Advertisement

Brooklyn Magazine Logo
(More)
(Less)
Brooklyn Magazine Logo Menu
Close
Arts & Leisure Community & Commerce Food & Drink Podcasts & Video
About Contact Advertise Privacy

Brooklyn Magazine

|

All rights reserved

Instagram icon Instagram icon Instagram icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Twitter icon Twitter icon Twitter icon

Menu

Close

Arts & Leisure Community & Commerce Food & Drink Podcasts & Video
About Contact Advertise Privacy
Instagram icon Instagram icon Instagram icon Instagram icon Twitter icon Twitter icon Twitter icon Twitter icon
Uncategorized |

Dec 23, 2015

The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, December 23-29

By Brooklyn Magazine

chrysanthemum-1600x900-c-default

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Historical grounding aside, it’s impossible to completely cast away pre-existing interpretive lenses when watching a film. Accordingly, myriad interpretations have arisen regarding Story of the Last Chrysanthemums’s lack of close-ups, its ending, and the semantic purpose of its melodrama. Are gender roles fulfilled and/or celebrated, or does the decentering of actors in favor of sets and spaces function as a Brechtian distancing technique, encouraging us to critique what is presented? Really, though, the deep space cinematography, elliptical narrative, and tight choreography challenge the audience to forge its own path through the film. It’s worth wondering how our canon might be modified had Mizoguchi’s film traveled abroad before Citizen Kane, as its innovations are no less revelatory and are equally inseparable from its thematic weight. Forrest Cardamenis (December 25-31 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; showtimes daily)

You might also like curly linecurly linecurly line

Remembering Lauterbach’s, a dive from Park Slope’s grimy past

Arts & Leisure

Arts & Leisure

Remembering Lauterbach’s, a dive from Park Slope’s grimy past

Interview with 2018 NBCC Balakian Winner Charles Finch

Arts & Leisure

Arts & Leisure

Interview with 2018 NBCC Balakian Winner Charles Finch

Taxi cab confessions

Arts & Leisure

Arts & Leisure

Taxi cab confessions

Brooklyn Magazine

|

All rights reserved

About | Advertise | Contact | Privacy
page corner page corner page corner