The Final Stage of Ozu: ‘Tokyo Story’ & ‘Floating Weeds’
Only the best can evoke the cycle of life and all its intricacies and broadness through a concentrated story of a single family. Yasujirō Ozu is one of the best, and Tokyo Story (1953) is maybe the greatest example in cinema of such a story, one of a relatively small number I’d argue should be rewatched.
Two by Ozu: ‘The Only Son’ & ‘There Was a Father’
To pretend to truly comprehend life in post-WWI Japan as a 21st Century white guy would be shameful, but even with a little bit of preparatory research for nominal context, The Only Son (1936) is a miraculously compassionate and quietly devastating snapshot of an era and culture for the societal majority, themes which no other Japanese filmmaker — perhaps no other global filmmaker — cased better or more touchingly than Yasujirō Ozu. His work is always entrancing for its craftsmanship and precision and for its emotional gravity and tenderness, and The Only Son is a prime example.
Two by Bresson: ‘Lancelot of the Lake’ & ‘A Gentle Woman’
Stories are never equal to reality, and legends are the furthest from it of all stories. The legend of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest to find the Holy Grail (collectively referred to as the Matter of Britain) is one of history’s most appealing and enduring stories. Alas, storytellers embrace its heroism, its romance, its magic — because it’s a tale that invites an audience’s imagination and admiration.
Robert Bresson’s ‘The Devil, Probably’
Like A Gentle Woman (1969), The Devil, Probably (1977) opens on (two contradictory reports of) the main character’s suicide, then jumps backward in time. At the 4-minute mark, at a gathering of students (which through context we can infer are an analog to “68ers”), a guy says into the mic, “I proclaim destruction. Everyone can destroy. It’s easy.” Sure enough, the next shots are of polluting smokestacks and dead trees.