Chapter 29
Cinema and Melodrama
Objectives: In this chapter, students will be introduced the concept of melodrama and its far-reaching
influence on world cinema.
Key words: high emotion, romantic drama, class, sex
Background
The term ‘melodrama’ is generally used in a pejorative sense. We call a film ‘melodramatic’ when it has
excessive sentiments and when it intends to squeeze emotions out of us. A good example of this is opera
where emotions are always over-the-top. The word ‘melodrama’ has its roots in the Greek ‘melos’ for
song , and in early 19th century London, many plays were produced with a musical accompaniment that
heightened the emotional aspect of the various scenes, for e.g., Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, The
Barber of Fleet Street (1979).
Melodrama and ancient Greek theatre
Melodrama is not a recent concept in literature. In fact, a play such as
Sophocles’ Oedipus (BC 429), the hero inadvertently kills his father
and marries his mother. On realizing the truth, his wife/mother
hangs herself and Oedipus blinds himself and lives in a state of selfexile. According to Aristotle, a great tragedy should arouse the
feelings of pity and fear, thus leading to cleansing of these emotions.
You are already familiar with the role songs and background scores play in increasing the sentimental
quotient of a scene in Indian cinema. For M.H. Abrams, ‘The terms “melodrama” and “melodramatic” are
also, in an extended sense, applied to any literary work or episode, whether in drama or prose fiction,
that relies on implausible events and sensational action. Melodrama, in this sense, was standard fare in
cowboy-and-Indian and cops-and-robber types of silent films, and remains alive and flourishing in
current cinematic and television productions.’ (p. 165).According to David Thomson, ‘Melodrama on film
is often a world in which a few people live amid shadow: the image sustains the thought that romantic
dreams are the pivot of life’ (p. 518).
These days, the term “melodramatic” is used mostly to dismiss a film as improbable, excessive or worthless.
This belles the fact that melodrama as a film genre is as worthy as any other, and as an aesthetic it infuses
countless movies, from Westerns through epics to comedy. Drawing from influences as wide ranging as Greek
tragedy and sentimental Victorian novels, melodrama was a hugely popular theatrical form in the late
nineteenth century. Like slapstick comedy, which had its roots in vaudeville, it adapted easily to the silent
movies. It placed a heavier emphasis on expressive gestures and visual iconography than on dialogue and
naturalism (such as those by D.W. Griffith) and often on tragic outcomes. Stories of good versus evil were told
using familiar motifs and archetypes and helped create over the top emotions.
Typically, the plot of a melodrama revolves around intrigue and deception. If you observe Hindi films,
such as Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2002), you will notice that heroes are all good-hearted
and pure, but are victims of circumstances. In Sooraj Barjatya’s romantic melodrama, Maine Pyaar Kiya
(1989) or Subhash Ghai’s Hero (1984), Karma (1986), Trimurti (1995), Pardes (1997), you will find that
the good characters are entirely good while the evil characters have no redeeming features in them.
Along with this, in a typical melodrama, “the family becomes the site of patriarchy and capitalism---and
therefore, reproduces it.” (Hayward, 214)
Melodrama and Classic Hollywood
Melodrama is a highly popular genre, used in a highly derogatory term. Still, its popularity is beyond
doubt, as David Thomson puts it in his Dictionary, ‘Cinema---as an entertainment, an art form, an
academic topic, or an institution---is addicted to melodrama….Long live melodrama’ (pp. 516-7). A
theatrical mode that manipulated the audience’s emotions; the film industry used the term to denote
dramas involving the passions: crime melodramas, psychological melodramas, family melodramas,
women’s film and romantic dramas.
Melodramas achieved a particular status with the interest in the works of DW Griffith, Lon Chaney, John
Stahl, Nicholas Ray, Vincent Minnelli, Max Ophuls, Otto Preminger, and Douglas Sirk. According to
Christine Gledhill, ‘The study of melodrama as a cinematic genre is a recent development. It achieved
public visibility in 1977, when the Society for Education in Film and Television commissioned papers for
a study weekend.’ (p. 316).
