The
simplest of Tora-plots makes for one of the most beautiful films so
far: Tora meets Lily again, and it almost works out. That's all. This
"almost" is the only and an absolutely sufficient reason for this
wonderful series to exist.
Tora, the intellectual - of course it's played for laughs, but it's
also the rare Tora film in which he really tries to change his life
around, surprisingly persistently, too. The will to learn is more
important than learning itself, and once one has encountered the desire
to learn, life loses its sense of naturalness, an experience not only
Tora but also his love interest has to make.
Three moments from Tora 16:
-Yuki,
the girl we (or at least auntie and uncle) believe for a few minutes to
be Tora's daughter and some of her girlfriends from school see Tora off
and then go their own way, into their own, decidedly different film.
-Tora joking about Centipedes. Like always, he is his own best audience. He'll never wear out his own welcome.
-For
the first (?) time, Genko gets a few real lines, not just random
stammering. The first thing we learn of him is that he's dreaming of
Hawaii.
El triunfo de Sodoma, Goyo Anchou, 2020
The rapid-fire assault of buzzword radicalism wore me down pretty fast -
I guess even most true believers would mentally tune out of this after
15 minutes tops. Also, a film that makes quite a good case for cis men
actually not being the reason the "militant left" more often than not is
just an annoying and openly authoritarian bunch of assholes. And yet,
as a cinematographic intervention, this is not completely without
allure, never standing still, never respecting the integrity of any
single image or body.
Fantasex, Roberta Findlay, Cecil Howard, 1976
A porn film that can't shut the fuck up is seldom a good idea, and this
one probably really would've been much better without or at least with
much less explicit sex, because as an extremely sleazy underground
comedy this isn't completely useless. Turn up the weirdness, cut out the
rape scene and add more stuff like that brisk pick-up bicycle ride,
this could've been something...
Tora-san's Sunrise and Sunset, Yoji Yamada, 1976
At the beginning, I wasn't particularly fond of those parodic dream
sequences that open the films since, I don't know, episode nine or ten,
but by now they really start to put in some work there. After an
excellent pirate one and an at least competent western one, now we get a
full-blown three and a half minutes JAWS parody, complete with gore
effects and and a huge paper mache shark. What follows is a strong Tora
entry with impressive, slightly wacky performances by guest stars
Jukichi Uno and Kiwako Taichi.
Three moments from Tora 17:
-Tora selling toy apes, whose mechanical, relentless movements mirror his own manic sense of desperation.
-Octopus and Tora fighting over an expensive painting and tearing it to shreds.
-Tora's lonely voice emanating from an abandoned telephone speaker.
No Man's Land, Salome Lamas, 2012
So there it is, finally, the subject of contemporary world history. I
don't care much for Lamas's formalist pathos, the monumentalist
minimalism that bugged me in ELDORADO XXL, too, but she clearly has
found something, here.
Tora-san's Pure Love, Yoji Yamada, 1976
A throwback to earlier entries in its hyper-reflexive, mechanical
storytelling: almost the second after his (first) love interest to be is
mentioned, she enters the store and he immediately falls for her; and
after being told that she's too young for him, but hey, she's got a
mother pretty much exactly your age, we know what will happen next. Nice
as a reminder of the series's beginning, but this only finds its own
beat during the last stretch, mostly thanks to an unusually strong focus
on Sakura.
Three moments from Tora 18:
-Tora opening a window and encounters a panorama of friendship, with everyone in sight highly susceptible to his charmes.
-Two impressions of Sakura's hidden loneliness: First she stumbles while moving away from Tora.
-A bit later she removes herself from the rest of the family and cries alone in the kitchen.
A Pool Without Water, Koji Wakamatsu, 1982
The 80s: the decade when even sleazy Wakamatsu rape movies came with
stylish synth score montage sequence. Which are especially effective
here because most of the other stalk, daze and assault scenes play out
almost completely silently. In a total, claustrophobic isolation that
also underlines the absence of the explicitly political charge of
Wakamatsu's earlier work. No more taboos to break, no more dreams of
revolution. What's left is a retreat into self, into perversity and
sexual violence as compulsion, and into aesthetics.
Tora-san Meets His Lordship, Yoji Yamada, 1977
The lordship storyline is a bit too wacky and one note to really
work. Still I like how Tora, after being a bit of a pest in part 18,
really works his way back in our hearts, this time. He has to suffer for
it, too.
Three moments from Tora 19:
-Just one of those
marvelous layered multi-person shots in the shop, this time extending
the depth all the way to the street, where Sakura is busy with something
or other, opening up the family vista even wider than usually.
-A beautiful montage of movements, both big and small, ending with Tora's love interest departing by train.
-Tora's repeated problems of climbing the stairs to his room. He's really getting old now!
The Insomnia of a Serial Dreamer, Mohamed Soueid, 2021
As good a definition of cinema as any: A narcissistic and also always a
bit pervy impulse channeled as a series of dialogues, as an opening up
towards the world. Lots of dead air, often rather annoying, and still, I
guess this will stay with me.
Tora-san Plays Cupid, Yoji Yamada, 1977
A low-key entry with a focus on wacky side characters. Tora falls in love only a little bit.
Three moments from Tora 20:
-A short scene set high up on a power pole. One of the rare moments the series ventures upwards
-Genko
has a girlfriend! Or at least, he's seen walking down the street with a
decidedly stylish young woman, and they look great together.
-Several people chasing a monkey who himself remains outside the frame.
Demain et encore demain, journal 1995, Dominique Cabrera, 1998
Nothing whatsoever wrong with it, I'm sure this will be hard-hitting,
transformative stuff for some. All power to this film and its admirers,
it's just that it bored me to death practically from second one.
