Best Douglas Sirk Movies
Douglas Sirk is a movie director who moved from Germany to the USA to escape the Nazi regime and became a Hollywood director in the 40s and 50s. In their initial releases most of his films were commercial successes but critically panned, while retrospectively he usually is considered visionary and acclaimed, but also never made it as a household name, unlike Orson Welles who had a similar fate. Since I am a huge fan and consider him one of the greatest, I thought "hey, why not make a list about him?"
This is one of my Top 5 movies of all time.
It tells the story of two mothers who are befriended struggling with their daughters. One of them is African-American, and since this is a 50s movie, we know that racism was much more outspoken and socially accepted as is today. Her daughter on the other hand is so light skinned that she would easily pass as white and therefore denies her mother, her being the only thing that reveals her origin. The other woman is a (Caucasian) actress who, after years of struggling getting roles, finally becomes famous and successful, but now has no time seeing her daughter growing up, who desperately needs somebody to talk to.
What makes this movie so great is that we can understand all four of the main characters. We want the African-American mother to be able to spend time with her daughter, and suffer with her, but on the other hand we see her daughter getting beaten up and denied jobs and love, simply for being black. Same goes for the ...more
