Melodrama Recommendations
 

Lately, I've been into weepies, sentimental melodramas about love and family, and all that jazz.

Recommend me the best films like that.

I can't find a watchable copy for you but my recommendation is
To Each His Own with Olivia de Havilland.


An unwed mother, forced to give up her child to avoid scandal, follows her son's life from afar even as she prospers in business.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Thanks! Not 100% what I'm looking for, but I've been eyeing this film for some time now, so I might just as well move it up my watchlist.

1979 film All That Jazz. :D

On the serious side, does it have to be a Hollywood film? Can it be a foreign subtitled film? Does it have to be about contemporary life?

Written on the Wind

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Sorry, I hate Sirk.

It's even better if it's non-English language. Doesn't have to be contemporary.

Sunrise
Diary of a Lost Girl
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
The Little Foxes
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Room at the Top
They Shoot Horses Don't They?

@cricket Thanks, but I've literally seen all of them.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

I could offer up some fine heart-warming foreign dramas. . .. but they aren't melodramas.

@PumaMan Go for it!

- Mostly Martha (2001)
- Dear Frankie (2004 - English language)
- Our Little Sister (2015)
- Sweet Bean (2015)
- Departures (2008)
- The Road Home (1999)
- Bread and Tulips (2000)

If you're looking for melodrama, the best place to look is at the resumes of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Katharine Hepburn:

Dark Victory
Mildred Pierce
Humoresque
Undercurrent
The Letter
Keeper of the Flame
Harriet Craig
Susan and God
The Damned Don't Cry
Flamingo Road
Now Voyager
The Old Maid
Old Acquaintance
The Star
Deception
Mr Skeffington
Summertime
Morning Glory
The Best of Everything
Autumn Leaves
Female on the Beach
Daisy Kenyon

But how does one recommend new movies to Movie Master Mr Minio?

I feel like you've already seen everything I could recommend.

Uhh...


Hard Soap, Hard Soap is a soap opera parody, so I suppose there are melodramatic scenes, just played for comedy.


That's all I got.

Good list Gideon! I'm going to save that and watch some of those.

Needless to say, this list is just the tip of the iceberg.

Susan Hayward was in some good melodrama and so was oddly enough was this actress...did you ever see this one?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055490/

Susan Hayward isn't in this movie, but her resume is another one to look at for great melodrama.

I know, I just meant Susan Hayward was in some fine melodramas...So was Lana Turner, come to think about it. And recently I've seen a couple very interesting melodramas with Connie Stevens. Probably because I was watching Connie Stevens movies🙂

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Thanks for the recs, guys.

Keep 'em coming!

Pauline at the Beach / ‘Pauline à la plage’
Poetic Justice
The Florida Project

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/origi...RK6tTj49f1.jpg

I feel like all these films, while often maintaining a lovely classicist allure, fail to achieve true greatness on the account of sticking to the stern formulae of Hollywood filmmaking. I feel like their melodrama is not sentimental enough, but instead, garish, posh, and calculated. They make me feel like I'm watching a woman's picture hit broadcast on a Sunday afternoon, continuously failing to invest myself emotionally.

But Sirk is something else. He elevates everything that makes these Hollywood melodramas not work and puts a fat layer of saccharine on top of them. This isn't true for all of his films, but it is for Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life, Magnificent Obsession, and, especially, All that Heaven Allows. These are just insufferable housewife's favorites that have this reeking artifice of a Harlequin book, absolutely not saved by a thin-layered social commentary.

I find Rohmer's approach to romances too impure and carnal to raise over anything more than a `good watch` bar. His films appear too prolix, his characters too talkative, and his proverbial messages too on the nose. He's a wonderful, talented filmmaker, but he mostly wastes his energy on insipid writing that's too realistic to swoon over and too machinated to take at face value. I think he almost escapes these undermining qualities in some of his best output, but he never truly lets himself go. Of course, he's not a director of melodramas. Not that any of the rest you recommended are melodramas either...

On this note, For Richer, For Poorer (1979) is more drama than melodrama, but it has a great Georgina Spelvin performance and an extended dream sequence in the middle.


On a completely different note, a lot of Bollywood hits melodramatic notes, but for most I've seen that would be out and out melodramas, it's been way too long since I've seen them and my memories are too hazy to give clear recommendations. One I do remember well enough is Anand (1971), which was kinda, sorta remade into the Shahrukh Khan extravaganza Kal Ho Naa Ho (2004). The former is probably more worth your time but I remember 13 year old Rock crying during the latter.

Hard to believe this is devolving into Minio just telling mofos how basic their tastes are. :D He’s back baby!

yup..
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...7/itsatrap.jpg

Lookee here, I'm just giving my thoughts on the recommendations to try and narrow it down for ya. If it's any help, @PumaMan's recommendations contain The Road Home (1999), and this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for (as far as the 'love' part goes). But I've already seen it twice already, and, come on, I need more melo stuff to feed on.

I interpreted your original request to mean that this was precisely what you were after. So you may as well disregard my De Havilland rec.

I'm wondering why he even started this thread...he's shot down very single recommendation.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

I actually liked the recs from cricket and PumaMan. Not my fault I've seen so many films.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

The Texas Chain Saw Melodrama

Fassbinder's "Martha"

It's very hard to recommend something to MrMinio he hasn't seen.

Salo, or the 120 Days of Melodrama

Two Melodramas for Sister Sara

Melodrama the Musical.

Well, not that there is anything wrong with it, but yes….it is your fault you’ve seen so many films. They didn’t happen by accident haha.

