Imitation of Life

Not only is this film one of the all-time great women's pictures, but it also is a visually and psychologically intriguing piece of art. Veteran director Sirk went out with a bang with this, his last film. The title refers to any number of subjects covered in the movie: an actress imitating people for a living, her daughter imitating her mother's romantic life, a Black daughter imitating white people, etc... (The title means more in this version. The "imitation" dimension has been heightened in this glossy remake....The original 1934 film already veered greatly from the book. By now, only the barest of story threads from the original novel remain.) Turner (an actress with imitation eyebrows and hair and, some say, talent!) plays a widow who drags her young daughter to New York while she belatedly pursues a career in the theatre. She comes upon a Black woman (Moore) whose own daughter is nearly white in appearance. The children hit it off and soon the woman has completely embedded and inserted herself into Turner's life. The relationship turns out to be mutually beneficial as Turner needs someone to watch her daughter and Moore has no place to live and few job opportunities. Eventually, Turner becomes successful, but she finds that she has sort of left her daughter behind emotionally. Moore, meanwhile, has an even tougher time of it because her daughter insists on passing as white (much to Moore's dismay.) Dee plays Turner's daughter as a teen and her bright presence brings a lot to the part. Kohner is the pale Black daughter and does a fine job displaying the torment she faces, often acting out towards the other ladies. Moore is an acquired taste. Some viewers see her as perfection; a doting, caring, loving, selfless mother who is rocked by the venom of her troubled daughter. Others see her as a pushy, bullheaded, relentlessly defeated annoyance. (In any case, considering the Negro condition in the 1950's, it's hardly difficult to understand why Kohner's character wanted to break free and get more out of life! Moore will have none of it.) Turner looks about the best she ever did, especially in the second half when a dizzying array of Jean Louis concoctions parade across the screen and she's dripping in every kind of jewel. She has many insincere and stiff moments in the film, but also has several great scenes including when she tells lover Gavin that she's going to make it and later when she's at another character's deathbed. Mercifully, her character's acting scenes are never shown....just the curtain calls. The film is a Faberge treasure box of interesting sets, lighting, color, costumes and shadow. Despite the relatively simple storyline, term papers could be written about the psychological behavior in the film and the irony of the editing and storytelling. Anyone averse to soap operas will have already run screaming from the room the moment the Universal-International logo comes up and Frank Skinner's gloriously sentimental scores begins to howl. Those who are game for some histrionics and glamour mixed with silliness and sorrow should be in hog heaven.

1959's "Imitation of Life" was a remake of the 1934 version starring Claudette Colbert, Louise Beavers, and Fredi Washington. Both are marvelous in their own way. The '59 version changes a few plot points - the Turner character isn't a Jewish businesswoman, and there's no pancake batter and a big business success for the two women. Rather, Turner plays an an aspiring actress with a small daughter who meets Juanita Moore and daughter at the beach. As with the original, Moore just kind of moves in, needing a place to live. When her daughter gets older, she tries to pass for white.

The '59 version is done as a glossy soap opera - and why not, it stars Lana Turner in all her glamour and beauty and is directed by the master of this type of film, Douglas Sirk. Sandra Dee plays Turner's daughter - great casting - and beautiful Susan Kohner is Moore's daughter, Sarah Jane. Kohner's real life mother was an actor and her father a big-time agent/producer, Paul Kohner. Susan Kohner retired from show business when she married the designer, John Weitz. Today, their two sons are producers.

The acting kudos in "Imitation of Life" belong to Juanita Moore, who gives a touching performance as Annie and just breaks your heart. Kohner is excellent as well; in fact, the two were nominated for best supporting Oscars. John Gavin, Robert Alda, and Troy Donahue also appear in the film, Donahue in a nasty, small role and Gavin as Turner's love interest.

One of the great tear-jerking melodramas of all time - a very different experience than the original - if you can see both, do so.

I Agree with the poster before me, every time this comes on , I first decide if I will be able to see it without breaking down ( which I cant but I tell myself I can )Then try to concentrate on how beautiful Lana's outfits are ,,, but at the end when Annie dies,I just usually completely lose it ,,,

My real life nanny in the 60's was a Juanita Moore lookalike , coincidently also named "Annie". We watched this movie together and after she died in 1970 , watching this movie, really brings "my Annie's " death back .It is so real.

Lana's outfits are spectacular , the entire movie is outstanding.

The conflict between mothers and daughters has long been a Hollywood plot device. Sometimes it is done badly ("Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood"), sometimes it can be campy (the immortal shriek fest "Mommie Dearest") and sometimes a film does it really well ("Mildred Pierce"). "Imitation of Life", Douglas Sirk's 1959 film starring Lana Turner and Juanita Moore, squarely fits into that last category.

