Dir. Douglas Sirk
1955 | 85 mins | US | English
Jayne Wyman, Rock Hudson

Considered the centrepiece of the season, Douglas Sirk’s colourful, high-octane love story All That Heaven Allows is a film whose central female character, Cary Scott, defines the story with her feelings, motives, and decisions. Her status as a mother presents her with power, as she cares for her children and, true to the maternal melodrama formula, she sacrifices her own happiness to ensure theirs.

Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott alongside Ron Kirby as Rock Hudson. The pair entrance as the star-crossed lovers at the centre of Sirk’s transgressive, saturated portrait of 1950s Eisenhower-era Americana, class friction and moral values.Douglas Sirk’s sumptuous but scathing melodrama explores the various obstacles and objections raised by a middle-class widow’s family and friends.

BBFC Rating Details:
Rated U – Contains no material likely to offend or harm

This screening is part of Too Much: Melodrama on Film, a UK-wide season that celebrates films that champion emotional intensity over ‘good taste’.

Exeter Phoenix presents a selection of films that are united by motherhood; Maternal melodramas.

The season is supported by the BFI through National Lottery funding.

Venue: Studio 74, Exeter Phoenix

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>