Tag: film

Unaccustomed As We Are (USA, 1929)

Although this film was Laurel and Hardy’s first talkie, some silent versions of this film with intertitles were also released. So, both silent and talkie versions of Unaccustomed As We Are can still be seen nowadays, even in DVD. And it was the silent version that was watched before writing this review.


The acting of Laurel and Hardy did not change very much compared with their previous silent films. Both actors had a more situational-oriented acting, not resorting too much on physical gags, even in the silent era, therefore sound films were actually quite favorable to those comedians. They also had pleasant voices, Stan Laurel even had an extensive experience on stage back to his native England (where he even worked with Charles Chaplin) and was pretty much used to dialogue in his career.


The themes of battle of sexes, henpecked husbands and rebelling wives have already been widely explored throughout the 1920s domestic situational comedies. Thus, the plot of this film was not really innovative, but it stands out due to the reliable acting of experienced comedians.


Oliver Hardy brings his good friend, Stan, to have dinner at his home to taste the delicious food of Mrs. Hardy. But unfortunately Oliver forgot to let his wife know about the visit in advance, so she could have proper time to make the arrangements. Mrs. Hardy got furious with that and says she will not cook for another crazy friend of Oliver and she leaves home rather angry, claiming she would spend some time in her mother’s house.


Oliver decides to cook for Stan, although he does not seem to be a skilled or experienced cook. Stan tries to help him, but he did not seem to be skilled with the housework either. Oliver’s next door neighbor, Mrs. Kennedy, realized both men were having problems and offered help for them to cook. However, there was an accident with Mrs. Kennedy while she was at Oliver’s house and her dress caught fire. When she was on her way back home to put on another dress, Mrs. Kennedy’s husband (Officer Kennedy) returned home.


Her husband was a though cop and Mrs. Kennedy was afraid that he would think she was actually cheating on him and would not believe she was half naked only because her dress was accidentally on fire. At first, Oliver volunteered to tell the truth to Officer Kennedy, but then he was also afraid of his neighbor’s reaction and the only solution was Mrs. Kennedy hiding herself in a trunk at Oliver’s house.

Since the silent era comedies could often revolve around misunderstandings it was not different in this film. Regretting her rant, Mrs. Hardy returned home very sad, determined to be in good terms with Oliver. She even said she would cook for Stan, but Mrs. Kennedy was locked in a trunk and had to leave the house. To disguise the delicate situation, Oliver claimed he was leaving Mrs. Hardy to go to South America and tried to go away from home taking the trunk with him.


Mrs. Hardy was furious, blaming Stan for Oliver’s decision and she got very angry again. In the middle of this chaos, Officer Kennedy arrived at Oliver’s house. Officer Kennedy volunteered to talk to Oliver, so Oliver would not abandon his wife.


He immediately realized Oliver was hiding a woman in the trunk and took it to his house, so Mrs. Hardy would not find it out what was truly happening with Oliver. What Officer Kennedy could not really imagine was it was his own wife who was in the trunk and he inadvertently started to talk to Oliver about his extramarital affairs, claiming he met some cute girls while out of home and that Mrs. Kennedy had never a clue about it.


Mrs. Kennedy heard everything while inside the trunk and was obviously furious. As soon as Officer Kennedy returned home she started arguing with her husband and even broke things on him. On the other hand, Officer Kennedy was furious with Oliver and Hardy, blaming them both for his marital problems.


Actress Telma Todd (Mrs. Kennedy) managed to show her good comedic time, funny facial expressions and a beauty that was very much within the 1930s standards. Although she was already acting back to the silent era, it was only in talkies where she could show off her comedic skills. Although she was mysteriously murdered in the 1930s, Todd made a name to herself.


Australian actress Mae Bush (Mrs. Hardy) was already an experienced comedienne when this film was made and had been in films since the 1910s. The same applies to Edgar Kennedy (Officer Kennedy), who worked with some of the best film comedians of Hollywood and had the distinction of being one of original Keystone Cops back to the 1910s. During silent era he also worked for both Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, who were among the most famous producers of comedies at the time.