Theory of Melodrama
Melodrama can have several categories, but some of the important ones are: the woman’s film, the
romantic drama, and the maternal melodrama. Film Theorist Molly Haskell drew attention to women’s
films with family melodrama and raised questions about the aesthetic and cultural significance of this
cinema. For Thomas Elsaesser (1972) , melodrama can be analyzed through complex mise en scene and
ideological criticisms. Elsaesser considers the family melodramas of the 1950s as the peak of
Hollywood’s achievement (qtd in Gledhill). Also, ‘Melodrama seeks to move its audience emotionally by
an appeal to everyday feelings and experiences that are then magnified in intensity through a complex of
baroque incident and coincidence’ (Gledhill, p. 323). For Geoffrey Nowell-Smith the play of class and sex
is central to melodrama. He elaborates, ‘The Hollywood melodrama of the 1950s is structured in terms of
conflict between the generations, in which the son has to accept his symbolic castration by the father
before he can take up his place in the patriarchal and bourgeois order’ (qtd in Gledhill).
Douglas Sirk (1897-1987)
Sirk was a European left -wing intellectual, who started his career in Germany, but soon shifted to
America due to Nazism in his homeland. In America he worked during the repressive atmosphere of the
50s, yet he managed to make films that were critical of the prevailing ideology. Sirk had a theatre
background in Germany and was influenced by Brecht and Weill. This is reflected through Sirk’s
tendency to create strong mise en scene, including strong primary colours, contrast of dark and light,
exaggerated acting and gestures and emotional excesses.
As in most works of melodramas, telling background music was another hallmark of Sirk’s cinema. A
reevaluation of Sirk as auteur pointed to the ideological critique that his ironic mise en scene operated on
1950s middle-class America. For David Thomson, ‘There are no ugly or gross shots in Sirk….the material
is the style. Cinema lends itself to melodrama and Sirk’s grace eases into appearance the furtive
emotional life that we decline to admit.’ (p. 517). Sirk regularly worked with actors such as Rock Hudson,
Jane Wyman, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone. He also worked well with producers Ross Hunter and
Albert Zugsmith and photographer Russell Metty.
Written on the Wind (1956) was central to the rediscovery of melodrama in the early 1970s. The film,
according to Thomson, ‘is as good as it is because of Sirk’s conviction with the form of visual narrative,
and because of the quality of overwrought performance he gained from Stack and Malone.’ (p. 517).
In All that Heaven Allows, play of class and sex is carried out in the iconography of the film. For Griselda
Pollock, ‘the woman’s point of view in All That Heaven Allows is not in the last analysis what is disruptive.
Cary in fact is offered as a passive spectator of her own fate, quite in line with patriarchal ideology’ (p.
322). Signs of conspicuous consumption are present in the use of décor, costume and spaces. David
Thomson posits, ‘Sirk shows cinema’s great capacity for uncovering the lives of ordinary people. The
sensibility is musical but lowbrow. What other medium can pick out the seriousness in vulgarity without
condescension?’ (p. 518).
in Magnificent Obsession, the central male character's irresponsible behavior causes woman's
blindness. He goes from being a playboy to becoming a renowned doctor so that he may restore her
eyesight and, near the end of the film, that is precisely what he does during a dramatic operation.
Sirk’s major Hollywood works include: All that Heaven Allows (1955), All I Desire(1953), Magnificent
Obsession (1954), Written on the Wind (1956), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), The Tarnished Angels
(1957), A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958),Imitation of Life (1959)
According to Ravi Vasudevan, melodrama, in Indian cinema, ‘is not coterminous with the heterogeneous
system of popular entertainment in Indian film, but provides a force field for narrative navigation within
its loose armature…musical sequence may also come to be shot through with elements of melodramatic
mise-en-scene and stylization which build on the exploration of narrative blockages, as in songs of
romantic and familial separation and ‘narrational songs’ addressing the injustice visited on protagonists’
(p. 43).
Filmmakers like D.W. Griffith, F.W, Murnau and Frank Borzage developed the form of the melodrama. In
Way Down East (1920), Griffith used the close-up to achieve emotional effect for the first time. Other key
silent melodramas included A Fool The re W as (1915), starring a young Theda Bara, the quintessential vamp
(1918), True Hear t Susi e (1919), Broken Blosso ms (1919) and Orphan s Of The Stor m (1922),, Erich
von Stroheim's G reed(1924); and F.W. Murnau's Sunri se (1927).
