Between The Reveal, Unspooled, You Must Remember This, Unclear And Present Danger, and generally Twitter and Letterboxd, I am just barely watching more movies than I add. I'm almost down below 200.
It's hard to critique something like Imitation of Life, not just because of its quality but because it was one of the very few movies of its era to address racial mores in any way. It's unfair to any one movie, or single piece of art to comment and address all the ins and outs of race in America.
That said... The big missing piece to me was the lack of interactions within the African American community. There's a throwaway line that Sarah Jane doesn't like fraternizing with her black peers because she sees them all as janitors and generally a lower class than what she aspires to. In reality (in my experience) the relationship could be just as fraught for Sarah Jane to integrate into that community as the white community (or you note from Passing). Its a big missing piece for me, but I can't fault Sirk for not exploring it. He was already playing with dynamite, and I remain surprised such a dark slice of Americana could be a box office success in its day. The changes he made to the story pull it into his show business orbit, something he could opine on with confidence. You sorta just have to applaud that he tried and didn't go to far over his skis--Except that funeral which is like a National Geographic matchup of every regional African American funeral tradition.
I think all that's fair, but I would argue that the lack of interactions within the African-American community was an important narrative strategy that pays off in that final scene, when Lora (and the audience) finally see the fullness of Annie's life and their blindness to it becomes that much more conspicuous. I suppose it might have been done differently Sarah Jane, but she seems to be placed in environments where she's around all white children, perhaps due to her incorporation into Lora and Susie's world. That seems deliberate to me as well.
100%. The impact of the massive, massive funeral (I mean the likes of a queen!) would be blunted if we saw more of Annie's life. Earlier when Annie tells Lora that she has hundreds of friends, we as the audience are equally as flummoxed as Lora -- really? You? The maid? But we also know Annie is so much more than a maid -- look at the way she lowered the rent of the apartment by ten bucks by sweeping the staircase of the building. Annie was an enterprising entrepreneur as well as friends to hundreds. :)
Like Scott, I prefer Written on the Wind and All That Heaven Allows, but just slightly — Sirk has at least three masterpieces under his belt. Part of why this works a little less well is that Sandra Dee/John Gavin plot, which is really, really hard to even pretend to care about.
I just rewatched this a year ago and our local small-town theater is showing it this very week — I may have to visit for a theatrical rewatch.
I'm a month late, but finally saw this and can't thank you both enough for this writeup. My first Douglas Sirk, and it won't be the last. I literally told my wife exactly what you wrote here, Scott, when the credits rolled -- "Imitation of Life is...a lot of movie"! Just like Mildred Pierce got a prestige HBO-mini-series treatment a few years back (actually...13 years ago, where does the time go), this one deserves one, too, to give a little bit of breathing room for all that plot if nothing else. In fact, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet with the DEI initiatives of Hollywood in the last few years -- this movie addresses racism in such a headstrong way.
The n-word is only uttered once in this movie, and it packs a punch (actually, several punches...goodness, that was a hell of a scene, with Sarah Jane literally left in the gutter). I kept wanting to draw parallels with all the characters -- if there was a common thread, they all wished for something unachievable. Lora was always scrabbling for the next big role; Annie wanted her daughter to embrace her race; Susie wanted Steve; Sarah Jane wanted to be white. Is it fair to say no one got what they desired? Maybe Lora, to a degree; seems like after she got to make the movie with Fake Fellini, she was satisfied enough to marry Steve, though I don't buy it. BTW, I thought it was unintentionally hilarious that every time he got close to getting Lora, BRRRRRING BRRRRRING the Rug Pulling Phone Call! I have a very bad feeling that when the two are at the altar, she's gonna get a call from Fake Ingmar Bergman and Steve will once again go back to his lonely tobacco pipe.
If only Meghan Markle were twenty years younger, she would make the perfect Sarah Jane. My wife thought Natalie Wood could've played Susan Kohner's Sarah Jane; I read in imdb that she was considered. I also learned that Kohner's children are Paul and Chris Weitz. Small world, Hollywood, of course.
One thing I never thought that this movie would be able to pull off is to move me to tears (the acting of the time and the melodrama distance me too much from real emotion), but that scene between Annie and Sarah Jane in her Hollywood apartment completely got me. That triangle especially paid huge dividends when Sarah Jane's friend comes in and Annie has to act the part of the "mammy." You know what that reminded me of? In Notting Hill, there's that fantastic scene between Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, and Alec Baldwin where Baldwin thinks Grant works at the hotel he and Roberts are staying in, and gives Grant some dirty dishes, who dutifully takes them away. We're humiliated for Grant in the same way Roberts is humiliated. No doubt a fine writer like Richard Curtis knows his cinema history.
