Though still underrated and underappreciated for his restrained formalism, the influence of Naruse Mikio (1905-1969) endures today, teaching generations of filmmakers how to temporally and spatially imagine the grandeur of freedom on a microcosmic scale. One can find traces of Naruse in Pedro Costa's stately compositions, Hirokazu Kore-eda's chosen and blended families, Wong Kar-wai's webs of protracted longing, Park Chan-wook's pairing of love and justice as illicit twin desires, and Martin Scorsese's flashbacks and flash-forwards. Across nearly ninety films, he magnified the movements within human relationships—between parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers, in-laws, half-siblings and step-siblings—as intimate responses to historical change.
Co-organized by the Japan Foundation in New York and the National Film Archive of Japan, Floating Clouds… The Cinema of Naruse Mikio is part of a special North American celebration of Naruse's prolific career led by the HFA, BAMPFA, Metrograph and the Japan Society, NY, and continuing with screenings at the TIFF Cinematheque and Vancouver Cinematheque. The HFA's extensive retrospective features forty-five film prints—many rare, some making their New England premiere, and all but one on 35mm—from the Japan Foundation and National Film Archive of Japan. Several new prints of Naruse's silents were made for the Harvard Film Archive by Shochiku and Imagica. Amid a reinvigorated battle between tradition and modernity, the lasting power of Naruse's cinema derives from the dignity he grants to those whose resistance begins with small, thankless changes in thinking. – Kelley Dong
The following films were screened as part of this series.
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Floating Clouds (Ukigumo), 1955
Sudden Rain (Shuu), 1956
Yearning (Midareru), 1964
Sound of the Mountain (Yama no oto), 1954
Untamed (Arakure), 1957
A Wife's Heart (Tsuma no kokoro), 1956
The Approach of Autumn (Aki tachinu), 1960
Hustand and Wife (Fufu), 1953
Mother (Okaasan), 1952
Anzukko (AKA Little Peach), 1958
Daughters, Wives, and a Mother (Musume tsuma haha), 1960
Morning's Tree-Lined Street (Ashita no namikimichi), 1936
A Woman's Sorrows (Nyoin aishu AKA Feminine Melancholy), 1937
Hideko, the Bus Conductor (Hideko no shasho-san), 1941
The Whole Family Works (Hataraku ikka), 1939
Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts (Otome gokoro sannin-shimai), 1935
Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro (Tsuruhachi Tsurujiro), 1938
Sincerity (Magokoro), 1939
Summer Clouds (Iwashigumo), 1958
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki), 1960
The Stranger within a Woman (Onna no naka ni iru tanin), 1966
Traveling Actors (Tabi yakusha), 1940
Scattered Clouds (Midaregumo), 1967
Wife! Be Like a Rose! (Tsuma yo bara no yo ni), 1935
Flowing (Nagareru), 1956
Lightning (Inazuma), 1952
A Wanderer's Notebook (Horo-ki), 1962
Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku), 1954
Wife (Tsuma), 1953
Repast (Meshi), 1951
Every-Night Dreams (Yogoto no yume), 1933
With live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
Apart from You (Kimi to wakarete), 1933
With live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
No Bood Relation (Nasanu naka), 1932
With live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
Street Without End (Kagirinaki hodo), 1933
With live musical accompaniment by Robert Humphreville
and introduction by Okajima Hisashi, NFAJ Director
Older Brother, Younger Sister (Ani imoto), 1953
Hit and Run (Hikinige), 1966
Ginza Cosmetics (Ginza kesho), 1966
The Song Lantern (Uta andon), 1966
Learn from Experience, Part I (Kafuku zempen), 1935
Learn from Experience, Part II (Kafuku kohen), 1937
The Road I Travel With You (Kimi to yuku michi), 1936
Avalanche (Nadare), 1937
The Girl in the Rumor (Uwasa no musume), 1935
A Woman's Place (Onna no za), 1962
Harvard Film Archive Series co-presented by the Japan Foundation, co-organized by the National Film Archive of Japan, and co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute