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 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace , Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury P ublishing Plc 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 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third- party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. 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 Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit w ww.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters . 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