1940s

  • Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)

    While Japan emerges from the darkness of war in Record of a Tenement Gentleman, so too does one middle-aged widow discover an unexpected compassion in her hardened heart, as Yasujirō Ozu sets in motion a spiritual transformation with the arrival of a lost child on her doorstep.

  • There Was a Father (1942)

    Chaos is simply not part of Yasujirō Ozu’s meditative cinematic language, and There Was a Father especially asserts his proclivity for ritualistic repetition in smoothing over emotional disruptions, recognising the remarkable legacy of one former teacher whose soul is deeply etched with tragedy, grief, and guilt.

  • Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941)

    When the patriarch of one affluent family is lost in Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, there is little left to hold its fragmented remains together, and Yasujirō Ozu exacts a cutting critique of those intimate bonds weakened by class privilege.

  • Ossessione (1943)

    Luchino Visconti masterfully merges neorealism with the dark, fatalistic tension of film noir in Ossessione, unravelling a deadly affair between a pair of down-on-their-luck strangers, and revealing the inescapable consequences of passion, resentment, and poverty.

  • Day of Wrath (1943)

    Even as Carl Theodor Dreyer holds the witch trials of one small Danish village in great contempt, Day of Wrath never truly rules out the question of whether some transcendent power is at play, sending the damned to early graves while the living stoke destructive flames of rumour and suspicion.

  • Stray Dog (1949)

    While the citizens of Tokyo spend their summer watching baseball games and visiting clubs in Stray Dog, police officer Murakami is set on apprehending the man in possession of his stolen gun, methodically closing the distance under Akira Kurosawa’s sharp, watchful gaze.

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