Douglas Sirk, Aesthetic Modernism and the Culture of Modernity

Victoria Evans' book explores Douglas Sirk's visual aesthetic and its connections to twentieth century art and architecture, revealing how his formal style emerged from his understanding of artistic debates and his attempt to dissolve the boundaries of cinema. She argues that his mise-en-scène was the result of an interdisciplinary, transnational dialogue and illuminates the broader cultural context in which his films appeared.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2019
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

The first truly interdisciplinary analysis to link Douglas Sirk's striking visual aesthetic to key movements in twentieth century art and architecture, this book reveals how the exaggerated artifice of Sirk's formal style emerged from his detailed understanding of the artistic debates that raged in 1920s Europe and the post-war United States. With detailed case studies of Final Chord and All That Heaven Allows, Victoria Evans demonstrates how Sirk attempted to dissolve the boundaries of cinema by assimilating elements of avant-garde art, architecture and design into the color, composition and setting of many of his most well-known films. Treating Sirk's oeuvre as a continuum between his German and American periods, Evans argues that his mise-en-scène was the result of an interdisciplinary, transnational dialogue, and illuminates the broader cultural context in which his films appeared by establishing links between archival documents, Modernist manifestos and the philosophical writings of his peers.

Weight: 330g
Dimension: 155 x 234 x 11 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474452021