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Two Tars (USA,1928)

This film is arguably among the most known silent shorts by Laurel and Hardy. This is a delicious mix of situational comedy and slapstick, of standard material of late 1920s with some subtle influence of slapstick of previous decade. Everything adapted to the so-called Jazz Era. 

Laurel and Hardy play the roles of two Navy men on their day off. They decide to rent a car, get involved in an accident and it does not take long until they meet two beautiful girls and get interested in them. An awkward conversation takes place, where the guys try to act though to impress the girls -without much success. 

The girls were having some problems with the candy machine, Laurel and Hardy tried to help them, but ended up worsening the situation by inadvertently breaking the machine and making all candies fall on the sidewalk. A furious employee of the store shows up. At first, Laurel and Hardy tried to comfront them, but after it was clear that they were not as though as they seemed, the girls took the problem into their own hands and one of them even beat up the store employee. This was a very interesting scene, as it was reversed the standard of “damsels in distress”, so popular in the 1910s, in favor of a new sort of woman that blossomed in the 1920s: The flappers, strong-willed young girls, who attended parties, smoked, and were much more liberated. 

Although the Laurel and Hardy were not exactly brave or skilled, the girls ended up going out with them in their car. The day was beautiful and everyone was happy, but then there was a traffic jam, and it is where it started the most famous part of the film. Actually, the idea of making a film in a traffic jam was pretty ingenious for 1928, as cars have not been around for too long yet. The drivers involved in the jam were understandably stressed and angry there and what started as a minor argument ended up having greater proportions, involving all drivers -including the girls themselves. 

Chaos happened and a fight started, with typical knockabout gags we could easily have seen in a slapstick comedy. This even included things being thrown, people falling down and getting dirty. This is not a very common type of a gag in Laurel and Hardy’s films, considering they have always been situational-oriented since the beginning of their duo. However, despite the clearly physical scenes of the fights during the traffic jam, we can also observe that the mechanical gags of the broken cars were well-elaborate and quite expensive for its era, especially because it was employed lots of damaged cars. Even the type of destruction each car endured were funny by themselves. 

Another noteworthy detail is how the policeman’s attempts to restore order ended up failing terribly and his authority was mercilessly ridiculed. We can see it clearly when his motorcycle was smashed in the middle of all confusion and how the policeman’s vehicle was so powerless in comparison with all those cards around him. This idea of making fun of authorities was very common in films by Keystone studios back to the 1910s, especially in films by the Keystone Cops. Although a full decade had passed and this film was produced by another studio we can see that cinema audiences still liked to laugh at the same things. 

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Mabel at the Wheel (USA,1914)

This is a very well-known and famous Keystone short but perhaps more because of Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin feud in the backstage than the film itself. Supposedly Chaplin had disagreements with Normand on the type of humor of the film and he also did not like the fact that he was directed by a very young woman. Apparently, Mack Sennett (the head and founder of Keystone studios) intended to fire Chaplin, but he had requests of more Chaplin’s films by film exhibitors, which showed Sennett that it would not be a good idea to get rid of an actor who was actually being successful.


However, film is good enough to be successful on its own right and much of this film’s merits come from Mabel Normand herself. She, like her character in the film, was a woman ahead of her time, very physically skilled and brave, which was something completely new compared with 1910s angelical, virginal standards of femininity.


In his first year in films, Chaplin’s little tramp was not already the likeable fellow the world would admire so much. He was a rough man and far from being a gentleman, the kind of guy who would shamelessly make a woman fall on a water pond while taking her out, just like he did with Mabel in the beginning of film. He also did not hesitate in slapping Mabel back after she slapped him. Chaplin would also pursue this rough style of flirting in the film “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” with Canadian actress Marie Dressler, which was also produced by Keystone in that same year.


Something that also looks weird in this early representation of the little tramp is Chaplin’s top hat and exaggerated gestures, an acting that closely resembles Ford Sterling’s and villains of comedic vaudeville or stage plays. Fortunately to Chaplin, he soon improved his character, as those nearly surreal villains soon got out of fashion in films.


Chaplin, after being jealous of another suitor of Mabel, tried to destroy the other guy’s car. Both Mabel and the other suitor find out that Chaplin caused the harm and it caused a fight of bricks and even Mabel took an active part in it. After a while, we can see that the other guy would take part in a car race.


