"Look In The Mirror" Visual Essay #2 - Revisited

Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life deals with three hefty issues of race, failed motherhood and American materialism through the persuasive use of mirrors or reflections. Sirk said, “The mirror is the imitation of life. What is interesting about a mirror is that it does not show yourself as you are, it shows you your own opposite.” This repeated use of mirrors throughout the film starts to extend beyond its influences on characters and onto other areas of the film's construction. It's clear that the mirror's nature has embedded itself within the very material and issues found in the film.
Sirk’s dense use of mirrors is multifaceted. Four areas of analysis including structural accentuation, narrative accompaniment, visual composition, and social commentary, are found in several “mirror moments” in the film. During these mirror moments, we find that a mirror marks a beacon in the course of the film’s story for Sirk’s thematic issues to gravitate towards and make themselves apparent to the audience. The mirror moments I chose are especially interesting because they all have some weight in the four areas of my analysis.
The first mirror moment I’d like to discuss appears when Lora gets home after meeting with Mr. Loomis and misses a scheduled dinner with Steve and Annie. Discussing the mirror from a narrative standpoint allows us to put things into perspective to compare with the rest of the ways the mirror effects the scene. Lora is troubled after throwing away an opportunity at stardom to uphold her dignity against Mr. Loomis. When she finds Steve and Annie sitting together in the kitchen waiting for the meal they never got to have with her, she realizes she forgot about dinner, apologizes to Steve and walks away from the kitchen to unpack her things. Both Annie and Steve walk out of the kitchen to ask her how things went with Mr. Loomis. The mirror moment begins when the camera cuts over to Lora facing a mirror with her back facing us, Annie and Steve.
In this scene the mirror is a direct reminder of the expectations of fame that Lora has for herself and ultimately represents the power and hold that materialism has over Lora as well as the consequences the family is soon to face in its wake. She replies to Annie by suddenly lying, or acting, about how well the night went. Soon she turns around, opens her arms and her energy level rises with each fake fact she lists about the evening; truly living the part. She says, “I went to the 21 with Mr. Loomis, Oh, and everybody there was somebody, so exciting and important. For the first time, I felt like I was somebody too.” The mirror has changed Lora’s honesty and reminded her about the importance of this goal of success, even though what happened wasn’t true. As soon as she remembers she told Mr. Loomis off and spoiled her chances she regrets it and dramatically limps onto a nearby chair sobbing heavily, crying “Oh Annie.”

We can learn more about a mirror’s role in a scene if we look deeper at the visual composition of reflections and characters. At first Lora is staring at the mirror with her back facing Annie and Steve, however Steve is off screen for the time being. As she turns around we can see a set of white gloves in her hand, an additional symbol for materialism. As Lora continues speaking she walks forward toward the camera, and then shifts her body to reveal Annie’s reflection now in the mirror. After a reaction shot by Steve and Annie, the camera returns to Lora who gestures her face toward the placement of the mirror in frame, almost as if she can see Annie now in the mirror. She lets out a cry and then limps to the chair. This character blocking with Annie’s reflection is no accident. Annie’s face appearing in the mirror is meant for a visual trigger for the audience. Lora’s feels as though she’s not only letting herself down but letting those who depend on her down too. This only strengthens the hold that materiality has on Lora and increases her determination enough to tell Steve to stop wanting to control her later in the film. This kind of consideration for the reflection’s composition is a repeated choice in the other mirror moments as well.

The next mirror moment I’d like to analyze is when Sarah Jane’s mother, Annie, surprise visits Sarah Jane in her dressing room after a late act at the sultry nightclub. Structurally, this mirror moment marks yet again another crucial turning point in the plot as this scene represents Annie last-ditch ef¬¬fort to try and bring Sarah Jane home but ultimately fails at convincing her. As Sarah Jane argues back, her heart is slowly torn between upholding the lie about her heritage and maintaining her instinctual relationship with her black mother.

