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

2. 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 “right” answer!)

3. “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

4. Brainstorm time – ideological themes in Imitation of Life?
Title?
Sex? Race? Class?
Formal support, i.e. mise-en-scene, lighting?
Sex, race, and class>>> beyond just women’s issues as part of the popular genre of melodrama in the 1950s

5. 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