Unfortunately, her suitor ended up being kidnapped by Chaplin and his accomplices and did not show up for the race on time and Mabel, who was in the audience, realized there was something wrong. We can also see Mack Sennett himself in the audience, playing an unsophisticated and simple man. Having started his cinematic career as an actor in Biograph studios, in the first years after Keystone studios was founded, it was not unusual that the boss himself both acted and directed in films, a trend that would soon be over, as it did not take long until Sennett focused himself on administrative tasks of the studio.

Mabel stood up and approached the mechanic, she exchanged her clothes and got into the car that was supposed to be driven by her sweetheart. Many driving scenes were made, which was still a novelty back to 1914, considering that cars were not even very common yet and it was even more unusual to see a woman driving. But this did not stop Mabel and, considering she had even driven an airplane in a 1912 film (A Dash Through the Clouds) and wore a swim suit in another film also in 1912 (The Water Nymph), driving a car was not probably a big deal to her.


Despite the dangers along the way, Mabel drove so skillfully that she won the race and just in time to be observed by her sweetheart, who managed to free himself from the place where he was taken hostage. Rather than being victim of prejudice, Mabel was actually praised by the other guys, generated some publicity (we can see in the end of the film that a cameraman approached Mabel to film her) and was treated as an equal by the other pilots. Meanwhile, Chaplin was quarreling with his accomplices and looked even more mentally disturbed and evil than in the beginning of the film.

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Male and Female (USA, 1919)

Cecil B. de Mille being himself in a film that turns extravagant –and also with sceneries of great proportions at some moments – and a young Gloria Swanson. Although unknown for many people, Swanson started her career very young being an actress in slapstick comedies (she even worked for Keystone studios, which produced some of the most frantic comedies of silent era), but she had dramatic ambitions all along and by the time this film was made she started pursuing them.

An adaptation of the play “The Admirable Crichton” by J.M. Barrie, the film approaches differences of classes with subtle humor and sometimes audiences do not even feel time pass because the film has a very relaxed vibe. How a British aristocrat (Gloria Swanson) connected with her butler gives room to some original gags, especially after they both get involved in a shipwreck. Needless to say that none of those rich aristocrats have the required skills to survive in a stranded land, but it turned out that the butler could handle the situation. It also comes from this film the famous scene where Swanson is lying down with a real lion around her. 

In the beginning of the film lives of rich people are depicted as opulent and empty. The scenes are funny with the futility of people`s requests towards the servants and we can also see Gloria Swanson in beautiful clothes. The servants are shown as slightly more grounded people, as their lives are closer to realism. A maid is in love with the butler, who is in love with Swanson. On the other hand, Swanson has a friend who married her chauffeur and had to face lots of social difficulties because of that. Needless to say that Swanson disapproved the marriage, which made her butler heartbroken.

The scenes of those people mingling together while stranded in the islands are entertaining, even though they are far from realistic. Clothes were always in good conservation state, they never faced real famine and could even have access to some comforts, such as books. This gives a touch of involuntary humor to the film, which makes it even more enjoyable to modern audiences.  Although the plot is sometimes exaggerated, the acting of main actors remain relatively self-controlled and subtle and it reinforces the good portrait of lives of educated and refined characters.

There is also the interesting approach of not sugar coating the difference of classes and that love does not always overcome it. No, the plot is not about the so-called battle of the sexes. Intertitles can be witty but they are also sometimes a bit too long, even tiresome. If they were kept simpler, it would be perhaps easier for audiences to understand the subtle humor and it is also a factor that makes the film seem outdated nowadays.

The Babylonian sequence may be a feast for the eyes, but it is not really necessary to the development of the plot. By the way, a Babylonian king having a Christian slave? Perhaps it is a little historically inaccurate? We can see here the famous sequence of Swanson with a real lion (who was presumably dangerous) and legend has it that she insisted on doing that scene herself. This might be true, because if we analyze the comedy films Gloria Swanson made earlier in her career we can observe that she have already done a plenty of relatively dangerous stunts already in her teens. 

