Widow falls in love with younger man who's not excepted in her society and she falls into despise by her friends / children / colleagues / neighbours

Both women can't let go of what they're used to, in Carie's case her perfect american life and for Emmi the German culture & racial aspect

All That Heaven Allows: Cliché-ridden film for female fans to cry over, ridiculously overblown dramatic situations & garish technicolour

Melodrama that appeared hokey and degraded entertainment for the masses, actually ironic distancing & subverted Hollywood clichés from within

Radical indictment of 1950s materialism, conformity & complacency --> putting meaning into his movies

Ironic commentaries on themselves & the affluent middle classes they portrayed

FETS working class environment, can't afford big houses / country club / consumerism

FETS more direct & violent, doesn't comment on consumerism --> Son kicks in the TV, Ali collapses because of an ulcer (another comment on society, because he can't adjust), Ron only has an accident

Trapping characters within a frame: FETS Emmi trapped behind balusters of staircase / in the restaurant, in a more plain way because of working environment setting, Sirk uses windows or mirrors to achieve this effect

Fassbinder expresses in physical space how the protagonists experience social reality --> draws the viewer's attentions to the construct of the film itself

FETS exaggerates narrative premises: Wider age gap, racial difference, even more unlikely and less easy to sympathise with - the viewer is tested to their own limits of social & cultural tolerance

FETS less ironic & bleaker, smaller windows, more pessimistic

FETS more open about political oppression, Ron helps Cary escape from her life, Ali can't help Emmi, they're both in a state of desperation

Bad relationship to the children, in both cases are the girls more understanding

The TV as a symbol for a lonely widow, nothing better to do than watch TV now