A lot of the social and narrative aspects in this scene are well represented in the mirror’s visual composition as usual. If we analyze the shot where Sarah Jane turns to the mirror away from Annie, we can see that there are two Sarah Janes overpowering an image of Annie in the frame. Annie is also considerably smaller than the other two figures within the shot confirming that the layout suggests Annie is visually weaker in comparison yet haunting. This visual relationship correlates well with what’s going on in the narrative as Annie declares, and not for the first time, that she is feeling weak and tired.
Additionally, we should not overlook the character blocking as this has important contributions to the scene as well. As Sarah Jane stares at herself in the mirror she tries to convince herself that she’s white by saying “I’m white” and repeating the word “white” two more times. On the third “white!” she emotionally collapses and her head comes crashing downward, visually squashing Annie’s reflection within the mirror. This minute gesture allows for an increased affirmation that society’s racist pressure is crushing Sarah Jane and Annie’s relationship.
Socially speaking, the mirror in this scene seems to cover all three thematic issues of failed motherhood, racism, and American materialism all into one area within the plot. Failed motherhood and materialism are clearly expressed in the scene so far but, as if Annie wasn’t victimized enough, the mirror seems to muster up one more blow when Sarah Jane’s friend walks into the room. An attractive white female looking for Sarah Jane enters and says, “Come on Linda they’re waiting.” Then she glances over at Annie to say, “Say listen if you’re the new maid I wanna report that my shower is full of ants.” Of course this sort of thing never broke Annie’s spirit before so it certainly doesn’t now. Annie dodges the comment politely and explains that she just dropped in to see Sarah Jane but calls her daughter “Ms. Linda” instead. The scene concludes with Sarah Jane whispering the words “goodbye momma” so as not to blow her cover in front of her white company.
The last scene involving mirrors I want to discuss is right after Susie tells Annie, now even more sick and bedridden, that she’s fallen in love with Steve and wants to marry him someday. As soon as Susie confesses this, Annie avoids saying anything about her mother’s relationship with Steve and turns to fall asleep supposedly tired. Susie switches off the lights and checks a window’s curtains only to shockingly find Lora and Steve kissing outside the house. Susie backs away from the window weakened with distress and rests a hand against a bedpost for support. As soon as she has her ground again she quickly runs into her room upset. After Lora zips up the stares she decides to naturally check in on Susie and our mirror moment scene is finally ready.

In this sequence we will see how the mirror still seems to depict character relationships as well as reflect the dynamics of the drama within the story. Lora, adorned with her flashiest jewelry yet, invites herself into Susie’s room and makes her way over to Susie’s mirror, while gabbing about her dinner date with Steve. In the process Lora causally announces that she and Steve had always been in love and that she thought about marrying him for a while. This of course comes as a big blow to Susie’s heart. It is Susie’s tragedy that the scene surrounds but it is also Lora’s ignorance of Susie’s feelings that is an important theme as well. The mirror reflects both characters’ dramas extremely well through its visual composition. Only one character enters the mirror’s reflection throughout the scene and that is rightfully so Susie as she ends up having to understand her first broken heart. Lora never enters the reflection because Lora is in fact oblivious to Susie’s feelings. This absence from the mirror is a visual metaphor for the kind of consciousness the characters are going through: Susie is included to reflect on her failed love, while Lora is detached from her daughter and so therefore visually missing in the reflection.

Analyzing the blocking as well as the background composition of the mirror accentuates the love triangle that has accumulated in the story. The background reflection inside the mirror reveals Susie’s bed, which may not seem like a notable detail but it is actually the centerpiece for the love/sexuality/marriage symbolism within the room. Bedposts also play a key part in the blocking of this scene as both Lora and Susie defend them phallically as if they were fighting over Steve. The mirror’s properties of inclusion and metaphoric comparison to the dramatic states of each character remains to be a strong visual motif throughout the film and is exhibited especially well here.
Douglas Sirk’s structural design from the ground up is about reflection, image, and ironic comparisons. Each time the mirror plays a slightly different role but consistently blinds a character into a falsity or lie about themselves. These characters are driven into a state of mere reflection forcing an eruption of emotion to be released making it the perfect mold for a revitalized version of an old melodrama. As the film progresses we’ve seen how the mirror’s versatility and involvement in the film increases. This mirror can finally be recognized as a visual motif that isn’t just decoration or design in a film but in fact a major player in a story’s construction.

