Moral Occult

In the Melodramatic Imagination by Peter Brooks, he mentions the “moral occult” and how it is frequently used throughout melodramas. Since melodramas are so overdramatic and so exaggerated, it is very easy to spot the moral occult, because everything is handed right to the audience. Of course in the film, things are hidden from the different characters, but everything is out in the open to the audience. Peter Brooks explains that the moral occult is “spiritual values which are both indicated within and masked by the surface of reality” (Brooks page 5). It is so important, because it allows the audience to know everything that is going on. It gives the viewers anticipation, because they know of the things that are happening behind the backs of the characters, but they are just waiting for the character’s to find out and that makes the story that much more dramatic. When there are secrets and lies are being told, the more time passes the more drama comes, and with melodramas, the character usually find out toward the end. So, the viewer is there waiting for a long time to see all of the drama unfold and it keeps their attention throughout the entire film. For example, in the film Leave Her to Heaven, the viewer knows that the wife is psycho the whole time even though the husband and her sister don’t really know. Also, we know that she deliberately fell down the stairs trying to kill her unborn child, yet her husband thought it was an accident and that she had a miscarriage. There is so much information that is being held back from the characters of the film, yet none of it is hidden from us.

Film: All That Heaven Allows

The film All That Heaven Allows is about a widow named Cary who falls in love with a much younger man, Ron. They were from two different worlds, Cary coming from wealth and Ron who is very free spirited and lives in the countryside. The way the director, Douglas Sirk, shot the film, whether it was the dramatic music or the position of the actors or the props in the scene, it all flowed together very nicely and it had that extra drama that melodramas need. In the book Melodrama, by John Mercer and Martin Shingler, it says “Cary is frequently depicted surrounded by meaning-laden objects in her luxurious domestic environment” (Mercer and Shingler 53-53). In class, we used the term “cluttered” and I liked that. Cary’s house was very cluttered and full of things. Then Ron, on the other hand, barely had anything. He had almost nothing but himself and his trees and he was content, but then here is Cary in her mansion with all of her fancy things and she is very unhappy. I like how Sirk included the scene where Cary was coming upstairs from the basement, because she wanted to get rid of some of the “clutter” from around the house. It showed how after meeting Ron and falling in love with him, her mindset of things were starting to change. As a whole, I truly enjoyed this film. Although it was from a very long time ago, it was not boring to watch like most of those kinds of films are. Everything was very interesting and all of the drama that happened kept me intrigued the whole time. Altogether, this was a great film.