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Home , All That Heaven Allows, Far from Heaven, Melodrama

FILM 4620 - : Emotion and Sensation in Film Spring 2016 Prof. Rielle Navitski [email protected]

Class: MWF 10:10 – 11:00 am (53 Fine Arts) Screening: M 3:35 – 5:30 (53 Fine Arts) Office Hours: T 1-3 pm, W 11 am-12 pm, F 3:30–4:30 pm or by appointment (260 Fine Arts)

Course Description

Appearing in a range of narrative forms—theater, literature, cinema, and television— melodrama has played an outsized role in film history and theory. Defining the category in shifting and sometimes contradictory ways, scholars have used it to explore key questions about film style, narrative, the viewer’s experience, and the social and political significance of cinema. How do particular narrative and stylistic strategies move the spectator physically and psychologically, provoking tears, heart-pounding suspense, and other powerful emotions and sensations? How do these feelings speak to specific historical circumstances and social constraints, addressing issues of gender, sexuality, race, and nation? What is melodrama’s relationship to classical Hollywood : an over-the-top, potentially subversive exception to the rule, or a basic narrative template for popular film? The first two weeks of this course provide an overview of key debates surrounding melodrama in film studies. In the second unit of the class, we will study diverse examples of pre-classical and classical Hollywood melodrama: sensational film serials starring dynamic female heroines, by D.W. Griffith that developed classical film language by dramatizing racial difference, the sentimental “woman’s film,” action-packed “masculine” (described as melodramas by the trade press of the period) and finally, the stylized family melodramas of . In our third unit, we will use melodrama as a framework to explore popular cinemas beyond Hollywood, examining questions of gender, nationalism and modernization in films from , and . In our final unit, we will examine how melodrama has been reimagined in films from the late 1970s through the 2010s, from “remakes” of Sirk in and to variations on the male melodrama in the 1980s through the 2000s, and melodramatic elements of the contemporary effects-driven blockbuster. This is a challenging, reading- and writing-intensive class. Prior knowledge of film theory and history is helpful, but not required. Due to the nature of the topic, the course includes films with mature themes which some may find upsetting, including violence, sexuality, and . Continuing in the class indicates awareness and acceptance of these aspects of the course and a commitment to engage deeply and thoughtfully with all readings and films.

Required text: Hard copy of course readings – download from ELC, print and bind at Tate Print & Copy shop. All readings must be completed before class on the date listed on the syllabus. If two dates are listed for a reading, complete the reading before class on the first of the two dates.

1 Course Requirements

Paper 1 - Critical Definitions of Melodrama (3-4 pgs.) 10% Paper 2 - Historical Conceptions of Melodrama (3-4 pgs.) 10% Attendance and Participation 15% Midterm Exam (in-class/take-home components) 20% Final Exam 20% Final Paper (7-9 pgs., with required paper proposal) 25%

Important Dates

2/15: Paper 1 due 2/29 - 2/28: Midterm (take-home/in-class) 3/14: Paper 2 due 3/28: Paper proposal due 4/25: Final paper due 5/6: Final exam

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

- make compelling arguments (written and oral) about why and how specific narrative and stylistic techniques in cinema generate powerful emotions and sensations in spectators

- develop and defend hypotheses about how the emotions and sensations evoked by film take on social and political significance in relation to specific historical circumstances and social issues

- summarize and evaluate critical arguments about the definition of melodrama, and make compelling arguments about the usefulness of these different definitions for understanding individual film texts

- analyze how conceptions of melodrama have evolved in different historical periods, distinguishing between the understandings of melodrama developed by the industry, critics and scholar

- perform close readings of films that use specific film terms to describe individual scenes, making a persuasive argument about the meaning of specific aesthetic choices

- write a compelling research paper that analyzes one or two melodramas in their social, historical, and industrial context, incorporating analysis of film style, analysis of historical reception through research in primary sources, and thoughtful engagement with critical arguments about melodrama

2

Course Schedule

UNIT 1 – BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEBATES

Week 1: Melodrama as Genre, Melodrama as Mode 1/11 Welcome Screening: Imitation of Life, dir. Douglas Sirk, U.S., Universal, 1959, 125 mins

