Miseenscene II Imitation of Life Douglas Sirk 1959

Mise-en-scene II: Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

After today’s section we will be able… • to speak about “ideology” and its relationship to film, especially on the level of form (style) • to talk about a film’s ideological themes (especially from the narrative) in relation to an analysis of its formal choices and effects • to argue about whether Douglas Sirk was using distanciation techniques to make a political commentary, and therefore we will be able to make an interpretive claim (no

“Ideology” - review • Definition from lecture: “A system of beliefs that is often taken as truth and therefore invisible to the society that holds them” • Relates to the “invisible style” of Hollywood – Works towards spectatorial absorption – Makes apparatus disappear – Therefore appears as life, rather than its imitation > and promotes capitalist ideology

Brainstorm time – ideological themes in Imitation of Life? • Title? • Sex? Race? Class? • Formal support, i. e. mise-en-scene, lighting?

Essay prompt • Do you agree or disagree with Paul Willeman? • In “Distanciation and Douglas Sirk”, he argues: (from lecture) – Sirk’s films reflect the anti-illusionist aesthetic developed in German and Russian theatre – Sirk did not break the rules of American film melodrama but intensified them to make them appear strange – Sirk’s mise-en-scene forgoes realism and naturalism in favor of exaggeration and stylization