R. W. Fassbinder on Douglas Sirk: “Sirk has made...films with death and films with love....they are the films of someone who loves people and doesn't despise them as we do. All that Heaven Allows: Jane Wyman is a rich widow, Rock Hudson prunes trees for her. In Jane's garden a love tree is in flower, which only flowers where love is, and so out of Jane's and Rock's chance meeting grows the love of their lives. But Rock is 15 years younger than Jane, and Jane is completely integrated into the social life of her small American town. Rock is a primitive and Jane has something to lose.... At the beginning Rock is in love with Nature; Jane at first doesn't love anything because she has everything. It's a pretty abysmal start for the love of one's life. She, he, and the world they live in.... And there Jane sits on Christmas Eve, her children are going to leave her anyway and they've bought her a television set for Christmas. It's too much. It tells you something about the world and what it does to you....” (in Film Comment, Nov.-Dec. 1975).