In today's episode, my co-hosts and I will be talking about the work of Douglas Sirk, one of the great film directors of the 20th century. In the course of gathering notes for this episode and this introduction, I found an intriguing bio of Sirk, posted at the 'Senses of Cinema' website (link in show notes). I'll just read the first few paragraphs to set the stage. "Douglas Sirk was one of the 20th century cinema’s great ironists. And perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the films he made in Europe and America is the way they are able to create a gulf between how his characters see themselves and our view of them. Sirk’s characters grapple with the same problems that have always afflicted men and women and parents and children, to do with love, death and social circumstance. In some cases, they do so in a world of melodrama – as in films as various as Schlussakkord (1936), La Habanera (1937), There’s Always Tomorrow (1955) and Imitation of Life (1958). In others, it’s a world of colour and music – as in the trio of comedy-musicals he made during the 1950s, Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1951), Meet Me at the Fair (1952) and Take Me to Town (1952), part of a series he had planned about small town America. In others, it’s the excitement of mystery, romance or adventure – in films such as Lured (1946), Taza, Son of Cochise (1953, shot in 3-D) and Captain Lightfoot (1954). But Sirk adds another layer to the shape of the films and to his characters’ struggles within them. All around, but beyond the reach of their vision, are forces which define the parameters of their lives. These are evident at the most basic level, in the way that the plots almost always hinge on problems for which the only solution becomes a convenient miracle, a deus ex machina." We will talk about Sirk's work and life broadly and more specifically, we will use his 1956 melodrama masterpiece, 'Written on the Wind' as the focus of our discussion. I hope you enjoy it. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Sirk Interview with Sirk (1978) https://www.filmcomment.com/article/sirkumstantial-evidence/ Sense of Cinema Bio: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/great-directors/sirk/ Douglas Sirk Remembers (in German) https://youtu.be/a0YfrQMoJIw
Released:
Jul 24, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (10)
The standard measure of the quality and importance of a movie, or, to be grand, ‘film’, is enjoyment.
This is certainly one measure, but not the only one. There are layers to be considered: movies as a capitalist enterprise, as a propaganda form, as art, as a fleeting means of escape from the psychological and material pressures imposed by a collapsing world, as a peek into how the past - or, people in the past with access to money, technical capability and script writing skill thought of their world - and many other things I’m surely neglecting.
We’ll talk about these things, avoiding the tendency of men to waste time with formless chatter. There’s no time for that; the world is burning. There’ll be structure, agendas, talking points and laughing no doubt.
So not grim, but, well, how should I put this: also not a clown car of opinion.
