November 15, 2002

Douglas Sirk: Magnificent Obsession

By THOMAS DOHERTY

"Sirkian" is an adjective little-known outside the refined realm of academic film studies, but to the cognoscenti the term is as evocative as appellations like "Chaplinesque" or "Hitchcockian." Heralded by swelling strings, a lush melodrama exposes a buttoned-down and girdled milieu where anguished lovers are entwined in a cold-war containment policy more gendered than geopolitical. Orchestrating the artistry -- or ladling out the kitsch -- was the maestro of the Hollywood soap