Poem written by Yasujirō Ozu on the death of his mother in 1962:
Down in the valley it is already spring
Clouds of cherry blossoms;
But here, the sluggish eye, the taste of mackerel -
The blossoms are melancholy
And the flavor of sake becomes bitter.
[Note: 'the taste of mackerel' translates as 'sanma no aji', the Japanese title of An Autumn Afternoon]
'Each must live his own life..' (Toshirō Mifune as Isaburo Sasahara)
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Masaki Kobayashi's remarkable film - my favourite Japanese film of all time - relates the rebellion of one family against the state or, if you like, of one clan against their daimyu/feudal lord. When his one legitimate heir dies, the lord of the Aizu dynasty (Tatsuo Matsumura) demands the return of Lady Ichi, a former concubine (Yōko Tsukasa) to look after the new heir, their illegitimate son. However,…
'What befalls others today, may be your own fate tomorrow..' (Tatsuya Nakadai as Hanshiro Tsugomo)
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Brief Synopsis: A 'ronin' (Nakadai) arrives at a feudal lord's palace and beseeches his deputy (Rentaro Mikuni) to allow him to commit ritual suicide, but not before he relates the story of what brings him there.
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Verdict: It would have been easy enough for director Masaki Kobayashi simply to condemn the code of 'bushido' but he chooses to do so by the very…
5 Reasons why this film is a masterpiece:
1. It's the best film Nicholas Ray ever made; a noir-tinged drama rendered in dark visuals of exhilarating beauty.
2. It showcases probably the greatest performance of Bogie's career as the short-fused screenwriter Dix Steele, a character he imbues with a neurotic edge that is frightening in its intensity.
3. This dialogue: 'I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me'.
4. Gloria Grahame is in it.
5. It just is, OK?!
10 Reasons why I adore Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Bianche:
1. It's the second radical film interpretation of a Fyodor Dostoyevsky story (in this case his short work White Nights) from the '50's, equal in quality to Akira Kurosawa's tremendous version of The Idiot (1951).
2. Despite having a CV littered with such masterpieces as Ossessione, La Terra Trema, Senso, Rocco And His Brothers and The Leopard, none of them contains the romantic longing of this picture.
3. It's entirely…