Sensations, Lasse Braun, 1975
It starts on a ship, here they are, the wind in their hair, getting
acquainted ... and where do you come from? One is from America, not
quite as liberated probably, not quite as confident in her make-up
choices, but she will surely have lots of sex very soon, we already know
that. Do you want to take a picture of us? Of course. Later on, on
land, everything dissolves into a loose series of coupling, sexual
attractions generously spread out, until everyone zeroes in, as
expected, on the America, leading to a moment, a single cut, in fact, of
perfect sexual transcendence.
The very best of eurotica condensed in a single film.
Stage-Struck Tora-san, Yoji Yamada, 1978
This might be it: my perfect Tora film. This time he is confronted
with a full blown showbiz melodrama - one of the most beautiful modes of
cinema, of course, and at the same time not really compatible with
Tora-style cinema. But that's the beauty of it: He gets to take part in
something that is obviously too big for him, and in a way he realizes
this. It's not just that he learns that, once again, she is "not the
one for him". Instead, he encounters a different mode of gesture, of
performance, and thereby his own separateness.
Also, those revue
scenes are marvelous, the flow between backstage and stage, the focus on
bodily stress, the audience reactions... Just magnificent filmmaking.
Three moments in Tora 21:
-Octopus has his face, while fighting with Tora, turned sideways for a few seconds. Quite a sight.
-The
country bumpkin visiting the revue, transfixed by the spectacle of
reified erotics. Or maybe just by that single, gleaming light in the
background? A magic source of energy embalming the world?
-The dancer watches her former world, already one step removed, tears in her eyes.
Porno Holocaust, Joe D'Amato, 1981
These crabs here might not look all that big, but listen! This
particularly species normally is tiny, so these somewhat sizeable ones
are actually huge! And clear proof that something fishy is going on on
this island, probably some kind of nuclear experiment!
The stuff
you can get away with when you call your film PORNO HOLOCAUST. D'Amato
probably knew his work was basically done once he came up with the
title, and anyway, his eye for beautiful island scenery never leaves
him, so that's half the movie right there, and the other half will come
together in due time, too. For example, we got some extremely ugly
monster make-up right here. So, to be sure, certainly no one has to
invest more than the bare minimum in the hardcore scenes (although Mark
Shannon's body language sure suggests that receiving one blowjob after
the other is a truly Herculean task), and in the girl on girl scenes
actually not even that. The first of those scenes of two women lazily
rubbing against each other and sometimes, as if by accident, engaging in
a very loose approximation to cunnilingus, starts with them slapping
each other quite violently, but also joyously, and completely without
reason, too. Maybe the only real burst of energy, here.
Talk-of-the-Town Tora-san, Yoji Yamada, 1978
Another
extremely well made entry, this time with a surprising social realist
bent. Could almost have developed into a kitchen sink Tora at one point!
Three moments from Tora 22:
-A whole sequence filled with bridges, one more beautiful than the other.
-Tora drawing closer to a woman from offscreen, entering her space when we still expect him to be an observer.
-A harsh and sudden onset of winter coincides with Tora leaving his family and Madonna once again.
Le concerto de la peur, Jose Benazeraf, 1963
Awesome little piece of pulp nihilism, erotic death mask cinema, there's
quite a bit of plot on the surface, but when it comes down to it it's
just two amour fous cancelling each other, and everything else, out.
Tora-san, the Matchmaker, Yoji Yamada, 1979
Another one that completely floored me, and once again it isn't a
"pure" Tora film that got me but an outlier. This announces its
intentions early on, with a threat of sexual violence - violent,
sadistic seventies cinema almost breaking through into the Tora world
... of course, the levee doesn't break after all, and the would-be
rapist just ends up being the most ridiculous character in Tora world,
the butt of every single joke. And still, suddenly there's a 70s
sing-along tune competing with the Tora theme, Akira Fuse gets to to
sing a wonderfully cheesy song, too, and of course there's Kaori Momoi, a
completely different kind of Madonna, lamenting the expectations of
tradition weighing on her in a throaty, not yet streamlined voice.
All
of this, of course, pitted against the classic Tora mise-en-scene, an
absolutely solid backdrop, a canvas you can just about paint anything
on, if you find the right entry point. The strange thing is, this one
could easily be described as heavy-handed, starting with Mitsuo
discussing the marital dynamics of his parents, foreshadowing the
Madonna's much bigger marriage crisis. In a way it plays out like a
liberal message movie, and somehow Yamada really does manage to drive
his points home without sacrificing Tora's integrity one bit. A marvel.
Three moments from Tora 23:
-Just one shot of pitch-perfect Tora mise-en-scene: Sakura in the foreground, splitting her family / her world in half.
-The would-be rapist, already thoroughly humiliated, shooting for a gesture of rage, and even this doesn't work.
-The bride's face at her wedding.
Venom, Ruben Fleischer, 2018
Decent body-switch comedy suffering surprisingly little from being attached to a very bad superhero movie.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Andy Serkis, 2021
Once again two films in, haha, one body. As superhero mayhem this
might be even worse than part one, the church finale especially must be
one of the most incompetent action set-pieces in recent memory. The
comedy, though, is much more unhinged this time and comes from a place
of erotic curiosity Hollywood normally shies away from these days. Also,
like everyone keeps pointing out: the runtime. If one leaves the moment
the credits start rolling (an absolute must these days when it comes to
franchise movies), one is out of the theater in 80 minutes tops. Can't
think of a single better development in recent big budget filmmaking.
All
in all, a nice surprise, those Venom films. I was expecting something
in the vain of DEADPOOL, but they feel more like shoddy blockbuster
offshoots of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Maybe hire an actual
filmmaker next time, though?
