Anticipating Home: The Edge of Heaven as Melodrama
Citation
Stewart, M. (2014) Anticipating Home: The Edge of Heaven as Melodrama. In: Stewart M. (eds) Melodrama in Contemporary Film and Television. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Abstract
David Gramling (2010) describes The Edge of Heaven’s form as ‘fugue-like’ (p. 357). This description is accurate and suggestive. It speaks immediately of parallels — parallel worlds, experiences, states of being. As its German title (Auf Der Anderen Seite) suggests in various ways, this is what The Edge of Heaven is all about. Partly, or in one version of parallelism and fugue-ness, the film is a series of calls and not-quite-matched responses. The opening scenes exemplify this and also introduce a number of The Edge of Heaven’s themes.