Melodrama | Cagey Films

Roberto Gavaldón’s Untouched (Sombra Verde, 1954) on Blu-ray from Indicator

Posted on September 11, 2024September 11, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Yáscara (Ariadne Welter), raised far from society, expresses an unconstrained eroticism in Roberto Gavaldón's Untouched (1954)

Indicator have taken a break from their recent spate of Mexican genre movies by dipping a little deeper into the Calderón family archives. Untouched (Sombra Verde, 1954) is a torrid romantic melodrama with allegorical notes which trades in the urban noir of a movie like Emilio Fernández’s Victims of Sin (1950) for the primal jungle of Veracruz. Both were produced by Guillermo Calderón and show him pushing against the boundaries of censorship and testing how far cinema could push a frank depiction of sexuality in a society still very much under the sway of the Catholic Church.

Emilio Fernández’s Victimas del pecado (Victims of Sin, 1951): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on June 26, 2024June 24, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Emilio Fernández’s Victimas del pecado (Victims of Sin, 1951), newly restored in 4K from the original nitrate negative, is a Mexican musical melodrama loaded with tragedy punctuated with ecstatic dance numbers from star Ninón Sevilla, who plays a cabaret dancer whose life is upended when she takes responsibility for an abandoned baby. Taut direction by Fernández and stunning photography by the masterful Gabriel Figueroa provide a remarkable showcase for Sevilla’s considerable talent.

Spring 2024 viewing, part two

Posted on May 22, 2024May 20, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

A strange young woman disrupts a middle-class home in Go Yeong-nam's Suddenly in the Dark (1981)

Continuing my survey of what I’ve been watching this Spring… Mondo Macabro Mondo Macabro is a label I haven’t mentioned much here, though they specialize in genre movies from around the world and I’ve discovered some real oddities through them – like H. Tjut Djalil’s Mystics in Bali (1981) and Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s Alucarda (1975). […]

World Cinema Project 4: Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on September 28, 2022September 27, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Servant Kanizak (Shohreh Aghdashlou) schemes for power in Mohammad Reza Aslani’s Chess of the Wind (1979)

With their fourth set of World Cinema Project restorations, Criterion again present a fascinating collection of films from different periods and different cultures: two features from post-colonial Africa which illuminate the complex effects of tradition distorted by colonial influences; a South American movie which also deals with colonialism and the exploitation of labour; a pre-war Hungarian feature about two women struggling to survive in a city towards the end of the Depression; an Indian film exploring myth and the politics of Independence and partition through music and dance; and a pre-revolutionary film from Iran which uses melodrama as a metaphor for the nation’s transition from feudalism to modernity.

Frank Borzage’s History is Made at Night (1937):
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on April 28, 2021April 27, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Romance begins in menacing darkness in Frank Borzage’s History is Made at Night (1937)

Criterion have released a stunning restoration of History is Made at Night (1937), Frank Borzage’s startlingly unpredictable mixture of romantic comedy, melodrama, noir and horror, which climaxes as a full-blown disaster film. Production began with only half a script and much of the film was improvised on the fly, yet it emerged as a wonderfully entertaining, continuously surprising testament to Borzage’s belief in the redemptive power of love.

2020: Year-End Thoughts

Posted on December 30, 2020December 29, 2020 by Kenneth George Godwin

The cost of security and comfort is high in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978)

It’s that time of year again. How to decide what’s “best” out of the six-hundred-plus movies I watched in 2020? It’s an impossible task, so here’s a fairly random selection of things which may not be best, but certainly appealed to me and stuck in my memory.

William Wyler’s The Heiress (1949): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on June 5, 2019November 5, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

In finally achieving independence Catherine (Olivia de Havilland) also accepts the prospect of loneliness in William Wyler's The Heiress (1949)

Criterion’s new Blu-ray offers a superb presentation of William Wyler’s greatest film, The Heiress (1949), a subtle yet scathing dissection of the ways in which money distorts and destroys human relationships.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day:
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on November 14, 2018September 3, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Jochen (Gottfried John) and Marion (Hanna Schygulla), the couple at the centre of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972-3)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s early television series Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (1972-73) is a real discovery, a warm, funny, richly layered melodrama depicting the lives of a working class family navigating personal relationships in the context of economic and political constraints in post-war capitalist Germany.

Melodrama from Twilight Time

Posted on January 17, 2018December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Kate Nelligan as a woman forced to assert herself in Richard Marquand's Eye of the Needle (1981)

Some recent Twilight Time releases showcase the value of melodrama as social critique and character study.

Notes on melodrama and film history

Posted on October 12, 2016December 23, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins) hits bottom in Mark Robson's Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Criterion releases some high-end trash with an extras-packed edition of Valley of the Dolls, and a collection of journalistic reviews by Graham Greene offers interesting insights into movies in the ’30s.

Tag: Melodrama