Evening - 2007

Evening is a deeply emotional film that illuminates the timeless love which binds mother and daughter -- seen through the prism of one mother's life as it crests with optimism, navigates a turning point, and ebbs to its close. Two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters -- Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer -- portray, respectively, a mother and her daughter and the mother's best friend at different stages in life.

The cool thing is that Claire Danes (Ann Grant) ends up marrying actor Hugh Dancy (Buddy Wittenborn) in real-life (two years later) in France in 2009.

Evening is a 2007 German-American drama film directed by Lajos Koltai. The screenplay by Susan Minot and Michael Cunningham is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. The film alternates between two time periods, the 1950s and the present.

The original screenplay, as was the novel, was set in Maine, but according to the commentary on the DVD release of the film, director Lajos Koltai was so taken with the Newport house found by his location scouts he opted to change the setting. Tiverton and Providence, Rhode Island, Greenwich Village, and the Upper West Side of Manhattan also were used for external scenes.

The song "Time After Time" Ann sings for Lila at the wedding was written in 1947 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. The song "I See the Moon" she later sings to her daughters is based on a traditional nursery rhyme.

The film is markedly different from the book, which was much darker and nihlistic; whereas the film presents a love story between Harris and Ann, the book portrayed Harris as a callous womanizer with whom Ann became obsessed. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to telling the stories of Ann's three doomed marriages, each of which failed, in part, because of Ann's destructive infatuation with the absent Harris. Harris himself is presented as an enigmatic and unsympathetic character who carries on multiple affairs during the course of the wedding night, intent on returning home to marry his fiancee. The film grossed $12,406,646 in the US and $478,928 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $12,885,574. It should be seen by more people. It's an excellent, heartwarming story that reveals much romance and a bit of drama and tragedy.

Imitation of Life - 1959

This is one of the first films that I can recall seeing where I actually cried.   There was something so poignant about that ending scene.   In the above clip I couldn't help but laugh out loud when Sandra Dee says to Lana Turner, "Oh Momma, stop acting!"

This American film was directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter.  Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson appears as a church choir soloist.  The film is an adaptation of Fannie Hurst's novel of the same name (Imitation Of Life).  It is the second film adaptation of the novel.  The first film was released in 1934.

Lana Turner's wardrobe for Imitation of Life cost over $1.078 million, making it one of the most expensive in cinema history at that time.

The actress who plays the African-American daughter Peola in the 1934 film, was an actual light-skinned African American, who was noted for turning down a number of offers by Hollywood agents to pass for white and become a star.  Although many African Americans were screen-tested for the corresponding Sarah Jane role in the 1959 remake,  Susan Kohner, of Mexican and Czech Jewish Czech descent, won the role.  Natalie Wood was considered for the role of Sarah Jane Johnson that went to Susan Kohner.  Karin Dicker, of Jewish descent, made her film debut as the young Sarah Jane in this film.

Lana Turner took a much smaller salary than her usual $25,000 per week and worked for 50% of the film's profits, which earned her over $2 million (setting a record for an actress at that time).