Le Havre (2011): I’ve always had a fondness for the films of Finnish master of the absurd deadpan and delicate emotions often hidden behind a façade of the farcical Aki Kaurismäki, though I haven’t really followed him for some time. This one’s a pretty special film, positing the kind of individual solidarity between the white European working class and refugees that leads to solidarity and genuine kindness instead of burning refugee centres. From today, that’s a rather optimistic view of these things, but Kaurismäki makes it convincing by underplaying everything sentimental in a way that reaches genuine emotions exactly by not making a big thing out of them.
Good Morning aka Ohayo (1959): When people recommend Ozu movies for beginners to the man’s body of work, they do tend to go for the (quietly) emotional wringer of something like (the incredible) Tokyo Story rather than this comedy about a small neighbourhood, and the the sort of quotidian problems, wins and loses movies have their trouble making interesting for anyone but film critics. The film includes many of the director’s thematic preoccupations, especially his much favoured generational rifts, but treats them in a decidedly non-quietly-heart-breaking manner. It’s not that Good Morning lacks the emotional depth of Ozu’s more obvious movies, it is just lighter in its approach, and therefore in its emotional pressure on an audience. It also features rather more fart jokes than you’d probably expect, and is all the better for it.
Osaka Elegy aka Naniwa ereji (1936): I have seen rather fewer Mizoguchi movies than those by Ozu, apart from the obvious ones for a guy of my tastes (so Ugetsu and that hammer to the head made film, Sanjo the Bailiff). Watching an comparatively early film by the director like this drama with comedic elements about a telephone operator becoming the mistress of her lecherous boss to help her family out of various troubles only to become ostracized for it doesn’t quite bring up great revelations to me, though I do see the quality and individuality in Mizoguchi’s approach; his long shots and ability to build emotion in a style nearly completely eschewing close-ups is damn impressive. Just one thought (and by the rules, one thought is enough for a “Three Films Make A Post” entry into this blog): if this were an American movie made at about the same time, this would have become a screwball comedy, where the sexual elements of the plot wouldn’t have been quite as clear, but where our heroine would have gone to some kind of happily-ever-after.
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