Mirage de la vie

Original title: Imitation of Life

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

19K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer2:19

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Drama

An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.An aspiring white actress takes in an African American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

19K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 3 wins & 6 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 2:19

Imitation of Life

Photos149

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Storyline

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Trivia
This film, which focuses on the relationship struggles of mothers and daughters, was Lana Turner's first since a very public scandal involving Turner and her daughter Cheryl Crane. The previous year, the fourteen year old Crane had fatally stabbed Turner's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato. Stompanato, part of Mickey Cohen's infamous gang, had been beating Turner, and the court ruled that Crane's actions were justifiable homicide. Nonetheless, the killing and subsequent scandal created a rift between Turner and her daughter, and seriously threatened to end Turner's film career. However, Turner channeled the pain from her experience into this film. It proved financially and critically successful, and served as a comeback vehicle for the actress.

Goofs
Susan Kohner's bedroom clock radio is unplugged throughout both its scenes, although she switches it on to music in the second scene.

Quotes
Annie: How do you tell a child that she was born to be hurt?

Crazy credits
Juanita Moore, who plays Annie, is billed with the credit "And Presenting Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson", even though she had already appeared in many films.

Connections
Featured in Behind the Mirror: A Profile of Douglas Sirk (1979)

Soundtracks
Imitation of Life
Words by Paul Francis Webster
Music by Sammy Fain
Sung by Earl Grant

User reviews189

Featured review

8/10

Douglas Sirk's Last Melodrama

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")