Contradictions hidden in the bourgeois
According to Halliday and Willemen,Sirk’s formation as a left-wing intellectual and theatre director in 30s Weimar Germany and his experience making film melodramas at UFA when the Nazis came to power give him particular understanding of the contradictions hidden in the formal and ideological operation of melodrama. (Christine Gledhill)
Sirk was influenced by his special experiences and has more sensitive sense to the contradictions hidden under surface. In his later and more mature work-Imitation of life, he depicts the lives of two pairs of mother and daughters. Lora and Annie, both of them are responsible mother and love their daughters (Suzie and Sarah Jane) so much,thus struggles to find a balance between mother and work (especially for Lora). The biggest difference between these two mothers is that they have different colors, which determines or to be specifically limits their lifestyles. The design of characters leads to the issue of race, one of key points that shouldn’t be neglected when talking about the movie.
As a white single mother, Lora pursued her dream of being a famous actress.She possesses some freedom because of the help of Annie who works as Lora’s servant and takes care of Suzie. Contrasting to Lora, Annie was limited in home and kitchen by cinematic strategies and frame. She has no choice to find another kinds of job because of the discriminations from the society and masculinity. Annie is subjected to her destiny and feels satisfaction on her role. However,Sarah Jane,Annie’s daughter suffers a lot from racism even though she is light-skinned.She was abused by her white boyfriend when he heard that Sarah Jane’s mother is a black woman. Escaping from the safety home and Annie, Sarah Jane starts to imitate Lora’s life,to be an actress to forget her own identity and race. This imitation actually solidify the conception of racism and its reasonability.
Annie’s funeral is the climax of the movie, earning lots of tears for that touchable singing and solemnity. It seems that Annie deserves all of these. However, what kinds of sacrifices did Annie make? Where is the voice of Annie? She are not allowed to encounter love affaires since she lost her husband. She need to be a mother without sexuality. If she fights against the identity just like her daughter, what punishment will she receive? Ironically, the solemn funeral is more a recognition to Annie’ loyalty and sacrifices than a praise to racism and a consolidation of class.
In contrast with the first version(1932), Sirk’ version is much more catering for the standards of male’s gaze. The heroine (Lora) transforms to an actress from a woman operating business (Beatrice). She need to be dressed and decorated with jewelry and perfume, which attracts more eyes under spotlights. She delights from her occupation through which legalized the desire of male’s gaze. Everything looks safety and suitable with pleasure even though our heroine has her own troubles (falling in love with a same man with her daughter). Instead of soft blurred close-up of Beatrice in the white and black version, Lora always wear fine dresses and has elaborate hairstyles, along with emotional music and dazzling colors. Conflicts caused by race and classes are only built to push story forward, they can be temporarily solved with tears and forgiveness. That’s why we say that melodrama represents the failure or breakdown of realism. Contradictions are hidden behind the bourgeois fantasies. It is self-deception and consoling lies which gives us virtual pleasure and support us with moving hypocrisies.
