Review of Imitation of Life (1959) by Alex B — 31 Aug 2007

The panultimate of Women's movies that they made in the 30's to 50's Hollywood. It's so over the top high melodrama that it even surpassed it's own genre. Sirk is the masterful conductor of this haunting epic of a young mother and her friend maneuvering through racial prejudices and single-motherhood in the 50's.

It's got that perfect gloss over all the colors and textures in the film, looks like everything on screen is made of pearls: it's a treatise in artificiality, which is only fitting that Lana Turner play the lead as she, more than anyone else of that period, was completely the product of the Hollywood star system /machine.

Mothers sacrificing for their daughter, daughters rejecting a mother's love - this motif has been repeated from Stella Dallas to Beaches - some say it's the ONLY reason melodrama has survived for so long: it sure is the basis of daytime dramas.

Look closely at this film and you'll see bit of Days of our lives, Victor Hugo and Ozu. But make sure u've got your hankies with you folks, cause no one escapes the tears with this film.