The Evolution of Melodrama ~ Brian Stone

Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love has a distinct visual style that has evolved from other films. Wong’s style of framing his subjects in doorways and mirrors to emphasize their loneliness originated in Douglas Sirk’s 1955 melodrama All That Heaven Allows. Sirk uses a much more basic version of the framing style that makes In The Mood for Love so effective. The film also closely resembles Ali: Fear Eats the Soul Rainer Fassbinder’s reimagining of Sirk’s film. While the stories in each film are distinct, each shot in a different country at a different time in history, all of the films have an underlying theme in common: All three films are at their core seem to be about relationships and loneliness.
When you look at the three films as a group you get an almost stylistic timeline of modern melodrama. These films were made 20 years apart from one another and each on a different continent. And yet they have so much in common that one cant help but wonder if each director had seen the other’s work. When Douglas Sirk made All That Heaven Allows his work was dismissed. In it’s early days the melodrama had no place in art but by the time Fassbinder came around it began getting some credibility. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is a direct homage to Fassbinder’s film. Fassbinder simply moved the genre forwards and gave it his own personal touch. By the time In the Mood for Love was made the genre had gained artistic recognition. Wong Kar-wai’s film was nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes, a feat that Douglas Sirk never came anywhere near. It’s just interesting to see such an evolution take place in a genre.