All That Heaven Allows (1955) Review - Douglas Sirk, Rock Hudson
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson star in this classic melodrama about a wealthy widow who falls in love with a much younger landscaper - and the trials and tribulations they face because of their relationship.
Watch me go full film nerd - I love Douglas Sirk movies a lot!
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My late wife (who was sixteen years my senior, and the much-missed love of my life) introduced me to this film. I always experience healing when I see it, and never tire of it. A great review! Two things about Sirk’s cinematography need to be pointed out: the use of light and shadow and the use of reflected images to tell the story. The only time we see Cary’s living room in full light is when she is playing the piano in a state of bliss. Her confrontation with Ned over Kirby shows both of them almost silhouetted. When we first meet Ned and Kay, we see their dim reflections in a mirror. When Cary, having broken up with Ron, has Christmas alone with her children, Ned gives her a surprise present of a tv set. The utter loneliness she is feeling is starkly conveyed in the even dimmer reflection of her face in the tv screen. Then there is Frank Skinner’s music. He plays with two pieces purloined from 19th-century composers: a three-note, descending melodic fragment from the last movement from Brahms’ first symphony; and, perhaps to illustrate happiness, an abbreviated version of Liszt’s Consolation No. 3. The Brahms motif is used by Skinner in his theme music; it is not heard more or less as Brahms wrote it until we are in the old barn on Ron’s property.
Fantastic review - I love your insights into the visual metaphors used by Sirk. He is so good - I remember when we watched Imitation of Life for the first time and how deeply it moved us to uncontrolled sobbing!
Thank you! Sirk really is terrific. And yes! Oh boy that's another tearjerker
Douglas Sirk perfected melodrama into an artform. He and Rock Hudson were a perfect director/actor pairing .
All that Heaven Allows is a beautiful film.
ATHA is one of my favorite moves and so beautiful that I like to play it in the background of my home as I walk by doing my fall holiday things. Agnes Morehead who won numerous awards for her roles in movies and TV is just wonderful in this as Carrie's best friend, Sara.
I must admit that I have an unabashed prejudice towards this movie as my Auntie Gloria portrayed the role of the daughter Kay. However, I do find the film quite an interesting piece as commenting on the Eisenhower era as life was @ that point in time and the eventual shift and change in attitudes regarding nearly every aspect of society and the roles of conformity and class therein. It probably is still considered an underappreciated motion picture despite, as you had stated, what was most likely Sirk's best contribution to his output. But @ least there's a small audience that does embrace the film, including a number of notables in the movie industry, especially among directors. You provided a very good review for this particular little gem of a flick. May others soon catch and latch onto this title as well. Sirk certainly seems in continuing being an underrated and overlooked individual pertaining to his oeuvre. (Incidentally, I thought that Ned and Kay were real jerks @ first, and then later on proving that it just isn't enough to read, hear, learn, discuss or debate about behavior in life but that it must be lived in order to truly understand and relate, hence Kay's turnabout, something most should really ought to heed. And for another thing, I can relate partially to the main characters as my very first squeeze was 17 yrs my senior.)
I adore this film
This is my all time favourite movie... I am a child of the fifties and everything about this film reminds me of that time my GLORY DAYS..🌈♥️.. AND PEOPLE DID GO INTO MARRIAGE QUITE QUICKLY... YOU DID NOT LIVE IN SIN AS THEY CALLED IT THEN... IF YOU FELL IN LOVE NEXT STOP WAS MARRIAGE THEN CHILDREN NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND 😅😅😅
I totally agree with you about the early stage in there relationship when they were falling in love. . A few more scenes would of been perfect.
Great movie. I immediately identified with the boring old fellow, rejected by the attractive widow, who wanted a younger guy. Whether the lady was planning to marry the young guy or not, at no time was the old fellow considered as a love interest by the lady.
Actually Rock was 29 when this was filmed.
Rock Hudson was 29,Jane Wyman was 38 when this movie was filmed in Jan,Feb 1955.I love their chemistry.
Thank you! What a lovely, intelligent, feeling review of a very lovely film ! After watching one of the most ignorant, stupid reviews of a Jane Austen film (high literatur) this review of what is considered a non-literary, melodrama proves quite the opposite, in which Sirk, Hudson and Wyman raise this story to great heights, is infinitely preferable. if you like All That Heaven Allows, you will surely enjoy two films -- from other directors, in other eras and in styles divergent -- nonetheless lovely films: World War II biographical memoir "Since You Went Away" and age-difference romance (younger man/older woman) "Fourty Carats". Thank you so miuch and God bless !!!!
nice video
Great review, totally agree with you on your points!! Thanks! :)
What did you think the significance of the colors blue and orange/red? Great review!