Codes and conventions:
-Plot characterization to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience.
-Melos-music. Drama + music= melodrama.
-Typically build on human emotions, failed relationships etc.
-A mic of violence, romance, sentimentality.
-Character types-'stock characters.' Are typically a hero, handsome, strong, brave, honest and reliable.
- Hero-usually sensitive.
- Mean villain, the trusted/loyal friend, simpleton, villains sidekick.
Maternal characters are often neglected in melodramas, separated from their children due to the ongoing tragedy.
3 Melodramatic films;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgNrL4Kf7yU -Last Night in Soho
film.org- Melodrama Films are a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodrama, a combination of drama and melos (music), literally means "play with music." The themes of dramas, the oldest literary and stage art form, were exaggerated within melodramas, and the liberal use of music often enhanced their emotional plots. Often, film studies criticism used the term 'melodrama' pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, campy tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences. The sub-genre is typically looked down upon by critics and elitists.
Melodrama in film is easier to recognize than it is in books since the hyperbolic emotions and overwhelming states of being are very physical. People like Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Clara Bow and Ingrid Bergman were the leaders of melodrama. This over-exaggeration wasn't cheesy though, it was normally used to the effect of making a point in the movie.
Many Hollywood melodramas provide a very good illustration of what it means to “show, not tell.” Instead of explicitly stating their “messages” or themes through dialogue, these melodramas like to express them through form. In other words, these films use mise-en-scène, cinematography, and editing to expand on ideas dialogue often only hints at.
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