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All That Heaven Allows (1955)

Director: Douglas Sirk

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From Time Out Film Guide

On the surface a glossy tearjerker about the problems besetting a love affair between an attractive middle class widow and her younger, 'bohemian' gardener, Sirk's film is in fact a scathing attack on all those facets of the American Dream widely held dear. Wealth produces snobbery and intolerance; family togetherness creates xenophobia and the cult of the dead; cosy kindness can be stultifyingly patronising; and materialism results in alienation from natural feelings. Beneath the stunningly lovely visuals - all expressionist colours, reflections, and frames-within-frames, used to produce a precise symbolism - lies a kernel of terrifying despair created by lives dedicated to respectability and security, given its most harrowing expression when Wyman, having given up her affair with Hudson in order to protect her children from gossip, is presented with a television set as a replacement companion. Hardly surprising that Fassbinder chose to remake the film as Fear Eats the Soul.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

usman khawaja said...

Posted on Jun 16 2008 11:17 exquisite and excruciating truth
this is a masterpiece on the short-lived memories of the the so -called critics of social values and custodians of superfluous values ,a widow with teenage kids has to deny love but it is masterfully brought to realise that her sacrifice is of no avail to anyone except leaving her forlorn and miserable ,the movie is about being true to yourself and states only then can you bring happiness to all around you as well as find contentment within yourself .
hudson is really great as the non -pretentious man who believes in simplicity in life as being the eternal truth and the bourgeois values as being bogus and superficial and totally unnecessary,wyman is left to ponder and find the truth in her own way by the great script .
sirk combines style and truth in a manner unique to himself ,he is an absolutely amazing film-maker who fascinates with his observation of social trivia and petty human behaviour ,this movie is an indepth satire on the social gossip and norms which are revealed as truly evil in a beautifully simple emotional exercise where two people can be unconventionally happy ,that others will disapprove is shown as of no consequence to the society as long as it does not affect them .
the line 'you will allow yourself an affair but deny love 'is absolutely amazing and so sums up this masterpiece in it's simplicity.
- jbz7879

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