Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1959: Susan Kohner in Imitation of Life

Susan Kohner received her only Oscar nomination to date for her performance as Sarah Jane in Imitation of Life.

Imitation of Life is a rather remarkable melodrama about a young widow who wants to become an actress: the movie depicts her rise to stardom and her relationship with her boyfriend, her daughter who develops a crush on him, her black housekeeper and the latter's fair-skinned daughter who wants to pass for white. As it is often the case with Douglas Sirk's movies, it's visually stunning with a bright, gorgeous cinematography that deserved an Oscar nomination. The half of the movie that deals with Lana Turner's character is easily the least interesting, although it's not at all bad, just not particularly noteworthy. Lana Turner delivers a quite good and charismatic performance although as usual there is a certain artificiality in her performance that prevents it from being quite great; John Gavin is bland and stiff as always and Sandra Dee's performance, despite having a few decent moments, is often quite jarring. The best part of the movie is easily the subplot involving Annie, the black housekeeper, and her daughter Sarah Jane: it really ends up being the most memorable part of the movie and it is simply fantastic.

The role of Sarah Jane is actually very tricky to pull off since it can easily come off as unlikeable and obnoxious due to her questionable actions. Karin Dicker, who portrays Sarah Jane as a 8-year-old, fails completely in the role since she delivers a cringe-worthy performance that is full of the child actors' worst tendencies and she just isn't able to create an understanding for her character. This made Susan Kohner's job twice as difficult considering that she had to portray a character that was already establishes in the beginning as quite unsuffearable: thankfully, Kohner manages to give an intriguing and three-dimensional portrayal of her complex character and perfectly meets the challenges of the role. Kohner is charming and full of life in the part, making Sarah Jane surprisingly appealing and interesting, even somewhat likeable despite the fact that her actions are anything but. She's excellent in portraying her character's rebellious, even cheeky attitude, such as in the scene in which she talks to Lana Turner in an affected Afro-American accent, implying that she and her mother could be compared to slaves in Lora's house, but at the same time she perfectly conveys Sarah Jane's bitterness due to the fact that she feels different from the others - the following scene in which she apologizes to Lora is heartfelt and sincere, and you never doubt that Sarah Jane truly feels bad about the way she behaves. The scene in which Sarah Jane is badly beaten by her boyfriend after he finds out that her mother is black might be a little over-the-top but nonetheless I think that Kohner manages to make the scene properly harrowing and upsetting. 

Kohner is extremely effective in portraying Sarah Jane's desperate and distressed emotional state, her desire of being someone different than who she is and escaping her condition that will be forever determined by the color of her skin. Therefore, despite Sarah Jane's harsh behavior towards her mother, you can't help but be moved by her performance as Kohner perfectly shows her anguish and despair. Also I think that her interactions with Juanita Moore (who portrays her mother) are absolutely excellent: Kohner is striking in portraying Sarah Jane's cold, detatched or even hateful behavior towards her mother but at the same time she shows that there is still some love left - she doesn't want to treat her mother that way and she does love her, but at the same time her mother is exactly what she would never want to be in her life. Her line-delivery of "I wouldn't be caught dead in a colored teachers' college!" is particularly outstanding as she perfectly portrays Sarah Jane's determination of being someone else. Her lip-synching in the club scene that takes place immediately before is actually quite terrible but that's really nitpicking. 

Her best scene in the whole movie is easily her final scene with Juanita Moore, when a tired, exhausted Annie visits Sarah Jane one last time. Kohner's chemistry with Moore is nothing short of spectacular here and the two actresses are just amazing in portraying both the deep affection between those two characters and the differences that keeps them apart. Kohner is excellent in showing the pain beneath her cold attitude and that even if she has accomplished what she wanted her distance from her mother still prevents her from being truly happy (I love how her line-delivery of "I'm someone else" is completely rid of joy and betrays her character's heartbroken state). Annie's and Sarah Jane's final embrace couldn't be more heartbreaking and that's because the two actresses perfectly earned that moment - it's a scene that easily could have been emotionally manipulative but instead it's genuinely moving. Kohner's silent "mama" at the end of the scene is devastating and it gets me every time I see the movie. Her breakdown and plea for forgiveness in the final scene might be a little too much but it's nonetheless a rather effective moments and it's very heartwarming to see Sarah Jane's final acceptance of her identity. 

In the end, this is a fantastic performance of an incredibly complex character that Susan Kohner brings beautifully to life. She nails every single emotion and manages to make the viewer relate with the character that could have easily come off as a monster. It's a beautiful performance that adds depth, complexity and emotions to the whole movie and one that holds up even after several rewatches. 

4.5/5