A questionable Sunday….

From 2fruition:

Last night, I finished watching the 1959 version of the film Imitation of Life, which had been recommended to me quite some time ago by paulonleave‘s partner bobalone.

If you’ve seen this film, I’d be curious to hear any thoughts that you have about it.

I have seen this film, by director Douglas Sirk, quite a few times. And phew, there’s a lot I can say about it. First here’s the plot summary from IMDB:

In 1947 at Coney Island, down-on-her-luck actress Lora Meredith and her young daughter Susie meet coloured Annie Johnson and her daughter Sarah Jane. Annie is desperate for a place to live and offers to work as Lora’s maid for food and lodging. Lora’s luck begins to change as a result of their meeting and their two stories unfold across the years. However, Annie’s problems start when Sarah Jane tries to pass as white.

(that is a piece of writing that I can only describe as whimsical – but let’s pass over it for now.

Everything you need to know about Imitation of Life is in the title. each of the main characters has to grapple with the fact that they are not living, but enacting the poses of living. Both of the daughters look to their mothers for the instruction in how to become human, and both are ultimately ignored, because the mothers are too busy enacting the myths of American whiteness and blackness for each other. Unable to understand adulthood, each daughter confuses acting out sexually with maturity. Sarah Jane is punished by her mother’s death for defying her role as a black woman, but at the same time, Annie’s mothering is oppressive and conservative, as much of an act as Lora’s icy high-mindedness. The shocking presence of Mahaliah Jackson’s singing near the end stands in marked contrast to the shallowness of emotional and spiritual feeling that the rest of the characters display. I feel very stongly both daughters’ anguish, and it’s hard not to root for Sarah Jane when she throws the Stepin Fetchit reality of her situation back in the faces of her supposed benefactors with her drawling “coloured”girl routine.

As in his other films, Sirk uses the limitations of Hollywood acting and filming to probe at the shallowness of American life as it imagines itself.

What did you think of it?

You all know the drill by now, since so many people are doing it: ask a question and i’ll try to answer.

0 Comments +

  1. Thanks for your thoughtful observations, Nayland. I found your thoughts on Annie especially interesting. In some ways, it’s as if both mothers in the story see themselves as martyrs when their actual situations are more complex than that.

    had some interesting comments to make here.

  2. Thanks for your thoughtful observations, Nayland. I found your thoughts on Annie especially interesting. In some ways, it’s as if both mothers in the story see themselves as martyrs when their actual situations are more complex than that.

    had some interesting comments to make here.

  3. Claudette Colbert’s character was so much more likeable on the surface than Lana Turner’s! Still, I noted some sharp differences between the two versions of the film.

    The relationship between Bea and Delilah was more obviously exploitative in the sense that Bea’s entire new career and economic success was based on using Delilah’s recipe; none of it would have been possible without her.

    On the set, the most striking thing for me was the stairwell that led to their respective quarters, which seemed to be centred in a lot of the shots. Bea and her daughter’s quarters were elevated, upstairs; Delilah and Peola’s were in the basement.

    And interestingly, in the rolling credits for the film, the white lead’s character’s name was listed in full as “Bea Pullman,” but the black characters were listed only as “Delilah” and “Peola”…

  4. Claudette Colbert’s character was so much more likeable on the surface than Lana Turner’s! Still, I noted some sharp differences between the two versions of the film.

    The relationship between Bea and Delilah was more obviously exploitative in the sense that Bea’s entire new career and economic success was based on using Delilah’s recipe; none of it would have been possible without her.

    On the set, the most striking thing for me was the stairwell that led to their respective quarters, which seemed to be centred in a lot of the shots. Bea and her daughter’s quarters were elevated, upstairs; Delilah and Peola’s were in the basement.

    And interestingly, in the rolling credits for the film, the white lead’s character’s name was listed in full as “Bea Pullman,” but the black characters were listed only as “Delilah” and “Peola”…

  5. short personal story

    I once had a Latino woman say to me that as a gay man, “at least I could pass”. I immediately thought of this movie which I had seen a couple of times.

    I wondered then and now, how it could be a positive that I had to repeatedly volunteer myself up. I saw her point but was angered and disheartened by her denial of the complexities involved.

  6. short personal story

    I once had a Latino woman say to me that as a gay man, “at least I could pass”. I immediately thought of this movie which I had seen a couple of times.

    I wondered then and now, how it could be a positive that I had to repeatedly volunteer myself up. I saw her point but was angered and disheartened by her denial of the complexities involved.

  7. Question Month

    I think you need to post some photographs of yourself going about doing things, those quotidian things you do. I want to see you doing those things!

    I guess that’s not a question, come to think of it… I still want to see, though!

  8. Question Month

    I think you need to post some photographs of yourself going about doing things, those quotidian things you do. I want to see you doing those things!

    I guess that’s not a question, come to think of it… I still want to see, though!

  9. Re: short personal story

    I live with the contradictions of passing as white and I think that one of the most difficult things is that one’s invisibility is resented as a concious choice by many people. The pressures do exist in a defined way come from both inside and outside marginalized communities.

  10. Re: short personal story

    I live with the contradictions of passing as white and I think that one of the most difficult things is that one’s invisibility is resented as a concious choice by many people. The pressures do exist in a defined way come from both inside and outside marginalized communities.

  11. Re: short personal story

    I live with the contradictions of passing as white and I think that one of the most difficult things is that one’s invisibility is resented as a concious choice by many people. The pressures do exist in a defined way come from both inside and outside marginalized communities.

  12. I killed my mama

    I am a little late to the party here, and I really had nothing crucial to add except some friends showed me this movie last year and I was really blown away by it.

  13. Re: Question Month

    Hmmm that would kind of require the presence of someone else to document it all – or many web cams…

    can’t you just come stalk me in person? so much easier for me to manage…

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