Roslindale Monogatari

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (F.W. Murnau, 1922) The old Kino DVD of this film actually looked quite good (far better than older versions I had seen) but, though it had two musical scores, neither struck me as satisfactory. The new Kino DVD looks better -- and, perhaps more important, sounds vastly better, thanks to the reconstructed, newly recorded, original (1922) score of Hans Erdmann. This version of Nosferatu , or its British cousin (from Masters of Cinema), is an indispensable one for fans of Murnau and of "silent" cinema in general. This is one of my favorite silent films (and one of my two favorite Murnau films, along with Last Laugh ). The cinematography by Fritz Arno Wagner is, to my mind, unsurpassable. While the acting style is florid here, it certainly suits this material. So much has been written about this film that any brief comments I can offer are essentially superfluous, however. More important by far are scre...

Suna no utsuwa / Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Seicho Matsumoto, 1961) Suna no utsuwa / The Castle of Sand (Yoshitaro Nomura, 1974) The title of both book (1961) and movie (1974) is literally translated as "bowl made of sand", the notion being something created with great care that is extremely transient in nature. Matsumoto , the author of the book on which many of Nomura's films were based (including this one) is generally considered one of the greatest Japanese writers of mysteries and crime fiction. Despite his domestic fame, very little of his work (other than Suna no utsuwa is available in English. Both book and film deal with the same basic plot framework. A man is killed at the Kamata rail yard -- and police are not only unable to find the killer but even to identify the victim. Inspector Imanishi and a junior colleague Yoshimura make up two members of the police team assigned to this murder investigation -- and engage in a number of what seem to be wild g...

Sasameyuki / Makioka Sisters / Light Snowfall (Yutaka Abe, 1950) Junichiro Tanizaki began publishing his Sasameyuki (literally "light snowfall") in serialized form in 1943. After just two installments, however, government censors informed the magazine serializing it that no further episodes should be published (inconsistent with the self-discipline needed for the war effort). Tanizaki published the complete first volume in 1944; the whole novel was finally published in 1949. The story is set in the latter half of the 1930s. It tells the story of a once very prominent Osaka family -- the Makioka family -- which had to make major adjustments after the death of the family patriarch years before (and the gradual withering away of the family business). The focus is on the four sisters -- Tsuruko (nearing 40 at the outset), Sachiko (mid-30s), Yukiko (near 30) and Taeko (26). The Tsuruko is married to a rather stuffy bank executive; Sachiko to a much more urbane white collar...