Look In The Mirror

Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life deals with three hefty issues of race, failed motherhood and American materialism through the persuasive use of mirrors or reflections. Sirk said, “The mirror is the imitation of life. What is interesting about a mirror is that it does not show yourself as you are, it shows you your own opposite.” This repeated use of mirrors throughout the film starts to extend beyond its influences on characters and onto other areas of the film's construction. It's clear that the mirror's nature has embedded itself within the very material and issues found in the film.
Sirk’s dense use of mirrors is multifaceted. Four areas of analysis including structural accentuation, narrative accompaniment, visual composition, and social commentary, are found in several “mirror moments” in the film. During these mirror moments, we find that a mirror marks a beacon in the course of the film’s story for Sirk’s thematic issues to gravitate towards and make themselves apparent to the audience. The mirror moments I chose are especially interesting because they all have some weight in the four areas of my analysis.
The first mirror moment I’d like to discuss appears when Lora gets home after meeting with Mr. Loomis and misses a scheduled dinner with Steve and Annie. Discussing the mirror from a narrative standpoint allows us to put things into perspective to compare with the rest of the ways the mirror effects the scene. Lora is troubled after throwing away an opportunity at stardom to uphold her dignity against Mr. Loomis. When she finds Steve and Annie sitting together in the kitchen waiting for the meal they never got to have with her, she realizes she forgot about dinner, apologizes to Steve and walks away from the kitchen to unpack her things. Both Annie and Steve walk out of the kitchen to ask her how things went with Mr. Loomis. The mirror moment begins when the camera cuts over to Lora facing a mirror with her back facing us, Annie and Steve.
In this scene the mirror is a direct reminder of the expectations of fame that Lora has for herself and ultimately represents the power and hold that materialism has over Lora as well as the consequences the family is soon to face in its wake. She replies to Annie by suddenly lying, or acting, about how well the night went. Soon she turns around, opens her arms and her energy level rises with each fake fact she lists about the evening; truly living the part. She says, “I went to the 21 with Mr. Loomis, Oh, and everybody there was somebody, so exciting and important. For the first time, I felt like I was somebody too.” The mirror has changed Lora’s honesty and reminded her about the importance of this goal of success, even though what happened wasn’t true. As soon as she remembers she told Mr. Loomis off and spoiled her chances she regrets it and dramatically limps onto a nearby chair sobbing heavily, crying “Oh Annie.”