Tora-san's Dream of Spring, Yoji Yamada, 1979
This one doesn't get much love on letterboxd, but to me, gently
poking fun on a lanky, sad-sack American vitamin salesman while boiling
down the issue of cultural difference to a question of expression and
perception of feelings is more than enough to fill a Tora-san movie. The
man himself doesn't get all that much to do, for a chance, this one
really belongs to Sakura and the American.
Three moments from Tora 24:
-Tora walking through an Orange (Persimmons?) grove. Smoothly embedded in yellow dots.
-The American's mother, reading his letter, on a dusty Arizona porch. A dream of America dreaming of Japan.
-A flower called Adonis.
Tora-san's Tropical Fever, 1980
Tora entering the 80s together with Lily on Okinawa. Another attempt
to widen the scope of the series, and although this one doesn't quite
come together, I actually liked the long stretch away from the shop and
the usual family troubles. As for Tora's intimacy issues, it kind of
makes sense to connect his perpetual, compulsive joking with a fear of
sex, but to really follow up to this the series would need to go to
places it is obviously not prepare to go (I mean, I clearly don't want
it too, either), and because of this the central conflict feels
unresolved in the end. It's not quite clear if we have just witnessed
yet another melodrama of missed opportunities, or if we have indeed
glimpsed into the darker areas of Tora's soul.
Three moments of Tora 25:
-A passerby rudely intruding into a streetside conversation and Yamada's carefully calibrated mise-en-scene.
-Genko scaring children with a dead animal.
-Tora sleeping like a child while planes thunder above him.
Claude et Greta, Max Pecas, 1970
Heterosexuality (as symbolized by nothing less than the ultimate symbol
of phallic chauvinism, the Eiffel Tower) as disillusionment, a sobering
"truth" negating the poisonous beauties of same-sex lovemaking ... a
decidedly 19th century vision of homosexuality, to be sure, a private,
decadent world of flittering gauze and idealistic eroticism lightyears
removed from the sexual revolution the film at the same time seems to be
reacting to. Anyway, fascinating, sensual stuff, need to see more
Pecas.
Halloween, David Gordon Green, 2018
Best in the few fleeting moments, mostly concerned with standard
teenager stuff, it allows itself to be a David Gordon Green film; most
of the times, though, this desperately longs to be a HALLOWEEN movie and
doesn't quite know how to. A shame because it actually looks nice, one
of the rare films to make a vintage visual style work. The slow drift
from autumnal soberness to day-glo night-time artificiality works very
well; the transformation of world into props and of human skin into
papier mache. The rest is treading water, unfortunately, overlong
mythology rehashs and showy yet completely uninvolving kill scenes which
are obviously only there to prepare for an overblown finale which
would've needed much more stakes to work.
Foster Daddy Tora!, Yoji Yamada, 1980
Tora in night school. An unobtrusive, gentle entry.
Three moments in Tora 27:
-Tora ironing a couple of banknotes, his way of keeping up appearances.
-A couple of lively female factory workers thirsting for Tora.
-The
young, irreverent night-school crowd, a perfect audience for Tora and
one of the rare moments the series manages to successfully break away
from its family-centered, petite bourgeoise leanings.
Halloween Kills, David Gordon Green, 2021
Nasty, bloodthirsty and surprisingly unhinged, the chronicle of a
night of terror and not much more, with the slashings no longer tucked
away in artsy sequence shots, but shoved right in front of the gaze,
categorically too close for comfort. Overall a bit too random to be as
effective as its best scenes, and still, I was on board pretty much the
whole time, I even liked the much-maligned vigilante storyline, the
original HALLOWEEN is one of the great what goes on behind closed doors
neighborhood horror films, and this is just the even uglier flipside of
it.
Also, they found a way to both age and even further dehumanize Michael, that alone is quite a feat.
Tora-san's Love in Osaka, Yoji Yamada, 1981
When spending more time away from shop and family, the films tend to
become a bit less complex, because Tora's destructive side doesn't have
that much chance to shine. As long as they are as sweet and
heartbreaking as this one, I won't complain one bit, though.
Three moments in Tora 27:
-Tora
waking up after the opening dream, having used his suitcase as a
pillow. One of those small details illuminating his fundamental
loneliness.
-A surprising cut to a rapid travelling on a city
highway. A shocking intrusion of another Japan, synchronous yet
completely incompatible with Tora world.
-Tora gazing towards a thundering sky. He probably finds beauty there.
Tora-san's Promise, Yoji Yamada, 1981
My least favorite Yamada-directed Tora so far. The class reunion in
the beginning hits hard, but the two main plot strands feel unusually
by-the-numbers and uncommitted. The brat is especially annoying, a way
of looking at youth that makes the series, for once, really feel out of
touch with its time. The madonna also never quite comes into view... and
still, the goodbye scene is handled so beautifully, might even
retrospectively illuminate the preceding film in new ways.
Three moments from Tora 28:
-Video games invading the Tora series.
-Those
long, straight alleyways in Kyushu, a woman walking away from Tora,
into depth. A pureness of feeling that would not be possible in chaotic
Tokyo.
Hearts and Flowers for Tora-san, Yoji Yamada, 1982
Feels like another watershed-moments in the series, although
watersheds are always relative in Tora country, because the fabric - the
gaze as a way of placing figures on the screen - always stays the same.
Still, Tora stays away from the store for the whole first hour, even a
bit longer, and instead gets lost in the most quiet, opaque of romances,
a love story that is more about a yearning for another world than about
any real-life future prospects.
Three moments from Tora 29:
-The
guitar melody announcing the madonna, and then taking a firm grip of
the film, announcing a temporary suspension of Tora style realism. Only
at the very end, the familiar melody reestablishes itself.
-A group of schoolgirls invading a pottery.
-Mitsuo imitating Tora. Often a bit annoying, this one.
