Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Doing (Audio-Visual) Things with Words – From Epistolary Intent to Epistolary Entanglements: An Introduction
- 1 Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones
- 2 ‘My dearest little girl, I just got your letter and I hope that you will continue to write to me often’: Epistolary Listening in News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
- 3 Dead Letters: Epistolary Hauntology and the Speed of Light in Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
- 4 Attention to Detail: Epistolary Forms in New Melodrama
- 5 The Spiritual Intimacies of The Red Hand Files: How Long Will I Be Alone?
- 6 Video Authenticity and Epistolary Self-Expression in Letter to America (Kira Muratova, 1999)
- 7 Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman
- 8 Delivering Posthumous Messages : Katherine Mansfield and Letters in the Literary Biopic Leave All Fair (John Reid, 1985)
- 9 The Interactive Letter : Co-Authorship and Interactive Media in Emily Short’s First Draft of the Revolution
- 10 Epistolary Distance and Reciprocity in José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas’s Filmed Correspondences
- 11 Instagram and the Diary : The Case of Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections (2014)
- 12 Civil War Epistolary and the Hollywood War Film
- 13 Epistolarity and Decolonial Aesthetics in Carola Grahn’s Look Who’s Talking (2016)
- 14 Epistolary Relays in Fatih Akin’s Auf der anderen Seite (On the Other Side/On the Edge of Heaven) (2007)
- Index
4 - Attention to Detail: Epistolary Forms in New Melodrama
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Doing (Audio-Visual) Things with Words – From Epistolary Intent to Epistolary Entanglements: An Introduction
- 1 Performance and Power : The Letter as an Expression of Masculinity in Game of Thrones
- 2 ‘My dearest little girl, I just got your letter and I hope that you will continue to write to me often’: Epistolary Listening in News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
- 3 Dead Letters: Epistolary Hauntology and the Speed of Light in Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016)
- 4 Attention to Detail: Epistolary Forms in New Melodrama
- 5 The Spiritual Intimacies of The Red Hand Files: How Long Will I Be Alone?
- 6 Video Authenticity and Epistolary Self-Expression in Letter to America (Kira Muratova, 1999)
- 7 Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman
- 8 Delivering Posthumous Messages : Katherine Mansfield and Letters in the Literary Biopic Leave All Fair (John Reid, 1985)
- 9 The Interactive Letter : Co-Authorship and Interactive Media in Emily Short’s First Draft of the Revolution
- 10 Epistolary Distance and Reciprocity in José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas’s Filmed Correspondences
- 11 Instagram and the Diary : The Case of Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections (2014)
- 12 Civil War Epistolary and the Hollywood War Film
- 13 Epistolarity and Decolonial Aesthetics in Carola Grahn’s Look Who’s Talking (2016)
- 14 Epistolary Relays in Fatih Akin’s Auf der anderen Seite (On the Other Side/On the Edge of Heaven) (2007)
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter considers the melodramatic tradition as foundational for the resilience of epistolary discourse in popular cinema. Both prioritize the feminine detail, specifically the protagonist's ‘desire to express all’. Despite frequent relegation to the realm of the domestic (not unlike melodrama), letters have provided women in particular with a private, intimate space to express themselves. The examples explored here ask us to reconsider notions of courtship, with this epistolary ‘space’ creating an opportunity for connection, despite a lack of physical proximity. Building on Tania Modleski's statement that, in classical melodrama, ‘women carry the burden of feeling for everyone’, this chapter demonstrates how in many contemporary examples, the epistle carries the burden of feeling as the melodramatic heroine once did.
Keywords: feminine detail; melodrama; mise-en-scène; romance films; Sex and the City
I Couldn't Help but Wonder
Sex and the City: The Movie (2008) picks up four years after the final episode of Sex and the City's sixth televised season and focuses on the lead up to Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr Big's (Chris Noth) wedding and the events that follow. In an early and somewhat atypical scene, Carrie and Big are tightly framed in bed together, reading. Carrie reads a book entitled ‘Love Letters of Great Men’ which is a focal point of the scene. Mr Big (in what fans recognize as true Big fashion), questions Carrie's choice of reading material and dismisses the letter as an outdated way to express/confess love: ‘It's not my style. Besides, those guys had to write. They were separated from their loves by wars and hundreds and hundreds of miles. I’m right here’. Fast forward to the film's conclusion. Mr Big, having failed to show up to the pair's high-profile wedding, can only achieve forgiveness and resolution through this same book of famous love letters, which he borrows in an attempt to reconnect with Carrie. The letters ultimately become the catalyst for Carrie's forgiveness.
Mr Big's narrative arc sets the scene for the two key ideas that will be explored in this chapter. The first idea concerns the epistolary subtext that attributes an emotional component to Mr Big that has been famously lacking throughout the franchise's six seasons. These borrowed love letters allow Big to tap into an intimate, more emotional side that is pivotal in Carrie's decision to forgive him.
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- Epistolary Entanglements in Film, Media and the Visual Arts , pp. 89 - 104Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023