Word: melodrama
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...sequel to the successful and wistful anthology of big moments from MGM musicals, Gene Kelly has been compelled to enlarge the working definition of "entertainment." This compendium, casual and diverting, still contains a lot of song-and-dance footage. There are, however, frequent excursions into light comedy and heavy melodrama. "It's all entertainment," the narration implies. That is a fair enough generalization, but hardly a unifying theme. There is probably no coherent way to bring together Fred Astaire and Lassie, Judy Garland and Johnny Weissmuller. The strain shows...
...initial reputation as a director with a series of subdued, en terprising biographical films for the BBC. Song of Summer, a life of Frederick Delius, is still one of the best and most subtle things he has done. With 1970's feature The Music Lovers, a parboiled melodrama about Tchaikovsky, it became clear that Russell was not interested in the fine details of fact. He is not much interested in narrative structure either, or intellectual or emotional consistency. What interests Russell most is turmoil, and where there are not sufficient amounts available in his subject's life...
...Italy of 1980 in which the coup occurs) is condescending but sympathetic. The bite of the satire is playful; Leone is irritated by the noise of electric guitars because he "was himself . . . a great connoisseur of Neapolitan songs." Reactionary forms of music, Neapolitan songs have all the melodrama "Italy" suggests...
...replayed movie starring Ralph Richardson as the coruscating father. The torment inflicted upon the daughter by the father can still stir old-fashioned pity, even in the age of women's lib, and the claustrophobic gentility of this 1850s New York home adds a note of melodrama...
...public come-on seriously ("I was just doing my job," she says simply, why Stuart at first makes an icon of her and never quite loses his attitude of reverence, even after the rape--hover tantalizingly over the early scenes but are dissipated in the rude glare of simple melodrama...