Happy Birthday, Douglas Sirk! Born today in 1897 as Hans Detlef Sierck, this German film director was best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s.
Sirk had started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 because his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.
In the 1950s, Sirk achieved his greatest commercial success with film melodramas.
These included the 1954 American Technicolor romance/drama film 'Magnificent Obsession', the 1958 American Eastmancolor CinemaScope war/drama film 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die' and the 1959 American Eastmancolor romance/drama film 'Imitation of Life'.
However, Sirk is best known for directing the 1955 American Technicolor romance/melodrama film 'All That Heaven Allows' and the 1956 American Technicolor drama/melodrama film 'Written on the Wind'.
While these films where initially panned by critics as sentimental women's pictures, they are today widely regarded by film directors, critics and scholars as masterpieces.
Sirk's work is seen as "critique of the bourgeoisie in general and of 1950s America in particular", while painting a "compassionate portrait of characters trapped by social conditions".
Beyond the surface of the film, Sirk worked with complex mise en scènes and lush Technicolor colors to subtly underline his message.
Sirk’s body of work was reevaluated by the Cahiers Du Cinema crowd. However, there have been many others who have helped.
For example, West German filmmaker, actor, playwright, theatre director, composer, cinematographer, editor, and essayist. Rainer Werner Fassbinder ('The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant', 'Fox and His Friends', 'The Marriage of Maria Braun') was a huge proponent of Sirk’s work and remade 'All That Heaven Allows'.
This turned out to be the 1974 West German drama/romance film 'Angst essen Seele auf' ('Ali: Fear Eats the Soul'). In fact, many of Fassbinder's pictures were heavily indebted to Sirk’s style. This included the sumptuously colorful 1981 West German drama/art film 'Lola'.
This eventually echoed the influence of which was then carried down to American independent film director, screenwriter, and producer. Todd Haynes ('Safe'), indebted to both filmmakers, who made a homagistic pastiche of their work with the 2002 American period drama/melodrama film 'Far From Heaven'.
Quentin Tarantino was also a fan of Sirk, as there’s an iconic line in his 1994 American crime/comedy film 'Pulp Fiction'.
The scene was when Vincent Vega (John Travolta) orders the Douglas Sirk steak at the Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant, which he makes sure is prepared “Bloody as hell.”
The scene was when Vincent Vega (John Travolta) orders the Douglas Sirk steak at the Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant, which he makes sure is prepared “Bloody as hell.”
Sirk had been active from 1934–1979.
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