‘TOO MUCH!’ Melodrama on film at Showroom Cinema

By Nathan Makalena, Creative Coordinator 

You'll sigh. You'll weep. You'll fear your heart might break... but 'Too Much' melodrama is never enough at Showroom Cinema. 

United by their emotional plots, vivid visual language and self-conscious audience manipulation, films tagged as ‘melodramatic’ champion dramatic intensity over ‘good taste’. Now, a UK wide programme, supported by BFI and BFI FAN, Melodrama brings 15 titles to Showroom Cinema. 

With roots in the exaggerated performance and expressive staging of the silent era, the melodramatic mode evolved to incorporate a wealth of genres and stories. Showroom has partnered with curators, critics and local communities to celebrate this genre’s lasting influence in modern culture. 

Film historian, Dr. Sheldon Hall, delivers another run of the popular film studies programme, looking at four ‘gaslight noirs’ from the 40s.  

These Victorian-set stories, with persecuted protagonists and vicious patriarchs are proto-feminist texts, rich for analysis. Each film is followed the next week by a lecture, and the series runs until Wednesday 3 December. 

Showroom screens some defining melodramas in the Classics strand, from the tragedy of Stella Dallas (director King Vidor) to the intoxicating desire of Far From Heaven (director Todd Haynes). These start on Mon 27 Oct with All That Heaven Allows (director Douglas Sirk) with dates TBC for November and December. 

For an alternative take, check out In The Mood For Yearning on Saturday 8 November. Showroom partners with Pitchblack Playback for an in-cinema listening party of Lorde’s Melodrama album, before launching into Wong Kar Wai’s masterpiece of yearning, In the Mood for Love. 

Or, explore Mexico's Golden Age, through two ravishing dramas of unruly emotion. A touring programme from Invisible Women reframes the genre as a subversive space for women's passion and defiance.  

With an eye on obsession, celebrate the centenary of The Phantom of the Opera (director Rupert Julian). Film historian Craig Ian Mann pairs a live scored screening of the 1925 silent horror, with Brian De Palma's cult rock musical Phantom of the Paradise on Sunday 30 November. 

Then, Showroom hosts a private confessional phone box, where audiences can get something meaningful off their chest and render their stories cinematic. Check out the Lost Love Hotline from Friday 5 December. 

Also on the 5th, Gut Level brings a Christmas Party Takeover! Sheffield’s queer-led, DIY-collective, gift-wraps Female Trouble (a John Waters’ classic starring the untouchable Divine) plus a post-film party! 

Check out the Too Much Melodrama programme online: https://showroomcinema.org.uk/festivals/too-much-melodrama-on-film-at-showroom 

We hope to see you swoon!