The Makioka Sisters (Ichikawa’s version)
Cousin Cousine (not the remake, the original with Victor Lanoux and Marie-Christine Barrault)
Oharu (Mizoguchi)
I found the music on the Silent Ozu set really distracting – so I watch them without it, and get more out of them. I found it created a sort of American comic mood, that didn’t really fit.
I agree with a lot of the titles people have posted above. I really enjoy the Griffith one and two reelers – if you can, check out Sunbeam (on the Kino set), Inez Seabury is adorable (she’s about five years old at the time), The Unchanging Sea (Pickford’s first leading role for Griffith), The New York Hat; the list goes on. I think that if I was programming a silent film series I would put an evening of his shorts together.
I also enjoyed The Patsy, with Marion Davies – she was a very talented comic actress, and she does some wonderful impressions of some of the leading actresses of the day.
Another one I recommend is Olive Thomas in The Flapper – on The Olive Thomas Story (Milestone).
I would like to add, with respect to Tokyo Story, how influential it is. Doris Dorie’s latest film, Cherry Blossoms (Hanami) is clearly (and she acknowledges this) influenced, inspired even, by Tokyo Story, but very much the story of the next generation, and a beautiful, compassionate film. I think Kore-eda’s Still Walking is also influenced by it. Tokyo Story is like a jazz standard, that the following generations’ talented artists visit and build on with their own voices. Ozu is one of the three ‘angels’ Wenders dedicated Wings of Desire to; and then there’s Cafe Lumiere, a beautiful story. It’s a core film.
Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners, Wilbur (wants to kill himself))
Jan Dunn (Gypo)
Sandra Nettelbeck (Mostly Martha)
Sarah Polley (Away From Her)
Doris Dorrie (How to Cook Your Life; Cherry Blossoms)
So Yong Kim (In Between Days)
Alice Wu (Saving Face)
Nadine Labaki (Caramel)
What’s a guy with a Japanese name doing being born in Swansea? Or is it an alias. I’m from Liverpool, but my mother was from Burry Port and my dad from Ammanford. Have you seen Calon Gaeth (Small Country), 2006, shot in Wales with most of the dialogue in Welsh? Made me embarrassed to be Welsh, it was so bad. To think there was criticism because whoever is responsible for nominations refused to put it forward for the Oscar for best foreign language film. I would add The Corn is Green to the list (I’ve seen the Bette Davis version, not the Katherine Hepburn), and the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor Under Milk Wood (my second cousin Ryan Davies is the second voice). I agree with your appraisal of Twin Town, really bad, but Myfanwy at the end made me laugh till I cried.
I wondered about the Mizoguchi connection; I’m a huge fan of his too, and Japanese cinema generally. I live in Vancouver where we just had a fabulous Oshima retrospective.
My favourite Welsh song is Ar Hyd y Nos, I remember my mother once singing me a rather ribald version of it, and translating it into English, “hell of a man was John Llewellyn, all through the night” – I can’t remember how to spell the Welsh original. I remember how shocked I was that my mother would even know about such things, let alone sing a song like that in my presence.
Now that I’m thinking of it, would “Only Two Can Play” qualify as a Welsh contribution to cinema – thinking of Dylan Thomas reminded me of it, for some reason. I think it’s supposed to be set in Swansea.
What I would give you, if I could, were not
these, though in themselves
good things and right
enough in their own space.
They cement us to our
histories in ways too subtly
convolute; we overlook
the absence of more
elemental bindings.
If such there be;
and if I could
I would give you a
western window and some
high wide late expanse
of sky; night coming
and the stars
and no fear, ever.
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on—on—and out of sight.
Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away . . . O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
Kenji-san; yes, I think I have heard Eli Jenkins Prayer sung by a male voice choir, although I have a vague feeling I didn’t like it much. But I was going to say that my favourite Dylan Thomas poem is ‘Fern Hill’, and you have already posted it. I also love Mandelstam. One of my favourite movies is Bridges of Madison County (being a hopeless romantic) and this is the poem (by Byron) that Robert included in his legacy for Francesca:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Real Time, an independent Canadian movie made in 2008 by Randall Cole, now out on Region 1 DVD. Jay Baruchel and Randy Quaid. So why do I recommend? I saw it at the Vancouver Film Festival last October, one of fifty I saw, I went because I had an empty slot, it wasn’t on my “must see” list. I have to say it was probably the film that moved me the most – and I saw all sorts of incredible movies in those two weeks. Baruchel plays Andy, a loser who’s into the loan sharks badly (gambling problem) and Quaid is Reuben, who has been given the job of whacking him. He decides to give him three hours or so to meditate on what’s coming, and to do something he really wants to do, one last time. There follows a funny, moving, and very well written, directed and acted movie, I think, where you really connect with this chump in his late 20’s (probably), and you feel compassion for him. Quaid is also quite brilliant. It really stayed with me. I don’t understand why the Globe and Mail reviewer only gave it 2 (out of 4) stars, but then the same chump gave WALL-E four, on the strength of which I went to see it (and had trouble staying till the end). So, that’s my recommendation. Atom Egoyan’s latest, Adoration, is also superb.
I’ve only seen Man Push Cart and it stayed with a long time (with me still, I should say). I’m anxious to see his others. There was a fascinating, long article in the New York Times a few weeks ago, on “Neo-Neo-Realism”, and Bahrani is one of the filmmakers discussed; the article contains extracts from an interview with him. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/magazine/22neorealism-t.html?_r=1&ref=movies
I’m with you, Kenji-san. But a quibble – I think Yumiko is from Osaka, not Tokyo, before she moves to Noto. I think it should be shared with as many people as possible. Here are some of my thoughts, which I wrote for a local Japanese/Canadian newsletter.
Kore-eda started out making TV documentaries, and won several awards for films such as “However …”, which dealt with the suicide of a senior government official who was responsible for the welfare of victims of Minimata disease (mercury poisoning). While he was working on this project he was struck by the grief of the man’s widow, and that was one of the experiences that led him to make his first feature film, Maborosi, (Japanese title is “Maboroshi no Hikari” (幻の光, literally “phantasmic light”). It stars Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano and Takashi Naitō and is based on a novel by Teru Miyamoto. Maborosi is a film about grief, and about healing from that grief. The story is told in a simple, understated manner that has been compared to Ozu and the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Kore-eda has also made a documentary about him and Edward Yang). It is set in Osaka and the Noto peninsula. The main character in the movie is Yumiko, played by Makiko Esumi, and we follow her through happiness and heartbreak and back to happiness, and to peace. We also see how her family and friends and neighbours, through simple kindness and friendship, help her in this journey. There are some delightful characters and moments in the movie, for instance, Tomeno, the old woman who makes a living from fishing, who is ‘immortal’, and the two children in the movie.
There is no dramatic action, no special effects, Kore-eda seems to use natural light mostly, he stays away from close ups and fast cutting from shot to shot (quite common in modern movies). The movie is slow, and you can savour it. It ends in real tranquility. It has been described as ‘contemplative’ or ‘serene’. It is one of the most beautiful movies I know.
I have the Region 1 DVD; I’ve never seen it in a theatre, and I suspect the transfer was not particularly good. But it has one of my all time favourite endings. It is a miracle of film-making.
In a way, together with After Life and Nobody Knows, Kore-eda peaked early. He is moving more towards the mainstream now. Hana is a delightful Samurai film, however, with a very funny take on the 47 Ronin as a sub-plot. Still Walking is also very powerful. You (from Nobody Knows) is in it, and is really good.
I just saw Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; I really related to Jeanne – the routine (even though I am not a 40 something housewife and widow in Brussels, I am a soon to be 59 year old married male with a job in Western Canada and amazing grandchildren) – as I was saying, the routine of every day the same, get up, put the kettle on, make coffee, take my vitamins, eat my breakfast, get dressed, go to to work, be friendly with the neighbours …, I honestly sat in the theatre thinking, that’s me, that’s me. It made me laugh, and I don’t think its supposed to be a comedy. Then she goes mental at the end, which, I must say, I sometimes feel like doing, but never have and hopefully never will. I don’t do sex work on the side, either. I’ve never really experienced that before; lots of times I’ve wished I could be the person on the screen, but that wasn’t the question, right?
On Fireman’s Ball, I saw it for the first time not long after spending a year in the Soviet Union (1970-71) as a student; it totally floored me – especially the shot near the end of the old man sitting on the chair while his house burns down and the fire brigade is incapable of putting it out. A very powerful satire of corrupt, totalitarian communism, obvious after having just lived there. That’s one of those shots I’ll never forget. I’ve seen it again, more recently, and it doesn’t have the same impact – I think it’s very much of its time, and of its place. Forman had to get out of Czechoslovakia after making it, it was too dangerous for him to stay there. Of his films made in Czechoslovakia (I’ve seen them all, even his student effort, Audition) I like Loves of a Blonde the most; but Taking Off is my favourite of his.
I try to see as many Czech films as I can. One I really enjoyed in the last couple of years, from the New Wave era, was Cassandra Cat, by Jasny. More recently I’ve really liked Empties, by the same father/son team who did Kolya (which I thought a bit on the sentimental side).
The Fifth Horseman is Fear is also a very thoughtful Holocaust era film. The focus of the film is the moral and psychological quandary the main character finds himself in, and it is contrasted to the way the other occupants of the building he lives in cope with life under the Nazis. It is much more detached and analytical than Shop on Main Street.
There’s a legendary video store in Vancouver, Videomatica, which also has a mail order service which is available throughout Canada, videomatica.ca. I find it to be quite fabulous. Although zip.ca probably has more titles (certainly from the silent era) I find the videomatica website really much more usable. The owners of Videomatica are legendary in the Greater Vancouver film community, supporting the film festival, the Pacific Cinematheque, and local filmmakers. I’m a subscriber, that’s the extent of my connection.
Movies That Should Be In the Criterion Collection over 3 years ago
The Makioka Sisters (Ichikawa’s version)
Cousin Cousine (not the remake, the original with Victor Lanoux and Marie-Christine Barrault)
Oharu (Mizoguchi)
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WHO IS / WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM ACTRESS EVER? about 3 years ago
Ingrid Bergman. All woman.
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FAVORITE SILENT FILMS/DIRECTORS about 3 years ago
I found the music on the Silent Ozu set really distracting – so I watch them without it, and get more out of them. I found it created a sort of American comic mood, that didn’t really fit.
I agree with a lot of the titles people have posted above. I really enjoy the Griffith one and two reelers – if you can, check out Sunbeam (on the Kino set), Inez Seabury is adorable (she’s about five years old at the time), The Unchanging Sea (Pickford’s first leading role for Griffith), The New York Hat; the list goes on. I think that if I was programming a silent film series I would put an evening of his shorts together.
I also enjoyed The Patsy, with Marion Davies – she was a very talented comic actress, and she does some wonderful impressions of some of the leading actresses of the day.
Another one I recommend is Olive Thomas in The Flapper – on The Olive Thomas Story (Milestone).
John Ford’s silents are also superb.
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Thoughts on Tokyo Story? about 3 years ago
I would like to add, with respect to Tokyo Story, how influential it is. Doris Dorie’s latest film, Cherry Blossoms (Hanami) is clearly (and she acknowledges this) influenced, inspired even, by Tokyo Story, but very much the story of the next generation, and a beautiful, compassionate film. I think Kore-eda’s Still Walking is also influenced by it. Tokyo Story is like a jazz standard, that the following generations’ talented artists visit and build on with their own voices. Ozu is one of the three ‘angels’ Wenders dedicated Wings of Desire to; and then there’s Cafe Lumiere, a beautiful story. It’s a core film.
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What underappreciated filmmaker deserves an eclipse release? about 3 years ago
Alain Tanner
Agree on Edward Yang
Also agree on Jack Claytong
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FEMALE DIRECTORS about 3 years ago
Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners, Wilbur (wants to kill himself))
Jan Dunn (Gypo)
Sandra Nettelbeck (Mostly Martha)
Sarah Polley (Away From Her)
Doris Dorrie (How to Cook Your Life; Cherry Blossoms)
So Yong Kim (In Between Days)
Alice Wu (Saving Face)
Nadine Labaki (Caramel)
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Wales and cinema about 3 years ago
What’s a guy with a Japanese name doing being born in Swansea? Or is it an alias. I’m from Liverpool, but my mother was from Burry Port and my dad from Ammanford. Have you seen Calon Gaeth (Small Country), 2006, shot in Wales with most of the dialogue in Welsh? Made me embarrassed to be Welsh, it was so bad. To think there was criticism because whoever is responsible for nominations refused to put it forward for the Oscar for best foreign language film. I would add The Corn is Green to the list (I’ve seen the Bette Davis version, not the Katherine Hepburn), and the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor Under Milk Wood (my second cousin Ryan Davies is the second voice). I agree with your appraisal of Twin Town, really bad, but Myfanwy at the end made me laugh till I cried.
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Wales and cinema about 3 years ago
I wondered about the Mizoguchi connection; I’m a huge fan of his too, and Japanese cinema generally. I live in Vancouver where we just had a fabulous Oshima retrospective.
My favourite Welsh song is Ar Hyd y Nos, I remember my mother once singing me a rather ribald version of it, and translating it into English, “hell of a man was John Llewellyn, all through the night” – I can’t remember how to spell the Welsh original. I remember how shocked I was that my mother would even know about such things, let alone sing a song like that in my presence.
Now that I’m thinking of it, would “Only Two Can Play” qualify as a Welsh contribution to cinema – thinking of Dylan Thomas reminded me of it, for some reason. I think it’s supposed to be set in Swansea.
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Our Favourite Poems- for a site anthology about 3 years ago
What I Would Give You (Jan Zwicky)
What I would give you, if I could, were not
these, though in themselves
good things and right
enough in their own space.
They cement us to our
histories in ways too subtly
convolute; we overlook
the absence of more
elemental bindings.
If such there be;
and if I could
I would give you a
western window and some
high wide late expanse
of sky; night coming
and the stars
and no fear, ever.
Go to Comment
Our Favourite Poems- for a site anthology about 3 years ago
Everyone Sang
Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on—on—and out of sight.
Everyone’s voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away . . . O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
April 1919
Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)
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Our Favourite Poems- for a site anthology about 3 years ago
Every morning when I wake,
Dear Lord a little prayer I make,
O please to keep Thy lovely eye
On all poor creatures born to die.
And every evening at sun-down
I ask a blessing on the town,
For whether we last the night or no
I’m sure is always touch-and-go.
We are not wholly bad or good
Who live our lives under Milk Wood,
And Thou, I know, wilt be the first
To see our best side, not our worst.
O let us see another day!
Bless us all this night, I pray,
And to the sun we all will bow
And say, good-bye – but just for now!
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Our Favourite Poems- for a site anthology about 3 years ago
Kenji-san; yes, I think I have heard Eli Jenkins Prayer sung by a male voice choir, although I have a vague feeling I didn’t like it much. But I was going to say that my favourite Dylan Thomas poem is ‘Fern Hill’, and you have already posted it. I also love Mandelstam. One of my favourite movies is Bridges of Madison County (being a hopeless romantic) and this is the poem (by Byron) that Robert included in his legacy for Francesca:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Go to Comment
Recommend a Movie about 3 years ago
Real Time, an independent Canadian movie made in 2008 by Randall Cole, now out on Region 1 DVD. Jay Baruchel and Randy Quaid. So why do I recommend? I saw it at the Vancouver Film Festival last October, one of fifty I saw, I went because I had an empty slot, it wasn’t on my “must see” list. I have to say it was probably the film that moved me the most – and I saw all sorts of incredible movies in those two weeks. Baruchel plays Andy, a loser who’s into the loan sharks badly (gambling problem) and Quaid is Reuben, who has been given the job of whacking him. He decides to give him three hours or so to meditate on what’s coming, and to do something he really wants to do, one last time. There follows a funny, moving, and very well written, directed and acted movie, I think, where you really connect with this chump in his late 20’s (probably), and you feel compassion for him. Quaid is also quite brilliant. It really stayed with me. I don’t understand why the Globe and Mail reviewer only gave it 2 (out of 4) stars, but then the same chump gave WALL-E four, on the strength of which I went to see it (and had trouble staying till the end). So, that’s my recommendation. Atom Egoyan’s latest, Adoration, is also superb.
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Films about Voyeurism? about 3 years ago
Death in Venice
Nina’s Tragedies
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WILDER about 3 years ago
Witness for the Prosecution is an excellent movie, late in Wilder’s career, with Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester all brilliant
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Ramin Bahrani about 3 years ago
I’ve only seen Man Push Cart and it stayed with a long time (with me still, I should say). I’m anxious to see his others. There was a fascinating, long article in the New York Times a few weeks ago, on “Neo-Neo-Realism”, and Bahrani is one of the filmmakers discussed; the article contains extracts from an interview with him. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/magazine/22neorealism-t.html?_r=1&ref=movies
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Maborosi about 3 years ago
I’m with you, Kenji-san. But a quibble – I think Yumiko is from Osaka, not Tokyo, before she moves to Noto. I think it should be shared with as many people as possible. Here are some of my thoughts, which I wrote for a local Japanese/Canadian newsletter.
