Douglas Sirk’s lurid technicolor melodrama about love, class and society in 1950’s New England follows a dissatisfied and disillusioned widow who defies small-town gossip when she falls for a younger man.

All That Heaven Allows is a heartbreakingly beautiful indictment of mid-century American mores from the master of Hollywood melodrama. Set during the snowy holiday season, the film depicts a May-December relationship between a wealthy woman (Jane Wyman) and her handsome and earthy younger gardener (Rock Hudson). The film reunited the two leads from Sirk’s 1954 endeavor Magnificent Obsession. 

When their romance prompts the scorn of her children and country club friends, she must decide whether to pursue her own happiness or carry on a lonely, hemmed-in existence for the sake of the approval of others. With the help of ace cinematographer Russell Metty, Sirk imbues nearly every shot with a vivid and distinct emotional tenor. A profoundly felt film about class and conformity in small-town America, All That Heaven Allows is a pinnacle of expressionistic Hollywood melodrama. 

This screening will be preceded by an introduction from the co-managing editor of Cine-File, contributor to the Chicago Reader and MUBI’s Notebook, Kat Sachs.