When director Douglas Sirk fled Germany in 1937 fearing his Jewish wife’s persecution at the hands of the Nazis, he brought with him a brand of exquisitely-crafted, expressionistic melodramas which – while not respected by critics at the time – left an indelible mark on Hollywood’s populist women’s pictures. Emotionally complex, beautifully shot, and always with a sharpened dagger to the throat of the 50s American values, Sirk’s films made throughout that decade are some of the most insightful depictions of the ways in which the American Dream suffocated and isolated women of all walks of life. These delicious pictures offer a subversive dive into the lives of these women, the tumultuous men they love, and society’s obsession with maintaining a mundane ordinariness in the post-war era. It’s little wonder his films have now attracted a cult following and inspired a spate of filmmakers in their wake including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Waters, and Todd Haynes to name only a few.
Visit
In Theatre
Today
Friday, May 23
This week
Saturday, May 24
Sunday, May 25
Monday, May 26
Tuesday, May 27
- FRIENDSHIP
- CAUGHT BY THE TIDES
- JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE
-
THEATER OF THOUGHT
* Post-screening discussion with Dr. René Marois, Vanderbilt University
Wednesday, May 28
- FRIENDSHIP
-
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
* Introduction from comedian Cortney Warner
- JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE
- CAUGHT BY THE TIDES