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Help! Help! (USA,1912)

This film was not made at Keystone studios of California, but at Biograph studios of New York, the same that gave D.W. Griffith to the world. The film was directed by Mack Sennett, who in later years would say he learned a lot while working with Griffith at Biograph.  However, while already in Biograph studios, Sennett focused his work in comedies, both as an actor and director and it was where he started honing the comedic pattern that would soon be famous at Keystone studios.

The style of the plot was not the frantic slapstick yet and even Mabel Normand’s acting was different from what she would show at Keystone studios. She played the role of a typical damsel in distress with some touches of overacting, which was something still common in Hollywood at that era. It was portrayed in this film the lifestyle of middle class citizens, rather than working class ones, as it would be so common in Keystone films. 

Mrs. Suburbanite (Mabel Normand) read in a newspaper that burglars were operating in the neighborhood, as one of intertitles says, and she immediately talked about it to her husband because she was really impressed with what she read. Then, Mr. Suburbanite (Mabel’s husband, played by actor Fred Mace) went to his workplace, an office in the city. Meanwhile, Mabel saw some suspicious-looking men and she locked the door and hide the key. 

Mabel called her husband at his office because she thought there were burglars at their house. He left the office by car at once, but unfortunately the car stopped in the middle of the road. At the same time, Mabel was even more afraid at home, as she realized the curtains were moving. The husband got to make the car work again but it ended up stopping on the road again. After a short time, the he got to find another vehicle to take him back home but no success again. Against all odds, the husband got to return home on foot.

As a typical damsel in distress, Mrs. Suburbanite nearly fainted when she realized her husband was back. The happy end was assured when it was found out that the burglar was actually only a small animal.

Some reviewers claim that this film was probably a parody of some previous films by D.W. Griffith, such as The Lonely Villa (USA,1909) and The Lonedale Operator (USA, 1911). The statement makes sense and it could also be a parody of the stereotype of damsels in distress, a spoof that would be included in subsequent films of Keystone studios directed by Mack Sennett, such as Barney Oldfield’s Race for a Life (USA,1913). 

Fred Mace followed both Sennett and Mabel to Keystone studios when it was founded in 1912 and made a plenty of films there in the first few years and became a rather popular actor, but his career would not last much longer. Firstly, he left the studio and then returned and finally Mace passed away in 1917 with only 38 years old. 

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Frauds and Frenzies (USA,1918)

The theme of convicts trying to escape prison was relatively common in silent comedies. And comedies –specially slapstick ones – portraying policemen and authorities (who were usually incompetent, slow and lazy) were also abundant both in the USA and Europe. The laughter such films provided was also a relief to audiences, considering that a plenty of cinema goers belonged to working classes, who could laugh at those who had a more prominent position in society. 

Although not particularly innovative, this film had some funny physical gags, which can still be universally understood by modern audiences, regardless of culture. This is particularly true in the beginning of the film, when the convicts were shown performing forced labor. Stan Laurel, despite having engaged in such gags, also subtly showed to have a more self-contained type of humor, which he would also have during his pairing with Oliver Hardy. Speaking of Hardy, Semon would also work with him prior to his pairing with Stan Laurel. 

One day both Semon and Laurel got to escape and they suddenly became rivals for the love of a beautiful girl (with curly hair and a big umbrella, very much according to 1910s fashion standards). Such love interest is prone to make the former convicts having problems with the police again because the girl turned out being the daughter of one of policemen. At this point we can observe an ethnically insensitive gag, when they tried to kiss the girl, but it was actually a black woman below the umbrella, which makes both Semon and Laurel run away in disgust. Such gags were also common in silent comedies and not considered by some people as gross as it is considered nowadays. 

As usual, Semon happily engages in his cartoon-like special effects and gags of big proportions. There is even a chase (which is a type of gag considered by some laymen audience members as the symbol of silent films in general). It is also noteworthy that Stan Laurel gets less screen time in the second half of the film. Laurel had claimed that Semon reduced his time in the film in fear of being upstaged after a comment that Laurel was funnier than himself. 

Although not well-remembered nowadays, Larry Semon was a famous comedian in his day. He would pass away around one decade after this film, while in poor financial and health situation, but a plenty of his films are preserved nowadays and his distinctive cinematic style still stands out. 

