Film Review
Imitation of Life is the
crowning achievement of Douglas Sirk's glorious career in Hollywood,
the last film he made in the United States before ill health led him to retire to
Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life in comparative
obscurity. The film was based on a novel by American writer
Fannie Hurst, which had previously been adapted in 1934 by John M.
Stahl, with Claudette Colbert in the leading role. It would be
the inspiration for a series of similar but inferior weepies made in
the 1960s.
This was to be Universal Pictures' most successful film ever at the
time; grossing over six million dollars, it helped the studio through a
period of great financial difficulty. Generally, the film was
ill-received by the critics, many of whom dismissed it as an overblown
soap opera. Following a major reappraisal of Sirk's work in the
1970s, the film soon came to be regarded in a far more positive light
and is now considered by many to be Sirk's masterpiece.
In common with many of Douglas Sirk's opulent Hollywood melodramas,
Imitation of Life is a richly
textured and subtly subversive film. Beneath its lush surface
gloss and overplayed heart-wrenching sentimentality, the film is a
scathing piece of social criticism that attacks the failings of
American society in the late 1950s. Its central underlying theme
is the threat that materialism poses to the nuclear family and the
happiness of the individual. It also examines the race issue, and
far more directly than most films of this era.
Through the two main characters in the drama, Lora and Sarah Jane, Sirk
satirises the attitudes of modern white and black Americans, in what
can be interpreted as a bleak parody of the American dream. Both
women are compelled to live a life that is a sham. Lora's life is
a cheap imitation and she knows it. She is willing to sacrifice
truth and love to achieve fame and fortune. Sarah Jane,
meanwhile, detests the way in which black people are treated and
believes that she will have a better life by cutting herself off from
her black origins. She sacrifices her family and her friends to
try to win a better place in society, only to end up performing lewd
dances in tawdry nightclubs. Both Lora and Sarah Jane have a
false idea of what happiness is and the tragedy is that neither woman
is capable of realising this fact.
Annie Johnson, by contrast, would appear at first sight to represent
some kind of ideal. She knows her place in the world and accepts
it. She is content to bring love and support to those around her,
expecting nothing in return. But her life is perhaps the falsest
of all. She surrenders her freedom because this is what American
society at that time expected of women of her colour. Hers is a
life of thwarted self-interest and self-inflicted pain, her consolation
being the better life that is to come after her death. The irony
of all this is at once apparent in the grandeur of Annie's lavish
funeral at the end of the film. The American dream may not have
benefited Annie Johnson in her life, but it provided her with the best send off a
suitcase full of greenbacks can buy.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Douglas Sirk film:
Das Mädchen vom Moorhof (1935)
Film Synopsis
When she loses her 6-year-old daughter Suzie on a crowded beach, Lora
Meredith is relieved to find her in the care of a friendly black woman,
Annie Johnson. With nowhere to stay and no job, Annie persuades
Lora to let her work as her housemaid, in return for a room for herself
and her daughter, Sarah Jane. Lora is an actress who has
been struggling to find work since her husband died. Finally she
gets a break, a small role in a stage play, but by taking this on she
loses her boyfriend, Steve Archer. Over the next ten years, Lora
rises to become a major stage actress. She has wealth and
celebrity, but lacks one thing - love. Then, one day, Steve
re-enters her life and their former passion is rekindled, but not for
long. Lora is offered a part in an Italian film and when she is
away her daughter starts to take an interest in
Steve. Meanwhile, Annie's daughter has grown up, only to be ashamed of her
black origins and runs away from home. Annie is desperate to find
her and bring her back home, but Sarah Jane is determined to make her
own life, as an ordinary white girl...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.