Douglas Sirk: Filmmaker and Philosopher

169 Pages·2021·2.6 MB·English

by  Robert B. Pippin

DOUGLAS SIRK
i
PHILOSOPHICAL FILMMAKERS
S eries editor : Costica Bradatan is a Professor of Humanities at Texas Tech
University, USA, and an Honorary Research Professor of Philosophy at
the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of Dying for
Ideas: Th e Dangerous Lives of the Philosophers (Bloomsbury, 2015),
among other books.
Films can ask big questions about human existence: what it means to
be alive, to be afraid, to be moral, to be loved. Th e Philosophical Filmmakers
series examines the work of infl uential directors, through the writing of
thinkers wanting to grapple with the rocky territory where fi lm and
philosophy touch borders.
Each book involves a philosopher engaging with an individual
fi lmmaker’s work, revealing how it has inspired the author’s own
philosophical perspectives and how critical engagement with those fi lms
can expand our intellectual horizons.
Other titles in the series:
Eric Rohmer , Vittorio H ö sle
Werner Herzog , Richard Eldridge
Terrence Malick, Robert Sinnerbrink
Kenneth Lonergan, Todd May
Shyam Benegal, Samir Chopra
Other titles forthcoming:
Christopher Nolan, Robbie Goh
Leni Riefenstahl, Jakob Lothe
ii
DOUGLAS SIRK
Filmmaker and Philosopher
ROBERT B. PIPPIN
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of
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First published in Great Britain 2021
Copyright © Robe rt B. Pippin, 2021
Robert B. Pippin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identifi ed as A uthor of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an extension
of this copy right page.
Cover image: Dorothy Malone, Rock Hudson & Lauren Bacall in
Written On The Wind (USA 1 956). Mary Evans/AF Archive
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pippin, Robert B., 1948– author.
Title: Douglas Sirk : fi lmmaker and philosopher / Robert B. Pippin.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. | Series: Philosophical fi lmmakers |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifi ers: LCCN 2020049931 (print) | LCCN 2020049932 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350195660 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350195677 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781350195684 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350195691 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Sirk, Douglas, 1897–1987–Criticism and interpretation. | Melodrama in
motion pictures. | Irony in motion pictures. | Philosophy in motion pictures. |
Motion pictures–United States–History–20th century. | Motion picture producers and
directors–United States–Biography. | Motion picture producers
and directors–Germany–Biography.
Classifi cation: LCC PN1998.3.S57 P57 2021 (print) | LCC PN1998.3.S57 (ebook) |
DDC 791.4302/33092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049931
LC ebook record available at h ttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020049932
ISBN: HB 978-1-3501-9566-0
PB: 978-1-3501-9567-7
ePDF: 978-1-3501-9568-4
eBook: 9 78-1-3501-9569-1
Series: Philosop hical Filmmakers
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iv
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
1 Introduction: Irony as Subversion 1
2 Love and Class in A ll Th at Heaven Allows 35
3 Misplaced Moralism in W ritten on the Wind 71
4 Living Th eatre in Imitation of Life 101
Concluding Remarks 137
Bibliography 145
Index 149
v
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An earlier, diff erent form of Chapter Two originally appeared in
Critical Inquiry (vol. 45; Summer 2019) and I am grateful to the editors
for allowing me to retain copyright. Many thanks to Amy Levine for
preparing the index. I am also very grateful for comments provided
by and for conversations with Fred Rush, Dan Morgan, Richard Neer,
Tom Gunning, Francey Russell and Michael Fried. I am especially
indebted to Mark Wilson.
vii
viii
1
Introduction:
Irony as Subversion
Th e characteristics we associate with fi lm melodrama, a form
traditionally taken to be a demotic or ‘low art’ form, are feverishly
intense suff ering, overwhelmingly of women,1 expressed around a
great emotional crisis, usually involving romantic and/or familial
love. In many stock melodramas there are clearly identifi able villains
and victims, but in many others, like those by Douglas Sirk that will
be discussed in this book, there are not. Th at is, the suff ering is caused
not by villains but by those who love each other. Th is is all presented
in a cinematic style in which such crises are given expression in a way
that seems to many viewers hyperbolic, excessive, overwrought,
obvious (particularly in the musical score), something that usually
prompts complaints about simplifi cation and manipulation. When
we point to such excess, we mean that the expression of emotion in
1 Predominantly but not exclusively. According to Laura Mulvey, W ritten on the Wind and
Tarnished Angels stand out because of their treatment of male victims of patriarchal families
in capitalism; see Laura Mulvey, ‘Notes on Sirk and Melodrama’, in H ome Is Where the Heart
Is , ed. Christine Gledhill (London, 1994), pp. 76–77.
1