X. T. C. (columbiatch)

Jonas Mekas was the pioneer of the diary film, and this is a three part diary of his memories of being an exile in America and his realization of his adaptation to his new home, a trip 20 something years later to visit his previous home in Lithuania, and a journey to Vienna to visit his friend Peter Kubelka. The first part is fairly conventional 'home video' compared to very herky jerky 2nd part that features a ton of extremely rapid cutting, which was quite beautiful and spontaneous. The extremely unstable 2nd part had a strange effect on me, as the gushing stream of images exhausted my senses to such a state that I floated through the rest of the film in a semi-conscious state, not fully aware what I saw was part of the film or a figment of my imagination.

Somewhat uneven. The tango-like structure and extremely long dead time are pretty awesome in showing the futile inertia of the community. However whenever some douche in the film opens their mouth it becomes laughable. It's very effective in carving out large chunks of time, which is really above all what the film is about. I'm not sure what the scene near the end featuring the writers discussing the characters was for. I thought I had seen enough rain in this film to last a season, but I left the theater only see it was pouring outside (plus an ominous sound of bell towing).

Along with Murnau's Sunrise, this is something of a cinematic miracle.

One of Ozu's very best films. The film shows the life of the Hirayamas, a middle-class family that is adjusting to the changes in society. It has an unusually large cast for an Ozu film, and he juggles these disparate characters effortlessly. The film is mostly concerned with the older generation dealing with the present while cherishing the past as embodied by Ryu's character. That ending is an incredibly moving ode to life and the passage of time.