Eighteen-film festival honors master auteur Yasujiro Ozu at IFC Center
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Weekends at 11:00 am, July 9 – November 7
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
No one understood the Japanese family like master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. The Tokyo-born writer, cameraman, and director made poignant dramas that penetrated deeply into the relationships among husbands and wives, children and parents, bosses and employees, presenting honest portraits with care and intelligence. Interestingly, Ozu never married and never had kids of his own. A sake lover who died on his sixtieth birthday in 1963, Ozu made magnificent, meditative films featuring long interior takes, little action, and few camera movements, letting the story unfold at its own pace. The IFC Center is honoring his career and its own fifth anniversary by screening eighteen of his films on consecutive weekend mornings at 11:00 from July 9 through November 7. Shown chronologically, the series begins with the silent film AN INN AT TOKYO and includes such influential gems as EARLY SUMMER (1951), LATE SPRING (1949), TOKYO TWILIGHT (1957), FLOATING WEEDS (1959), and LATE AUTUMN (1960). Keep watching twi-ny for specific reviews as the series continues.