Written on the Wind
Dir: Douglas Sirk
USA, 1956, 99minmins, DCP
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone
Sirk’s masterpiece is an outlandishly lurid, Freudian family melodrama characteristically stylised to the hilt with garishly expressionist Technicolor visuals. The Hadleys own half the oil in Texas, but the heir to the empire is an alcoholic with fears of sexual impotence, while his sister sleeps around town as a nymphomaniac. The company geologist and a secretary become romantically entangled with the dysfunctional siblings, but desire everywhere remains frustrated and unfulfilled. Sirk’s delirious critique of a capitalist patriarchy undermined by repressed libidinal impulses represents the giddiest heights of cinematic camp, as phallic imagery abound from pistols to oil wells.
Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress
Hong Kong Arts Centre Louis Koo Cinema (Venue)
Tai Kwun
Chinese Subtitles
Remarks
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