Die fünf verfluchten Gentlemen, Julien Duvivier, 1932
The crudeness of early sound cinema will never cease to fascinate me.
This one frames Marocco in several sequences as a spectacle of unhinged,
rhythmic sounds, drowning out any sense of narrative logic or tension.
Unfortunately the version I watched is beyond crummy, hope to catch it
under better circumstances at some point.
Blondes Have More Fun, John Seeman, 1979
Expected the worst after the clumsy, bumbling "comedy" at the beginning,
but as soon as the serious fucking starts, this goes to some special
places. The euphoria and desperation of total orgasm. One of the great
San Francisco films, at least intermittently.
Tora-san, the Expert, Yoji Yamada, 1982
Pleasant,
meandering entry with a by now almost completely benign Tora quite
comfortable with his role as somewhat erratic matchmaker rather than
romantic martyr. Also by now the touristic aspects of the series really
are front and center.
Three moments from Tora 30:
-After Tora
has left: a sad miniature of family life without its abject center, just
a bunch of isolated individuals sharing space.
-Giraffes invading Yamada's mise en scene and throwing it off balance during a visit at a safari park.
-Salesgirls at a department store roll call.
Gaslight, Thorold Dickinson, 1940
Such a neat little exercise in total terror. Interestingly, it is the
man's performance that's the spectacle here. Wohlbrück/Wolbrook deals in
big gestures detached from any sense of reality, from sadistic coldness
to burning rage to complete breakdown, while Wynyard, even in supposed
madness, is just processing cues fed to her, translating input into
countenance.
Tora-san's Song of Love, Yoji Yamada, 1983
The Tora series goes Schlagerfilm: The main plot - Tora falling in
love with a famous singer whom he does not recognize, with both of them
being chased around a scenic island by the singer's clumsy management -
feels like right out of a Music House production.
In the end it's
another one that doesn't quite come together, unfortunately. Harumi
Miyako's role never rises up beyond gimmick status, and unfortunately,
the whole film is built around her. Still interesting in its
surprisingly wholehearted embrace of the surfaces of modern mainstream
pop, in a way the first Tora film that at least at times feels like an
80s movie.
Three moments in Tora 31:
-Tora and Harumi looking at fireflies.
-A spontaneous musical number involving fishermen.
-Octopus watching a performance of the singer on television and singing along with her, silently.
Die englische Heirat, Reinhold Schünzel, 1934
Wohlbrück is smooth as ever, and his killer gaze when "Liebe ist ein
Geheimnis" plays is reason enough to watch this ... and still, I guess I
might just not be in tune with Schünzel's satiric and rather
heavy-handed style of comedy. Also, while this one indeed lacks the more
obvious markings of nazi cinema, the whole British decadence vs German
honesty angle isn't exactly underplayed. Not just the collection of
upper class twits who might deserve some of the ridicule, but also the
"floozy" Hilde Hildebrand.
Part of my diminished enthusiasm might
have to do with the fact that I'm just not a Renate Müller fan. I only
really liked her in WALZERKRIEG so far; she has her moments in here,
too, like the car mechanic bit in the beginning, but altogether she's
way too wholesome for my taste. Her good girl act always comes with at
least a tiny bit of moralistic judgement.
Gaslight, George Cukor, 1944
I can understand why these days quite a few people enjoy the British
version more than this one, as Dickinson's take in many ways feels more
modern: the central relationship is dissected rather than represented,
the mechanisms of gendered power laid bare unflinchingly, as an
objective structure. This also means, though, that the cinematic gaze
remains strictly external to it: in the (smart, economical) prologue,
the characters are placed in the story and also in the house which is
transparent not only to us, but also to society as a defining outside
force.
For me though, GASLIGHT 1944 is still it: the ultimate
vision of romance as a method and practice of anti-realism. Cukor is not
interested in demystification. Quite the contrary: He fires up the fog
machine to seal off Thornton Square from the outside world and places us
strictly on the inside. We're introduced to Gregory and Paula not by
way of a criminal investigation (like in the British film) but through
romance. Meaning we're the ones falling prey, and not just to Boyer, but
to the lure of a hermetically sealed otherworld of elevated madness
which, in the end, might not even have an outside.
A key to the
difference of the two versions is the role of Frank Pettingell / Joseph
Cotten. In the older film, Pettingell is the complete antithesis to
Walbrook: the no-nonsense representative of law and order, practical
reason personified and also completely sexless. Cotten, on the other
hand, is almost the mirror image of Boyer. They have the same stature,
the same hairdo, the same softness in their voice and in a few scenes,
they are framed in almost exactly the same way. Cotten breaks the case
not by breaking open the cocoon around Bergman, but by way of inserting
himself in it.
The fog never really dissipates, there is no sense
of grounding, no reality check - and consequently, at some point
psychological realism is no longer distinguishable from utter madness.
One of the remarkable aspects of Bergman's masterful performance is that
it isn't quite possible to pinpoint the moment in which she switches
over into complete craziness. Even more important: She never really
switches out of it after the revelation. When Wynyard grabs the knife in
the 1940 film, this is an obvious gesture of empowerment, a proof of
agency (the prime fetish of modern day film criticism), when Bergman
grabs the knife, it is impossible to decide whether this is part of the
healing or just another symptom of the disease.
The film ends on
the balcony overlooking the city. It's still dark outside and while
Cotten ensures Bergman it will clear soon, we do not have much reason to
believe him yet. In fact, his words point in the opposite direction:
"In the morning, when the sun rises, sometimes it seems as if there
never was a night. You'll find that too." So his proposition comes down
to substituting one illusion with another. The last shot, though,
belongs to the busybody neighbor, played by May Whitty. If there's any
hope left, it resides with her and her benign but also slightly twisted,
gossipy curiosity.
