All That Heaven Allows - Essay Example

Visual Arts & Film Studies 12 Nov Evaluation of Three Films This paper seeks to evaluate three films, ly: All That Heaven Allows (1955), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and Far From Heaven (2002). These three films are from different years and decades, and obviously created by different generations, yet there are links, similarities and parallelisms which are evident in all these movies, which this study aims to examine in depth. It is the inter-textuality among these movies which this piece seeks to establish, as well as the use of the melodramatic genre to tackle adult themes of this type. The all-encompassing theme that is predominantly palpable in the three above films is the love element between the lead characters, and the use of the melodramatic genre coupled with the touching sound designs that created truly poignant and moving scenes which made them all worth watching until the end. The common source of conflict is that the relationship is not socially acceptable, either due to age, social stature or racial prejudice. All That Heaven Allows is the story of an upper-class widow who takes an interest in her gardener. Carrie is the woman who falls for Ron, a young man who takes the place of his father as gardener in the Scott household. There are a lot of men vying for Carrie’s attention but it is Ron’s simplicity and quiet charm which captures her heart. Despite the age difference and social gap, Ron and Carrie are happy and they carry on with their trysts. Complications arise when Carrie and Ron get serious about their relationship and Ron eventually asks Carrie to marry him. When Carrie opens this issue up with her children, they find this socially unacceptable and they threaten to leave her. Carrie breaks off with Ron just to appease her children, despite the apparent sadness in her eyes, and she moves on with their life, and Ron, his. Later on, Carrie realizes that since her children are already maturing and starting their own lives, she should try to get back with Ron, but she gets cold feet and backs out, not knowing that this will cause Ron to be injured in an accident. When this mishap occurs, Carrie eventually comes to her senses and leaves everything behind just to be with Ron. The story is actually very simple, a May-December affair between the main characters, although it is not very obvious since Ron (Rock Hudson) is a very tall man and acts very mature compared to Carrie’s (Jane Wyman) much older suitors. Added to this complication is the social gap between Carrie and Ron, since Carrie is from the upper class, with a beautiful house, a car, and friends who are just as affluent, while Ron is just an ordinary man with simple dreams, a greenhouse, and an old mill for his home. The acceptability of their relationship in society is one concern which is no longer that big an issue these days, although based on the social context during that era, it was something which families truly defended to uphold. This is also true with the next film, Ali: Fear Eats The Soul, which is the story of an old cleaning lady, who falls in love with a younger man she meets at a bar. Ali asks her to dance, and Emmi agrees. At first, it is just a gesture of politeness that Emmi lets Ali sleep in her house for the night, since Ali accompanied her home and it was raining hard outside. However, something happens between them, which Emmi did not expect, and they soon become lovers. They find themselves liking one another more intensely as the days go by. One day, when the landlord reprimands Emmi for supposedly sub-leasing her apartment to another tenant (referring to Ali), Emmi says that she and Ali were planning to get married so this is a different case. The landlord agrees and Ali, surprisingly, also agrees to marry her. After she and Ali are wed, Emmi invites her children over to tell them of the good news. They get furious and find this socially unacceptable, just like Carrie’s children reacted at the time she told them about her and Ron’s relationship. Then again, since the marriage was already done, life just had to go on. Later on, Ali gets bored with his relationship with Emmi and enters into extra-marital relations with the owner of the bar, who was actually also one of his former sexual partners. This, does not last long however since Ali starts hating himself for doing this to Emmi. Emmi comes to the bar one day, and Ali asks for Emmi’s forgiveness. Emmi accepts his apology, but Ali collapses to the floor and gets hospitalized. The story ends with Emmi at Ali’s bedside, implying that it is she who will stay and love him for life. The May-December affair in this second film is more evident since the age gap of the two main characters is 20 years. The sexual relation between Emmi and Ali was covert, and it was more implied than depicted in the film. Nevertheless, the two lead characters gave great performances which were credible and heart-rending. In the same manner that age and social status were given much importance in the first movie, in this film, it is the age and racial prejudice (by the Germans against the Arabs) that is given more emphasis. Ali was a Moroccan, an Arab by race, and Arabs were looked upon as “dirty” or more of the lower class inhabitants of the city by the Germans during that time. Emmi was not from the upper class, and she was not prejudicial to any race or class for that matter. For her, it was just as simple as having someone to be her companion who makes her happy. Emmi is braver than Carrie for following her heart despite her knowledge of the possible consequences of her actions. In the end, this decision is actually justified since she is able to prove to herself that Ali truly loves her for what she is, despite everything. The racial prejudice issue is also given another perspective in the third film for scrutiny. The film Far From Heaven is about a woman, Cathy, who is married to Frank. At the outset, Cathy seems to be living a perfect and comfortable life with her family – socially accepted, a highly respected member of the neighborhood, and with a wonderful family and home to be proud of. However, Cathy gets the surprise of her life one day when she catches her husband in his office, kissing another man. Despite this occurrence, Cathy still tries to help her husband to overcome this “illness” by accompanying him to a psychiatrist. She finds comfort in talking with their African-American gardener, Raymond, who tries to get her mind off her problems. The clean and honest friendship is nonetheless given color by a local gossiper who starts off talk about her and his black companion, during one of their friendly dates. Frank gets to learn about this, and he admonishes her about this, warning her of the unacceptability of her behavior. Cathy tells Raymond about this and she starts putting a distance between them to stop the tongues from wagging any further. Cathy and Frank try their best to mend their relationship so they take a vacation, but Frank just cannot be a husband to Cathy anymore. He later confesses to have fallen for someone else, and Cathy soon presumes that Frank wants a divorce, which he, of course, did not oppose. Sarah -- Raymond’s daughter – figures in an accident shortly afterwards, in an episode which is truly discriminatory against blacks, so Raymond finally decides to relocate for his child’s safety. Two weeks hence, Sybil, Cathy’s household help, informs