This month’s repertory screenings feel unusually generous. Cinema 21’s Saturday morning screening series, with a “Cine Internationale” theme, revisits some essentials from Japan, Germany, and beyond. I’m digging into all four of those films below, plus a new live-scored silent film festival, a three-hour Japanese horror anthology, and two films supporting women’s wrongs. Let’s eat!
Tokyo Story
For fans of Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy (2006), Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957).
In Yasujirō Ozu’s modest, effective Tokyo Story (1955), an elderly couple travel from their rural village to Tokyo to visit their adult children, who now have little time for them. The family reunion becomes a subtle recognition of how their interpersonal dynamics have changed. In the meantime, the couple connects deeply with Noriko, their son’s widow. Their relationship is complex: affectionate but grief-tinged, bittersweet, and somewhat obligatory.
Ozu wonders about the passing of time—and the debts we do (or don’t) owe our parents—with his characters’ glances and gentle bows, the views through doorframes, and visits to the baths. Silence accumulates. Ozu doesn’t insist that his characters behave better or differently. That restraint is what makes Tokyo Story heartbreaking: it takes care not to overstep, much like an aging parent who visits but doesn’t want to be any trouble. (Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st, Sat Sept 12, 11 am, $9, more info, not rated)
M
For fans of Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Egon Schiele, chiaroscuro.
Early in Fritz Lang’s M (1931), a little girl bounces a ball against a sign in ominous blackletter. It advertises a reward for information leading to the capture of a suspected local murderer. Then, a shadow darkens the sign. The silhouette of an adult figure slides into view.
“What’s your name?” the mysterious man asks the girl.
It’s a testament to Lang’s sense of claustrophobic mise-en-scène and dramatic pacing that his Weimar-era film remains so arresting. He distills German Expressionism with surprising sensuality, pairing moments of stark silence with lamplit streets, tobacco pipes billowing smoke, and blood pudding. An atmosphere of outrage and suspicion builds across Berlin as Peter Lorre’s unnerving child killer whistles an eerie song before committing his crimes. Although none of the murders are directly depicted on screen, slasher cinema owes a serious debt to M’s chilling effect. (Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st, Sat Sept 19, 11 am, $9, more info, PG-13)
Also worth it:
To Die For
Gus Van Sant’s bitchy dark comedy (1995) stars Nicole Kidman as a small-town weather reporter whose dreams of glam news anchor stardom lead to murder, mafia involvement, and antagonistic figure skating. (Academy Theater, Sept 4-10, more info)
8 ½
Federico Fellini’s avant-garde exploration of creative stagnation (1963) was one of David Lynch’s primary inspirations, which makes sense: The film is an exercise in strange contradictions, meticulous yet meandering, devastating yet weirdly funny. (Cinema 21, Sat Sept 5, more info)
Sherman’s March
Although he originally planned to direct a documentary on the lingering impact of general William Sherman’s strategic Civil War march, Ross McElwee’s personal life had other plans. His resulting 16 mm film (1985) became a weirdly profound ode to his love life and the interesting women orbiting it. (Tomorrow Theater, Sun Sept 6, more info)
Sonic Silents Festival
Composer Mark Orton’s inaugural festival commissions fresh scores for four silent films—Buster Keaton’s The General among them—with each performed live by chamber, jazz, and indie music legends. Head to Hollywood Theatre for the screenings, with new tunes provided by Jenny Conlee and Nate Query of the Decemberists, Max Knouse and Rachel Blumberg of Califone, and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, among over a dozen other musicians. (Hollywood Theatre, Sept 17-20, more info)
Diabolique
Those who support women’s wrongs will appreciate the duo of Christina and Nicole, an abusive man’s wife and mistress who team up to murder him. Similar to M in its distrust of authority and patriarchal power, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s film noir (1955) stays twisty into its final minutes, wherein one of its central characters is revealed to hold even deeper secrets than initially suspected. (Cinema 21, Sat Sept 26, more info)
Kwaidan
Greek ethnographer Lafcadio Hearn is best known for his research and collections of Japanese cultural legends and folktales. His 1904 folk story collection Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things serves as the basis for Masaki Kobayashi’s anthology film Kwaidan (1964), which pulls its four weird tales from the book. At roughly three hours long, Kwaidan makes its presence felt with hallucinatory hauntings, reckonings with dark feminine forces, and a shivering score by Tōru Takemitsu. (Hollywood Theatre, Sept 25-30, more info)
