A genre as popular as Comedy, but what are some of the great scenes in Melodrama? Sharmila Tagore narrates a story that takes us from the silent American film SHOES, to Kira Muratova's brilliant CHEKOV'S MOTIFS, to Binka Zhelyazkova's visually remarkable WE WERE YOUNG.Kathryn Bigelow, the Wachowski siblings, Patty Jenkins' WONDER WOMAN, Lori Petty's TANK GIRL, the TV version of Margaret Atwood's HANDMAID'S TALE. Our look at sci-fi takes us to unusual places, other realms. Literal, figurative, political, in Deepa Mehta's EARTH, Samira Makhmalbaf's BLACKBOARDS, Jennifer Kent's horror masterpiece THE BABADOOK, Joanna Hogg's squirm-making Archipelago, the Tunisian film THE SILENCES OF THE PALACES, and more.

Thrillers, but much more. We look at gripping scenes in films as diverse as Joel DeMott's documentary Demon Lover Diary, Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel, Carol Morley's Dreams of A Life, Mimi Leder's Peacemaker, and Marleen Gorris' remarkable A Question of Silence. Cinema is an action art, isn't it? Or is it? Directors Angela Schanelec, Anouk Leopold, Kira Muratova, Chantal Akerman, Sharon Lockhart, and Pakistan's Subiha Sumar, amongst others, show us the pleasures and beauties of the held Moment. Movies show the world, but what happens when they don't show something? In this chapter, some of the great filmmakers from around the world withhold a moment, a scene, and their films are better for it.

Paired with chapter 31, is this one, it's opposite. How does Lynne Ramsay do a reveal in Morven Caller? How does the great actor-director Kinuyo Tanaka? Or Sarah Polley? Or Italy's Alice Rohrwacher? As cinema is a kind of time machine, it's no surprise that it's great at memory. In this chapter we look at rare movie gems about memory directed by filmmakers including Petra Costa, Greece's Maria Plytya, Poland's Dorota Kedzierzawska, Vera Chytilova, Mai Zetterling and Mati Diop.Every filmmaker has to think about time. As this chapter shows, Alice Guy- Blache, Chantal Akerman, Hungary's Ildiko Enyedi, Hanna Polak, Marie Menken and Sally Potter did so brilliantly.