I do wonder why you’ve made this thread, as you have the means of looking for melodramatic films via the internet, and are capable of finding recommendations of films you haven’t seen, or allegedly seen, on your own without the typical running commentary that comes from these types of threads you make.

It's good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time.

I find it hard to believe that, with the amount of films you have claimed to have seen, you haven’t already. Especially since you’ve already seen most of the recommendations that’s already been mentioned.

I, for one, find it hard to believe that, provided you have Brokeback Mountain in your TOP 10, you have anything of value to contribute to this thread. Especially since you've already posted several times and haven't included a single recommendation.

My questions were legitimate, as I don’t understand why you would make a thread rather than just look this up yourself considering the chances of any of us recommending a film that you A) haven’t seen or B) aren’t going to arbitrarily swipe away are very low. This isn’t a dig at you, as I don’t expect someone who claims to have watched as many films as you would find much of value from us, and the posts support that

I could also counter This coming from the guy who put Beyond the Black Rainbow and Star Crash among his recent top 300.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

All the same, I'd appreciate it if you stopped derailing the thread.

Your posts would've been much more helpful if you recommended at least one melodrama you hold dear to your heart, even if that's Brokeback Mountain.

I don't know.
Germany Year Zero?


You've probably already seen it and since it's been so long since I've seen it, I can't fully remember if it qualifies as a melodrama.
I also suspect you've seen Dancer in the Dark.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

This thread is becoming a melodrama.

Seen both. Neither is what I'm looking for.

Yep, not the kind of melodrama I'm looking for, though.

What is your definition of melodrama?



Might I recommend a mellow-drama (e.g., Meet Joe Black)?

Between Two Dawns
Donbass
Burden
Not Okay
Slow Dancing in the Big City
Poodle Springs
Don't Make Me Go
The Legend of Molly Johnson
Playground (2021)
Dark Angel (1935)
Death Takes a Holiday (1934)

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Some head-scratching recommendations here, but quite an interesting list, overall. I presume these are all films that made you cry, amirite, @mark f?

Oh... You want movies that make us tear up a bit?


I thought you were asking for melodramas.


In that case, Shoah.

Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Random Harvest (1942)
Miracle in the Rain (1956)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Charly (1968)
Message in a Bottle (1999)
A Walk To Remember (2002)


These are also good if you like sports films that make you cry, (these are more about the people than the sports):

The Champ (1931)
The Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Brian's Song (1971)
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
The Champ (1979)

Decided to watch something from your recommendations, guys, so I made a pick from the highest repped post by @gbgoodies. Because highest repped means it recommends the best films, right? RIGHT?!

A Walk to Remember (2002)

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/00/54...5ccc06556a.gif
Listen, this might be a burn worthy of a 10-year-old, but all my ten brain cells found it funny.

Oh boy, I'm genuinely surprised this film doesn't have 'Comedy' listed along 'Melodrama' and 'Romance' in its main genres. I had my fair dose of laughs watching the first part of it, and I really thought it was supposed to be funny and clumsy like that, but apparently, it was unintended?! Oh well, the second part is much worse. The fun is over and I'm left with that by-the-book chick flick melodrama that just doesn't work. I mean, it's not like the worst film ever. I've seen far worse films. It's just that I don't really care about it. And I should because I'm really into

I thought the way it was handled was really rote, though. Also, that part about the book not being the Bible and reading from it was soooo on the nose. And when he it was all that fun from the first part all over again. Like, how corny, cheesy, crazy is that?! This dude is smug and ballsy af and another proof THIS is exactly what gets you chicks. Just confronting her dad and using his Speech Level 100 to make him agree. Holy balls. He's also a sheety bully, too, but yeah, the girl changes him and all that cliche stuff. I actually didn't like that. I'd love to see him either be good from the very beginning or be a bully all throughout and maybe just try to use her even though he knows her secret. Now that would've been so evil! Anyway, I didn't care about it as melodrama but found it moderately entertaining as an unintended comedy.

But just to not be all negative, I actually had seen The Champ (1931) before and really liked it. So there's that.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Lorenzo's Oil

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Watched Death Takes a Holiday (1934) recommended by @mark f

Things I liked:
• The depiction of death at the beginning of the film
• The visuals
• The premise

Things I didn't like:
• Nice premise but could've been made better / more interesting
• Unbearably sappy at times (especially in the last third)
• Felt too slight and rushed

All in all, watchable, but not what I'm looking for.

Best thread for these.

Dinner in America
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
Time to Love
Superior
Catering Christmas

You mean Sevmek zamani (1965)? I saw that years ago. Good movie, not great.

MUBI just restored it.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

I’m Sorry I Love You
Be prepared for: Plot twists involving an orphan, evil mother, tragic love story, and someone getting shot in the end. It doesn’t get more dramatic than this.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

Also I can reccomend you Secret Love Affair

Sorry, I can't stand dramas.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

But... but the thread is about melodramas...

I hate television dramas, such as K-dramas, C-dramas, J-dramas, etc., etc., that is, TV shows that are mainly aimed at women, contain romance and relationship stuff, are often toxic and the production value is much lower because they're produced for television (though a few of them have been going straight to Netflix recently, I guess).

I enjoy melodramas, that is, films that are not aimed at men or women in particular, that often contain romance and relationship stuff but not always, and whose production value is much higher than that of cheap television production.

Re: Melodrama Recommendations
 

'Failan' . You've probably seen it. Really great film.
'God's Own Country'
'Christmas in August'
'Head On' (2004)
'Weekend' (Andrew Haigh film)
Matthias et Maxime
Pain and Glory