Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book talks about the genre and director-centered approaches and instead orchestrates its analyses around the house itself by foregrounding the interplay between architectural and filmic space. It describes the exterior appearance of the filmic home, the internal architecture of its various spaces, the relative position of each room within the home, the filmic function and construction of the setting and the artifacts and other spaces enclosed within these rooms. Melodrama focuses on family relationships and domestic scenarios, the genre may therefore also simultaneously highlight the aforementioned divisions that have historically governed domestic space. The book discusses the various facets of the home in film in ways different to current scholarship. It traces history to examine the interiors in Roman, Georgian and Edwardian homes and furniture and gardens dating back to the Second World War.