Imitation of Life

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🎙️ EPISODE 642: 02.07.23 Early on, in my notes for this one I wrote, "I bet this was woke as hell in 1959" which is the kind of stupid thing I write on my phone while I'm watching movies. And that sentiment/joke turned out to be completely unfair. While this film — based on a 1933 novel — felt like two different stories intertwining, sometimes haphazardly or lazily, it was the plight of Juanita Moore's Annie and her light skinned, passable as white daughter Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner) which wound up taking centerstage. The other plot, a rags-to-riches tail featuring Hollywood icon platinum blonde Lana Turner, felt like it could have strategic juxtaposition to emphasize this other, more important story, but in reality was probably just there to get butts in the seat.

It's easy to be cynical about pretty much anything, and I'm sure a lot of whatever-pilled individuals of this day and age will find a way to dismiss the sentiment here from either side of the spectrum. But there's a real, undeniable sadness which struck me. I wasn't thinking of it in political terms at all. There's a visceral self-hatred in Kohner's performance and a quiet, restrained agony in Moore's, echoing what I'm sure had been a difficult reality as a black actor working in the 40s and 50s (making a meta element pops up midway through when Turner's character is offered a part in a play that might be too "racially controversial" seem slight).

The movie isn't perfect, but focusing so much on Annie and Sarah Jane's storylines feels truly progressive in retrospect. Art can't move the dial in terms of real world matters; I think we can say this definitively now, unfortunately. But if I've learned anything from reading the comments under YouTube movie trailers, it's that it should never stop trying. Because on a human level, this clearly touched people. And I think that's the best we can hope for, especially from Hollywood movies made in the 1950s.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 641 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 643 ⫸

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Imitation of Life is a 1959 American drama film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal International. It was Sirk's final Hollywood film and dealt with issues of race, class and gender. Imitation of Life is the second film adaptation of Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name; the first, directed by John M. Stahl, was released in 1934. The film's top-billed stars are Lana Turner and John Gavin, and the cast also features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore. Kohner and Moore received Academy Award nominations for their performances. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson appears as a church choir soloist. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected Imitation of Life for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The original 1934 version of Imitation of Life was added to the National Film Registry in 2005. It was released on March 17, 1959.