May 2, 2020
In the inaugural episode of our Setsuko Hara Acteurist Oeuvre-view series, the vagaries of foreign film availability lead to an historically illuminating double feature. First up, the fascist propaganda film that made the teenage Setsuko a star, a Japanese-German co-production, melodrama/mountain film/semi-documentary extravaganza, The Daughter of the Samurai (1937), directed by Arnold Fanck and Mansaku Itami. Followed by Akira Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), a celebration of the wartime anti-fascist resistance, from the unusual perspective (for both the subject and Kurosawa's subsequent career) of a young bourgeois woman who struggles to find a place for himself within that movement. And in our Bonus section, we discuss David O. Selznick's feminine ideal, disclose tidbits from Jennifer Jones's career, and deem beloved critic David Thomson an assclown, before closing with Elise's reading of her favourite Selznick memo.
Time Codes:
0h 01m 00s: Setsuko Hara intro
0h 09m 30s: Atarashiki Tsuchi [aka The Daughter of the Samurai] (1937; dirs: Arnold Fanc &; Nagamasa Kitaka)
0h 50m 55s: No Regrets For Our Youth (1946; dir: Akira Kurosawa)
1h 29m 36s: Memos From Elise on Memo From David O. Selznick
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* Check out our Complete Upcoming Episode Schedule
* Find Elise’s latest published film piece – “Elaine May’s Male Gaze” – in the Elaine May issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room*
*And Read Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*
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Theme Music:
“What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” – Le Tigre