The task is to peel away the honeyed aesthetic of Sirkian melodrama to thoroughly examine the true underlying core. Douglas Sirk's films are expressive and evocative in their examination of female sexual and emotional relationships. One must consider what exactly a melodrama is and what kind of audience the genre requires. Known throughout the world for being part of a female cultural sphere, the genre deals with women's cinema from the early 1930s to the Sirkian territory of the 1950s and 1960s. A central theme found in the genre is the symbolic place of a "woman" and the maternal in melodrama in relation to the changing position of women in society. The term melodrama comes from the early 19th century French word melodrama. The word comes from the Greek "melos", referring to music, and the French "drame", referring to drama. Melodrama generally refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in an attempt to appeal to the emotions of its audience, which is why Douglas Sirk's films are vitally important. Built like a Brechtian director...