Love this series, but I do have one complaint: It's adding too many movies to my already overstuffed watchlist. :)
Yup.
Between The Reveal, Unspooled, You Must Remember This, Unclear And Present Danger, and generally Twitter and Letterboxd, I am just barely watching more movies than I add. I'm almost down below 200.
It's hard to critique something like Imitation of Life, not just because of its quality but because it was one of the very few movies of its era to address racial mores in any way. It's unfair to any one movie, or single piece of art to comment and address all the ins and outs of race in America.
That said... The big missing piece to me was the lack of interactions within the African American community. There's a throwaway line that Sarah Jane doesn't like fraternizing with her black peers because she sees them all as janitors and generally a lower class than what she aspires to. In reality (in my experience) the relationship could be just as fraught for Sarah Jane to integrate into that community as the white community (or you note from Passing). Its a big missing piece for me, but I can't fault Sirk for not exploring it. He was already playing with dynamite, and I remain surprised such a dark slice of Americana could be a box office success in its day. The changes he made to the story pull it into his show business orbit, something he could opine on with confidence. You sorta just have to applaud that he tried and didn't go to far over his skis--Except that funeral which is like a National Geographic matchup of every regional African American funeral tradition.
I think all that's fair, but I would argue that the lack of interactions within the African-American community was an important narrative strategy that pays off in that final scene, when Lora (and the audience) finally see the fullness of Annie's life and their blindness to it becomes that much more conspicuous. I suppose it might have been done differently Sarah Jane, but she seems to be placed in environments where she's around all white children, perhaps due to her incorporation into Lora and Susie's world. That seems deliberate to me as well.
100%. The impact of the massive, massive funeral (I mean the likes of a queen!) would be blunted if we saw more of Annie's life. Earlier when Annie tells Lora that she has hundreds of friends, we as the audience are equally as flummoxed as Lora -- really? You? The maid? But we also know Annie is so much more than a maid -- look at the way she lowered the rent of the apartment by ten bucks by sweeping the staircase of the building. Annie was an enterprising entrepreneur as well as friends to hundreds. :)
Like Scott, I prefer Written on the Wind and All That Heaven Allows, but just slightly — Sirk has at least three masterpieces under his belt. Part of why this works a little less well is that Sandra Dee/John Gavin plot, which is really, really hard to even pretend to care about.
I just rewatched this a year ago and our local small-town theater is showing it this very week — I may have to visit for a theatrical rewatch.
I'm a month late, but finally saw this and can't thank you both enough for this writeup. My first Douglas Sirk, and it won't be the last. I literally told my wife exactly what you wrote here, Scott, when the credits rolled -- "Imitation of Life is...a lot of movie"! Just like Mildred Pierce got a prestige HBO-mini-series treatment a few years back (actually...13 years ago, where does the time go), this one deserves one, too, to give a little bit of breathing room for all that plot if nothing else. In fact, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet with the DEI initiatives of Hollywood in the last few years -- this movie addresses racism in such a headstrong way.
The n-word is only uttered once in this movie, and it packs a punch (actually, several punches...goodness, that was a hell of a scene, with Sarah Jane literally left in the gutter). I kept wanting to draw parallels with all the characters -- if there was a common thread, they all wished for something unachievable. Lora was always scrabbling for the next big role; Annie wanted her daughter to embrace her race; Susie wanted Steve; Sarah Jane wanted to be white. Is it fair to say no one got what they desired? Maybe Lora, to a degree; seems like after she got to make the movie with Fake Fellini, she was satisfied enough to marry Steve, though I don't buy it. BTW, I thought it was unintentionally hilarious that every time he got close to getting Lora, BRRRRRING BRRRRRING the Rug Pulling Phone Call! I have a very bad feeling that when the two are at the altar, she's gonna get a call from Fake Ingmar Bergman and Steve will once again go back to his lonely tobacco pipe.
If only Meghan Markle were twenty years younger, she would make the perfect Sarah Jane. My wife thought Natalie Wood could've played Susan Kohner's Sarah Jane; I read in imdb that she was considered. I also learned that Kohner's children are Paul and Chris Weitz. Small world, Hollywood, of course.
One thing I never thought that this movie would be able to pull off is to move me to tears (the acting of the time and the melodrama distance me too much from real emotion), but that scene between Annie and Sarah Jane in her Hollywood apartment completely got me. That triangle especially paid huge dividends when Sarah Jane's friend comes in and Annie has to act the part of the "mammy." You know what that reminded me of? In Notting Hill, there's that fantastic scene between Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, and Alec Baldwin where Baldwin thinks Grant works at the hotel he and Roberts are staying in, and gives Grant some dirty dishes, who dutifully takes them away. We're humiliated for Grant in the same way Roberts is humiliated. No doubt a fine writer like Richard Curtis knows his cinema history.