We can learn more about a mirror’s role in a scene if we look deeper at the visual composition of reflections and characters. At first Lora is staring at the mirror with her back facing Annie and Steve, however Steve is off screen for the time being. As she turns around we can see a set of white gloves in her hand, an additional symbol for materialism. As Lora continues speaking she walks forward toward the camera, and then shifts her body to reveal Annie’s reflection now in the mirror. After a reaction shot by Steve and Annie, the camera returns to Lora who gestures her face toward the placement of the mirror in frame, almost as if she can see Annie now in the mirror. She lets out a cry and then limps to the chair. This character blocking with Annie’s reflection is no accident. Annie’s face appearing in the mirror is meant for a visual trigger that sets off Lora’s emotions. She feels as though she’s not only letting herself down but letting those who depend on her down too. This only strengthens the hold that materiality has on Lora and increases her determination enough to tell Steve to stop wanting to control her later in the film. This kind of consideration for the reflection’s composition of character blocking and included mise-en-scene is repeated with even greater effort in the other mirror moments.
The next mirror moment occurs in the scene where Sarah Jane’s boyfriend, Frankie, confronts her about her race and eventually beats on her in the street. This is a crucial turning point as Frankie represents Sarah Jane’s fading opportunity for tricking society into thinking that she’s white. When the two character’s first meet, Frankie doesn’t speak right away. Sarah Jane asks Frankie if he’d like to run away with her and Frankie says “It’s not a bad idea at all…” but there is something strangely reserved about the way in which Frankie answers her. This next mirror moment finally kicks in as Frankie leans back against the glass window of a building just before he reveals his true intention behind their meeting.
If we investigate the composition of the glass’s reflection more we’ll find that there’s a visual representation of Sarah Jane and Frankie’s relationship. Initially, Frankie appears to be calm toward Sarah Jane but as the camera pans left and his tone of voice shifts, we see a darkened figure just beyond his shoulder: his reflection. This darkened reflection represents Frankie’s hidden racism and antagonistic positioning against Sarah Jane. The real Frankie also appears to be facing away from Sarah Jane’s reflection, another cue that he has changed his perspective or attitude about her.
If we look further into the mirror we can see a vertical sign hanging off the background’s brick wall that reads “Liberty” with the L cut off by the top of the frame. Since racism is the center issue of this scene, and Sarah Jane’s plot line in general, it would be safe to conclude that the Liberty sign is no coincidence. If we look closely, we can see that it hangs right in between Frankie and his darkened reflection, almost causing him to split in half. It is as if the mirror’s contents have drawn out the racism within him. The power of the mirror within the film is ceaseless and is always a nucleus for the issues surrounding it. Its versatility only grows as the drama heightens later in the film.
The last mirror moment I’d like to analyze is when Sarah Jane’s mother, Annie, surprise visits Sarah Jane in her dressing room after a late act at the nightclub. Structurally, this mirror moment marks yet again another crucial turning point in the plot as this scene represents Annie last-ditch effort to try and bring Sarah Jane home but ultimately fails at convincing her. As Sarah Jane argues back, her heart is slowly torn between upholding the lie about her heritage and maintaining her instinctual relationship with her black mother.

A lot of the social and narrative aspects in this scene are well represented in the mirror’s visual composition as usual. If we analyze the shot where Sarah Jane turns to the mirror away from Annie, we can see that there are two Sarah Janes overpowering an image of Annie in the frame. Annie is also considerably smaller than the other two figures within the shot confirming that the layout suggests Annie is visually weaker in comparison. This visual relationship correlates well with what’s going on in the narrative as Annie declares, and not for the first time, that she is feeling weak and tired.
Additionally, we should not overlook the character blocking as this has important contributions to the scene as well. As Sarah Jane stares at herself in the mirror she tries to convince herself that she’s white by saying “I’m white” and repeating the word “white” two more times. On the third “white!” she emotionally collapses and her head comes crashing downward, visually squashing Annie’s reflection within the mirror. This minute gesture allows for an increased affirmation that society’s racist pressure is crushing Sarah Jane and Annie’s relationship.
Socially speaking, the mirror in this scene seems to cover all three thematic issues of failed motherhood, racism, and American materialism all into one area within the plot. Failed motherhood and materialism are clearly expressed in the scene so far but, as if Annie wasn’t victimized enough, the mirror seems to muster up one more blow when Sarah Jane’s friend walks into the room. An attractive white female looking for Sarah Jane enters and says, “Come on Linda they’re waiting.” Then she glances over at Annie to say, “Say listen if you’re the new maid I wanna report that my shower is full of ants.” Of course this sort of thing never broke Annie’s spirit before so it certainly doesn’t now. Annie dodges the comment politely and explains that she just dropped in to see Sarah Jane but calls her daughter “Ms. Linda” instead. The scene concludes with Sarah Jane whispering the words “goodbye momma” so as not to blow her cover in front of her white company.
Douglas Sirk’s structural design from the ground up is about mirrors and the nature or affects of the mirror on people. Each time the mirror plays a slightly different role but consistently lures a character into a falsity or lie about themselves. These characters are driven into a state of mere reflection forcing an eruption of emotion to be released making it the perfect mold for a revitalized version of an old melodrama. As the film progresses we’ve seen how the mirror’s versatility and involvement in the film increases. This mirror can finally be recognized as a visual motif that isn’t just decoration or design in a film but in fact a major player in a story's construction.

