Subtitle All That Heaven Allows -

The Gilded Cage: Subverting the 1950s Dream in All That Heaven Allows

Douglas Sirk’s 1955 masterpiece, All That Heaven Allows , is often mistaken for a simple "woman’s picture"—a lush, Technicolor melodrama about a wealthy widow (Jane Wyman) falling for her younger gardener (Rock Hudson). But beneath its glossy surface lies a "caustic indictment" of American bourgeois values and the crushing weight of social conformity. The Architecture of Entrapment subtitle All That Heaven Allows

Sirk uses the visual language of the screen to speak for characters who are "tongue-tied" by societal codes. Cary Scott’s suburban life is portrayed as a beautiful prison. The Criterion Contraption: #95: All That Heaven Allows The Gilded Cage: Subverting the 1950s Dream in