Retrospective commemorates work of masterful Japanese filmmaker Ozu
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 3, 2005
It’s just getting under way, but it is safe to say that “Sacred Cinema: Yasujiro Ozu Retrospective” will stand as one of the local film events of the decade. This series, which runs through March 10 at the Northwest Film Forum, contains most of Ozu’s surviving feature films.
And Ozu was a master. The Japanese filmmaker was born in 1903 and died in 1963, and he was one of those rare artists whose reputation has grown in death far beyond what it was in life. Critical opinion has swung around to the point that Ozu has been called one of the 10 greatest directors in film history, and a 2002 “Sight and Sound” poll of critics pegged Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” as one of the five best films ever made.
The current retrospective is notable for including a batch of Ozu’s silent films; he actually made more silent movies than sound pictures. Many of these will undoubtedly be showing for the first time in the area, and with live musical accompaniment.
The crazy-quilt schedule of the Northwest Film Forum, which will be showing Ozu’s films on both its screens, does not have the films in chronological order. The silent movies with live music tend to turn up on Sunday afternoons and Thursday nights.
Playing this weekend is “Tokyo Story,” an acknowledged 1953 masterpiece and a magnificent experience. It’s about a couple who visit Tokyo to see their children, who have grown, changed, drifted away. Ozu was perhaps the finest examiner of family dynamics among film directors, and here he charts with unerring accuracy the tenderness, cruelties and regrets that emerge from the mystery of families growing old. It’s one of those movies that can make you a slightly different person than you were before you saw it.
Also this weekend is “There Was a Father” (1942), a marvelous film about a schoolteacher sacrificing (perhaps too much) for his son.
Both of these films star Chisu Ryu, a subtle but very funny actor who played the lead in many of Ozu’s films.
In his sound films, Ozu developed a style that ignored busy effects or camera movements in favor of a quiet, steady point of view. It has been observed that Ozu’s camera, often placed inside a home at a low level, approximates the height of a person sitting on a tatami mat, and encourages a contemplative approach to following the story.
That is true, but his films are also somehow dynamic. I haven’t seen many of the silent films, but by all reports, those are more experimental in their style.
A case in point is Ozu’s best-known silent, “I Was Born, But…” which played Thursday night and screens again Saturday morning (in a kid-friendly matinee). This is a lively and knockabout-funny story of two little boys whose relationship with their father is tested when they move and Dad gets a new job. It’s a wonderful movie, yet with a bittersweet sting in its tail.
The live music will be provided by an intriguing gallery of composers and performers, including Carla Torgerson of the Walkabouts, cellist Lori Goldston (who played with Nirvana), and the Aono Jikken Ensemble. A higher tariff will be charged for the live music events.
For a full accounting of this remarkable series, the schedule and ticket information are available on the Northwest Film Forum’s Web site, www.nwfilmforum.org.
“Sacred Cinema” will be a quiet act of worship in an otherwise noisy movie scene.
“Sacred Cinema: A Yasujiro Ozu Retrospective”
Through March 10 at Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle. Movie line: 206-267-5380. Office: 206-329-2629. www.nwfilmforum.org
“Sacred Cinema: A Yasujiro Ozu Retrospective”
Through March 10 at Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle. Movie line: 206-267-5380. Office: 206-329-2629. www.nwfilmforum.org
