THE FIRST LEGIONDOUGLAS SIRK, 1951

UCLA Restoration Screened at Emory University, February 15, 2017Introduced by Marc Bousquet,

DOUGLAS SIRK, REFUGEE

Born in Hamburg, 1937. Studied law in Munich 1919; fled the Bavarian Soviet Republic

Worked primarily in theater until 1934; began film-making in Nazi Germany; fled 1937 after first wife denounced him for second marriage to a Jewish actress

Only son killed on the Eastern front, 1944 Best known for directing 6 Technicolor melodramas for

Universal in the 1950s

Publicity still for Sirk’s Hitler’s Madman (1942)

SIRK DEFINES FAMILY & SOCIAL MELODRAMA

Sirkian melodrama typically addresses one

or more social evil, such as racism, class domination, alcoholism, poverty, religious or social conservativism, and sexism.

Commonly the plot unfolds in the context of a family, which serves as a pressure-cooker intensifying the emotions and conflict.

Women play larger, more complex and leading roles than in many precursor films

SIRK’S RECEPTION

His major films succeeded commercially but were dismissed by contemporary critics as women’s weepies

Retired to Switzerland after Imitation of Life (1959); Stanley Kramer continued to make similar family and social melodramas through the 1960s

Reputation revived in the 70s; influenced Almadovar, Fassbinder, Lynch, Waters, etc

Katherine Hepburn and Beah Richards in Kramer’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

(1967)

KRAMER’S AMERICAN GOTHIC

“YOU MADE HER—I JUST MET HER”

38:30

MELODRAMA BEFORE & AFTER SIRK

19th century melodramatic stage genres all have corollaries in Hollywood/global cinema, from origins to the present day: Westerns, action adventure,crime mystery, suspense, apocalyptic dystopia, science fiction, magic & fantasy, etc.

Characters embody good vs evil (black hats vs white hats); heroes and/or victims generally don’t change (much) internally; are usually epistemological dramas of revelation (mystery solved, mistaken identities cleared up, hero’s virtue finally acknowledged by authority); catharsis is completely satisfying (bad guys killed or imprisoned; Death Star blown up; racist fired, etc)

WILL THE VILLAIN BE FOILED AGAIN?

WHITE HAT, BLACK HAT—IN BOARDING SCHOOL! IN SPACE!

REVERSE BLACK HAT!

BLOCKBUSTER=MELODRAMA

BAD HOMBRES & WARS AGAINST EVIL

1.39:35

SOCIAL MEDIA REPLIES… USING MELODRAMA

SIRK VS STAR WARS Sirkian melodrama: Evils are both social &

individual Sirkian melodrama: Catharsis is incomplete Sirkian melodrama: Psychological realism

Both focus on psychologically tormented families Both rely on sudden revelations and reverses Both rely on stereotypes, extreme situations and

heightened emotions Both find a way to convey social, political,

psychological and sexual ambiguities despite limited grammar

Both address crises of belief in modernity Both feature subcultural spats between men in

robes

Most serial television is influenced by one or both kinds of melodrama. See these bullies at the OK Corral in Freaks and Geeks, episode 1.

THINGS TO WATCH FOR

How would you describe the family dynamic of the Jesuit community? How is the theme of traditional authority vs youth & modernity resolved? The tension between secular Enlightenment-rationalist modes of knowing and traditional

belief systems embracing unresolvable mystery. Competition over the nature of virtue