Imitation of Life
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Movie Reviews of Imitation of Life
Movie Review: a true classic
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the great Hollywood melodramas, IMITATION OF LIFE is based on the book by Fannie Hurst and is directed with style and emotion by Douglas Sirk.A chance meeting throws together Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) and Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), two struggling widows who both have troubled relationships with their daughters. Lora is a Broadway starlet intent on hitting the big time, which will come at the cost of her daughter Susie (Sandra Dee), while Annie's daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) is a black girl with a pale complexion, who chooses to pass as white in order to avoid the hatred of a prejudiced world.
As years of denial and unawareness pass, the two girls slowly revolt from their mothers, and the story moves to its emotional and tearful conclusion.
Still compelling over 50 years later, IMITATION OF LIFE still has a message for modern audiences, and preserves the tour-de-force performances of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner. Both were Oscar-nominated for their work here. The performances of Sandra Dee and Lana Turner (and Troy Donahue as Sarah Jane's violent boyfriend) are just as impressive.
The supporting cast includes John Gavin, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert Alda and Mahalia Jackson. The DVD includes the trailer. (Single-sided, dual-layer disc).
Movie Review: MOORE AND KOHNER - THE HEART OF THIS MOVIE
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1959, Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore lost the Best Supporting Actress oscar to Shelley Winters for "Diary of Anne Frank." While Winters certainly was a seasoned and excellent actress, I don't see how one can overlook Susan and Juanita's gutwrenching performances. In spite of the star presence of Lana Turner and John Gavin, this movie's heart lies in the story of Annie and her mulatto daughter, Sarah Jane.Director Douglas Sirk and his glamorized movies was the inspiration for the much acclaimed film, "Far from Heaven." One can see why Todd Hayes wanted to venture into this director's turf. Ross Hunter's glitzy production begged for its audience to become embroiled in Lana's problems becoming a big actress. But with the performances of Ms. Moore and Kohner, IMITATION OF LIFE achieves the status of one of our finest tearjerkers. Sadly enough, neither actress had much of a career after this, and what a shame. Their scenes together are so electric and heartwrenching, they deserved more. The final portion of the film wherein we lose Ms. Moore and her subsequent funeral are the stuff of Kleenex heaven.
Definitely one of the finest remakes of our time. Because of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner!!!
Movie Review: one of the greatest tear jerkers of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
Imitation of Life was actually quite bold for its time. In a quiet way it made some stinging observations about race and class in America. Lana Turner's character, Julie, calls her black room mate her best friend in private but in public, Annie is clearly the maid. Miss Julie has a child but that child is really being raised by Annie. Annie has a child but that child hates her blackness so much that she abandons her own mother for being too dark skinned to pass for anything else. Everything that happens in this movie leads up to one powerful scene that still makes me cry to this day. It's Annie's furneral. Unlike Miss Julie, Annie REALLY saved her money and it's a funeral fit for a queen. Mahalia Jackson is singing Troubles of the World and every black person from what looks like the whole of New York is in attendence along with Lana Turner and Sandra Dee who ride in the family(!) car behind the hearse. Suddenly Sarah Jane, Annie's daughter appears crying for her mama--in public. She's admited before all of NYC that she's black and she loves her black mother but it's too late. Forget the sub plot of the love triangle with Turner and Dee. This movie is all about Annie and Sarah Jane and it's all about race.
Movie Review: Sirk at his Best
Summary: 5 Stars
Douglas Sirk, has been building up renewed interest from critics, hollywood, and audiences alike. The new movie "Far From Heaven" is based on Sirk's 1950s melodrama "All That Heaven Allows." This 1959 remake is a melodrama about the melodrama genre from the outside.The cinematography in this film is spectacular to say the least. The movie has so many layers in each frame that I almost swore I was watching this film in 3-D. Sirk directs this film in such a way that we question everything that happens in the film that's supposed to be good for the characters. It has a deep look into the relationships between mother/daughter, black/white, & woman and her role in a male dominated society. You can love this film for its surface, which is aesthetically pleasing as it is intense in its underlying discourse on American Society. The happy endings aren't so happy, the sad endings aren't quite that sad. This movie will grab you on so many levels that its hard to separate the deeply embedded social critiques with the incredible surface appearance of the film. Technicolor at its best.
If want to see what all the renewed buzz is about, then check out Sirk at his finest.
Movie Review: Fascinating entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
Douglas Sirk's films are enjoying a renaissance of sorts thanks to Todd Haynes and the excellent "Far From Heaven". 1959's "Imitation of Life" was, I believe, Sirk's last film and it certainly is a cracker.The story is ostensibly about Turner, who not only looks radiant throughout but delivers a top-rate performance as a self-centred actress who neglects her loving daughter (Dee), and her relationship with her black housekeeper and friend (Moore, who is fabulous). Moore's troubled and resentful daughter (Kohner, also fabulous) passes for white, and it is this aspect of the story that is most powerful.
Visually, the film has all the trappings of a glossy Ross Hunter production from the '50s (trappings which were revitalised so well in the '80s primetime soap operas): beautiful people, beautiful clothes and settings, high levels of drama. What makes this film so special, and prevents it from descending anywhere into the territory of camp, is the grittiness beneath that glossy surface, the very interesting and multi-faceted quartet of female characters, and the great performances by the 4 actresses.
Worth watching again and again.