A black-and-white woman's head with pink tears emerges from a martini glass, against a pink and red background.

Cinema

Too Much: Melodrama on Film

Get swept away by emotion with Too Much: Melodrama on Film, the new UK-wide film season delivered in partnership with the BFI.

We’re thrilled to announce Too Much: Melodrama on Film, a new film season arriving at DCA in partnership with BFI. Too Much celebrates the visual excess and dramatic potency of a form of cinema which champions emotional intensity over “good taste”. We’re screening six melodramas in November and December as part of this UK-wide film season.

The season opens on Sun 9 November with a 4K restoration of Douglas Sirk’s 1955 multicolour masterpiece All That Heaven Allows, considered one of the most influential of the melodrama genre.

Published

Thu 9 Oct

Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor sing on a cabaret stage.

We explore modern melodrama with Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, followed by unique West German chamber piece The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and 1937 tearjerker Stella Dallas.

Next up is Mexican melodrama Victims of Sin, which stars Cuban-Mexican icon Ninón Sevilla and will include an introduction from Invisible Women.

We finish the season with Max Ophül’s Letter from an Unknown Woman, a stunning, black-and-white exploration of fate, class and unrequited love set in turn-of-the-century Vienna.

A man and woman kiss in a scene from a 1940s film.

Michael Coull, Cinema Programmer says:

We’re thrilled to present our Too Much season of films bursting with the giddy highs of melodrama. Each year, BFI launches a UK-wide season whereby we revisit some favourite films from yesteryear which pertain to a certain theme - this year, we present a six film season celebrating the art of melodrama.

Expect vivid colours (along with some sumptuous black and white), swooning romance and iconic performances, but also thoughtful meditation, boundary-pushing subversion and keenly observed social commentary.

You can see any three films from Too Much: Melodrama on Film for the special price of £24 when booked at the same time. Simply log in and add the tickets to your basket, and the discount will be applied at checkout.

Supported by the BFI Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of the BFI National Lottery.