The Last Duel, Ridley Scott, 2021
I guess the Ridley Scott brand of producer's cinema auteurism belongs
to the aspects of contemporary cinema which only will be appreciated
once they're gone. Because who else would even try for something like
this: a muscular, unironic big budget swashbuckler that ends up an
uneasy marriage between a woke RASHOMON remake and a psychodrama of
armoured masculinity.
The rather obvious problem is that the
latter works much better than the former, meaning that at heart this is a
film about Jean, not about Marguerite. And in itself this isn't even a
problem. Genre cinema almost always is better at autocritique than at
"revisionism", and this also means that, no matter if people like to
hear it or not, a film about raging masculinity in the middle ages might
even be better off without a "strong female character", at least of the
kind Hollywood (and not only Hollywood) tends to write these days.
His
gazes towards Jacques Le Gris, his sturdy but also clumsy gait in the
presence of a more eloquent, more natural asshole tell us much more
about Jean than the "revelation" in the Marguerite chapter that his
self-image may not be entirely accurate (surprise surprise).
Unfortunately this also means that she is from the start the least
interesting character of the three. (That Comer's performance, unlike
Damon's, Driver's and even more Affleck's always stays on the safe side
doesn't help either).
Of course, in theory her perspective could
add something to the story: the reality check of domesticity mostly, a
materialistic angle, but while the script makes some attempts in this
direction like in the scene at the stable, the film never really commits
to this, perhaps rightly so - stuff like this deserves its own movie,
probably its own cinematic language. The rape storyline, meanwhile, in
Marguerite's retelling gets reduced to a checklist of contemporary
grievances and at times doesn't even shy away from the worst kind of
pandering like the shots of impoverished countrywomen celebrating Jean's
victory in the duel.
In the end, though, the self-serving
political smugness dissipates quickly after the credits start rolling.
What will stay with me is Matt Damon's way of riding a horse and Ben
Affleck's mad smile.
Tora-san Goes Religious?, Yoji Yamada, 1983
Probably the least Tora-centered Tora-film so far. Not only is he
external to most of the plot strands in this, he doesn't even really try
to insert himself in them. His almost becoming a priest, meanwhile, is
treated strictly as a gimmick, both by Yamada and the characters in the
film. To me the highlight here is Kaoru Sugita's desperate teenage
heartache.
Three moments from Tora 32:
-Tora meeting the
madonna for the first time on the temple stairs. Just one of many
examples of the beautiful way Yamada uses location shooting.
-Sugita recognizing herself as the bathing beauty on a photograph cherished by her love interest.
-Tora using his jacket to form wings, an itinerant bird forever fluttering through the streets of small-town Japan.
Maskerade, Willi Forst, 1934
Basically a continuation of the earlier Reisch-Forst-collaborations at
Super-Film in Berlin, with Forst replacing von Bolvary as director and
casting Wohlbrück in his own role. Of course, especially the latter
intervention does make a huge difference; Wohlbrück's approach to
playacting is much more self-confident and straight-forward - a means to
an end rather than something to be cherished in itself. Anyway, it all
comes together wonderfully, Forst already is a master of the tracking
shot and in the last scene, he manages to add a signature note of madcap
romantic transcendentalism.
König für eine Nacht, Paul May, 1950
Trying to recreate a pre-war Vienna film as a post-war Munich film.
Some of the textures are there but the spirit is gone. While I mostly
can relate to blahr's take-down of this, I guess I found a little bit
more to enjoy. Annelies Reinhold looks good in black, and I even liked
the film's obsession with the water fountain - from some point on really
every single scene ends with the thing even flourishing up or
shriveling down, mirroring the film's reluctance to commit to its own
horniness. Also, it's interesting to see Fritsch and Wohlbrück together
(often quite literally, in the same shot), mostly because the former has
aged so much worse, basically a sad clown now while Wohlbrück is still
Wohlbrück, through and through.
But yes, otherwise it's mostly a
dud, and the awkward attempts to poke fun at militarism and authorianism
point towards deep-seated anxieties obviously no one involved in the
production was willing to confront.
Marriage Counselor Tora-san, Yoji Yamada, 1984
The
series moving away from the shop for ever longer stretches of course
also means that the madonnas become more important. Rie Nakahara is one
of the most impressive ones, and consequently, this is the best entry in
quite a while, a sad love ballad shot through with an unusually strong
sense of tragedy and futility.
Three moments in Tora 33:
-Impressions from an emptied out fun fair, with the remains of the bustle dirtying up, but also still gracing the streets.
-Mitsuo almost being forgotten and lock in a car.
-And, of course, Tora being chased by a bear.
Tora-san's Forbidden Love, Yoji Yamada, 1984 A
kaiju dream sequence! I guess they had to do it at some point, and it
is quite lovely. They probably also had to enter the world of stock
brokers at some point, and while the plot of this one is a bit stupid
(of course, the broker suffers from burn-out), it also comes with a
pleasant sense of naivete.
Three moments from Tora 34:
-A long shot of the stock exchange. A totality Tora cannot and will not enter.
-Tora learning (and deliberately forgetting again) how much his escapades are costing his family.
-Tora wanting to take the train, but the rails are gone!
Der Student von Prag, Arthur Robison, 1935
First and only sound version, and very much a Wohlbrück show.
Unfortunately I don't remember all that much from the two silents, but I
guess this one gets rid of quite a few expressionistic flourishes in
favor of a more straight-forward, character-centered aesthetics, an
approach that fits the material quite well.
Tora-san, the Go-Between, Yoji Yamada, 1985
Starts with a parody of BALLAD OF NARAYAMA, which made me think about
how singular Yamada's commitment to this series was: while the other
auteur filmmakers of his generation at least to some degree looked
towards the outside for recognition, he strictly stayed at the home
front. Very successfully so, of course, but still.
The structure
of this is mostly a throwback to entries early in the series (especially
the one with the weird professor). It's also quite silly and even comes
with some wacky sound effects.
Three moments from Tora 35:
-Tora waiting for the train in the beginning - a stretch that stretches time.
-Church music invading first the film and then even the Tora theme.
-A winking Beethoven portrait. This one really is silly.
I Accuse!, Jose Ferrer, 1985
Of course not much effort here to reveal the true scope of the "affair",
that would better be described as a full-blown pogrom, but I guess at
least the rare film from the 50s that acknowledges the existence of
anti-semitism. More court-room mechanics and less Zola grandstanding
would've been appreciated, though.
Tora-san's Island Encounter, Yoji Yamada, 1985
Octopus's daughter Akemi has been a very welcome presence in the last
few films, if only for the juvenile bluntness of her voice, and it is
nice to see her rise to co-lead for the first half. Unfortunately though
also consequently she's been given a more visible role only in order to
being tamed in the second half. In the end there just isn't an escape
from petite-bourgeoise respectability. Or rather: there's just one
single, eternal escape - Tora-san's.
Anyway, an interesting entry, with more friction than the previous ones.
Three moments from Tora 36:
-Tora and Akemi talking about love on the beach.
-A guy losing a number of beverage cans and thereby leading Tora into a new story.
-Aunty
searching for the island Tora has made it to this time on a map, and
has to use a magnifier to find it. Japan has been pretty thoroughly
pervaded by the series by now.
Die vertauschte Braut, Carl Lamac, 1934
A pleasant surprise. Lamac's direction makes up in irreverent vitality
what it lacks in elegance; he basically hands over the film to a
completely unhinged Anny Ondra who clearly knows what to do with it.
Really much closer to the Weimar spirit than most other 1934/35 comedies
I've seen so far - a film that escaped the streamlining of production
that soon would leave no room for shoddily / charmingly knocked together
low-budget star vehicles like this. At times a bit too childish even
for my taste and the ice revue finale is terrible, as expected. Still,
so much energy on display here.
Tora-san's Bluebird Fantasy, Yoji Yamada, 1986
The first one in a while to take real risks, and consequently the
best one at least since HEARTS AND FLOWERS... Once again, the film
spends a lot of time away from the shop, and this time even away from
Tora. In fact, the scenes with Miho and Kengo do not feel like part of a
Tora film at all, and for a while their desperate artist romance and
the standard Tora shenanigans are running in parallel without much
interference or points of contact. Even the ending brings together the
different strands only on the surface; there clearly are more things
going on here than usually.
(To be sure, generally this seems to
be a less loved entry, and I even get why - Kengo especially is a bit
annoying, but to me, his strong, offbeat presence makes the whole film
appealing.)
Three moments from Tora 37:
-Tora chasing a train conductor in order to present him with change.
-Kengo painting a bra on the picture of a topless woman.
-When
a worker leaves Octopus's print shop for another job, a female
colleague starts to cry, suddenly uncovering a melodrama no one knew
anything about.
The Red Shoes, Powell / Pressburger, 1948
Don't ask me why I never got around watching this, since it is pretty much all I want out of cinema in a single film.
Tora-san Goes North, Yoji Yamada, 1987
Good
Tora-film dominated by an impressive late Mifune performance. The main
dynamics here is, I believe, the difference between Mifune's extreme,
categorical outsider status and Tora's much softer mode of
self-exclusion from society. The love story and everything else really
takes a backseat this time, although Akemi once again has some nice
scenes.
Three moments from Tora 38:
-Akemi luring cutomers into the shop. A new mode of address.
-A touristic cut to the local waterfalls.
-Tora goes fishing and catches a ... shark.
The Man From Morocco, Mutz Greenbaum, 1945
Spy yarn that tries to invoke the tradition of anti-fascism as a
foundation of a new post-war Europe. Well-meaning and the lively visuals
as well as the two very good leads make it a somewhat pleasant watch,
but it really falters almost every time someone opens his or her mouth.
Last Night in Soho, Edgar Wright, 2021
Guess I'm with most of my timeline here: quite good as long as it sticks
to the girl from the provinces encountering big city life formula, and
even the first dream sequence has some charms, but boy is Wright out of
his depth when he shoots for delirious psychosexualia. Almost on the
level of Boyle's TRANCE when it comes to mismatch of subject and
sensibility.
Koichiro Uno's Wet and Riding, Junichi Suzuki, 1982
Quaint, workmanlike comedic pinku that solely relies on the charms of
its two great lead actresses. Safe for a decidedly tame rape fantasy in
the beginning, sex has been thoroughly domesticated and all sense of
style has vanished into thin air. Still, some itches are left, so why
not scratch them.
Tora-san Plays Daddy, Yoji Yamada, 1987
Introducing another little boy because Mitsuo has grown too old
points towards the sentimentalist imperative of the series in rather
obvious ways, and also introduces a travelogue formula which is in
itself a bit uninspired... slowly but surely Yamada seems to get tired
of his material, but in individual scenes, this one is quite lovely yet
again. That piss fountain sure is a grace note.
Three moments from Tora 39:
-A cruel miniature: A father teaching his son to throw rocks at Tora.
-Akemi stumbling over Genko's feet. Two of the best characters collide, maybe for the first and only time.
-Sakura and the priest speculating about Tora being a buddha.
Tora-san's Salad-Day Memorial, Yoji Yamada, 1988
The doctor's choice. Devastating, didn't expect something like that that late in the series.
Three moments from Tora 40:
-A ghost talks to Tora.
-Tora alone in a lecture hall.