During the 1930s, with many films being based on popular women's novels, the point of view of the female
protagonist was increasingly foregrounded, and by the end of the decade the" women's movie" was a cinematic
force to be reckoned with. Stars such as Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Greer Garson and
Greta Garbo provided strong points of identification for female audiences. George Cukor's Cami lle (1936)
gave Garbo her finest role as the tragic courtesan.
After World War II, melodrama and film noir became intertwined. After her stunning turn in Michael Curtiz's
Mild red Pie rce (1945), playing the mother who is nearly destroyed by her fierce love for her daughter, Joan
Crawford appeared inmelodramas such asHumoresqu e (Jean Negulesco, 1946), Poss es s ed (Curtis
Bernhardt, 1947) and Sudden Fe w (David Miller, 1952).
Vincente Minnelli, best known for his MGM musicals, is credited with enduring melodramas such as
The Bad and the Bea utiful (1952) and Some Came Running (1958).
Though melodrama seems to be dated, the popular appeal of the so-called "women's movies"- or chick flicks,
remains undiminished. From Herbert Ross's The Turning Point (1977) to James L. Brooks' Term s of
Endearm ent (1983), melodrama has always appealed to the audiences.
In more recent times, consider James Cameron's Titanic (1997), and its melodramatic features, or even
Terence Mallick’s male melodrama, The Tree of Life (2011). In Europe, directors like Rainer Werner
Fassbinder and Pedro Almodovar have-paid immaculate tribute to Douglas Sirk, as has US Indie director Todd
Haynes, whose Far from Hea ve n (2002) evoked the 1950s melodrama without resorting to overwrought
emotions.
All that Heaven Allows, Ali, Far from Heaven
We have already been introduced to All that Heaven Allows which is a story of doomed love between a widow
and her gardener. In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Fassbinder, 1974) the female lead falls in love with a much
younger Arab and stands by him in the face of family opposition and racial prejudices. In Todd Haynes’ Far
from Heaven the heroine Cathy Whitaker is unhappily married to Frank, who is a closet homosexual. She
becomes emotionally close to her gardener, Raymond, who is black. The film ends on a sad note as Raymond
decides to go away from Cathy’s life. Both Ali and Far from Heaven are homage to Sirk’s All that Heaven
Allows and offer commentary on race, gender, class and sexual desires.
Aspects of melodrama can be read everywhere; from Ang Lee's Brokeba ck Mountain (2005) to the
emotionally charged martial arts drama of Zhang Yimou's Hero(2006). One should also take into account the
enormous viewership of soap operas on television, most of which are heavily melodramatic in content.
Films for viewing:
Mother India (1957), Upkar (1967), Deewar (1975), Kabhi Kabhi (1976).
References:
Hayward, Susan. Key Concepts in Cinema Studies.
Selected readings:
1. Abrams, M.H. & Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. A Handbook of Literary Terms. 6th ed. New Delhi: Cengage
Learning, 2009.
2. Byars, Jackie. All that Hollywood Allows. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.
3. Gledhill, Christine. ‘Melodrama’. In The Cinema Book.
4. Grimsted, David. Melodrama Unveiled. California: UCLA Press, 1968.
5. Mercer, John Dr & Martin Shingler. Melodrama. NY: wallflower Press, 2004.
6. Rahill, Frank. The World of Melodrama. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1967.
7. Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. 4th ed. NY: Little, Brown, 2003.
8. Vasudevan, Ravi. The Melodramatic Public. Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2010.
Selected websites
•
http://www.filmsite.org/melodramafilms.html
•
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2003marapr/melodrama.html
Quiz
1. Answer the following:
i. What is melodrama?
ii. Mention any three filmmakers of melodrama.
iii. How did Douglas Sirk create his own brand of melodrama?
2. State whether the following are true or false:
i. A key feature of melodrama is the play of class and sex.
ii. Melodrama is a highly regarded genre.
iii. Melodrama intends to produce intense emotional impact.
3. Match the following:
i
Karan Johar
a Mildred Pierce
ii
Michael Curtiz
b Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
iii Vincent Minnelli
c The Tree of Life
iv Terence Mallick
d The Bad and the Beautiful
4. Assignment
Analyze any one melodrama from your language with specific reference to its mise-en-scene.
Answer key
2. i-True ; ii.- False; iii. –True
3. i-b ; ii.- a; iii.-d ; iv.-c