Imitation of Life

A melodrama set in New York. Lora wants to be an actress. She is widowed, without money and has a small daughter. She loses the girl on a beach and the person who finds her is Annie, who has a daughter of her own. The two women start living together. Annie takes on the house and Lora goes to auditions. Years pass. Lora becomes a known actress; they move to a large house and the order changes. But Annie is still doing the same work and the shape of the relationship is never discussed. The second line is the daughters. Annie's daughter Sarah Jane is light-skinned enough to pass as white and rejects her mother. At school, at work and in her relationships she presents herself as someone else; her mother appearing would be a catastrophe for her. Lora's daughter complains that her mother is always on set, and another break forms between them. The matter at the centre is identity and appearance: hiding who you are, having to hide it, and what it costs. The funeral in the last section is one of the most remembered closes in American cinema. Lana Turner plays Lora, Juanita Moore plays Annie and Susan Kohner plays Sarah Jane. John Gavin and Sandra Dee are in the cast. Douglas Sirk directed; it was his last film. One of the peaks of its kind for anyone who likes classic melodrama and the use of colour. For a viewer expecting a narrative kept at a distance, the film uses feeling openly and does it on purpose.