Despite melodrama that goes to 11 & featuring the saintliest character since Jesus, this is WAAAY ahead of its time. 2 narratives dovetail perfectly w/ feminist & racial ideas that would not bubble over till the 60's. It's never didactic, as its feminist "heroine" never even heard of feminism & its mixed-race daughter invites questions about civil rights simply by existing. Most impressive is that the film gives no easy answers, insuring that the characters' "progressiveness" never comes cheap.

If you like your drama mellow you should look elsewhere. However, if you're willing to accept a film that takes its melodrama deeply seriously and plays with your heartstrings like a violin, Imitation of Life will satisfy you. Yes, there's crying, unrequited love and broad emotions on display, but would you expect a very well done subplot (or main plot, really) about race relations? The feminist angle of the film may not be as blatant, yet it too seems to be at least a decade ahead of its time.

"Sirk immediately and deliberately acknowledges the film's metaphoric, almost pathological obsession with surfaces." - Ed Gonzalez

Epic soap opera, an incredibly lush-looking melodrama drenched in improbable glamour and mood music at every turn.

I totally appreciate how the film, dressed in its silly melodramatic garb, manages to expand understanding of what constitutes real suffering in life. The upper-crust white mother struggles with her daughter's misplaced feelings of love, while the poor black mother struggles with her daughter's rejection of her very identity. One problem, typical of these melodramas, is easily solved, while the other seems to possess no easy answer. That Sirk is able to get all this in a genre pic is impressive.

A beautifully shot film that suffers from too many overly melodramatic moments. It dances around some very important issues of the time but then trivialises them with dubious reactions from rather unrealistic characters.

Improves on the original in almost every way, most importantly in the story, the characters, and the increased focus on the racial issues which are incredibly bold for the time. To make room for that and still have time to add in the romantic subplot between Archer and the daughter, Sirk lost the one thing that the original actually did well, which was a story about friendship. Still, the compromise benefits it as a whole, so I can't really complain.

225

Heartbreaking and poignant in it's portrayal of women, relationships and racial adversity in the 40's and 50's. Melodramatic and amplified but sincere to the core. A must see.

white!

#233

A little soapy, but still, bravely done for its time and Juanita Moore is brilliant.

My favorite Sirk. It's all here: His trademark colour palette, his preoccupation with subversive themes, the over-blown emotions. His masterstroke is that the fact that this film is undeniably and delirously over the top both enhances the sentimentality and fascilitates the satirical undercurrent. It's possible to appreciate both, of course, but I would recommend watching, say, 'All That Heaven Allows' and 'Written on the Wind' first in order to get acclimatised with his unique filmmaking.

Sirk doesn't pull any punches, he pulls a lot on heartstrings though.

I bought this because it was only $5 in the Classics section and I thought it would be a larf at least, and this was the last thing I was expecting. I checked the director and to my surprise, it was Sirk, who I have been wanting to get into for a while. It seems like a film that would have been made decades later and criticize 50's America with the knowledge of how race and gender civil rights movements impacted later society. Gets points for having an actually developed black woman.

# 244

I did like the original better, but, (as remakes go), this is one of my favorites. Sometimes the melodrama gets way outta hand, and Sandra Dee and her buckets of put-upon naivety get on my effing nerves, but the movie is pretty good. Mahalia Jackson at the end? I'd want her to sing at my funeral, too.

This is Sirk in all his glory. The slightly overdone satirical melodrama is ever present, but it's toned down just enough so that this works as a serious film as well. Underneath the glorious colors and occasional overacting is a meaningful examination of identity and what it means to be oneself.

Sirk's last major film is highly layered and highly complex. It seems like he was full of ideas and eager to infuse what could have been a simple remake with as many themes as possible. Not all of the storylines are equally good, but in general he pulls it off magnificently. As always, this is soap - Sirk sacrifices naturalism, simplifying dialogs and situations in order to dig into the depths of human relationships, and mine out more emotional truths.

An incredibly layered film for what is, on the surface, a "weepie". Sirk's handling of racial issues is bold and scathing, especially for 1959. I'd be really surprised if there were many other films of this time addressing race in such a complex manner. There's a lot more going on, and we're never quite sure what to make of Lora's ambition, or Steve's passive-aggressive whining. The film is also astoundingly moving, as a melodrama should be, and beautifully photographed.

I wasn't alive in 1959, so I can't be sure, but this film feels like it must've been decades ahead of its time. It's maybe one plot-element too heavy, but this was engaging from start to finish.

Another of Sirk's deliciously over the top soap operas

Behind all the artificiality and finesse, this is as earnest, honest and gritty as a Cassavetes... Beautiful, fucking beautiful - harsh and funny; it's throbbing and salient melodrama, addressing shitloads of issues, speaking with fluid words in an amplified tone, indeed, but doing so with a consistency and pertinaciousness and such a big fucking heart. As the film, these words may be corny - but they're not false.

Easily the best of Douglas Sirk's colorful soap opera trash, "Imitation of Life" is a society-questioning, character-involving, over-the-top glimpse into as many themes as there are fingers on a hand. While it works as the soapy Sirk crud it is, it also works on the director's intelligent switch with his own style; changing his breed of filmmaking to tie-in with his film's impacting theme of denial. Not a film for everybody, but when familiar with Sirk's style: the brilliance comes to surface.

Made me cried to death!

DRAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA