Tuesday, March 29, 2005
RETROSPECTIVE ON A RETROSPECTIVE
From January through March, the Siskel Center presented a retrospective of the films of the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. I meant to start this blog earlier and write about those films soon after I saw then, but sloth got the better of me. So, what I want to do now is make several quick notes about each of the films that I saw and what I remember about them. I'm curious to see how well I remember the films and if I have anything interesting to say about them.
Late Spring (1949) - The first one that I saw. This one had a pretty typical Ozu plot about a widowed father encouraging\tricking his daughter into marrying. Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara played the leads. What was not typical about the film was its intense, claustrophobic tone. The daughter's feelings for her father are so overwhelming that they border upon incestous at times. When they attend a puppet show together, the daughter looks absolutely shocked and horrified when her father pretends to show interest in another woman. A truly disturbing moment. I wonder if Ozu really meant for the film to be this upsetting or if he lost control of the tone a little bit.
I Was Born, But... (1932) - A silent. I really liked this one a lot. It's mostly about two young brothers and the comical trouble they get into in and after school, but the film turns more serious in its final half hour, as the boys discover that their father is not quite the man they think he is. I know it sounds cliched, but this film really made me think there is a universality to human experience. The misadventures of the boys reminded me of the similarly rambunctious beahvior of my childhood, and the moment when they learn that their father is not a hero, but a flawed and conflicted man, artfully dramatizes a painful moment with which most of us identify.
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) - Another favorite of mine. This was about a very average businessman whose wife believes that she deserves a better, more sophisticated husband. She treats him with greater and greater contempt, while he patiently waits her out. Only at the end of the film, when he is suddenly sent away on business, does she realize how much she loves him. Miraculously, she is given a second chance to express her feelings for him.
Equinox Flower (1958) - First of all, is that the best they could do with the title? It sounds like a Celestial Seasonings tea. I don't remember this one very well. It had a marry-off-the-daughter plot, but I thought it dragged on too long. Ozu's first color film.
Floating Weeds (1959) - I had already seen this film twice on DVD in the previous year, so why I decided to go see it again, I don't know. I still had a good time though, as it is visually dazzling. It concerns the leader of a troupe of travelling actors, who fathered a child in a seaside town many years ago. He returns to the town to see his grown son for the first time. Complications ensue.
Late Autumn (1960) - I have no memory of this film. Hmmm. Turning to the program guide, it says, "This exquisite balance of lightness and shade centers on the efforts of three middle-aged men to make a match for an attractive widow." Uh, okay. It's coming back a little bit. I didn't like this one that much, I thought Ozu overly indulged the broad humor with the matchmakers.
The Only Son (1936) - I thought this was great film. It concerns a mother who saves every penny from her menial job in a textile factory (?) to send her son to good schools. She visits him years later in Tokyo and finds surprise and disappointment. One of things that I liked about this film was that Ozu actually moves the camera once in a while. I wonder if his aversion to moving the camera contributed to the occasional sense of stiffness in the actors I perceived in his later films. Is it more difficult to deliver your lines right into the camera eye? Is it easier to deliver them to another actor as the camera moves around you? In any case, the actors in The Only Son appeared more relaxed and naturalistic than in some of the other films.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - Ozu's final film and the last film in the retrospective. I almost didn't make it, but I'm glad I did. I felt a real sense of completeness being there at the last showing. One of the reasons that I felt this way was that I noticed some developments in An Autmun Afternoon that had only been hinted at in the other films. This is the Ozu film that most completely confronts modern Japan. The women are much more assertive than in earlier films, more Englsih words make their way into the dialogue, and Chishu Ryu reminisces with old war buddies about what it might have been like if Japan had won the war. Very intersting. All this stuff is tied in to another marrying-off-the-daughter plot, but it felt like Ozu had more that he wanted to say with this one than some of the others.
Well, that's the extent of my recollection. I think I did alright. You might notice that I didn't mention seeing Tokyo Story, one of the greatest films ever made. I didn't see it because I have it on DVD and watch it every few months. ¶ 7:58 AM
Late Spring (1949) - The first one that I saw. This one had a pretty typical Ozu plot about a widowed father encouraging\tricking his daughter into marrying. Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara played the leads. What was not typical about the film was its intense, claustrophobic tone. The daughter's feelings for her father are so overwhelming that they border upon incestous at times. When they attend a puppet show together, the daughter looks absolutely shocked and horrified when her father pretends to show interest in another woman. A truly disturbing moment. I wonder if Ozu really meant for the film to be this upsetting or if he lost control of the tone a little bit.
I Was Born, But... (1932) - A silent. I really liked this one a lot. It's mostly about two young brothers and the comical trouble they get into in and after school, but the film turns more serious in its final half hour, as the boys discover that their father is not quite the man they think he is. I know it sounds cliched, but this film really made me think there is a universality to human experience. The misadventures of the boys reminded me of the similarly rambunctious beahvior of my childhood, and the moment when they learn that their father is not a hero, but a flawed and conflicted man, artfully dramatizes a painful moment with which most of us identify.
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) - Another favorite of mine. This was about a very average businessman whose wife believes that she deserves a better, more sophisticated husband. She treats him with greater and greater contempt, while he patiently waits her out. Only at the end of the film, when he is suddenly sent away on business, does she realize how much she loves him. Miraculously, she is given a second chance to express her feelings for him.
Equinox Flower (1958) - First of all, is that the best they could do with the title? It sounds like a Celestial Seasonings tea. I don't remember this one very well. It had a marry-off-the-daughter plot, but I thought it dragged on too long. Ozu's first color film.
Floating Weeds (1959) - I had already seen this film twice on DVD in the previous year, so why I decided to go see it again, I don't know. I still had a good time though, as it is visually dazzling. It concerns the leader of a troupe of travelling actors, who fathered a child in a seaside town many years ago. He returns to the town to see his grown son for the first time. Complications ensue.
Late Autumn (1960) - I have no memory of this film. Hmmm. Turning to the program guide, it says, "This exquisite balance of lightness and shade centers on the efforts of three middle-aged men to make a match for an attractive widow." Uh, okay. It's coming back a little bit. I didn't like this one that much, I thought Ozu overly indulged the broad humor with the matchmakers.
The Only Son (1936) - I thought this was great film. It concerns a mother who saves every penny from her menial job in a textile factory (?) to send her son to good schools. She visits him years later in Tokyo and finds surprise and disappointment. One of things that I liked about this film was that Ozu actually moves the camera once in a while. I wonder if his aversion to moving the camera contributed to the occasional sense of stiffness in the actors I perceived in his later films. Is it more difficult to deliver your lines right into the camera eye? Is it easier to deliver them to another actor as the camera moves around you? In any case, the actors in The Only Son appeared more relaxed and naturalistic than in some of the other films.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - Ozu's final film and the last film in the retrospective. I almost didn't make it, but I'm glad I did. I felt a real sense of completeness being there at the last showing. One of the reasons that I felt this way was that I noticed some developments in An Autmun Afternoon that had only been hinted at in the other films. This is the Ozu film that most completely confronts modern Japan. The women are much more assertive than in earlier films, more Englsih words make their way into the dialogue, and Chishu Ryu reminisces with old war buddies about what it might have been like if Japan had won the war. Very intersting. All this stuff is tied in to another marrying-off-the-daughter plot, but it felt like Ozu had more that he wanted to say with this one than some of the others.
Well, that's the extent of my recollection. I think I did alright. You might notice that I didn't mention seeing Tokyo Story, one of the greatest films ever made. I didn't see it because I have it on DVD and watch it every few months. ¶ 7:58 AM
