Friday 20 February 2015



An Autumn Afternoon
Dir: Yasujirō Ozu
1962
*****
On the face of it, this seems like more of the same from Ozu but there is one real difference. It is far more contemplative. He's never made a film about the extraordinary but here he focuses on the mundane and suggests that even the simplest of things can give us pleasure to such a degree, it is unlike many of his other films. His mother died while filming which I think really set the mood of this film, it is also very poignant and fitting then that An Autumn Afternoon turned out to be Ozu's swan song (please please please don't let this review put you off, it is also very funny!). A wonderful end to a great career, Ozu's work continues to be extremely influential in cinema and timeless in its beauty. 

NB: Anyone else notice the Akira Kurosawa nod/tribute? In one of the exterior shots of the city, a poster for one of his films (Sanjuro I think, it is definitely a picture of Toshirô Mifune anyway)

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