Taxi Driver Dimensions

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver has one of the strongest connections between character composition and narrative structure than any other film I’ve seen. The main character Travis Bickle is a man of many dimensions. It is in each of these character dimensions that we see an entirely different perspective in the films ending. This serves to confuse and muddle us in the same manner in which Travis’s mind is muddled and confused. Each of these dimensions is also linked at least once with a floating camera pan that appears multiple times throughout the story. This cinematic movement helps chain his divided persona and moralities together while also depicting special privileges that the camera was given during the film.
Travis has three dimensions, all of which come with their own perspective and opinion in helping to judge his character as well as attribute a unique aspect to the ending of the film. The first dimension considers Travis as a man of no action, only spectatorship and voyeurism; a watcher. His loneliness and alienation result from his inability to communicate. He is mostly silent, and when he speaks, he angers others or is unable to express himself. Travis’ loneliness is characterized extremely well through the cab’s physical construction. It’s confining, it still divides him from those who also enter it and everyone he meets is first seen as an image through a window, rear-view mirror, or TV screen.
During a crucial moment in which Travis exhibits loneliness and an element of pathetic passiveness is when he’s on the telephone with Betsy trying to get her to see him again and possibly have dinner. The way in which he speaks and tries not to step on Betsy’s words shows his consideration for her and there certainly is positive value in this but ultimately this quality is overshadowed by his failure to get her to agree to meet him. The scene ends up coming off as dismal and embarrassing. As a result, in the middle of the conversation the camera performs a special move, in which it tracks slowly to the right until it leaves the wall Travis is leaning on and takes focus toward the end of a long hallway with an open door to the street. The shot holds on this hallway for a full ten still seconds before Travis enters the frame again and leaves through the doorway. In this case the camera embodies a compulsion so strong that it interrupts and leaves Travis’s side in order to either escape his embarrassing situation or provide the character with privacy as a courtesy. It even conflicts with his nature to not take action so bad that the camera itself took action on its own. Either way this shot has a strange power granted to it that appears yet again later on. Its Travis’s loneliness and frustration however, which lead him to become a man of action in the most extreme form by the end of the movie. This dimension allows us to see an aspect in the ending as a personal triumph or change more so than a questioning of morality and right or wrong. That is, if you really think Travis changes in the end but hold on, we’ll get there.

The second dimension of Travis allows us to see the ending as heroic and honorable. A brave man stands up in a world lonely and disconnected to save a girl he doesn’t know from a life of prostitution in an attempt to do justice for all. There’s no question a part of Travis’s mind really believed he was doing the right thing. The camera in this section of the film initiates its strange separatist panning power again, this time with different purposes. In this scene we hear the thank you letter from Iris’s parents while the camera slowly pans through Travis’s apartment. We only know its Travis’s place from the familiar paint color and exposed brick but never the less the camera closes in toward the wall and rises to reveal several newspaper clippings. As we slowly pan right each clipping depicts a admirable statement positioning Travis as the good guy, “Taxi Driver Battles Gangsters,” “Parents Express Shock, Gratitude,” “Reputed New York Mafioso Killed in Bizarre Shooting,” and finally “Taxi Driver Hero to Recover.” All of these are posted like trophies with praise. Each clipping also glides into the frame in a specific order. Each headline serves as an increment of time, as well as the movement from left to right. First the event, then reactions from those closely involved, then police investigation results and finally recovery status of the hero after the event. Lastly, and what would physically get to Travis last, is the thank you letter all the while being read by Iris’s humbled father. The motions of this camera pan are thoroughly justified by the actions of left to right when concerning a timeline as well as the direction in which we read. The purpose of this pan allows us to jump forward in time through the highlights of the news in order to present us with the aftermath much later in which Travis speaks with Betsy one last time. Seen in this positive light we get a sense that Travis was indeed a hero and the film’s overall message becomes adjusted to produce this aspect of his character. However there is also a dark side to Travis’s motives twisting the ending into something completely different.