-Tora wondering about the meaning of a handshake.
La Ronde, Max Ophüls, 1950
Wasn't really on board with this previously, for reasons I no longer
care about. Now I just succumb to the Wohlbrück-eye view on humankind,
both incredibly beautiful and incredibly cruel, because how could it be
otherwise.
Red Notice, Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2021
A faux blockbuster, yes, the corruption of an already corrupted form,
yes that too, lazy, unimaginative, incompetent action scenes, you name
it, and still, it is often enough surprisingly touching to watch three
of the biggest stars of the present desperately trying to remain
relevant in a world that no longer needs them. Every showy tracking shot
arriving at yet another empty Dwayne Johnson smile, every throwaway
Reynolds line, that terrible car chase through a mine scene that is
basically just a bunch of headlights bopping up and down... It's all so
clearly second rate that one just has to feel for everyone involved. At
least they haven't stopped trying.
Plus, Gadot unfortunately has
little to do, but she's still magnificent, the only full-blown
ridiculous Hollywood goddess we got right now. (And, who knows, Ryan
Reynolds might turn into Harrison Ford yet.)
Tora-san Goes to Vienna, Yoji Yamada, 1989
Tora heads for Vienna. A bit too much Tora out of water clowning for
my taste, but all in all not the gimmicky diversion I thought it would
be. Instead, this is quite serious in its portrayal of different aspects
of life in exile, the isolation and also the charged, uneasy
friendships among exiles.
Three moments in Tora 41:
-A long shot of a busy train station. No place for Tora in this crowd.
-Maybe the first Tora-return to the shop from the perspective of Tora.
-A dancing Japanese guy being transformed into expressionistic shadow play.
Tora-san, My Uncle, Yoji Yamada, 1989
I
have to admit I would've vastly preferred a Sakura-centered film over a
Mitsuo-centered one, but I guess this would be outside of the scope of
the formula. Yoshioka is a great actor, though, and Yamada finally warms
up to pop music, too. In the end this is just the breath of fresh air
the series clearly needed.
Three moments in Tora 42:
-Mitsuo jumping up a wall to fetch a persimmon.
-Mitsuo trying to kiss his girlfriend with his bike helmet on.
-Mitsuo looking at balloons.
Ich war Jack Mortimer, Yarl Froelich, 1935
Wohlbrück is great as always (was this his real accent, though? He is
Viennese, but it still sounds rather fake), but I have to admit that
Froelich's direction is quite good to. He obviously didn't lose his
touch after becoming a Systemregisseur. Surprisingly tight and
inventive.
Tora-san Takes a Vacation, Yoji Yamada, 1990
A
bit too similar to the last one to make a real impact. The doubling of
Tora's and Mitsuo's love story is way too mechanical this time, although
Kumiko Goto makes for a lively and funny madonna. Just a few of them
left, now, I hope there's enough fuel left.
Three moments from Tora 43:
-Hiroshi watching a tv program about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
-Hiroshi and Sakula listening to Mitsuo and his girlfriend playing the piano. The danger starts when the music stops.
-A tracking shot alongside an escalator in a modern warehouse, marking the outdatedness of Tora's world.
Pink Curtain, Yasuaki Uegaki, 1982
Upbeat, incesty standard pinku elevated by a positively radiating Jun Miho.
I don't know, this one I once again absolutely loved. Tora's own love
story isn't given much space and the store doesn't get much exposure
either, but all the better, because Izumi's and Mituo's story really
shines. A young, beautiful, long haired sad girl and a naive, clumsy,
overwhelemed boy, lost in a romance of waves and sand and absence and
distance. Tora's world is not part of this young love, but it acts as
its framing device, an anchoring.
Three moments in Tora 44:
-Tora miming a number of jobs; respectably jobs he can access only through playacting.
-Rose light from the past illuminating Tora and an old flame.
-An extremely regular-formed artificial waterfall.
Allotria, Willi Forst, 1936
Really didn't expect this to be this good: a full blown German screwball
masterpiece, completely with endlessly rotating
quadruple-bedroom-balcony-hallway scene, treacherous cigarette lighters
and magnificent dog close-ups. Wohlbrück is the expected treat, and
Jenny Jugo wonderfully bubbly, but miraculously, Forst also knows how to
turn Rühmann (a child-man smeared with custard pie, always playing with
his little mouse) and Renate Müller (a woman of complicated morality
with intricate hair) into pure delight. What really makes this stand
apart from almost every other nazi cinema production is the
uncompromising commitment to surface pleasure, and, by extension, to
pleasure. There people really dare to value their own personal happiness
and libidinous fulfillment over everything else. And Forst really dares
to not punish them for this, but to just follow them on some of their
wilder trajectories. If not for a short excursion into murky ethnic
humor ("naked savages"), one might almost forget what country this came
from.
Tora-san Makes Excuses, Yoji Yamada, 1992
I
obviously love both Izumi and Mitsuo and there are those wonderful
moments of youthful ennui now, but still, since the focus switched to
the younger generation, there's a soap opera tendency creeping in that
wasn't there previously. I mean I refuse to rate any of the remaining
Tora films below three and a half stars, that would just be rude at this
point, and yet, there really is a sense of things winding down and
probably that's not a bad thing.
Three moments in Tora 45:
-Mitsuo introducing fitness culture to the series.
-Izumi in bed, singing quietly.
-The priest's head being shaved by Genko.
