What is the difference between dramas and melodramas, and how are they similar?

Even a child knows: if there are a lot of funny moments in the film and the traditional happy ending, then this is a comedy. When on the screen everything ends gloomily, and the search for truth or happiness led the heroes only to a hopeless impasse - most likely, you watched the tragedy.

In the third genre of literature, cinema, theater - drama - not everything is so sad, the characters usually have a way out of the seemingly dead end or hope for the best. What is the difference between dramas and melodramas? Firstly, in drama, everything is as close to life as possible, social, everyday problems, conflicts arising at work are shown. The Soviet period drama “Vacation in September” based on the play by Vampilov with Oleg Dal in the title role, the Italian film “Life is Beautiful” almost come close to the tragedy, but still it is dramas. Melodrama dramatically exacerbates conflicts, clearly contrasting love with hatred and good versus evil. The lyrical heroine in the melodrama is called to suffer and cry, for which she will be rewarded with the appearance of the “handsome prince” (hero), and the villain in such films will certainly remain so until the final credits. This is also the difference between drama and melodrama. Very characteristic work, shot in "Bollywood." Indian filmmakers tend to bring the situation to the point of absurdity (which is facilitated by a somewhat deliberate play of actors with pronounced gestures and facial expressions), but at the same time everything is remarkably resolved to the finale. Unforgettable “Zita and Gita”, “Beloved Raja”, “Tramp” are melodramas.

In the melodrama, the spiritual world of the characters is revealed in the multicolored emotions - this is the difference between dramas and melodramas, because in drama everything is as “mundane" as possible. Not without reason in the word “melodrama” itself to the component “drama”, that is, “action”, a piece of “melos” is added, which means “song”. The feelings of the heroes, their spiritual world - this subtle matter - are strongly emphasized in melodrama. Recognized classics: American Titanic by Cameron and Gone with the Wind by Fleming, Russian Moscow by Tony Doesn’t Believe in Menshov and Fres. But, for example, many works of Eldar Ryazanov, such as “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”, “Promised Heaven”, “Office Romance” cannot be attributed to “pure form” as a melodrama. This, in addition to everything else, is also comedy. The same can be said about the work of Leonid Gaidai.

Age is what distinguishes dramas from melodramas. If the “three whales” - tragedy, comedy and drama - existed on the stage and in literature even in Ancient Greece, then melodrama is a genre in comparison with them quite young. Having arisen in the bowels of the tragedy, she smoothed out her too “sharp corners”. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what is in front of you - drama or melodrama. It happens that the movie begins ordinary, and then suddenly the plot makes a melodramatic turn. Therefore, very often in the description of works of cinema we see films “melodrama (drama)”. An example is the shot by Stephen King's "Shawshank Redemption." Very often, directors shoot "synthetic" films that carry elements, such as thrillers, dramas and melodramas. As, for example, the film adaptation of the novel "The Green Mile" of the same King. So in modern cinema, you rarely see a work shot in a strictly defined genre, the frames are blurring more and more. And sometimes it’s hard to understand how dramas differ from melodramas, where one ends and the other begins.