Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk
by Barbara Klinger
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Book Summary Information
Author: Barbara KlingerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-08-22
ISBN: 0253208750
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Book Reviews of Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk
Book Review: Ideas aplenty but little organisation
Summary: 3 Stars
Meaning and melodrama is an investigation of the diverse ways, people have viewed the films of Douglas Sirk. It is an ambitious work that covers a huge amount of terain. She makes some interesting observations about the way perceptions change ovr time. It is simply not possible for a critic to look at the films of Rock Hudson - one of the definitive masculine heroes of the 1950s - and not take account of his homosexuality which was only publicly revealed when he died of AIDS many years later. Similarly, it is the off screen love life and political actions of DeMille, that may change a modern audience's perception of his films.
Professor Klinger asks what determines a film's meaning and ideological significance. She considers the internal features of film: its viewers, and its environment. For Klinger placing films in their historical context has larger implications for understanding the impact of cultural forces. It gives us an insight into the complex relationship between films and their contexts. She examines how institutions such as academia, the film industry and the media create an identity for films. She aims to "reconsider criticism as a specific kind of textual appropriation."
Klinger's basic idea is interesting; however, it seems to lead to self reinforcing statements. When the auterists were at their height as critical tradition such as the Sarris review of Sirk's body of work in the 1960s, it is not surprising that they regarded him as a fine director with a formal style. Similarly, it is not surprising that Marxists find issues of class in his films or that feminists find issues about gender. It would be astonishing if they didn't find them. As critical theories or frameworks rise and fall, it is not surprising that writers of that period follow the theories popular at that time. The ideological position of the critic is always going to be reflected in their criticism.
The book is interesting, but poorly organised and the whole work does not hang together and appears to be a series of seperate essays written with little relationship to each other. Aspects are fascinating, but the whole is unsatisfactory.
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