The article, ‘Film Bodies: Gender, Genre & Excess’1 by Linda Williams explores whether the forms of sex, violence and emotion found in the genres of pornography, horror, and melodrama (specifically the woman’s weepie) respectively, are as gratuitous as my film scholars and critics believe them to be. Setting out to disprove this idea, Williams’ investigates and compares the form, function, and system of the three genres. Ultimately, William’s central claims reveal the value in the supposed excess of these three genres that benefit a spectator in a variety of ways.
Seeking to argue her idea, Williams’ firstly uncovers why elements of these genres are regularly deemed as excessive. This is presented with the contrast of Classic Hollywood and …show more content…
Using Laplance and Pontalis’s ‘structural understanding of fantasies as myths of origin’ and Freud’s ‘original fantasy’, Williams shows how all three genres explore enigmas of sexual desire, sexual difference and self. Pornography addresses sexual desire and its unknown origin, by creating a fantasy of the perfect moment where a seducer and the seduced may meet and share moments of pleasure ‘on time’. Unalike pornography, horror explores sexual difference through the fantasy of castration, which usually occurs when the female character is attacked as she is about to meet or become intimate with her boyfriend/lover. It additionally unravels the anxiety of not being ready, events transpiring ‘too early’. Different yet again, melodrama explores the origin of self and the fantasy of returning and discovering a connection either as a child, parent or lover, in a way that is ‘too late.’ These fantasies are ‘tinged with the melancholy of …show more content…
In summary, the film follows Cary, a widowed, upper-class woman who forms a romantic relationship with Ron, a young, naturalistic-living gardener. As a middle-aged widower, Cary feels pressure from society and her adult children to conform to their expectations of her. Putting her love-life on hold, Cary tries to protect her children only to realise that she has gained nothing from doing so. In a picturesque ending, however, Cary realises her mistake and finds herself back with Ron. A deer wandering in the snow outside their window silently approves of her choice as the credits roll. Falling under the melodrama genre, ‘All That Heaven Allows’ features elements that are characterised as excessive. The spectator experiences the story through the eyes of Cary and as such mimic the same emotions of anguish that she presents. Using mise-en-scene, Sirk externalises the internal emotions of the characters so much so that the viewer is overwhelmed and bombarded by it. However, just as the superficiality of the narrative and mise-en-scene can be unravelled so can the assumptions of gratuity. In accordance with the argument of Williams, it’s clear to see how ‘All That Heaven Allows’ attempts to problem-solve issues of sexuality and patriarchal society. Cary’s sexuality is silently and subtly explored by Sirk through her wardrobe and the symbolic bodies of her suitors,
Seeking to argue her idea, Williams’ firstly uncovers why elements of these genres are regularly deemed as excessive. This is presented with the contrast of Classic Hollywood and …show more content…
Using Laplance and Pontalis’s ‘structural understanding of fantasies as myths of origin’ and Freud’s ‘original fantasy’, Williams shows how all three genres explore enigmas of sexual desire, sexual difference and self. Pornography addresses sexual desire and its unknown origin, by creating a fantasy of the perfect moment where a seducer and the seduced may meet and share moments of pleasure ‘on time’. Unalike pornography, horror explores sexual difference through the fantasy of castration, which usually occurs when the female character is attacked as she is about to meet or become intimate with her boyfriend/lover. It additionally unravels the anxiety of not being ready, events transpiring ‘too early’. Different yet again, melodrama explores the origin of self and the fantasy of returning and discovering a connection either as a child, parent or lover, in a way that is ‘too late.’ These fantasies are ‘tinged with the melancholy of …show more content…
In summary, the film follows Cary, a widowed, upper-class woman who forms a romantic relationship with Ron, a young, naturalistic-living gardener. As a middle-aged widower, Cary feels pressure from society and her adult children to conform to their expectations of her. Putting her love-life on hold, Cary tries to protect her children only to realise that she has gained nothing from doing so. In a picturesque ending, however, Cary realises her mistake and finds herself back with Ron. A deer wandering in the snow outside their window silently approves of her choice as the credits roll. Falling under the melodrama genre, ‘All That Heaven Allows’ features elements that are characterised as excessive. The spectator experiences the story through the eyes of Cary and as such mimic the same emotions of anguish that she presents. Using mise-en-scene, Sirk externalises the internal emotions of the characters so much so that the viewer is overwhelmed and bombarded by it. However, just as the superficiality of the narrative and mise-en-scene can be unravelled so can the assumptions of gratuity. In accordance with the argument of Williams, it’s clear to see how ‘All That Heaven Allows’ attempts to problem-solve issues of sexuality and patriarchal society. Cary’s sexuality is silently and subtly explored by Sirk through her wardrobe and the symbolic bodies of her suitors,