7. Imitation of Life - Funeral Scene
Annie Johnson is a black live-in housekeeper for a famous Hollywood actress and struggling with her daughter, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane looks white and the film charts as she grows up in Rich, White America - growing increasingly embarrassed of her mother and her ethnicity and screaming at her to never let anyone know theyre related. Several years go by and Sarah Jane has moved to New York to try and be famous and she still refuses to acknowledge her mother, saying she hates her with all her heart. Eventually, her long suffering mother dies and even on her death bed, Annie refuses to blame her daughter.:
Tell her I know I was selfish. And if I loved her too much, Im sorry, but I didnt mean to cause her any trouble. She was all I had. And so we come to the scene thats earnt its place on this list: As the coffin is being placed in the hearse, a blubbering Sarah Jane rushes down the crowded street and throws herself on the coffin, telling her now dead mother:
I didnt mean it. Momma, do you hear me? Im sorry, Momma, Im sorry! All the times she had to let her mother know how she truly feels, all the occasions where she stabbed her mothers heart with words as sharp as daggers, and now its too late. Its a truly haunting scene and its the reason why I subscribe to the belief that you should never let the sun set on an argument. Because youll never know if youre gonna get the chance to make amends.