MovieChat Forums > Imitation of Life (1959) Discussion > This Is A Very Real Problem

This Is A Very Real Problem

posted 12 years ago by jynger71
22 replies | jump to latest

How full of herself Lora is comes to light when she tells Annie that she didn’t know that Annie had any friends. Annie’s response: “Miss Lora, you never asked.” And when Annie grieves because Sarah Jane has disowned her, Lora is beyond callous, arguing that Susie’s crush on Steve is the bigger issue at hand. “This is a very real problem,”

So, let’s get this straight. Annie’s 18-year-old daughter hates her, hates her black blood, is a chronic runaway and is exotic dancing to make ends meet, and Annie’s problems aren’t “very real.” Seriously? I just wanted to jack-slap Miss Lora...

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."

[–] Blondfashionisto 12 years ago

I have the DVD and I love it. But, I too, was wondering how people could be so self-centred at times...

Oh, well, makes for a good melodrama!

'That's not a hairstyle, it's a cry for help!'

[–] andrewwjohnson 12 years ago

Maybe it is melodrama but seriously its not like Lora had just hired Annie from Maids are Us or something. They had known each other for years; both struggling single mothers who shared a small apartment when Lora was trying to start a career in show business. Lora had kept Annie on and their daughters share a room. Despite all of this Lora doesn't know or, up to this point, had any interest in Annie's personal life. That does stretch credibility a bit.

Okay, maybe Lora is so self centered because she has been freebasing the collective works of Ayn Rand.

TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

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[–] jackiefoxybrown 11 years ago

Maybe it is melodrama but seriously its not like Lora had just hired Annie from Maids are Us or something.

I just watched his movie for the third time and felt kind of down after the funeral scene but the Maids R Us comment made me LOL.

[–] charcas67 12 years ago

Actually Lora says, in reference to Sarah Jane, "Hers is a very real problem. What problem does Susie have". Lana Turner doesn't do a good job of enunciating "Hers" and perhaps she may have blown the line and Sirk kept the take, but I have a copy of the script, and the line as written is "Hers" not "This". Also, it's Annie(as usual) who first brings to self absorbed Lora's attention that Lora has "a real problem" with Susie. But watch the scene again and listen to what Lora says--she really doesn't think Susie has any real problems until Annie convinces her otherwise.

[–] TheLightFantastic 12 years ago

I always found the "I didn't know you have friends" scene was hilarious. The first time I saw that scene I laughed because it's so absurd. Turner's almost condesending tone and mild shock at a maid having friends just makes you want to pop her in the mouth. Did she think Annie just cooked, cleaned and worshiped at the altar of Lora in her time off?

Lora dismissing Sarah Jane's issues because her daughter has a silly crush is the icing on the self centerd cake. I don't think Annie actually died of any real physical illness, she died of the overwhelming amount of selfishness by everyone around her!

[–] waldenpond88 12 years ago

Annie died of a broken heart, mostly caused by her daughter's repeated wish to not let anybody know that she was black.
Her heart broke, because her daughter was ashamed of her.

[–] pol96-1 12 years ago

waldenpond88: Sarah Jane wasn't ashamed of her mother, she just didn't want to go through her life being on the receiving end of racism when she knew she didn't have to.

Sarah Jane loved her mother and wanted to be with her but felt she had to make a difficult choice. She chose herself but from the tears in her motel room near the Moulin Rouge club, we saw it wasn't an altogether happy decision.

[–] RebornPoet 12 years ago

I agree. Some people don't understand where Sarah Jane is coming from.

[–] WackyKacky 11 years ago

Well said. This was the 1950's. Black people still associated with menial jobs, in service to white people. Why should Sarah Jane have to "pass for white". She WAS white (not Caucasian...her skin color was equal to that of other whites). And unless she went around telling people she was part black, was it anyone's business. Black people back there were supposed to live the life fitting for black people (maids, teachers in black schools, service oriented jobs). Even in New York blacks were supposed to know their place. California was no different.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

I felt for Sarah Jane in that one scene where everyone comes late at night for a supper after the play and Steve is reunited with them in the kitchen. He can't believe how grown up the girls are, and he gives them both hugs. Suddenly, Steve, Lora and Susie walk off to join the guests in the living room and Sarah Jane is left in the kitchen with her mother. The hurt in her eyes and the expression on her face breaks your heart. Suddenly, after the nice reunion where they are all suppose to be equals, Sarah Jane is reminded that she must keep her place in the scheme of things.

[–] jackiefoxybrown 11 years ago

Yeah, I found that scene so random. This is the reason why I love coming to the message boards after watching a movie. Everytime I've seen it I never saw Lora as being dismissive or patronizing towards Anne. I always saw her as loving and very much giving. But after reading the comment's on how Lana's charcater is selffish, I could not help but think that "selfish" description is very much accurate.

[–] Drmccormack (743) 8 years ago

I agree! That line is so ridiculous!!!! How could she not know anything about her "closest" friend? It really makes me sad to think of it. This movie is super 1950's melodrama.

[–] denis-38 12 years ago

No, as bad as Turner's character was, she wasn't THAT that bad. Look at the movie again. What she says is "Annie, Sarah Jane's is a very real problem. But what could have confused Susie's life?" That's when Annie tells about Steve and Lana goes storming off to Sandra's bedroom to pull her big dramatic scene. ( "Oh, mama, stop acting!")

[–] brendanchenowith 12 years ago

I thought it was absurd enough when she said she'd give Steve up, but when Susie told her to stop acting, that's when I howled!

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.

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[–] spyretto 11 years ago

Turner's character was making a point that there was no way Susie would have any "real" problems to stress the fact that Sarah Jane was the one with the "real" problem. So she implicitly agrees that Sarah Jane being white and Annie black is a "real problem". She may be trying her best to hide her feelings towards Annie but her tacit racism is unavoidable because she's a product of a society that sees black people as different and inferior. Not "knowing" that Annie had friends of her own is not a stretch. She is not paying attention to what Annie is doing outside the confines of her house nor did she inquire anything about Annie's past life. She doesn't even realise that her daughter may have harbored feelings towards Steve after seeing them spending so much time together. She thinks her daughter would be happy because she has many things and she says it herself, she hasn't been a particularly good mother. She's blinded by her own ambition to succeed that she doesn't notice the family dynamics around her.

[–] Sweet_T0209 11 years ago

When she said Sarah Jane has a real problem I thought she was referring to the fact that by Sarah consistently thinking she was white was indeed an issue. If this makes sense. That was a problem, a psychological one associated with societal rules. She hated her mother to the point she didn't want to be associated with her.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

"I thought it was absurd enough when she said she'd give Steve up, but when Susie told her to stop acting, that's when I howled! "

Same line made me CHEER when Christina says that to her mother in Mommie Dearest.

[–] WackyKacky 11 years ago

Jynger: Count me in on the slapping committee!

[–] crazyhellboy 8 years ago

Even till the end Ms. Lora was a selfish biotch. "Annie, you can't die. I won't LET you." Whaaaattttt, No she didn't! Sign me up for the slapping committee.

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.