1/13 Marilyn Fabe, glossary from Closely Watched Films (recommended) John Mercer and Martin Shingler, Melodrama, 4-14, 20-31 (32-37 recommended)

1/15 Peter Brooks, The Melodramatic Imagination, 11-28

Week 2: Emotion and Affect Across Film Genres 1/18 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day NO CLASS OR SCREENING

1/20 Noël Carroll, “Film, Emotion, and Genre,” 22-47

1/22 Linda Williams, “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess,” 2-13

UNIT 2 – PRE-CLASSICAL AND CLASSICAL MELODRAMA

Week 3: Sensational Melodrama Before Classical Hollywood 1/25 Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity, 149-152, 157-168 (153-156 recommended), 189-203 Screening: The Lonedale Operator, dir. D.W. Griffith, U.S., Biograph, 1911, 17 mins The Hazards of Helen, Ep. 26 “The Wild Engine,” dir. J.P. McGowan, U.S. Kalem, 1915, 14 mins The Perils of Pauline, Ch. 1 “Trial by Fire” (36 mins) and Ch. 4 “A Deadly Turning” (11 mins), dir. Louis Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie, U.S., Pathé, 1914

1/27 Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity, 221-233

1/29 Ben Singer, Melodrama and Modernity, 44-58

3 Week 4: Race and American Silent Melodrama 2/1 Linda Williams, “The American Melodramatic Mode,” 13-44 Screening: Broken Blossoms, dir. D.W. Griffith, U.S., United Artists, 1919, 90 mins

2/3 Susan Koshy, “American Nationhood as Eugenic ” (excerpt), 50-58

2/5 J. Ronald Green, “Micheaux vs. Griffith,” (excerpt) in Straight Lick, 1-6

Week 5: The “Woman’s Film” and Feminist Film Criticism 2/8 Molly Haskell, “The Woman’s Film” (excerpt) in From Reverence to , 153-175 Screening: Stella Dallas, dir. , U.S., United Artists, 1937, 104 mins

2/10 - 2/12 Linda Williams, “‘Something Else Besides a Mother’: Stella Dallas and the Maternal Melodrama,” 2-27 Extra credit screening: María Candelaria, dir. Emilio Fernández, Mexico, 1943 Wednesday, 3:35 pm, Room 53

Week 6: Melodrama and Masculinity in Classical Hollywood 2/15 PAPER 1 DUE Steve Neale, “Melo Talk: On the Use of the Term ‘Melodrama’ in the American Trade Press,” 66-81

Screening: Duel in the Sun, dir. King Vidor, 1946, U.S., Selznick, 134 mins

2/17 David Lusted, “Social Class and the as Male Melodrama,” 63-69 (70-74 recommended)

2/19 Tom Lutz, “Men’s Tears and the Roles of Melodrama,” 185-204 (186-190 recommended)

4 Week 7: Douglas Sirk in Hollywood: Melodrama, Style, and Politics 2/22 Paul Willemen, “Distanciation and Douglas Sirk,” 63-67 and “Towards an Analysis of the Sirkian System,” 128-134 Recommended: John Mercer and Martin Shingler, Melodrama, 38-43, 48-60 Screening: , dir. Douglas Sirk, U.S., Universal, 1955

2/24 Barbara Klinger, “Selling Melodrama: Sex, Affluence, and ,” in Melodrama and Meaning, 36-68

2/26 Laura Mulvey, “Notes on Sirk and Melodrama,” 75-79

UNIT 3 – MELODRAMA AND GLOBAL POPULAR CINEMA

Week 8: Melodrama and Modernity in Japan 2/29 MIDTERM EXAM Screening: Osaka Elegy, dir. Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, , 1936, 71 mins

3/2 Catherine Russell, “Insides and Outsides: Cross-cultural Criticism and Japanese Film Melodrama,” 143-152