Non ho sonno, Dario Argento, 2001
The one stroke of genius comes very early: turning a train, with a
few decisive gestures and especially two masterful cutaways to
hallucinatory long shots, into pure terror-space (space as terror,
terror as space) while swallowing up the rest of the world. Soon after
this starts to get a bit dull, though. Mostly it plays like a mediocre
standard giallo, with a boring lead, way too little female presence
(complaining about gender in giallo is rather useless, I know, but here,
women really only show up to be killed and Argento works overtime to
make the one exception, the Gloria storyline, as unexciting as possible -
not casting Asia in the role probably was the first cue) and too much
repetitive investigative stuff. Probably his most "normal" approach to
narrative since IL GATTO A NOVE CODE, and that one had at least much
better set-pieces.
Still enough little bits and pieces of
weirdness to keep me on board, and even the Goblin-gore inserts, as
perfunctory and fan-servicy as they feel, are not completely useless,
but all in all a film that plays it safe, especially after the much more
invigorating experiments of TRAUMA and IL FANTASMA DELL'OPERA.
Taro-san's Matchmaker, Yoji Yamada, 1993
Mitsuo making his way through the very same machine of Japanese
corporate culture Tora had managed to escape from. For the younger guy,
the films offer only temporary relief, a short island adventure in this
case, afterwards he will return to the hustle. Nice film, not a lot of
new angles, though.
Three moments from Tora 46:
-Mitsuo receiving a rejection after a job interview per phone. A quiet build-up of tension, and no release.
-A neighbor opening the window in order to listen to Mitsuo and Sakura quarelling.
-Mitsuo and his girlfriend exchanging sweaters.
Oh... Rosalinda!!, Powell / Pressburger, 1955
Pretty much a perfect film in my book. It also touches on one of my
special interests to be sure, since this is not just a modernization of
the Strauss operetta, but also of the tradition of the pre-war German
operetta / Vienna movies, a genre Pressburger was himself involved in at
the beginning of his career.
Now he and Powell visit the genre
again, staying clear of all old-Vienna-nostalgia by setting the whole
thing in an exorbitant card-board universe, an artificial world of props
and color and extras (really not much difference in impact between
these three element), at the same time sealed off and limitless, forever
unfolding in perpetually expanding cinemascope vistas, a wimmelpicture
aesthetics downplaying traditional notions of perspective and
anticipating Tati, Iosseliani and Altman, but combined with the dynamic
sense of montage and expressive corporeality of a 1930s Hollywood
musical while some of the more openly antirealist techniques like the
explicit mismatch between Wohlbrück and his singing voice almost point
towards Resnais ... and all of this in service of a vision of post-war
Europe as a hotbed of incestuous, polyamorous desires cutting through
all political affiliations. Well, a masterpiece.
Une derniere fois, Olympe de G., 2020
Never finds the right kind of balance between the fictional setup and a
de facto autobiographical take on Lahaie's life as a public sexual
being. Also more a catalogue of contemporary discourses on porn rather
than a film interested in the diversity of bodies. In the end
pornography might really be dead by now - as art that is, if certainly
not as a mode of communication and self-expression.
Tora-san's Easy Advice, Yoji Yamada, 1994
This
time Tora's love story has more punch than Mitsuo's, thanks mainly to
the Madonna, the melancholic photographer Rino Katase. Really just
waiting for the big blow-out at this time, though. I'm basically in
tears already.
Three moments in Tora 47:
-Mitsuo making his way through a busy modern shopping street, completely unlike the one he grew up in.
-Tora being reminded of his mother when handling pencils. Or maybe he's just making it up on the spot, as a sales pitch.
-Genko wetting himself with a garden hose, a throwback to early cinema (slapstick, Lumiere...).
Horrors of Malformed Men, Teruo Ishii, 1969
The rare exploitation film in which the craziness of the imagery is
matched, point by point, by the craziness of the plot - narration as an
abyss one can never quite pull oneself out of, there's always another
crazy flashback around the corner. Also, the constant foregrounding of
presentation instead of representation, starting with the first scene,
in the prison, a sleazy women in prison miniature that turns out to be
more like something of a knife ballet, with everyone in on the joke,
only that there is not really a joke. Later on the island of freaks is
basically a performance pieceand keeps on being treated as such even by
the people who are about to fall prey to it.
Most importantly: it
never stops. Also, Ishii luckily never lets good taste get in the way of
his imagination, while at the same time still making use of the studio
apparatus of Japanese cinema. Just one of those films in which
everything clicks.
Tora-san to the Rescue, Yoji Yamada, 1995
A
bit too much concerned with wrapping everything up neatly to arrive at
something truly great, and still, Yamada gives us what we want, and this
is all anyone could reasonably expect from this. The scene with Izumi
and Mitsuo on the beach is the most perfect piece of cinema I've seen in
a while.
Three moments from Tora 48:
-Tora's surprise when encountering a wireless phone.
-A man trying to exit a car and repeatedly falling into a roadside channel.
-Was this the first underwater footage in the series during the diving scene?
Eros + Massacre, Yoshishige Yoshida, 1969
Can't deny the ambition, and I probably will have to come back to parts
of this soon, and still ... this just very much isn't my thing. What
works best here - the performances of Mariko Okada and Yuko Kusonoki,
the use of empty / negative space, those circling camera movements as
ersatz-expressions, like in early Antonioni - basically all belongs to
classic melodrama, while the modernist gestures feel terribly forced. As
a political text, too, it is completely airless, which might correspond
with the state of the Japanese left at the time, but still... unlike
Oshima or Wakamatsu, Yoshida needs the grand architecture, the European
art film trappings, the burnt-out whiteness unsexing even the nakedest
of bodies, as a safety net because on scene to scene basis, his
image-making just isn't dense enough to sustain a noose.
Tora-san, Wish You Were Here, Yoji Yamada, 2019
Would've preferred a different new scenes vs clip show ratio and once
again there's not enough Sakura, but what can you do, Yamada is a
populist at heart and if he weren't Tora would never have existed, which
of course is the most terrible of thoughts once one has gotten used to
him.
