Directed by Douglas Sirk • 1956 • United States
Starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack
The Technicolor expressionism of Douglas Sirk reached a fever pitch with this operatic tragedy, which finds the director pushing his florid visuals and his critiques of American culture to their subversive extremes. Alcoholism, nymphomania, impotence, and deadly jealousy—these are just some of the toxins coursing through a massively wealthy, degenerate Texan oil family. When a sensible secretary (Lauren Bacall) has the misfortune of marrying the clan’s neurotic scion (Robert Stack), it drives a wedge between him and his lifelong best friend (Rock Hudson) that unleashes a maelstrom of psychosexual angst and fury. Featuring an unforgettably debauched, Oscar-winning supporting performance by Dorothy Malone and some of Sirk’s most eye-popping mise-en-scène, WRITTEN ON THE WIND is as perverse a family portrait as has ever been splashed across the screen.
Up Next in Southern Gothic
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The Long, Hot Summer
Directed by Martin Ritt • 1958 • United States
Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson WellesSex, pyromania, and epic family drama heat up this southern-gothic scorcher adapted from three works by William Faulkner. In his first screen pairing opposite his soon-to-be wife Joanne Woodward, P...
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Wise Blood
Directed by John Huston • 1979 • United States
Starring Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, Harry Dean StantonIn this acclaimed adaptation of the first novel by legendary Southern writer Flannery O’Connor, John Huston vividly brings to life her poetic world of American eccentricity. Brad Dourif, in an imp...
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Down by Law
Directed by Jim Jarmusch • 1986 • United States
Starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto BenigniDirector Jim Jarmusch followed up his brilliant breakout film STRANGER THAN PARADISE with another, equally beloved portrait of loners and misfits in the American landscape. When fate brings together t...
