K. Heger Distinguishing the Female Protagonist in Douglas Sirk’s (...) Fecha de recepción: marzo 2020 Distinguishing the Female Fecha de aceptación: abril 2020 Versión final: junio 2020 Protagonist in Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven Kyle Heger (1) Abstract: When a movie is remade the primary story changes in order to reflect the social norms of a new audience. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and Far From Heaven (2002) are replicas of the original filmAll That Heaven Allows from 1955. Each film tackles different issues with the female as the protagonist. Social class, race and homosexuality are at the core of these three films. In this paper, I will discuss all three films and interject how the heroine discovers herself and why she needs to evolve. As each heroine finds herself, she strives to break the monotony that society has constructed for her and by breaking free she discovers what she has been looking for on her own terms. Societal structures barricade our protagonist by creating obstacles for her to move through, like class differences, racial bigotry and love. The female’s journey will be looked at through a critical analysis of each film including its production design, score and lighting. Feminist film theory will help us understand how these generations look at female characters on film. In the next decade, this film may be told through a completely different filter based on the societal norms of what that generation is facing. Keywords: Melodrama - film - female protagonist - film criticism - Laura Mulvey - Douglas Sirk - Rainer Werner Fassbinder - Todd Haynes. [Abstracts in spanish and portuguese on the pages 214-215] (1) Kyle Heger is a Columbia College alumnus (2019) in the field of Cultural Studies with an emphasis in media and popular culture. He was part of the Chicago Feminist Film Festival (2017-2019). Kyle created a lecture series about The Salta Trilogy of Lucrecia Martel and served on the board of The Art House. Kyle is pursuing a Masters in Visual and Critical Studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Cuaderno 117 | Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación (2020/2021). pp 201-215 ISSN 1668-0227 201 K. Heger Distinguishing the Female Protagonist in Douglas Sirk’s (...) Introduction Barbara Klinger, author of the book Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture and the films of Douglas Sirk, writes that: “Melodrama’s inherent commitment to extreme emotion, dramatic crescendoes, and irrational twists of fate portrayed through reversals and coincidences yields a sense of exaggeration now that may alter the original desired effect” (145). This idea of the melodrama allows for re-envisioning to occur, giving an opportunity of growth to happen for the characters on screen. As a melodramatic film becomes memorable and cemented in time, we have to be able to detach intentions from the movie-makers to what the audience sees as important and significant. In Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, our female protagonists move through the film dealing with love and loss, personal growth and political differences. These women stand out for their resilience against societal norms and showcase the love that they have for the men on screen, even if it means sacrificing something for themselves. This paper will discuss the female protagonist through a critical lens bridging film analysis and film criticism. The use of alienation in all three films helps each story function within the decade that they were made. While alienation and film critique are important, we as the audience have a visceral response seeing the entrapment and separation through the director’s use of color, production design and mise-en-scene. A critical reading of each film will showcase the female’s strengths and weaknesses, with each film presenting differing cases for each side. The web that these directors weave showcases female empowerment while also showing a defeated woman as well. How are these male directors making sure the female on screen is carefully crafted, allowing for her own personal power to shimmer and shine through? When attaching the idea of alienation, can the female move through her own situations and possess truth on film? Does the audience allow for these women’s stories to become timeless, or do they only survive in the decade from which they were created? All That Heaven Allows In 1955’s All That Heaven Allows, the film begins and visually establishes a nostalgic pastiche that contemporary audiences would find reminiscent of a simpler time. Nostalgia is a tool used by creatives to present a simple message that becomes timeless. This nostalgic force is presented in many forms of media, from print advertising to televised commercials to films and television series that re-hash the period piece- film or create a series that looks back at a time that either does or does not need to be romanticized. In the case of All That Heaven Allows, Sirk’s filmmaking presents a nod to Norman Rockwell’s timeless Americana paintings and a picturesque-20th Century outlook on nature and rural beauty. Sirk’s work in establishing a beautiful rich tapestry of color and setting is seen through the director’s use of lavish romanticized music set against a suburban Utopia to create a moment audiences long for. This romanticized 202 Cuaderno 117 | Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación (2020/2021). pp 201-215 ISSN 1668-0227 K. Heger Distinguishing the Female Protagonist in Douglas Sirk’s (...) world also is re-imagined by Todd Haynes in the beginning and ending of his 2002 film Far From Heaven. Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows is a film that focuses on our protagonist, Cary Scott, finding her place in suburbia after the loss of her husband. Cary, played by Jane Wyman, is an affluent widow who begins a new friendship with her late husbands hired-help Ron Kirby, played by Rock Hudson. Ron’s feelings for Cary move from kinship to love. Cary initially pushes him away because she is uncertain of what she wants. As Cary begins to understand how important Ron is to her and how much she enjoys his philosophy on life, her life seems shallow and unfulfilled. Douglas Sirk brings two women on screen to show the difference of freedom through appearance. Sara, played by Agnes Moorhead, is first seen wearing a dazzling and bold blue sweater-skirt set paired with a lilac blouse and a contrasting green kerchief tied around her neck. Instead of warm colors Cary is wearing a cement-grey cardigan- buttoned suit and skirt with a light-grey blouse underneath. The colors each woman chooses to wear reflects their personal freedom at the start of the film. Cary’s masculine- grey cardigan and skirt outfit is meant to reflect the man of the house, yet the white pearl necklace is a nod to her femininity. Sara is out and about running errands when she visits Cary. By showcasing the suburban woman in two different colors, the audience sees the freedom and care-free attitude of Sara’s life compared to a confined entrapment that has lingered with Cary all of these years. As Cary deals with being a widow we see her in both masculine and feminine attire throughout the film. Some of Cary’s clothing reflects her character’s subdued and conservative nature when she is wearing neutrals that cover her up. When she starts wearing bolder colors and more revealing outfits, many of the men either lustfully objectify her or shame her for appearing too available. Consequently she ends up choosing less feminine colors and sticking with neutrals that keep her in the background. Douglas Sirk’s technicolor achievements in the 1950s use color to heighten architectural spaces and spaces where his characters would live, especially in films like Imitation of Life (1959) and in Magnificent Obsession (1954). Douglas Sirk breathes life not just into his characters but also into the setting where these characters gather together in town squares, in living rooms or in country clubs. The mix of colors between Cary and Sara are representative of where they both belong in the societal framework of class and stature, and we can see this in how they present body language in the country club scene. The country club is shown with a mixture of blue tones all throughout the space. Sirk’s use of color is often sighted as a staple to the 1950s technicolor melodramas that he was directing at the time. Against the soft blues, we see all the women draped in color and exquisite fabrics to play as a counter-part to the lighting and production design in the room. Cary is draped in a beautiful rose-red dress, Sara is wearing a luxurious cerulean blue that showcases her bust allowing for her character to be open and relaxed, open to having a bit of fun with the guests. Cary wears her pearls to try to fit in and to showcase her wealth. However, the costume jewelry that Sara wears overshadows Cary. The lighting in the room helps to sell this idea where Sara is in front of a teal light and Cary is still in the shadows against a darker grey-colored blue. To keep Cary stuck in her home, she is bombarded with the idea of television as a means to escape her uneventful life. Mr. Weeks is the TV salesman that catches Cary as she’s Cuaderno 117 | Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación (2020/2021).