Revisiting Stella Dallas from a cognitive theory of film perspective – Offscreen

By A Mystery Man Writer

Different approaches address melodrama from different perspectives and usually focus on different aspects of a melodramatic production. Most of the approaches rely heavily on theories in ways of understanding melodrama. A cognitive theory of film focuses on the way audiences in general perceive a film. Staying within the framework of a cognitive theory of film, I have analyzed audience’s comments on Stella Dallas (1937) found at customer’s review. The analysis is supported by a close reading of the last sequence of the film.