Difference between revisions of "Domestic Melodrama Since World War II (Discussion)"
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#Christine Gledhill, "The Melodrama Field: An Investigation," ''Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film'', ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 5-39. | #Christine Gledhill, "The Melodrama Field: An Investigation," ''Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film'', ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 5-39. | ||
#Thomas Elsaesser, "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama," ''Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film'', ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 43-69. | #Thomas Elsaesser, "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama," ''Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film'', ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 43-69. | ||
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[[Category:TCF440/540 Discussion]] | [[Category:TCF440/540 Discussion]] | ||
Revision as of 14:52, 27 March 2008
Readings
Christine Gledhill
- How did melodrama become "respectable" in academic circles? In particular, what does it mean to "read" a film "against the grain" (p. 6)?
- What four "points of tension" does Gledhill see in 1970s film criticism about melodrama?
- Gledhill discusses Coma, Witness, and The Color Purple as melodramas descended from silent melodrama such as Way Down East (1920). What key aspects of melodrama does she see in these newer films? Can you think of recent films or TV programs that also contain these aspects?
- What were "patent theaters"? How did "illegitimate" theaters get around the restrictions of the patent system? When were restrictions lifted in England and France?
Thomas Elsaesser
Pronounced "ell-SAY-sir".
- Elsaesser's article has two goals:
- Tracing the "melodramatic imagination".
- Searching for "some structural and stylistic constants" in the melodrama, 1940-1963.
- Considering #2 above: What does Elsaesser mean by melodrama's "expressive code" (p. 51)? In particular, what does he mean when he says that melodrama contains "a sublimation of dramatic conflict into decor, colour, gesture and composition of frame" (p. 52)?
- The melodramas we've seen so far (Ordinary People, Imitation of Life, and Terms of Endearment) do not illustrate his point. Can you explain why they do not? We will have to wait until the Sirk version of Imitation of Life to see this sublimation in action in the melodrama, but how might this same point be made about film noir?
- Elsaesser uses numerous Freudian concepts in this article, especially in the section titled, "Where Freud left his Marx in the American home" (p. 58-). Can you define any of these and can you explain how Elsasser is applying these concepts to melodrama?
- Fehlhandlungen, or Freudian slips (from Psychopathology of Everyday Life)
- Displacement
- Condensation
- Manifest dream content
- Latent dream content
Bibliography
- Christine Gledhill, "The Melodrama Field: An Investigation," Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film, ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 5-39.
- Thomas Elsaesser, "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama," Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Woman's Film, ed. Christine Gledhill (London: British Film Institute, 1987) 43-69.
