Rent Imitation of Life (1959)

Powerful Soap. - Imitation of Life review by Steve

Sirk's final American film is his best, a remake of Fannie Hurst's best-seller but revised and updated for the era of black civil rights. We watch Lana Turner become Broadway star Lora Meredith while behind the scenes Juanita Moore as her black maid brings up Lora's daughter though suffering the agonies of her own child who finds she can pass as a white girl. For Sarah Jane (Susan Kohler) the freedom that might bring is a mirage, because of the reality is that her race will always get in the way.

 Which sounds a lot like a soap. And to a point it is. It is brilliantly acted, particularly by Juanita Moore as the black mother Annie Johnson, for whom American apartheid has been a lifelong reality. When she meets Lorna, there is no possibility of them being friends, the only way they can be together, for mutual benefit, is by Annie acting as her maid, even though she isn't paid.

 But the story suddenly mutates. Lorna comments that she never knew Annie had friends, and the maid replies: 'You never asked'. And then the film becomes an overwhelming demonstration of the invisibility of black American lives in fifties America. Imitation of Life is a symphony of emotion conducted by Sirk to a conclusion which is so moving it is painful.

 The film has the typical opulence and glamour of Sirk's Universal melodramas. Lana gets a lot of fabulous gowns and diamonds to wear in her picture perfect domesticity. But never before has he exposed a sickness in American life with such passion. Somehow it manages to be both subtle, yet operatic. Juanita Moore is superb and it couldn't work without her convincing performance. It's a tearjerker, but without its fundamental realism, it would be too much. It never falters. It is an extraordinary experience.