[net.movies] Hail Mary...The Makioka Sisters

reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (12/03/85)

In article <2484@sdcrdcf.UUCP> jon@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Gingerich) writes:
>
>Someone told me that Godard had not released "Hail Mary" in Rome as a favor to
>the Pope.

Almost.  Godard pulled it out of Rome when the Pope started bitching.  I view
it as a courtesy along the same lines as not playing a restored version of
"Triumph of the Will" in Tel Aviv (though not so extreme a case).

>A film I saw a while ago that I strongly recommend is "The Makioka Sisters".
>...
>The movie ends at the end of 1938, and the war has only be aluded to 
>peripherally, which I found rather puzzling.

I second the recommendation for "The Makioka Sisters", noting, however, that
if you do not care for foreign films, particularly subtitled ones, this is
not likely to be the film which changes your mind.  It is very Japanese.

I think that your later comment is more or less correct, that the war is
a subtext which would be understood by all Japanese, so it need not be
hammered at.  I feel certain that the viewer is meant to understand that all
of these personal problems are going on just as the society which causes them
is about to collapse.  I wouldn't call it a joke so much as a mixture of
nostalgia and irony.
-- 
        			Peter Reiher
				reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher