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Sun Nov 20th
Grandma's Boy (USA, 1922) TCM
Harold Lloyd plays a young man who overcome cowardice and shyness when grandma tells him of a magic charm used by his grandfather to gain courage during the Civil war. Lloyd captures a thieving tramp, teaches a lesson to a bully, and gets the girl of his dreams. Funny of course, but not a classic like Safety Last or The Freshman.
Sun Nov 20th (cont.)
Early Summer (Japan, 1951) dvd
Setsuko Hara plays Noriko, a typist who is, at 28, entering spinsterdom. Her relatives are concerned. Her brother, sister-in-law, and her boss ploy to marry her to a successful 40 year-old. Noriko is very nice but she realizes she'd be happier with Kenkichi, a widower with a daughter. It's not so much that her relatives disapprove of Kenkichi. It's her self-sufficient approach that strikes her relatives as selfish and ungrateful. Moreover, this potential husband is being relocated to a faraway province. It's paradoxical that Noriko's "modern" behavior will be accompanied by a return to a traditional, provincial lifestyle. Thanks to Ozu's restrained emotionality and elliptical narrative, it's possible to sustain a number of possible interpretations for Noriko's choice. Is this a "love-marriage"? The fact that Kenkichi was the best friend of Noriko's beloved, killed-in-combat brother is one complicating factor. Anyway, Noriko's marriage means her relatives will have to adjust to her absence from the household and a reduction of the family's income.
The title's literal translation is "Barley-harvesting Season" not "Early Summer" and most of the plot transpires in spring. The titles of Yasujiro Ozu's films mean little. This one's said to be "among his best" and I love it. But that designation means little to me also because Ozu was consistently excellent. I've seen a dozen and each seemed "among his best" to me. The committed-drinker and eternal bachelor was one of the masters of the medium. Most of his pre-War films were called comedies and most of his post-War ones were family dramas, which evidence a pared-down style, a distillation of technique in search of substance.
I've always been curious about the fact that the director whose film plots deal with marriage and parenting more than those by any other director was himself not interested in being a husband and father himself. Ozu expert Donald Richie states in his brilliant commentary that the marriage-and-parenting plots were "pretexes" to board larger issues: the inevitability of chance, acceptance of the transcience of life, the dissolution of the existing order, and the clash between tradition and modernity. Richie discusses the formative influence of Ernst Lubitsch on Japanese directors, Ozu's dictatorial stance towards actors (he regarded them as "models", not unlike Bresson), the affinity between Ozu's and Jane Austen's narratives, relevant facts about Japanese history, art and societal conventions, etc. Besides the rich commentary, this Criterion edition includes a conversation between three of Ozu's collaborators.
Other Ozu films reviewed on this thread:
Tokyo Twilight
Mon Nov 21st
Gate of Flesh (Japan, 1964) dvd
There was a Japanese New Wave taking place at the same time as the French one but the West didn't take notice. It wasn't until the age of dvd that film buffs in the West have had a chance to regard many of the films involved. The acquaintance is forcing a re-evaluation of six key filmmakers from the period: Shoei Imamura, Yasuzo Masumura, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Kaneto Shindo, Nagisa Oshima, and Seijun Suzuki. The 82 year old Suzuki remains active and vital. He has never completely abandoned the tag of B-movie director, but he's always been an iconoclast with a strong tendency towards artistic stylization and an attraction to controversial themes.
It's hard to reconcile the fact that his Gate of Flesh is set around the same time as Ozu's Early Summer. This post-War Tokyo is chaotic and populated by thieves, beggars, and whores. American GIs are ever-present and viewed with bitter resentment. The picture itself is quite critical of the US and its occupation of Japan. Suzuki admits to hating the US at the time, having spent three years of his life in the front trying to survive American attacks. Gate of Flesh is also a story of survival, involving four prostitutes living in the ruins of a bombarded building who shelter a former soldier wanted for stabbing a GI.
The grotesque ambiance makes quite a contrast with Suzuki's expressive use of color and the conscious artificiality of his compositions. At times he superimposes close-ups of faces onto a scene shot from medium distance, or he slows down the image so that a character's cries appear disembodied, or he splits a scene into freeze-frames giving the impression of a slide show, etc. Suzuki is relentlessly playful_ it's clear he's having fun, without detracting from the plight of his desperate characters.
Mon Nov 21st (cont.)
Story of a Prostitute (Japan, 1965) dvd
Harumi is one of the girls brought from Japan to serve as "comfort women" to Japanese soldiers in Manchuria. She hopes all the fucking will help heal her broken heart and erase bad memories. Harumi becomes the favorite of Narita, a cruel high-ranking officer who beats and humilliates her. Love blossoms between Harumi and Mikami, Narita's young assistant, who's fiercely loyal to the Japanese cause.
This highly regarded film directed by Seijun Suzuki, like Gate of Flesh an adaptation of a story by Taijiro Tamura, is one of the most decidedly anti-War, anti-imperialist films ever. Suzuki is quite critical of, even angry towards, the aims of the Japanese emperor, the Japanese conception of honor and duty, and the arrogance of power. It's quite harrowing material, shot in widescreen b&w, with particular attention to creating contrast via lighting and mise-en-scene. Suzuki's stylings are more restrained than in Gate of Flesh, but not entirely abandoned: for instance, Harumi's hatred of Narita is expressed in a scene in which the frame is frozen and the portion of it that contains Narita broken into pieces. Suzuki is being crystal-clear here; no one can miss what Story of a Prostitute is saying so eloquently.
Tue Nov 22nd
10 Minutes Older: The Cello (UK/Germany/France, 2002) import dvd
Fifteen directors were commissioned to create shorts lasting ten minutes (more or less) that deal with the concept of time. The shorts were divided into two features for theatrical release. I watched The Trumpet last year. It included shorts by Victor Erice (the best), Herzog, Jarmusch, Wenders, Kaurismaki and Kaige. The Cello contains the remaining eight shorts:
Histoire d'Eaux
Bernardo Bertolucci's widescreen, b&w film tells the story of an Hindu immigrant who gets dropped off in Italy. A fellow traveler sits by a tree and asks for water. The protagonist runs into an Italian barmaid with a disabled motorbike, fixes the bike, gets her pregnant, marries her and becomes assimilated. He rides with wife and teenage kids down a country road and has an accident. He walks around seeking help and encounters the man who asked for water, who exclaims:"I didn't think it would take you a whole day to return".
About Time 2
Mike Figgis splits the screen in four and alternates between an old couple with TV monitors for heads, two boys playing war, and an affair between musicians in which the man has erectile dysfunction. This most experimental short is most unsatisfying because it's too elusive.
One Moment
Jiri Menzel shows an old man in a country setting reminiscing about his life. Turns out the man is legendary Czech actor Rudolph Hrusinsky and the memories are all culled from his long filmography that dates back to the silent era. The clips are obviously carefully chosen and edited in chronological order. A beautiful film.
10 Minutes After
Istvan Szabo seems to be showing the most dramatic scene from a long feature, one that implies that 10 minutes is long enough to ruin a life or two. A wife awaits at home with an elaborate lunch for her husband. He is brought by friends because of heavy drinking. They leave, he becomes extremely abusive. The wife grabs a knife and he practically runs into it. I didn't like this one.
Vers Nancy
Claire Denis shots a 10 minute conversation between a young woman who emigrated to France from Eastern Europe (like Denis) and the author of a book dealing with issues of immigration, acculturation, France's national identity vis a vis its treatment of foreigners, etc. A black man sits in the same train car trying not to draw attention. I found the discussion quite lucid and interesting so I can't blame Denis for returning to her favorite themes.
Dans le Noir du Temps
Jean Luc Godard's essay includes clips from several of his films, footage from WWII, particularly about the Holocaust and the Resistance; narration includes poems and philosophical excerpts.
Addicted to the Stars
Michael Radford's sci-fi tale about an astronaut who barely ages while in space while the young son he left behind upon departure is now senile. Nice cinematography.
The Enlightenment
Volker Schlondorff's short is the third out of eight in this collection to deal with Europeans-of-color. It's about a black man being introduced to his (white) girl's family while they vacation on a RV-park.
Tue. Nov 22nd (cont.)
This Charming Girl (South Korea, 2004) import dvd
Jeong-hae is not without charm, but charming is not the first adjective that comes to my mind when attempting a description. She's a 20-something postal worker who lives by herself in Seoul. The first half hour details her daily routine. She functions well occupationally and domestically, but her reticence and solitude hide a traumatic history; a history that is gradually revealed via flashbacks. This Charming Girl is set during a phase in Jeong-hae's life in which her affective needs are forcing her to come out of her emotional prison. This coming-out is evidenced initially by her adopting a stray cat. Jeong-hae eventually gains courage to ask a male customer to dinner, and come to terms with the incident that broke her soul.
Writer/director Yoon-ki Lee keeps the film's emotional temperature at a simmer, which won't be to everyone's liking. I found This Charming Girl quite satisfying as a wounded character study. It's well-acted and the character's development consistently rings true. I do appreciate the patient exposition during the first 30 minutes in order to establish Jeong-hae's present reality, but a 10-minute trim would not result in appreciative losses.
Ten-minute shorts series.
Sounds like some good stuff there.
It's a shame these shorts are only available on import dvd. Here's the official site:Ten Minutes Older
Wed Nov 23rd
Bright Future (Japan, 2003) dvd
Mamoru, a 20-something with a poisonous jellyfish for a pet kills his boss and the wife of his boss for no valid reason. Condemned to death, he asks best buddy Yuji to take care of the jellyfish, which includes acclimating the creature from salinity to freshwater. Yuji and Mamoru's dad become close. Yuji accidentally drops the aquarium. The jellyfish slips through floorboards onto a canal, propagates and becomes a public safety hazard. The fish exit Tokyo's canals onto the ocean as Yuji becomes acquainted with a youth gang.
I find the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse, Charisma) interesting and intriguing. I also admire his distrust of formulas and his restrain with shock effects. So, I'm finding it difficult to write that I didn't like Bright Future. I watched the 75-min making-of feature. Kurosawa states the obvious: he is not interested in character psychology or why his characters behave the way they do. Even the senseless murder of the boss, whose only fault is being a bit meddlesome. We're not supposed to wonder what got Mamoru to that point. The director's assistant states the characters are "incomprehensible" and Kurosawa's direction of his actors appears limited to their "hitting their marks". The intention was to make a picture about "the generational clash" and express it in "physical terms, like in a Robert Aldrich movie". Kurosawa strikes me as lacking ambition. The 50-year old doesn't seem to have much to say about "alienated youth". I did find myself moved by the unlikely relationship that develops between Mamoru's father and Yuji, but it was too little too late for me. Thinking of the jellyfish as a symbol or a metaphor didn't take me far either. The musical score is often inappropriately lilting.
Wed Nov 23rd (cont.)
Rent (USA, 2005) Sunset Place Theatres
Jonathan Larson's musical, inspired by Puccini's La Boheme, won the Pulitzer and the Emmy. It's had a successful 10-year run and been credited with bringing a younger audience into theatres. The film version of this celebration of bohemia, directed by Chris Columbus, lives by the motto "If it's not broke...". Six of the eight celebrated actors who originated the show are back and the two newcomers, Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms, are up to par. I propose there are few who liked the play and don't like the movie, which seems calculated not to upset the play's fans. I like the performances and most of Larson's material so I had a good time watching it with Chelsea. My 15-y.o. rocker-girl "loved it".
I loved it too.
Thu Nov 24th
Shenandoah (USA, 1965) TCM
Farmer Charlie Anderson (James Stewart) is a widower with five sons and a daughter. He's proud of not being a slave owner. He calls himself a Virginian, not a Confederate. He won't lend horses, much less sons, to the Confederate cause. One day, troops from the North take his teen son for a soldier and take him prisoner, forcing the Andersons to get involved in the conflict. Shenandoah is a Hollywood picture with the requisite straining of credibility for entertainment purposes. But it's handsomely mounted, engaging, and Stewart is uh Stewart.
Friday Nov 25th
A Peck on the Cheek (India, 2004) Cosford Cinema
In war-torn Sri Lanka, a pregnant woman evacuates to India where her daughter is born. Nine years later, the girl's middle-class adoptive parents decide to tell her about it. They decide to indulge the mischievious girl's desire to find her birth mother although the trip to Sri Lanka is quite perilous.
Writer/director Mani Ratnam's film is a mixture of war epic, melodrama and musical that's thoroughly entertaining and visually attractive. The overblown emotions and plot contrivances characteristic of big Bollywood productions are also present.
Sat Nov 26th
An Inn in Tokyo (Japan, 1935) import dvd
Yasujiro Ozu's penultimate silent film plays like a precursor to Italian neorealism although Japanese films of this era did not play internationally. Kihachi, abandoned by his wife, roams around looking for work with his two sons in tow. At a communal room where they sleep, he meets a Otaka, a young woman with a sick toddler who's also unemployed. When he finds work through Otsune, a woman friend, Kihachi tries to help Otaka, which makes Otsune jealous.
This heartfelt tale of survival and fellowship indicates Ozu developed his unique style at an early stage of his career. The pace of the storytelling, the acting style, and the camera angles he favored are already evident in An Inn in Tokyo.
Sat Nov 26th (cont)
Porto of my Childhood (Portugal, 2001) Sundance Channel
Manoel de Oliveira explores the city where he has lived his whole life. It's an exploration based on his memories, mostly those from his formative years. The film opens with the filmmaker visiting the ruins of the house where he was born in 1908, and the natural surroundings he calls "the Eden of my priviledged youth". There are re-enactments of cherished memories, including scenes of bohemian and "cafe culture", archival footage of public events, and thematically-appropriate clips from his earliest films (Aniki-Bobo and Hard Work on the River Douro). The soundtrack includes brief commentary, fado songs, and poems by close friends. Porto of my Childhood creates a unique synthesis between fiction and documentary, and its temporal shifts are so graceful. Manoel de Oliveira is one of the world's greatest directors.
What sort of import DVD, if you don't mind?Quote:
An Inn in Tokyo (Japan, 1935) import dvd