Explores the broad range of sentimental techniques used in melodramatic screen representation, focusing on affective and spectacular strategies of film and TV drama, and, in particular, narratives in which moral judgment results in redemption, salvation, or punishment. Critical approaches are drawn from classical literary theory, psychoanalytic and classical film theory. Hollywood's "women's weepier," male melodrama, documentary melodrama, civic melodrama, Bollywood spectacle, sentimental modes of melodrama, and music and melodrama are among topics explored. Films by D.W. Griffith, G.W. Pabst, King Vidor, Vincente Minelli, Douglas Sirk, R.W. Fassbinder, Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-Wai and others