheming governess with designs on taking over the Fury estate, in this atmospheric Gothic melodrama

Rent for £3.50

South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

Documentary 1919 81 mins Silent Director: Frank Hurley

An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.

Rent for £4.50

Night Courier (Mandoob) Night Courier (Mandoob)

Comedy 2023 112 mins Director: Ali Kalthami

A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthami’s gripping, pitch-black satire.

Rent for £3.50

The Ballymurphy Precedent The Ballymurphy Precedent

Documentary 2018 108 mins Director: Callum Macrae

John Pilger's film on the conflict in Northern Ireland is a skilful mix of investigative journalism, documentary storytelling and reflections on contemporary history.