The third dimension of Travis highlights the madness, vengeance and desire for redemption within the same ending sequence. In preparation for the murderous rampage Travis shaves his head into a Mohawk to tribute the savage nature associated with Indians before a raid or rampage. During the shooting, after Travis blows a hole in the Mafioso’s head, he tries to shoot himself but runs out of bullets and so he sits down. Cops show up and as the policeman stares into Travis’s eyes we get a crazed smile and a hand gesture shaped like a pistol aimed at his own head. He repeatedly makes shooting sounds with his tired voice and continues to smile towards the officers while the music cues in the repeated strumming of a harp. These details strengthen the case that this act was meant to be a last stand or move and that he didn’t intend to survive. So what does this mean? Was he going to trade his life for Iris’s all along or was he doing it for ulterior motives like his misplaced anger from Betsy’s rejection earlier in the film. If Travis was willing to risk his life it might be considered that he felt as though he deserved what he was getting and that this seemingly crazy act was actually going to end in his redemption for sins of the past.
The birds eye view or top down camera angle also has a slow and steady pan filled with dissolves that drift slowly over the crime scene, down the stairs of the blood splattered apartment and finally into the streets. This strange angle lifts the audience so high above that it’s actually through the roof and in this sense above a reality down below. The speed in which the camera drifts and turns at such a slow and analytical pace combined with the immediate timing after Travis’s violent discharge insinuate a sense of spiritual release into the above unknown. This shot suggests an element within the story that concerns Travis’s concluding aftermath.
Just like the rest of Travis’s contradictions, being essentially good or bad, he is also questioned afterward as to whether he is alive or dead. After the shooting there is a strong sense of conflicting forces within the wrap up of the plot as Travis drives Betsy back to her apartment. This feeling comes from the conflicting moralities and motives planted inside the character from his different dimensions. What’s especially strange, again however, is whether or not Travis is even alive in the aftermath. Everything goes completely in favor for Travis and just works out in a rewarding fashion. It’s almost too perfect in fact. It is likely that what we see after the shooting is actually a fantasy or imagination of what might happen to him. Either way it reveals exactly how he thought or wanted it to play out. The closing monologue of Iris’s father is the only voiceover in the film that isn’t Travis, making that an odd disruption in the pattern during this closing section of the story. The absence of an expected closing monologue leads one to believe that the character simple wasn’t present and therefore missing, changed or dead.
One last detail I’d like to cite is that after Travis drops off Betsy and drives away, for a split second before we cut away from the cab, Travis double takes into his rear view mirror with a menacing glare unique only to Robert De Niro but nevertheless extremely scary and effective. This wild expression combined with the glowing red streetlights lead us to believe that even after his murderous episode he is still on the watch for more wrong doings and crime. He will always be looking to uphold justice, unchanged and as a result, doomed to ride in the taxicab as his own personal purgatory.
I’ve been watching a lot of early violent 1970’s cinema lately and I’ve noticed structural similarities between most of these films but none were as impacting as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Lots of movies from this era were fond of violence and even had similar formulas for how they dispensed it. Many times, films such as Easy Rider (1969) and Straw Dogs (1971) used violence as finishers in which the plot would meander for a prolonged period of time, say 90% of the way in, and then finish with a violent exciting conclusion. Taxi Driver’s ending appears at first to fall into this same general category but concludes in one of the most thoroughly brilliant and psychologically violent endings ever crafted opening just as many doors as it closes.