Imitation of Life (1959)

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Imitation of Life Movie Poster

Imitation of Life is American Drama movie who released on April 30, 1959 (US). This 125 minutes movie directed by Douglas Sirk and Produced by Ross Hunter, who tells about An aspiring white actress takes in an African-American widow whose mixed-race daughter is desperate to be seen as white. Imitation of Life is based on 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst with the same name. It starring

Plot

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The story starts in 1948, when two widowed mothers of young daughters meet at Coney Island: Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), an aspiring actress, who is white, and Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a homeless and unemployed woman, who is black. The Johnsons move in with the Merediths; Annie keeps house while Lora auditions. A decade later, Lora is the toast of Broadway and Annie (who still calls her Miss Lora) continues to maintain the house. Meanwhile, Lora endures troubled relationships with a playwright (Dan O’Herlihy), an adman (John Gavin), and her daughter (Sandra Dee); Annie’s light-skinned teen-age daughter, Sarah Jane (Susan Kohner), is working as a bump-and-grind showgirl and passing as white, even as whites pass as happy and Annie exhausts herself mastering her anger and maintaining her self-control. [1]

Controversy

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There is a scene where the two girls play with dolls. There is a white doll and a black doll. Susie naturally gives the black doll to Sarah Jane, but Sarah Jane tosses it to the ground and demands the white doll. Because she doesnt want to be seen as a black. There's also a scene where Sarah Jane is made to feel inferior at school or beaten by her boyfriend because he finds out that Sarah is black, nobody is criticizing the racists—instead, they're arguing about how terrible it is that Sarah Jane is telling white people she's white. "In the 1934 film, no one speaks out against racism".

Sarah doesn't want to be seen as a black then she wants the opportunities available to the white woman she can pretend to be. The problem is that every time Annie shows up, announcing herself as Sarah-Jane’s mother, her cover is blown and feel shame about her real identity. [2]It also shows that if one is black and wants to get a job, she/he cant succeed at the white job even "The problem, we’re told, isn’t that whites are racist against blacks, but that blacks really can’t be like whites. Instead, they should embrace their blackness and be like the well-cared-for". [3]

Reference