Flick Review < Written on the Wind | Douglas Sirk, 1956
Written on the Wind (1956)
Director: Douglas Sirk
Writers: George Zuckerman (screenplay), Robert Wilder (based on the novel by)
Stars: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack
Cinematography by Russell Metty
Asked about the colour in Written on the Wind, Douglas Sirk replied: ‘Almost throughout the picture I used deep-focus lenses which have the effect of giving a harshness to the objects and a kind of enamelled, hard surface to the colours, I wanted this to bring out the inner violence, the energy of the characters which is all inside them and can’t break through.’ It would be difficult to think of a better way of describing what this particular movie and indeed most of the best melodramas of the 50s and early 60s are about. Or for that matter, how closely, in this film, style and technique is related to theme.
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Thomas Elsaesser, ‘Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations of the Family Melodrama’ (1972)
Lauren Bacall on the set of Written On The Wind
Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall behind the scenes of Written on the Wind
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