3/4 Mori Toshie, “All for Money: Mizoguchi Kenji’s Osaka Elegy (1936),” 37-47

SPRING BREAK

Week 9: Melodrama, Motherhood, and Nation in Indian Cinema 3/14 PAPER 2 DUE Screening (during class and screening period) Mother India, Mehboob Khan, India, Mehboob Productions, 1957, 172 mins

3/16 - 3/18 Rosie Thomas, “Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologization of Mother India,” 11-30

Week 10: Melodrama, Gender and Politics in Mexico’s “Golden Age” 3/21 Ana M. López, “Tears and Desire: Women and Melodrama in the ‘Old’ Mexican Cinema,” 147-163 Screening: Aventurera, dir. Alberto Gout, Cinematográfica Calderón, 1950, 101 mins

3/23 - 3/25 Sergio de la Mora, “‘Midnight Virgin:’ Melodramas of Prostitution in Literature and Film” (excerpt) in Cinemachismo, 21-24, 47-59

5 UNIT 4 – RETHINKING MELODRAMA: FROM TO CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD

Week 11: Reworking Hollywood Melodrama in New German Cinema 3/28 PAPER PROPSAL DUE Katherine Woodward, “European Anti-Melodrama: Godard, Truffaut, and Fassbinder,” 34-47 Screening: Ali, Fear Eats the Soul, dir. , West Germany, 1974, 93 mins

3/30 Rainer Werner Fassbinder, “Six Films by Douglas Sirk,” 88-96 Mulvey, “Fassbinder and Sirk,” 40-41

4/1 NO CLASS (SCMS conference)

Week 12: Queer Camp, Postmodern Melodrama? 4/4 Barbara Klinger, “Mass Camp and the Old Hollywood Melodrama Today,” 132-156 Screening: , , , 2002, 107 mins

4/6 – 4/8 Salome Skvirsky, “The Price of Heaven: Remaking Politics in All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and Far From Heaven,” 90-121

Week 13 – The Action Blockbuster as Male Melodrama, 1980s – 2000s 4/11 Mark Gallagher, “‘I Married Rambo: Spectacle and Melodrama in the Hollywood ,” 199-221 (213-219 recommended) Screening: Die Hard, dir. John McTiernan, U.S. Fox, 1988, 132 mins

4/13 – 4/15 Philippa Gates, “Acting His Age? The Resurrection of the 80s Action Heroes and Their Aging Stars,” 76-89

Extra credit screening: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave-Hearted Will Take Away the Bride, dir. Aditya Chopra, India, 1995)

6 Week 14: The Male Weepie and/as Queer Melodrama (1990s – 2000s)

4/18 Joy Van Fuqua, “Can You Feel It, Joe? Male Melodrama and the Feeling Man,” 28-38 Screening: , dir. Ang Lee, U.S./Canada, Focus Features, 2005, 134 mins

4/20 Ara Osterweil, “Ang Lee’s Lonesome Cowboys,” 38-42 Susan McCabe, “Mother Twist: Brokeback Mountain as Male Melodrama,” 309-320

4/22 Chris Berry, “The Chinese Side of the Mountain,” 35-37

Week 15: Sensation, Sentiment, and Gender in the Effects-Driven Blockbuster

4/25 FINAL PAPER DUE Robert Blanchet, “Deep Impact: Emotion and Performativity in Contemporary Hollywood,” 76-84 Screening: Gravity, dir. Alfonso Cuarón, U.S., Warner Bros., U.S./U.K., 2013, 134 mins

4/27 - 4/29 Myke Bartlett, “Genre-bending Gender: Gravity,” 8-15. Eileen Jones, “‘Gravity’ Revives Sensation Cinema of Hollywood’s Silent Era,” 1-3

5/2 – Review Session

FINAL EXAM: Friday, May 6, 8:00 – 11:00 am

***Have a great summer!***

7 Course Policies

The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.

Disability Notice If you plan to request accommodations for a disability, please register with the Disability Resource Center. They can be reached by visiting Clark Howell Hall, calling 706-542- 8719 (voice) or 706-542-8778 (TTY), or by visiting http://drc.uga. Speak to the professor privately about your accommodations during the first two weeks of the course.

