Imitation of Life

Light skinned girl turns against her mother because she's ashamed of being black The whole story makes me sick to my stomach

So close. I'd love a remake leaning into race (w/eye rolling), female businesswomen, competing boyfriends, and the bf's affair with the daughter. Ned Sparks' yelling too-clever jokes in a narrator style still annoying. Fav scene: Peola crying that she's black, Claudette Colbert trying to apologize, and Louise Beavers replying saying she doesn't know whose fault it is, but it's not Colbert's or Beavers' or the Lord's, while looking deadpan into the camera at the audience that enables this.

Viewed March 14, 2021. Unlike Douglas Sirk's 1959 masterpiece, Stahl doesn't fit his different storylines and themes together seamlessly. Still, individual scenes here are quite lively, including those about the early days of the pancake restaurant and a forbidding love scene between Colbert and Warren William that Stahl shoots in an alienating long shot with the New York skyline glittering in the background.

Struggles with pacing and the long time frame it handles with. Thus, the focus seems to be missing, as it tackles many themes without desired results. However, Imitation of Life is quite enjoyable.

The standard family drama takes up most of the time so you only get short but effective doses of the race issues of Louise Beavers and her daughter. A real quality job from Fredi Washington who plays the daughter who hates the fact that she's black underneath her light skin. It hits hard and sets the emotional tone as the movie turns from a happy success story to tragedy. And the structure of the film makes the melancholy side of it effective and produced a few tears from my eyes.

This film while pretty good suffers from the screenwriters trying to put to much on the screen for the time allotted.If they had focused on one or two aspects of the story I feel this would have been a much stronger picture.As it stands this is a worthwhile film to watch just to see how early Hollywood dealt with race issues and Claude Colbert's delightful performance as Beau Pullman.

It lacks all the splendid melodrama and mature writing of the Sirk version, but is somehow appealing in its bare-bones simplicity. It's in many ways a more authentic* film than Sirk's version - for one, they got a real white-skinned Negro actress, and not a Latina girl. Also, I have a weakness for the early '30s (when Hollywood cinema was most "like theatre" ever) and Claudette Colbert is a cutie pie, so movie was worth watching. Oh and rich black people used to have really impressive funerals

Ruined by weird, creepy racism. I find it funny that this was actually considered a progressive film when it was released. I'm sorry, but there is no way in hell Delilah, if she were a real person, would turn down the opportunity to have a house of her own, especially with all of the bucks she was raking in from pancakes. And the foot-rubbing scene? Fuuuuuuuuck that.

Both ahead of its time & a product of its time - but not for the reasons modern activist-minded types would give. (For instance, the huge disparity of profits between owner & labor is a class issue, whatever the race.) So, while the film compellingly & consistently forces the audience to consider the truly awful effects of actual systemic racism, it also creates a child-like black woman & throws in a mother-daughter love triangle that always feels comparatively unimportant (because it is).

Not as melodramatic as the Douglas Sirk version but still a great story, it tackles a lot of themes- sacrifices that Mothers make, passing, female friendships and career women.

You have to be very aware that it's from 1934 - the context of the time is really important since it's a film about race in the 1930s, and there are some parts that play very differently if you aren't aware of that.