Melodrama, Sci Fi, and Horror and Hell
Week Ten: Women Make Film Episode 10
Tuesday, November 3
Night Ten: Melodrama, Sci Fi, and Horror and Hell
Two Airings on TCM: 8:00 PM and 11:15 PM
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Episode 10 continues the exploration of film genres with chapter 26 on melodrama. Melodrama can be depicted through a central character not in control of their life, in pain or serving as a victim, experiencing love or processing death. Chapter 27 pivots to spectacle with its examination of sci fi as a fiction that takes viewers’ imaginations out of the real world with no bounds. Hell and horror are the subject of chapter 28, noted as one of the most successful of cinematic genres. The chapter delves into hell as a concept of real-life horror with hell as other people, war, pain, humiliation, abuse, torture, and isolation. The escape from personal hell and the hard work it entails closes out the chapter and the Women Make Film episode.
Complementary Film Schedule
Airing on TCM, times given in Eastern Time
9:15 PM – Outrage (1950) directed by Ida Lupino
12:00 AM –Boat People (1982) directed by Ann Hui
2:00 AM – Born in Flames (1983) directed by Lizzie Borden
3:30 AM – Hannah Arendt (2012) directed by Margarethe von Trotta
5:30 AM – Shoes (1916) directed by Lois Weber
6:45 AM – Stolen Life (2005) directed by Shaohong Li
8:00 AM – Rachida (2002) directed by Yamina Bachir-Chouikh
10:00 AM – The Photograph (2007) directed by Nan Tiveni Achnas
Academy Assignment
For individual pondering and sharing via the site comments. Watch one of this week’s films taking into consideration the Women Make Film chapter content on film genres melodrama, sci fi and hell and horror. Questions to consider, based on the film you watched:
- What storyline cemented the film as a melodrama?
- What central technique or element was used to present the sci fi as an escape from reality?
- What was a standout hell scenario in the film that spilled over into horror?
- Bonus: How did the Women Make Film melodrama, sci fi and hell and horror chapter material influence how you watched this film?