1/7/21 (Thurs)
I had a bit of time at the end of the day and picked this 1945 film because it was an early Kurosawa piece (just his fourth film), started at war end under Japanese censorship and completed just after the war under US censorship; it was based on the popular and eminently film-worthy Kabuki classic Kanjincho (itself based on the Noh classic Ataka); and, not least, it was short at just one hour.
12/29/20 (Tues), Tokyo
Silent film helmed by Italian director Augusto Genina. The filming was finished in 1922, but it reportedly took another three years to color it using the innovative but labor-intensive Pathé Stencil Color process. A big plus was the star, Pierre Magnier, who was the understudy in the original production back in 1897. After seeing Cyrano, My Love and Mifune Toshiro’s samurai adaptation in recent weeks, Cyrano was on my mind, so this was perfect timing. It was presented by a benshi narrator, Sawato Midori, who improvised dialogue and other developments throughout, and musicalized by a lovely four-piece orchestra (piano, cello, flute, percussion).
Cyrano is an interesting choice for the silent treatment given its talkative title character and gorgeous verse. The entire central conflict revolves around a young handsome soldier’s inability to express himself to a beautiful woman, prompting Cyrano to step in and speak in his place. I was interested to see how that would be handled. The answer is: not very well. Continue reading
12/15/20 (Tues)
Finally a screwball comedy that doesn’t depend on impossible plot twists or unnaturally eccentric characters. Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 film offers a straightforward story delivered in exceptionally high style, including a fabulously quotable script and totally believable three-dimensional characters. It’s the closest I’ve seen an American show come to British drawing room comedy, albeit written by an American, Samson Raphaelson, based on a Hungarian play. It benefits from supremely confident performances by the three main performers, especially the unflappable Herbert Marshall as the sleekest of crooks, along with wonderful supporting character actors. The romantic settings of Venice and Paris, the social world of the high life – or low life pretending to be high life – and particularly the champagne banter are pretty near perfect. This is operetta in prose.
12/14/20 (Mon)
Leo McCarey’s 1937 screwball comedy classic. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant play a glamorous bickering couple who, each doubting the other’s fidelity, agree to a divorce, only to discover during the 60-day waiting period that they need each other after all.
The plot is dubious but is only there anyway as a framework for some fun characters and crackling dialogue in what amounts to an American restoration comedy. Continue reading
12/13/20 (Sun)
Inagaki Hiroshi’s 1959 adaptation of Cyrano as a Japanese period flick, also known less literally as Samurai Saga (though neither is a particularly good title). I learned about this after seeing the previous day’s Cyrano, My Love, and while I wasn’t wild about Inagaki’s Rickshaw Man, the idea of Mifune Toshiro as Cyrano – not too far in spirit from his roles in Yojimbo and Sanjuro – was too perfect to pass up.
12/12/20 (Sat), Tokyo
A fanciful story of how Edmond Rostand came up with the idea of his blockbuster hit Cyrano de Bergerac back in 1897. With only three weeks to write the script, he draws inspiration from his own life to craft the show: he helps his handsome but inarticulate friend write love letters to a beautiful woman – ding! A black restaurant proprietor lashes out at a patron for being too timid and unoriginal in his “black” insults, offering him some more intelligent offerings before throwing him out – ding! The process is slow but steady, going from one disaster to another – e.g. the gangster’s insistence on using a hard-to-handle actress, the star’s bumbling son in a key role, the threatened closure of the show, the female lead’s sudden incapacity on opening night – until the historic triumph with 40 curtain calls lasting an hour (that part appears to be true).
7/12/20 (Sun)
Jarman’s disjointed 1986 look at the tempestuous life of the revolutionary painter. Told in flashback as the painter is dying in exile, more or less in chronological order. Just enough is known about Caravaggio to create a broad framework while leaving details to the filmmaker’s fertile imagination. The painter notoriously employed street people, drunks and lower classes as his models for saints and religious paintings, and the film offers numerous tableaux where models are posing for famous paintings. He was not above selling his talents for money, but still maintained his striking lighting techniques and homoerotic subjects (the only examples shown here – where are the religious works?), which others are willing to overlook in recognition of his sheer talent. The painter’s sexual proclivities are all over the map: he hires a beautiful male model clearly with more than just drawing in mind, but when the model’s girlfriend comes along, he happily beds her as well, setting up a dramatic conflict.
12/12/20 (Fri)
A 1964 film by Naruse, surprisingly still filming in black-and-white. A country woman Reiko (Takamine Hideko) lost her husband in the war after only six months of marriage, and their small Tokyo shop was destroyed by wartime bombing. In the 18 years since, she has effectively single-handedly rebuilt the store to even greater prosperity while continuing to live with her mother-in-law. Continue reading
12/4/20 (Fri)
Naruse’s 1954 adaptation of several short stories by Hayashi Fumiko about former geisha trying to make their way in the postwar world. Continue reading
11/17/20 (Tues)
Sentimental slop. The 1943 original was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival a few weeks ago, piquing my interest. The one available online was a popular color remake by the same director, Hiroshi Inagaki, starring Mifune Toshiro and Takamine Hideko. Continue reading
10/19/20 (Mon), Tokyo
The Press Club was holding a special screening of this 2019 film in honor of this month’s Tokyo International Film Festival, where director Fukada Koji’s works will be spotlighted. The movie was co-produced by a French company and was apparently a big hit in France, where art films are more appreciated. Its appeal elsewhere, including Japan, has been more limited. Continue reading
6/25/20 (Thurs)
Lincoln Center’s wonderful 2014 retelling of Moss Hart’s classic autobiography. I had missed this show back in the day and, as a huge fan of the book, had this broadcast marked in my calendar as soon as I heard about it. Continue reading
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