In the 1950s, he achieved his greatest commercial success with film melodramas like "Imitation of Life", "All That Heaven Allows", "Written on the Wind", "Magnificent Obsession" and "A Time to Love and a Time to Die". While those films were initially panned by critics as sentimental women's pictures, they are today widely regarded by film directors, critics and scholars as masterpieces. His work is seen as "critique of the bourgeoisie in general and of 1950s America in particular", while painting a "compassionate portrait of characters trapped by social conditions". Beyond the surface of the film, Sirk worked with complex mises-en-scène and lush Technicolor colors to subtly underline his statements.