Roslindale Monogatari

Le beau plaisir (Michel Brault, Bernard Gosselin & Pierre Perrault, 1968) A little appendix to Perrault's Ile a Coudres trilogy. While the three principal films ( Pour la su ite du monde, Le Règne du jour and Les Voitures d'eau ) were shot in black and white, there must have been a camera with color film on hand from time to time. This shows an abbreviated version of the islanders attempt to snare a beluga whale (for a New York aquarium) using traditional methods. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir01.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir02.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir03.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir04.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir05.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/june_07/plaisir07.png Ba xing bao xi / The Eighth Happiness (Johnnie To, 1988) A bit of enjoyable (Lunar) New Year's tomfoolery -- in...

Harakara / The Village (Yoji Yamada, 1975) In this early Yamada film, Chieko Baisho plays a promoter of a left wing musical theater troupe that puts on their shows in rural communities. Not having a source of government or industrial funding, she (and her colleagues) must persuade local groups to raise the money needed to bring the shows to their communities. To this end, she visits the shy and taciturn leader of the local young workers group (Akira Terao). At first the group is enthusiastic about the project, but they grow worried when they find how hard it is to sell tickets in advance. Like Naruse's Summer Clouds before and Takahata's Only Yesterday afterwards, this also deals with the difficulties young rural men and women face (and the attractiveness of the siren call of city life). Although fictional, presented almost as if it were a "direct cinema" documentary. Too "simple" for sophisticates, I suspect, but I enjoyed this quite a bit. Haruka naru y...

Ima hitotabi no / Once Again (Heinosuke Gosho, 1947) A high-minded, romance between a young doctor and a wealthy young woman (an actress playing Ophelia when seen first), set against the backdrop of the rise of totalitarianism, the war, and the immediate aftermath of the war. The script strikes me as a bit arbitrary -- and we never quite figure out why the poor little rich girl (Mieko Takamine) falls in love with the virtuous plebeian (and a bit stolid) doctor (Ichiro Ryuzaki). Still even a subpar video transfer of this film doesn't entirely mask the fact that this is a very good-looking, well-presented film. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/once_again/ima05.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/once_again/ima02.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/once_again/ima06.png Himeyuri no tô / Tower of Lilies (Tadashi Imai, 1953) The Himeyuri Gakuto (Star Lily Corps) was a group of around 200 high school girls (ranging from 15 to 19 years old) who wer...

Les Voitures d'eau / The River Schooners (Pierre Perrault, 1968) The last installment of Perrault's documentary study of traditional folk life on the Ile au Coudres (an island in the St. Laurence River, north of the city of Quebec). Here he looks at the fading away of a mainstay of the island (and river) economy -- wooden schooners (in the process of being superseded by bigger craft, made of steel). http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners01.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners04.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners09.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners13.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners16.png http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/mkerpan/voitures/schooners17.png Goyangileul butaghae / Take Care of My Cat (JEONG Jae-eun, 2001) The first Korean film I ever saw -- and still probably my favorite. BAE Doo-na heads a wonderful cast...