Pastoral Yearnings

Abstract

Sirk’s musicals exude an infectious sense of fun that isn’t customarily associated with his work in the US. Part of that fun is the playful knowingness that Sirk brings to them, consistent with the ironic distance that underpins the melodramas but also of a different order. It’s as if he’s taken on these musicals with a bemused smile rather than a troubled frown, allowing their characters room to move amidst the constraints that shape their lives.