Cathy about this incident since she did not want to make things worse in their household, so Cathy then rushes to Raymond’s house to see Sarah and Raymond’s condition. Unfortunately, Raymond had already laid out his plans of relocating to Baltimore since he feared for the safety of his child. Cathy cries in anguish, but Raymond touches her on her shoulder to make her feel that he feels just as miserable as she is. The film ends with Raymond and Cathy waving goodbye to each other, with Raymond and his daughter on board, and Cathy silently holding her tears on the platform. Afterwards, Cathy is shown riding her car and the car moves along, implying that they have indeed gone separate ways and decided to just move on with their lives, however lonely it may be. The third film has the most complicated plot since it does not only deal with the love between the lead characters, but it also has issues like racial prejudice, homosexuality and socially unacceptable behavior. There is no May-December affair here, unlike in the first two films, but there is the element of homosexuality to add a twist to the plot. Furthermore, unlike in the first two films, the main characters, Cathy and Raymond had their own children to think of, hence, their decision to just lead separate lives, with the distressing denouement of the lovers not ending up in each other’s arms. Some scenes that are remarkably similar in the films are the Carrie-Ron scene in the first film (All That Heaven Allows), where Ron invites Carrie to his greenhouse and Carrie begs off at first, but eventually agrees and Ron says “You changed your mind” and then smiles. There’s a similar scene in Far from Heaven where Raymond invites Cathy to go with him to get some trees in the next town, and Cathy also declines initially, but later on changes her mind and goes. Remarkably, another similarity is that both Ron and Raymond are gardeners, and they are both sons of the previous gardeners who tended the gardens in the households they worked for. In both films, there is also an initial aversion by the female lead to seeing a strange face, but later on, the female lead and the male lead ultimately fall for each other. Another detail observed is that both main characters have R and C as their initials in these two films. On the other hand, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is similar to the last film Far from Heaven in terms of the discrimination issue. Ali was a Moroccan, and he was only accepted by his Arab friends who knew him more than his other countrymen in Germany. It was only Emmi who accepted him for what he was that’s why there was an affinity between them right from the start, when Ali invited Emmi to dance. This same thing happened between Cathy and Raymond. Raymond was an African American and blacks were looked upon as the more inferior group in society during that time. It was a disgrace to be seen in public with a black person, more so, if you allowed him/her to touch you in public. But Cathy did not feel that way with Raymond. In the same way that Emmi accepted Ali as a person and not as someone from another race or group, Cathy saw Raymond as an interesting person with whom she could easily relate and be friends with. Although Cathy and Raymond’s relationship did not go beyond friendship -- since they allowed themselves to be bound by the society’s dictated norms – theirs would have gone the way like Emmi and Ali’s relationship went. Sadly, though, they gave more importance to their loved ones, and society’s protocols rather than their feelings for each other. Another similarity of the above two films is that there is an extra-marital relationship which further complicates the situation. In Ali: Fear Eats The Soul, Ali gets a mistress but later on repents and asks Emmi for forgiveness. In the third film, Far from Heaven, Frank does not get a mistress but his homosexuality problem gets in the way of his relationship with Cathy. Frank’s lover is not even named in this film, but it causes their marriage to break up, and even if he asks for Cathy’s pardon for this omission, the damage was irreparable, and thus it gives way to a sad conclusion of the plot. Lastly, both the first and second films end with the male lead lying sick in bed. In both instances, the female leads have resolved to take care of their beloved for the rest of their lives. One common element that links the three films is that the female lead suffers but is usually the one who is subjected to society’s unfair treatment of women. In the first film, Carrie is already a widow, yet she still is not accorded by the society the freedom to choose whoever she pleases. In the second film, Emmi loves Ali, but her family and friends do not really find it an acceptable idea to see an old woman and a young man in love with each other. In the last movie, Cathy wants to be with Raymond but they both allow the society to set the boundaries for their relationship, hence, it falls to naught. As mentioned earlier, it was the image of Emmi which is most favorable of the three since she showed the strength and determination to fight for what she loved most. She just took the plunge and accepted whatever may happen afterwards. This strength is also seen in the last portion of the first film where Carrie is given the chance to take care of Ron, and she has finally decided to throw all her cares to the wind, for the sake of her love for Ron. . The melodramatic genre was an effective tool in delivering all the three films since all of these dealt with mature themes of family, relationships, sex, love, fidelity, racism, homosexuality, age/generation gaps, discrimination, and social acceptance among others. A melodrama is said to exaggerate plot and characterization so that it could appeal more to the emotions, which is what takes place when a viewer watches these three films. There is more sense in using melodrama as the genre for these topics simply because these themes are relatable, familiar and closer to the heart of viewers. It gives one the chance to see a different perspective concerning common issues, and it allows the viewer to understand that sometimes, situations are not really as plain as they look. The 1950s look of the films All That Heaven Allows and Far From Heaven are very convincing and commendable, especially the latter which was already done in the year 2002. The setting and the formal attire of the characters further enhanced the seriousness of the subject matter, and was done realistically by all the actors in the three films. Likewise, the use of sounds which are native to the locale, like the Arabic songs in the bar in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul are very credible and add more truth to the plot. The love songs and the slow music themes further make the melodramatic genre even more complete. All in all, the melodramatic genre worked well for all these three film, making them more noteworthy and unforgettable in their own right. Works Cited All That Heaven Allows. Dir. Douglas Sirk, Perf. Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson. Universal International Pictures. 1955. Film. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul. Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Perf. Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 1974. Film. Far From Heaven. Dir. Todd Hanes. Perf. Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis. Focus Features. 2002. Film. Read More