All that Heaven Allows

 

A tribute to Rock Hudson, who would have turned 100 on 17 November 2025. What better tribute than this beautiful film, one of seven he made with Douglas Sirk?

 

Douglas Sirk is the filmmaker who best demonstrated how thin the line is between the most corny kitsch and the most serious art. All That Heaven Allows (1955) is a prime example of this. The story (a not-so-young and fairly wealthy widow wants to marry a young and fairly poor gardener, against the wishes of her family and children) is worthy an airport novel. The screenplay piles on the most melodramatic themes (sacrifice, atonement, the reversibility of mistakes), the star couple seems highly unlikely (Jane Wyman, somewhat grandmotherly, and Rock Hudson, gay as hell), and yet the intimacy and delicacy of the film touches you every time. Douglas Sirk passed on his secret, namely his amazing alchemy, to two brilliant pupils: the feverish Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the refined Todd Haynes. The former made a lively remake with Angst essen Seele auf and Todd Haynes gave Julianne Moore one of her finest roles in Far from Heaven.

 

The film will be introduced by Muriel Andrin, lecturer in film writing and analysis at ULB.