Lora Meredith (Turner) is a young widow, a single parent and struggling actress. One day when she loses her young daughter Susie at the beach, and with the help of a photographer she encounters, Steve Archer (Gavin) she finds her with Annie Johnson (Moore), an African-American woman, and her own young daughter Sarah Jane. After Lora and Annie talk for a bit, we find that Lora is having a hard time juggling her career with having a young child, and that Annie and her daughter are newly arrived in town and do not have a place to stay, so after Annie asks to work for Lora in exchange for room and board, they strike up a close friendship, as do their daughters. The film spans about ten years, and during those ten years Lora becomes a very successful Broadway actress, and Susie is sent away to an exclusive boarding school. Meanwhile, Annie is still her loyal right-hand, having decided to continue working for Lora, even though she has been putting the money that she has earned away. Sarah Jane, however, a very light-skinned girl who is able to pass as white, cannot get past her hatred of her own race, and her embarrassment of her mother's color and position. She is continually scheming and running away in order to rid herself of her true heritage, which ends up literally breaking her mother's heart.

"Imitation of Life" is outwardly a very pretty film with gorgeous coloring, beautiful actors and costumes to die for. When this veneer is peeled back, however, the true nature of the film is revealed, and its conflicts are painfully apparent. Lora and Steve are clearly meant to be together, but her career repeatedly gets in the way until Steve is no longer able to sit by idly, waiting for her while realizing that he is always going to be low on her priority list. While Sarah Jane envies Lora and Susie's looks, money and ultimately, color, it quickly becomes clear that their problems are substantial. While they had a close relationship when Susie was six, with the advent of Lora's career, the love Lora had for Susie did not diminish, but her attention and time for her did. When Susie returns home from a break at school, it is in her mother's absence that she latches on to Steve, (newly reunited with the family after ten years) and ultimately falls in love with him. In regard to Annie and Sarah Jane, there is nothing that the kind-hearted, completely selfless Annie can do to appease her daughter, a realization that is so hurtful that it makes her physically sick.

The great Douglas Sirk weaves all of these conflicts masterfully. Sirk, often marginalized as a "fluff piece" director due to the strong melodramatic content of his films, is at his very best with this film. "Imitation of Life" does not stray from his other films in terms of formula: We have a conflict that is socially relevant and somewhat inflammatory, beautiful actors and actresses playing the part, rich, lush colors throughout the entire production and loads of expensive jewelry and costumes. While there are Douglas Sirk movies that I really like for their camp value ("Magnificent Obsession" immediately comes to mind), "Imitation of Life" is so much more. Just when you're about to laugh at a line or a gesture that seems really over the top, Sirk beats you to it. The best example of this is when Lora and Susie are having a fight over the fact that Susie has fallen in love with Steve, after Lora announces their intention to marry. When Lora looks directly at the camera, puts a stoic look on her face and says in her best Joan Crawford imitation, "Then I'll give him up", Susie immediately says grimly, "Oh mother, don't act for me." The performances by the actors are all good, particularly the Oscar-nominated performances of Moore and Kohner. Here's a warning about the film, however – chances are, you'll get upset. My boyfriend, who will probably kill me after he reads this, very rarely cries at films. I've personally seen him cry once at a movie, and that was at "Return of the King", where everyone in the theater was honking. He had the waterworks big time at the end of this movie, much to my surprise. (And yes, personally I was a big mess; I had to blow my nose about three times.) "Imitation of Life" has both beauty and substance. It is a multi-layered film wrapped up in an exquisite little package, which is often cast away as fluff, but is really so much more. Watch it and judge for yourself, but this judge gives it a solid 8/10.

--Shelly

In Coney Island, the widow aspiring actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) finds her six-year-old daughter Susie playing with eight-year-old Sarah Jane, who is the daughter of the black homeless housekeeping Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore). Lora brings Annie and her daughter to live in her small apartment in New York and they become close friends.

Lora has a love affair with the photographer Steve Archer (John Gavin) and sooner he proposes her. But the ambitious Lora dreams on becoming a star in Broadway and prioritizes her career and also neglects Susie (Sandra Dee). The light-skinned Sarah Jones (Susan Kohner) rejects her mother and tries to pass as white for her friends.

Lora is well-succeeded in her career and reaches stardom. Ten years later, she meets Steve by chance and he gives attention to Susie while Lora is shooting a film in Italy. When she returns, she decides to get married with Steve; but Susie has fallen in love with Steve. Meanwhile Sarah Jane run away home to work in fleshpots.

"Imitation of Life" is Douglas Sirk's last melodrama with an engaging and emotional story with romance, ambition, friendship, love and rejection. The drama of Annie that is rejected by her daughter, in a time when color of people was a watershed, is heartbreaking and the best subplot. I do not recall any other film from this period that brings the division in the American society between black and white people so clearly. Susan Kohner has an impressive performance in the role of an outcast girl that does not accept the way the society treats black people but prefers to deny her color. The sequence in the alley where she is beaten up by her boyfriend reflects the mentality of the American society in those years. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Imitação da Vida" ("Imitation of Life")