Douglas Sirk was not always considered a cinematic genius; he was barely considered competent as a storyteller by film critics of his time. While Sirk was making films, his work was regarded as “women’s films” or “weepies,” which women would watch when they needed a good cry. Misogynist overtones aside, Sirk’s films are made to make you feel. Whether it’s happiness, or gloom, or desperation, Sirk’s films are as much about the surface of things, as they are deeply introspective and socially conscious.
Sirk’s obsession with surfaces and images is apparent in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. In the film, the spectacle of suburban society is displayed through the use of costume and décor. Every time protagonist Cary (played superbly by Jane Wyman) puts on another dress, an atmospheric shift occurs, a subtle change of her disposition. Her dresses exteriorize her inner world, and make her feelings come to the surface.
Despite Sirk’s obsession with images, the director repeatedly asks the audience to meditate on the degree to which Cary is oppressed by the perfect image she projects. Sirk’s film asks, what good is reputation, money, and pedigree if happiness is out of reach?
This question is universal and strikingly contemporary. The 2002 Todd Haynes film FAR FROM HEAVEN casts Julianne Moore as Cathy, a similarly trapped 1950s housewife who struggles with high society when she strikes up a friendship with a black man. This film also deploys costumes and luscious visual images to exploit the connection between propriety and hypocrisy.
ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is one of few canonical films that lives up to its hype. The heightened emotions at the surface are only a fraction of the it’s appeal — but even if the melodrama is all you see, it is well worth it.
— Diana Martinez, Film Streams Education Director
