93/100

Douglas Sirk is a master of feeling, and Imitation of Life is no exception. Viewing a Sirk film is like knowingly diving into a kiddie pool, embracing its mush and melodrama, but as soon as you hit the water, its depths are unexpected and gorgeously profound. Never have I seen a film tackle a traditional rise/fall narrative and switch character perspectives continuously, and it results in a lovely piece of schmaltz that feels less like a character study and more like a mosaic of people and relationships.

This widening view of family flourishes when paired with its racial and social underpinnings, and the discussion of cutthroat showbiz also meshes well with the typical Sirk theme of buried turmoil in…

There's something a little icky in the experience of watching Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life. Part of it, I think, is how difficult it is to escape the sneaking suspicion of exploitation that comes with a major Hollywood studio centering a Black actor purely to celebrate the sacrifice and suffering of the character they play. Juanita Moore gives a masterful performance as the forever supportive, giving Annie, but despite it being gussied up by screen time, a spectacular funeral, and a richly deserved Oscar nomination, it's nevertheless a very familiar role, one that calls to mind the well-worn, ferociously racist 'Mammy' figure of plantation fiction, described by Jessie W. Parkhurst in 1938 as (deep breath): "self-respecting, independent, loyal, forward, gentle,…

''How do you tell a child that she was born to be hurt?''

Well with this, my second Douglas Sirk film after All That Heaven Allows, I can recognise the intuitive gaze of a man of European descent, and how he saw American society and dutifully applied bitter critique and social commentary to the Hollywood studio film, which is probably quite telling as to why his films were not received quite as well upon release as the rapturous reappraisal that has existed ever since.

1959's Imitation of Life is almost epic in scope, both with vast amount of characters it explores and the weighty issues it examines with race, class, gender and capitalism at the forefront. What some would label…

I finished watching the second half of this movie for the third class in a row this morning. My students at Tisch today were angry, ashen. What could I say to them? In the 8am class, I was in tears throughout a lot of the film. Every time Sarah Jane or her mother spoke I had to choke back a gasp. The funeral was more moving than anytime I’d ever experienced it. But in this screening, my usual ironic antagonism towards Suzie turned into a real revulsion. My students, I could tell, were moved. The 9:30am class was more reserved, as usual. As always, I wondered, can they just not connect anymore, in this age of irony, with Sirk’s unusual…

"How do you explain to your child that she was born to be hurt?"

It's instructive to see this and the 1934 versions as reflecting the same core themes through the radically different prisms of their eras. The '34 film, truer to the book, is bound to Depression-era economic survivalism and solidarity, finding an avenue toward some degree of reconciliation between white and Black single mothers through financial stability. By the same token, it is difficult to tell whether Delilah's recipe and likeness being used by Beatrice (and Delilah forgoing her fair share of the profits to enjoy a life of domesticity under Beatrice's validating whiteness) is a relic of mammy stereotypes or a tacit acknowledgement of the limits of…

Maybe I'm just really emotional today, or maybe this movie is a crazy journey, but this was really emotional.

My first experience with a Douglas Sirk melodrama was All That Heaven Allows, where I felt that the characters blew things out of proportion and the characters over-dramatized minor issues. This movie I felt exactly the opposite. Douglas Sirk's glossy style mimics Lora's wealthy, pristine life and exists to contrast the genuine struggles with racism and classism that Annie and Sarah-Jane are experiencing.

Juanita Moore is INCREDIBLE! Her and Douglas Sirk are deconstructing the Mamie role, in a way that I was not expecting for the 50s. Reminding me of Roma at times, Annie is very much a part of the…