ESSAYS, ARTICLES, AND THEORIES ABOUT CINEMA: MILDRED PIERCE: FILM NOIR OR MELODRAMA? OR BOTH?

Mildred Pierce (1945) is a film that presents such a wide-range of levels. Two levels that stand out the most are film noir and melodrama. On one level, Mildred Pierce contains just as many film noirish principles as, for example, Double Indemnity (1944) has, and just as many melodramatic principles as Broken Blossoms(1919). Using terms like “film noir” and “melodrama” lead to classifying categorically, which in turn, establish both as genres. It is in fact the descriptiveness resulting from the principles themselves that made film noir and melodrama modes.

CLIP (WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!)

Right from the beginning, the film opens with a murder. This establishes the mood as dark and dreary creating a film noirish atmosphere. One of the major principles of film noir as a mode is the use of chiaroscuro lighting. This technique, passed down from the German Expressionists, basically paints with light and darkness, creating a sense of contrasted isolation. When Mildred brings Wally back to her home in the beginning of the film, the entire house is filled with patches of light and darkness. Specifically, a shadow is cast on the right side of Mildred’s face. This effect visually demonstrates the revelation of her two sides: one blissful, the other desolate. Through the flashback, the first part shows her blissful side, but it is her financial troubles and the death of Kay that send her into desolation.

Another film noirish principle is hard-boiled dialogue. This is derived from classic pulp fiction novels of the thirties, including such prominent figures as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The scene with Mildred and Wally in the bar, for example, shows the use of hard-boiled dialogue at work:

MILDRED: You can talk your way out of anything, cant you? You’re good at
that.
WALLY: In my business, you have to be. Only right now, I’d rather talk myself
into something else.
MILDRED: Still trying?
WALLY: It’s a habit. I’ve been trying once a week since we were kids.
MILDRED: Twice a week.

This rapid-paced, back and forth dialogue implores film noir as a mode, where characters are able to slip into instant rhythmic conversations. Stemming from the crime novel, the cleverness and sophistication coming from the pace showing how cunning one has to be, trapped in the cunning dog-eat-dog world. Wally, shown as a clever businessman, uses his cunning personality to buy Mildred, and surprisingly wins the deal when she asks him back to her place.

The final film noirish principle is psychologically the act of repressing emotions. Mildred, when introduced, is a closed book. Even after the death of her husband, she refuses to allow the detective in her mind, much less the viewer. Through the flashback, she eventually transitions to the moments of her child’s death and the killing of her husband, however, are almost forced out of her. The police interview with Mildred, in theory, is a psychoanalytical interrogation, hoping to go through her memories, searching for the confession to her killing Beragon.

Out of the shadows and cast brightly into the light, there are, on the other hand, many melodramatic principles, shifting to a different mood. The first and major one is the fact Mildred, as a woman, is the key protagonist in the film. She is a strong figure, who bounces back and forth from stability to instability. During her fight with Bert in the beginning, she does not accept his infidelity, and upon his threat to walk out, Mildred, shown through a close up, powerfully says, “Then pack up!” Of course after he leaves, she falls to instability, but works her way back up.

Another melodramatic principle is music, heightened to elicit a particular emotion. Two parallel scenes that use music heightened to elicit two different emotions are Mildred and Beragon’s love scene and Kay’s death. The first includes a romantic, soft ballad playing as the camera zooms in on Beragon serenading Mildred with poetic dialogue. In the other scene, after the doctor announces the death, Mildred approaches the body and leans down while a somber, heart-wrenching theme drifts in the scene. The two scenes are both melodramatic in that they demonstrate the different emotional impacts when taken to the musically-heighten climactic level. The first scene elated the viewer in happiness as the music delivered a theme of love. The second shocked the viewer in sadness as the music showed a theme of death.

The final melodramatic principle is the apparent middle class family/social/marital struggle. Even deeper, each one struggle affects the other. The family shifts in class through Mildred’s hard work, but also through spousal attachment. Mildred enjoys living on just enough to make ends meet, while at the same time, giving her daughters the fulfillment through feeling apart of a higher class. Despite everything Mildred gave up for her, working for a living evolves into not being enough to please Veda, and in fact is ridiculed for it. Mildred is introduced as a woman in the kitchen, and through her work as a server, develops the desire to open her own restaurant. Veda, spoiled by the vast richness of her rewards, is fascinated by the high class through Beragon. She learns French, takes up smoking and mingles with rich boys, however is her marriage with Forrester that definitely draws the line of the classes. It is obvious what the real high class is when Forrester’s mother does not want her perception of lower class associated with such a prestigious name. Through her association with Beragon, she in fact delves into the higher life as well, and eventually leads to the point where the higher she climbs the harder she falls.

The key principles are mere descriptions from other various films containing the same trends. This leads into the notion that film noir and melodrama were modes.Mildred Pierce was not deliberately made “to be” A film noir or A melodrama, however CONTAINS these principles, constructed by the very ideas within them. The lighting, dialogue, and female protagonist do not make it a film noir, but instead create a feeling or set mood in common with other films containing the same principles. The same goes for melodrama. It is seeing a film in retrospect of acknowledging the principles into a whole and classifying the whole as a category that make film noir and melodrama a genre. It could be argued that film noir and melodrama tend to be considered genres by the various trends in films were recognized and recreated deliberately to tell a story intentionally based around the principles, compared to the original mode, which consisted of the principles surrounding the story. Modern recreations of film noir and melodrama focus on the principles and develop the story around them, leading the very opposite of the mode, and into genre.