Home for the Holidays with Douglas Sirk
As the perfect companion for your holiday blues, spend the final days of the year indulging in a good cry with Douglas Sirk at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The society’s series Imitations of Life: The Films of Douglas Sirk, running through January 6, features an impressively exhaustive look at the melodrama master’s career—from his early, lyrical German dramas to his expressive, Technicolor Hollywood weepers. Start the celebration this week, with three seminal Sirk films playing over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The holiday trio, all presented on 35 mm, include: Magnificent Obsession , Sirk’s dazzling drama about a reckless playboy who finds his life entwined with that of the woman whose husband’s death he caused; Written on the Wind, a visually lush melodrama about a Texas oil magnate’s downfall at the hands of his alcoholic son and wanton daughter; and All That Heaven Allows, a heartbreaking examination of love and class taboos in small-town America in the 1950s. For a taste of Sirk’s style, have a look at the following emotionally charged clip from All That Heaven Allows, featuring the film’s stars Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman.
