Roslindale Monogatari

Nothing seen.

Kazoku / Where Spring Comes Late literally A Family (Yoji Yamada, 1970) This early Yamada film tells the story of a Catholic family from a village near Nagasaki (Kyushu) that moves to Hokkaido. The father of the family (Hisashi Igawa) decides his mining job is a dead end, and decides to join some fellow villagers who have already moved to Japan's far north to establish a farming community. So he, his wife (Chieko Baisho), their toddler, their new baby and Grandpa (Chishu Ryu) set off -- by a variety of ferries and trains (big and small) -- for their new home. Set right at the time the film was made (they spend a bit of time in Osaka gawking at Expo 70, the world's fair then taking place in Japan), large sections of this film look and feel very much like a documentary. The family's trip is long and eventful -- and at one point moves into extreme melodrama. A fascinating glimpse of everyday Japan at the dawn of the 70s, it is not quite as polished as Kokyô / Home from t...

Ce jour-là / That Day (Raoul Ruiz, 2003) Klimt (Raoul Ruiz, 2006) I have no hesitation in categorizing Ce jour-là as a masterpiece. Unique -- but (in part) rather like a mix of Bunuel, Rivette and Durenmatt, this tells the story of a scatty young heiress (Elsa Zylberstein), her greedy family (headed by papa Michel Piccoli), a deranged killer (Bernard Giraudeau) and a couple of seemingly indolent police officials (Jean-Luc Bideau and Christian Vadim). Released from the asylum so he can kill Zylberstein, Giraudeau instead becomes her protector. Often macabre, but very funny. Klimt purportedly tells the story of the noted art nouveau painter (played by John Malkovich). It looks great -- but any resemblances to biographical fact are probably inadvertent. More a fever dream (which it may be) than a coherent narrative. Nikolai Kinski (Klaus's son) steals the show (whenever onscreen) as the young painter Egon Schiele. Hana yori mo naho literally Even More Than Flowers (Hirokaz...

Wasei kenka tomodachi / Fighting Friends, Japanese Style (Yasujiro Ozu, 1929) Tokkan kozo / A Straightforward Boy (Yasujiro Ozu, 1929) Two short, incomplete "nonsense" comedies by Ozu. Both foreshadow future films -- albeit in different ways. The first involves two proletarian friends who fall for the same (homeless) young woman. At first, this disrupts their friendship -- but then when she falls in love with another young neighbor (more handsome and better educated), they work together to ensure her happiness. We will see plot elements and visual motifs from this recur in the great films of the 30s -- most notably in "Passing Fancy". "Tokkan kozo" is a very loose adaptation of O. Henry's "Ransom of Red Chief" -- with a very young Tomio Aoki as the kidnapped child from Hell. Not only does this early film introduce us to Aoki (who would be an Ozu regular for the next eight years), but also to Tatsuo Saito (Ozu's first regular leading ...