Postwar Domestic Melodrama: The Home as a System of Control (with Patricia White)

Hollywood's domestic melodramas of the late 1940s and 1950s have often been dismissed as weepy entertainments—but film scholar Patricia White makes a compelling case that filmmakers like Douglas Sirk, Vincente Minnelli, and Nicholas Ray were doing something far more pointed. Andy and Patricia dig into what actually defines the postwar domestic melodrama, where it came from, and why Sirk's Brechtian irony, Ophüls' restless camera, and Nicholas Ray's suburban dread still feel so alive.They move chronologically through ten films, using five as anchors: Mildred Pierce, The Reckless Moment, All That Heaven Allows, Bigger Than Life, and Home from the Hill. Along the way: the redomestication of women after the war, the home as a system of control, desire policed by community gaze, and cortisone as a metaphor for wounded postwar masculinity.Members get five more—Leave Her to Heaven, The Bad and the Beautiful, Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life, and The Children's Hour—in the extended discussion. Join at trustory.fm/join.Full Discussion on YouTubePatricia White: Instagram | Uninvited | Rebecca | Women's Cinema, World Cinema | The Film ExperienceEssential Films: Mildred Pierce | The Reckless Moment | All That Heaven Allows | Bigger Than Life | Home from the HillOur Letterboxd Lists: Full Episode List | Patricia's Recommended FilmsAlso from The Next Reel: Rebel Without a Cause | Giant | A Place in the Sun | A Streetcar Named Desire | The Bad Seed
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