Roslindale Monogatari

The Old Fashioned Way (William Beaudine, 1934) Poppy (A. Edward Sutherland, 1936) The new W.C. Fields box a veritable treasure chest. Alas, the only previously unseen film (Poppy) was no gem. Other than some vintage Fieldsian fooling about -- this was a wash-out in terms of dramatic interest, with mostly uninteresting supporting performances. "Old Fashioned Way" -- which I last saw almost 40 years ago -- was another thing entirely. Even better than I remembered. Practically perfect in every way. The kinship with Ozu (noted recently by Dave Kehr) was especially clear here -- as this seemed to owed a debt to Fitzmaurice's "The Barker" just as Ozu's "Story of Floating Weeds" did. On the other hand -- no Ozu lead ever stopped the show in mid-course to engage in a bravura display of inspired juggling. All in good fun. High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941) How can a film with such lovely mountain scenery and good performances by great leads (Bogart and Lupi...

Gan / Wild Geese / The Mistress (Shiro Toyoda, 1953) Not quite the equal of Ozu, Naruse, Mizoguchi -- but well-acted and generally well-made. Hideko Takamine is wonderful (of course) as the deceived heroine. Nagareru / Flowing (Mikio Naruse, 1956) One of Naruse's most wonderful films -- with one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled -- a virtual who's who of Japan's greatest actresses: Isuzu Yamada, Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine, Haruko Sugimura, Mariko Okada and Sumiko Kurishima (among others). More pictures: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru01.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru03.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru04.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru05.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru06.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/nagareru/nagareru07.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/na...

Le temps retrouvé / Time Regained (Raoul Ruiz, 1999) One watching of this is insufficient to follow Proust's protagonist's wanderings through his memories -- but Ruiz's presentation is so lovely that simply floating along the top of the narrative stream is rewarding. There are so many wonderful cast members, it seems unfair to single any out. Some more pictures: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time01.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time02.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time03.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time05.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time06.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time07.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time08.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time09.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/retrouve/time10.png Baak nin hiu gap / Love For All Season...

Snezhnaya koroleva / The Snow Queen (Lev Atamanov, 1957) A lovely adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson story -- marred only by a Disneyesque frame (featuring an not very interesting Jiminy Cricket wannabe). Uses a boldly colored and simple style that would seem to have influenced a number of subsequent animators. More screen shots: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/march_07/snowqueen02.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/march_07/snowqueen03.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/march_07/snowqueen04.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/march_07/snowqueen07.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/march_07/snowqueen05.png Sero hiki no Gôshu / Gauche the Cellist (Isao Takahata, 1982) Takahata's lovely adaptation of a famed Japanese children's story by Kenji Miyazawa (story teller, poet, Buddhist scholar and agronomist). One of the rare films that that portrays the mid 1910s in Japan, it tells the story of a young celli...