Imitation of Life - 1959 Horror Film Masterpiece Still Relevant Today

Many may be shocked at the notion of labeling Imitation of Life a horror film, but as Robin Wood, author and psychoanalyst of the horror genre, says, "One might say that the true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses and oppresses." In a time when the chasm between rich and poor, Western and Eastern, upwardly mobile and downwardly spiraling, and parent and child is growing unbearably broad, a second look at this film - a film of social and familial contrast and oppression - is not only timely and applicable, but imperative. Imitation of Life does acknowledge great societal horrors, and Sirk deftly conjures that horror by injecting a contrast between the recognized and repressed into every aesthetic element of the film.

In the film, we see the lives of four women and their attempts to make their existence more than a mere Imitation of Life. Lora Meredith and her daughter Susie have struggled along after the death of Lora's husband, but are having a very rough time of it. Annie Johnson, abandoned by her daughter Sarah Jane's father even before Sarah Jane was born, has had trouble finding work as a domestic because, as she tells Lora, "nobody wants a maid who has a child." A chance meeting between the two women brings their lives together, and together they struggle to survive in New York City. Lora, an aspiring actress, comes to depend on Annie, who moves into Lora's apartment and becomes her maid. Annie makes a domestic haven for Lora, Susie, and her own daughter, but struggles as Sarah Jane rejects her racial identity and attempts to pass for white.

CONTRASTING STRUCTURE
Douglas Sirk's 1959 version of Imitation of Life spans a narrative time frame of a little over a decade. Essentially cleaved into two parts, the first half of the film takes place in 1947. During this half of the film, the passage of time is most significantly communicated by the domestic habits of the characters. For example, we know when each day is ending because we either see the two children - Susie and Mary Jane - go to bed, or an evening meal occurs. In both cases, though the family is "middle-class," the meals and good-nights are all bathed in the sincere care of each character for the others: a contrast between financial struggle and happiness. Yet, and even larger contrast looms within the question, will this family remain close? Indeed, in each instance of dinner and bedtime, a heightened sense of potential for loving, domestic relationships is clear - potential which ultimately goes unfulfilled.

Between the two halves, Sirk utilizes a classic Hollywood montage to illustrate the ellipse of ten years, during which Lora goes from a widow to a famous actress. This montage - a series of play titles and articles of which Lora is the star -- is far more effective than actually showing us Lora's rise to fame in any other real or quasi-condensed time frame. By quickly watching her notoriety swell over the course of a decade (albeit a minute film time), the contrast between the characters during the first half, and the second half to follow, is more poignant.

The second half of the film takes place in 1958. Again, during this half, dining - or at least the social consumption of food or libation -- is used to illustrate the new family dynamic, and contrast it to the old, sincere one. One night, Lora has a cocktail party to await her performance reviews. The next evening, Lora tells Annie she has a "meeting" over cocktails. The next, Lora requests that Sarah Jane stay and help Annie in the kitchen for another dinner party. Unlike the first half of the film, however, dining in this portion is not used to conjure the potential for relationships and a "happy home," but rather to heighten the separation between all the characters, particularly Annie and Lora. Indeed, in each instance, Lora is in the front of the house entertaining, while Annie is relegated to service in the kitchen.

CONTRASTING SOUND
Sirk's use of sound in this film powerfully informs the story's theme of contrast. Contrasts between representations and reality, surface appearances and the person beneath, are magnified powerfully in the dialogue. Archer states that his "camera could have a love affair with [Lora's] face." The agent, Loomis, when he says to Lora, "Your face will pass," and suggests she prostitute herself for fame, best exemplifies the film's contrast between sexism and misogyny, and the sacrifices a working woman must make.

The contrast between one's real self and their self-denial (particularly racial self-denial in order to obtain more freedom) is conjured when Sarah Jane speaks of her father, saying "he was practically white." The inverse theme - that of sacrificing freedom for the preservation of the self (i.e., race) - is illustrated when Annie confides in Lora with, "It's a sin to be ashamed of what you are...and worse to deny it. How do you explain to your child that she was born to be hurt?"

While Sirk uses the dialogue to make direct references to the themes, he amplifies them more indirectly with his use of sound effects. Most notably are his use of phones and doors. When Lora and Archer are first about to kiss, the doorbell rings, then the phone. The sounds separate them - contrast their desire to be together with the reality that they won't -- for Lora answers both rings, and leaves Archer alone. They never kiss. Early in the second half of the film, when we first hear Annie and Lora talking about Annie's "sickness," again the phone rings, and Lora's career once again comes between her and her relationships. Finally, and most poignantly, is the interruption by a knock at the door when a dying Annie goes to visit Sarah Jane in L.A. When Sarah Jane's friend arrives (mistaking Annie for a maid), the mother's relationship with her daughter reaches its complete abortion, and they never see each other again.

CONTRASTING SCORE
Last is Sirk's use of music. While, for the most part, the film's score simply mimics the contrasting ebb and flow of the film, there are distinct and obvious uses of music to make a socio-cultural statement. Most poignant is Sirk's use of jazz. When issues of blackness and race arise, we hear jazz music rise too in the background. The best example of this is the scene when Sarah Jane's boyfriend, Frankie, finds out that she is half black and hits her. The scene begins with mellow jazz beneath it, but as the scene turns violent, the jazz music becomes frantic and uncontrolled. Thus, the music not only supplements the emotions of the film, but Sirk also makes a stark social and cultural contrast by juxtaposing the beauty of Jazz with the vulgarity on screen, and the universality of the music with our own improper associations of Jazz and African American heritage.

CONTRASTING MISE-EN-SCENE
Even more deliberate and engaging than his use of sound, is Sirk's mise-en-scene. Certain visual themes permeate the film, and each expresses a deeper, richer notion of the film's messages. First, for example, is the theme of reflections. Sirk frequently uses mirrors, windows, and jewels (the diamonds during the opening title sequence) to amplify the notion of the characters (and America) being caught up in the hollow value of surfaces - especially the surface of the skin and its color. Thus, another contrast between what is and what appears to be. When Frankie confronts Sarah Jane and hits her, we see Sarah Jane's reflection in the storefront window, heightening her inability to escape her surface.

Sirk also uses a very deliberate color palette to communicate the contrasts of the film. In the first scene, when Lora and Annie meet, they are surrounded by millions of colors in the form of beach umbrellas. This multi-colored scene speaks to the initial irrelevance of skin color to the characters. As the film progresses, the colors get more and more contrasting, and in many cases, overtly black and white. In the second half of the film, for example, Lora's new home has a white piano, white furniture, and a black bar-top and barstools behind which Annie frequently stands. The new home's kitchen, where Lora and Annie most often come together, features a black and white checkered floor. This increasing contrast magnifies the increasing separation of the characters. Of course, this contrast is reconciled when at Annie's funeral, after we see a white casket and hearse, the characters are finally equalized by mourning within a black limousine.