Kore-eda started out making TV documentaries, and won several awards for films such as “However …”, which dealt with the suicide of a senior government official who was responsible for the welfare of victims of Minimata disease (mercury poisoning). While he was working on this project he was struck by the grief of the man’s widow, and that was one of the experiences that led him to make his first feature film, Maborosi, (Japanese title is “Maboroshi no Hikari” (幻の光, literally “phantasmic light”). It stars Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano and Takashi Naitō and is based on a novel by Teru Miyamoto. Maborosi is a film about grief, and about healing from that grief. The story is told in a simple, understated manner that has been compared to Ozu and the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Kore-eda has also made a documentary about him and Edward Yang). It is set in Osaka and the Noto peninsula. The main character in the movie is Yumiko, played by Makiko Esumi, and we follow her through happiness and heartbreak and back to happiness, and to peace. We also see how her family and friends and neighbours, through simple kindness and friendship, help her in this journey. There are some delightful characters and moments in the movie, for instance, Tomeno, the old woman who makes a living from fishing, who is ‘immortal’, and the two children in the movie.
There is no dramatic action, no special effects, Kore-eda seems to use natural light mostly, he stays away from close ups and fast cutting from shot to shot (quite common in modern movies). The movie is slow, and you can savour it. It ends in real tranquility. It has been described as ‘contemplative’ or ‘serene’. It is one of the most beautiful movies I know.
I have the Region 1 DVD; I’ve never seen it in a theatre, and I suspect the transfer was not particularly good. But it has one of my all time favourite endings. It is a miracle of film-making.
In a way, together with After Life and Nobody Knows, Kore-eda peaked early. He is moving more towards the mainstream now. Hana is a delightful Samurai film, however, with a very funny take on the 47 Ronin as a sub-plot. Still Walking is also very powerful. You (from Nobody Knows) is in it, and is really good.
Welcome back, boyo.
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"That's me on film!" about 3 years ago
I just saw Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; I really related to Jeanne – the routine (even though I am not a 40 something housewife and widow in Brussels, I am a soon to be 59 year old married male with a job in Western Canada and amazing grandchildren) – as I was saying, the routine of every day the same, get up, put the kettle on, make coffee, take my vitamins, eat my breakfast, get dressed, go to to work, be friendly with the neighbours …, I honestly sat in the theatre thinking, that’s me, that’s me. It made me laugh, and I don’t think its supposed to be a comedy. Then she goes mental at the end, which, I must say, I sometimes feel like doing, but never have and hopefully never will. I don’t do sex work on the side, either. I’ve never really experienced that before; lots of times I’ve wished I could be the person on the screen, but that wasn’t the question, right?
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Czech/Slovak films about 3 years ago
On Fireman’s Ball, I saw it for the first time not long after spending a year in the Soviet Union (1970-71) as a student; it totally floored me – especially the shot near the end of the old man sitting on the chair while his house burns down and the fire brigade is incapable of putting it out. A very powerful satire of corrupt, totalitarian communism, obvious after having just lived there. That’s one of those shots I’ll never forget. I’ve seen it again, more recently, and it doesn’t have the same impact – I think it’s very much of its time, and of its place. Forman had to get out of Czechoslovakia after making it, it was too dangerous for him to stay there. Of his films made in Czechoslovakia (I’ve seen them all, even his student effort, Audition) I like Loves of a Blonde the most; but Taking Off is my favourite of his.
I try to see as many Czech films as I can. One I really enjoyed in the last couple of years, from the New Wave era, was Cassandra Cat, by Jasny. More recently I’ve really liked Empties, by the same father/son team who did Kolya (which I thought a bit on the sentimental side).
The Fifth Horseman is Fear is also a very thoughtful Holocaust era film. The focus of the film is the moral and psychological quandary the main character finds himself in, and it is contrasted to the way the other occupants of the building he lives in cope with life under the Nazis. It is much more detached and analytical than Shop on Main Street.
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netflix/downloading/local video store about 3 years ago
There’s a legendary video store in Vancouver, Videomatica, which also has a mail order service which is available throughout Canada, videomatica.ca. I find it to be quite fabulous. Although zip.ca probably has more titles (certainly from the silent era) I find the videomatica website really much more usable. The owners of Videomatica are legendary in the Greater Vancouver film community, supporting the film festival, the Pacific Cinematheque, and local filmmakers. I’m a subscriber, that’s the extent of my connection.
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VIFF - Vancouver International Film Festival over 2 years ago
Johnny Ray Huston (from San Francisco); Ikeda Hiroyuki (Japan); Noel Vera (Philippines)
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