Scheduling Conflicts If your religious beliefs present a direct conflict with an exam or assignment due date, you must notify me within the first two weeks of class so that I may determine an alternate date for the assignment/exam. Otherwise, with the exception of a documented medical or family emergency, missed examinations may not be made up.

Academic Honesty As a University of Georgia student, you have agreed to abide by the University’s academic honesty policy, “A Culture of Honesty,” and the Student Honor Code. All academic work must meet the standards described in “A Culture of Honesty” found at: www.uga.edu/honesty

Lack of knowledge of the academic honesty policy is not a reasonable explanation for a violation. Questions related to course assignments and the academic honesty policy should be directed to the instructor. More detailed information about academic honesty can be found at: http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/acadhon.htm

If you are uncertain about what qualifies as plagiarism, PLEASE ASK. - Make sure to cite all sources, even when you are rephrasing/summarizing others’ ideas rather than quoting them directly. - Individual direct quotations must not exceed 50 words; direct quotations should not, under any circumstances, make up more than 20 – 25% of a given page. - Unauthorized collaboration on written assignments or submission of similar work for more than one class is not allowed.

Assignment Policies

All written assignments must be double-spaced with one-inch margins in Times New Roman font. They must include proper citations (Chicago or MLA style).

Written assignments are to be submitted at the beginning of class on the due date, as hard copies. No email submissions will be accepted; plan ahead accordingly.

Except in the case of a documented medical, psychiatric, or family emergency, no extensions will be granted. If work is submitted late, one-third of a letter grade will be deducted each day after the due date. For example, an otherwise “A” paper submitted three days late will be graded a “B.”

8 Electronics Policy

In the interest of avoiding distractions, no portable electronic devices (cell phones, tablets, or laptop computers) are to be used during class time or screening. Please speak to me privately if you need a special accommodation to the laptop policy (for documented medical or ability reasons).

Participation

Your participation grade will be based on the following: Respectful listening and active engagement in class discussions. In-class assignments such as group activities, writing exercises, and quizzes. One scheduled visit to my office hours at the beginning of the course. A sign-up sheet will be distributed in the first class meeting.

Attendance

- You are allowed TWO absences from all class meetings (this includes both classes and screenings), no questions asked. Use these absences wisely - consider and plan for travel, commitments that can’t be rescheduled, and future illness. - After you have accumulated two absences, each additional absence will lower your attendance and participation grade ten percent. - If you accumulate more than six absences from class and screening combined, this will be considered grounds for failure of the course. - Missed classes/screenings in excess of your two permitted absences that are due to medical, psychiatric or family emergencies only may be excused on a case-by-case basis at the professors’ discretion. - Each instance of lateness to class (more than 1-2 minutes) will be counted as 1/3 absence.

Extra Credit

You may complete a maximum of two small extra credit projects (to be announced). Each successfully completed project will raise your final grade one percent.

9 Course Bibliography

Bartlett, Myke. “Genre-bending Gender: Gravity.” Screen Education 73 (2014), 8-15.

Berry, Chris. “The Chinese Side of the Mountain.” Film Quarterly 60, no. 3 (2007): 35-37.

Blanchet, Robert. “Deep Impact: Emotion and Performativity in Contemporary Hollywood.” In Hollywood: Recent Developments, edited by Christian W. Thomsen and Angela Krewani, 76-84. Stuttgart: Axel Menges, 2005.

Brooks, Peter. The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Melodrama, Henry James and the Mode of Excess. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995 [1976].

Carroll, Noël. “Film, Emotion, and Genre.” In Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and Emotion, edited by Carl Plantinga and Greg M. Smith, 21-47. : John Hopkins University Press, 1999, 21-47.

Fabe, Marilyn. Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Haskell, Molly. From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.

Fassbinder, Rainer Werner. “Six Films by Douglas Sirk.” New Left Review, May-June 1975, 88-96.

Fuqua, Joy Van. “‘Can You Feel It, Joe?’: Male Melodrama and the Feeling Man.” Velvet Light Trap 38 (1996): 28-38.

