Douglas Sirk : filmmaker and philosopher
- Author/Creator:
- Pippin, Robert B., 1948- author
- Publication/Creation:
- London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021
- Resource Type:
- Book
More Details
Additional/Related Title Information
- Full Title:
- Douglas Sirk : filmmaker and philosopher / Robert B. Pippin
- Series Titles:
- Philosophical filmmakers
Philosophical filmmakers.
Subjects/Genre
- Subjects:
- 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
Description/Summary
- Table of Contents:
- Introduction: Irony as subversion -- Love and class in All that heaven allows -- Misplaced moralism in Written on the wind -- Living theater in Imitation of life -- Concluding remarks.
- Summary:
- "It would be easy to dismiss the films of Douglas Sirk (1897-1987) as brilliant examples of mid-century melodrama with little to say to the contemporary world. Yet Robert Pippin argues that, far from being marginal pieces of sentimentality, Sirk's films are rich with irony, insight and depth. Indeed Sirk's films, often celebrated as classics of the genre, are attempts to subvert rather than conform to rules of conventional melodrama. The visual style, story and characters of films like All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life are explored to argue for Sirk as an incredibly nuanced moral thinker. Instead of imposing moralising judgements on his characters, Sirk presents them as people who do 'wrong' things often without understanding why or how, creating a complex and unsettling ethics. Pippin argues that it this moral ambiguity and ironic richness enables Sirk to produce films that grapple with important themes such as race, class and gender with real force and political urgency. Douglas Sirk: Filmmaker and Philosopher argues for a filmmaker who was a 'disruptive not restorative' auteur and one who broke the rules in the most interesting and subtle of ways"--
- Language:
- English
- Physical Type/Description:
- 154 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Additional Identifiers
- Catalog ID (MMSID):
- 9937306291002486
- ISBN:
- 9781350195660
1350195669
9781350195677
1350195677 - OCLC Number:
- 1176508995
- Barcode:
- 010003493083
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