All that Heaven Allows Article
At the onset of watching Douglas Sirk’s All that Heaven Allows, I was immediately drawn to the stark contrast of the opening scene’s color pattern. Cary Scott exits her baby blue car in a dress of a similar color, contrasted by a warm, idyllic Fall neighborhood. Throughout the film, blue, red, and tan are all used to illuminate the characters’ desires and reflect their status in society.
The article does an incredible job of highlighting the significance behind two of the film’s most prevalent colors—red and yellow—and examines the deeper objectives of Sirk’s Mise-en-Scène. Early in the film, Cary attends a party filled with some of the most affluent members of society in which she dons a bright red dress and bright red lipstick, reflecting her desire to find a new partner. The scene is characterized by a wide shot and sharp contrast between Cary and the background, depicting her grandeur and reflecting her more as an object of desire than a person searching for love. On the contrary, Ron Kirby is first introduced as a gardener in a dirty shirt, and long, tan overalls, dissimilar to the fancy clothing and jewelry of his employer, Cary Scott. Ron appears to blend into the background of Cary’s backyard and is only shown from the side to reflect his standing as a background character in her life.
Nevertheless, over time Ron’s simple tan color scheme makes its way into Cary’s life, with scenes depicting the tan leaves that he gifted her now lying in a vase, and a wardrobe shift that includes tan-colored coats and other clothing. Likewise, Ron begins sporting a red button-down shirt, and many other figments of his ordinary life (particularly shown when she attends a party with his friends and there is a red tablecloth, tie, scarf, and more) appear red around Cary reflecting her desire to abandon her sophisticated life for simplicity and happiness. One of the highlights of the article was a reflection on Cary’s Christmas gift, in which she can’t help but stare blankly into the yellow TV as a background character in her own life after the decisions of her kids and those around her influence her to the point that she decides to leave Ron.
In addition, the film contains a plethora of other instances that relate to this theme of color and desire, specifically present in the temporal relations of the leaves outside Cary’s house (which turn from brown to red, to barren) which reflect her longing for Ron early on in their relationship; Indeed, her children’s actions through much of the film demonstrate their lack of respect for her desires and selfishness. Specifically, her daughter barges into her house in a bright red dress, similar to the one that Cary wore to the party at the start of the film. Her daughter describes her intentions of getting married in the near future, and the bright red colors illuminate Cary’s true desire of similarly getting married and how her children have stripped her of these aspirations, refusing to accept Ron’s age and social status. Likewise, Cary and her son have an emotional conversation after she returns home from the party with Ron—in which she is cast with yellow light and shadows—reflecting how she has become a background character in her own home. While it was easy to spot the overwhelming use of red and yellow in All that Heaven Allows, the article illuminated just how Douglas Sirk was able to use color to develop the feelings of the protagonist and represent her desire for change.
