Robert L. Cagle currently works as the cinema studies specialist at the University of Illinois Library. His essays have appeared in such publications as Cinema Journal, The Velvet Light Trap, AfterImage, and CineAction. Cagle is currently completing a study of contemporary South Korean melodrama, for which he received the Korean Film Council's 2005 Grant for Overseas Research on Korean Film.

One of the must enduring and mutable forms of popular entertainment, the melodrama enjoyed its greatest success in both the U.S. and South Korea at approximately the same time. While Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray, and Vincente Minnelli created lavish Technicolor tearjerkers about the middle-class concerns of the American audiences, Im Kwon-taek, Yoo Hyon-mok, and Shin Sang-ok unflinchingly showed life in a country left in ruins and occupied by foreign forces. Robert L. Cagle will discuss how these works, despite their differences, both reflect and perpetuate the dominant melodramatic mode of representation that inspires and structures the national cinemas of the U.S. and South Korea.

The Gallery Talk is being presented in conjunction with The Korea Society's current exhibition, Advertising a Dream: Movie Posters from Post-War Korea, which runs through October 31, 2006. The exhibition may be viewed from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM in The Korea Society Gallery.

Photo:
Hongdoya Wujimara 홍도야 우지마라 (My Dear Sister Hongdo, Do Not Cry!) (1965) Starring: Shin Yeong-Gyun, Kim Ji-Mi, Lee Su-Ryeon
Directed by: Jeon Taek-In
Distributed by: Korea Art Films Genre: Drama