Gallagher, Mark. “I Married Rambo: Spectacle and Melodrama in the Hollywood Action Film.” In Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media, edited by Christopher Sharrett, 199-221. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.

Gates, Philippa. “Acting His Age?: The Resurrection of the 80s Action Heroes and their Aging Stars.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 27.4 (2010): 276-89.

Green, J. Ronald. Straight Lick: the Cinema of Oscar Micheaux. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).

Jones, Eileen. “‘Gravity’ Revives Sensation Cinema of Hollywood’s Silent Era.” Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/2013/12/14/hollywood_take_a_lesson_from_gravity_and_revi ve_sensation_cinema_partner/. Last accessed January 11, 2016.

Klinger, Barbara. Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture and the Films of Douglas Sirk. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Koshy, Susan. “American Nationhood as Eugenic Romance.” Differences 12, no. 1 (2001): 50-78.

10 López, Ana M. “Tears and Desire in the ‘Old’ Mexican Cinema.” In Mediating Two Worlds: Cinematic Encounters in the Americas, edited by Ana M. López, John King and Manuel Alvarado, 147-163. London: BFI, 1994.

Lusted, David. “Social Class and the Western as Male Melodrama.” In The Book of Westerns, edited by Ian Cameron and Douglas Pye, 63-74. New York: Continuum, 1996.

Lutz, Tom. “Men’s Tears and the Roles of Melodrama.” In Boys Don’t Cry?: Rethinking Narratives of Masculinity and Emotion in the U.S., edited by Milette Shamir and Jennifer Travis, 185-204. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

McCabe, Susan. “Mother Twist: Male Melodrama and Brokeback Mountain.” In The Brokeback Book: From Story to Cultural Phenomenon, edited by William R. Handley, 309-20. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.

Mercer, John and Martin Shingler, Melodrama: Genre, Style, Sensibility. London: Wallflower Press, 2004.

Mora, Sergio de la. Cinemachismo: Masculinities and Sexuality in Mexican Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.

Mulvey, Laura. “Notes on Sirk and Melodrama.” In Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman’s Film, edited by Christine Gledhill, 75-79. London: BFI, 1987.

Mulvey, Laura. “Fassbinder and Sirk.” Spare Rib, December 1974, 40-41.

Neale, Steve. “Melo Talk: On the Meaning and Use of the Term ‘Melodrama’ in the American Trade Press.” Velvet Light Trap 32 (1993): 66-88.

Osterweil, Ara. “Ang Lee’s Lonesome Cowboys.” Film Quarterly 60, no. 3 (2007): 38-42.

Russell, Katherine. “Insides and Outsides: Cross-cultural Criticism and Japanese Film Melodrama.” In Melodrama and Asian Cinema, edited by Wimal Dissanayake, 143- 152. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Singer, Ben. Melodrama and Modernity: Sensational Cinema in its Contexts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Skvirsky, Salomé Aguilera. “The Price of Heaven: Remaking Politics in All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and Far From Heaven.” Cinema Journal 47, no. 3 (2008): 90-121

Thomas, Rosie. “Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologization of Mother India.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 11, no. 3 (1989): 11-30

Toshie, Mori. “All for Money: Mizoguchi Kenji’s Osaka Elegy (1936).” In Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts, edited by Alastair Phillips and Julian Stringer, 37-47. New York: Routledge, 2007.

11 Willemen, Paul. “Distanciation and Douglas Sirk,” Screen 12, no. 2 (1971): 63-67.

Willemen, Paul. “Towards an Analysis of the Sirkian System.” Screen 13, no. 4 (1972/3): 128-134. Williams, Linda. “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess.” Film Quarterly 44, no. 4 (1991): 2-13.

Williams, Linda. Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of from Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Williams, Linda. “‘Something Else Besides a Mother’: Stella Dallas and the Maternal Melodrama.” Cinema Journal 24 no. 1 (1984): 2-27.

Woodward, Katherine. “European Anti-Melodrama: Godard, Truffaut, and Fassbinder.” Post-Script 3, no. 2 (1984): 34-47.

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