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A Film Johnnie (USA, 1914)

Even for those who are not fond of silents, this film is full of historic value. By showing a sort of “film inside the film”, we can have a rare insight about what it was like to go to the cinema in the 1910s. We can also have an insight on the backstage of Keystone studios, as well as its working practices. 

Furthermore, Chaplin was at the very beginning of his career in films. We can see the evolution of the Little Tramp, who was originally a rough, impolite troublemaker, at first without the pathos that would soon make Chaplin famous worldwide. 

It is also possible to make comparisons between the plot of his film and the very beginning of Chaplin cinematic career, with him trying to be accepted in his new work and having a difficult attitude with his peers at the same time. There are stories of Chaplin having refused to be directed by Mabel Normand and clashed with other directors of Keystone studios. 

The Little Tramp goes to the cinema and falls in love with the girl in the picture of the publicity material outside the cinema. Of course that the girl turned out to be Mabel Normand and the film was produced by the Keystone studios. A noteworthy observation is that, even though it was Mabel Normand`s picture outside the cinema, the character turned out being played by another actress Peggy Pearce. 

There`s a rumor that Mabel Normand did not act in this comedy because Chaplin had previously clashed with Normand while making another film and she simply refused to work with him again. And that made the studio replace Normand by Pearce. 

Chaplin enters the cinema and ends up causing chaos with other moviegoers. He was not only impolite with other people, but also very naïve in taking what he saw on screen as if it was real. His love for the Keystone Girl only grows bigger. 

After a fight at the cinema and being kicked out by the audience, the Little Tramp ends up on the doorstep of Keystone studios. The reasons for it aren`t clear. Was he looking for his sweetheart? Looking for a job? Begging for money/food? We cannot say for sure. When the “Keystone players arrive at the studio”, as one of intertitles says, modern-day audiences can see some of the biggest stars of the studio of the day, including Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who in real life played an influence on how the Little Tramp character would be built up and was already an established comedy actor when Chaplin started working at Keystone studios in 1914. 

The Little Tramp finally got to enter the studio, but he created a huge chaos. Then, there was a fire and the actors and studio crew ran to the scenery in order to get some “atmosphere” for the film. In the first years of Keystone studios (which had been founded in 1912), it was a usual that films were made on the spot of real-life events.

This short film does provide a rare and accurate insight about entertainment early XX century, both under the perspective of young Hollywood industry and of audience and how they related to films. Highly recommended for those interested to know about the evolution of cinema in a fast and practical way.

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An Andalusian Dog (France, 1929)

This famous silent film short is a result of the cooperation of Luiz Bunel and famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali in the production/direction. And much has been said – even by Dali himself -that nothing in this film was meant to make any sense, still many reviewers and scholars have tried to find some meaning and connection between all scenes throughout the decades. Maybe an attempt to try to find coherence by all means or would there be any sense in the images shown, after all?

The film starts with a tango song in the background and the image of a man sharpening a razor. He goes to a balcony while holding the razor and smoking a cigarette. Then a woman who is sitting down is shown with her eye being cut by the razor at night. Eight years later, a man is shown riding a bicycle on a deserted street in a sunny day. He is wearing unusual clothes and the street looks beautiful. Right afterwards, the woman who had her eye cut a while ago is shown while sitting down on a chair and reading something. The background music changes, the guy on a bicycle pops up again. The woman gets tense, stops reading and goes to the window. The guy on a bicycle is shown again, this time from above. He falls off the bicycle on the sidewalk and the woman goes downstairs to help him.

The woman is shown in her bedroom upstairs again. She is holding a tie and puts it on the bed together with the clothes that belonged to the man who fell off the bicycle. She sits down on a chair and stares at the bed with the man’s clothes on it. Suddenly, a man is shown in the bedroom and he’s looking at one of his own hands and there are ants on it, which seems to be a symbolism of his urge to kill. The images change abruptly, almost in a raw way, and we can now see a man with androgynous features and clothing playing with a human hand with a can while a crowd is around him. Would it mean the use of of human suffering and misery for the entertainment of masses? Would this man be blind or something like that? A policeman comes and disperses the crowd. The man keeps on playing with the human hand with his can and the policeman bents down to collect the hand, puts it on a small box and delivers the hand back to the man.

Both the man and woman in the bedroom follow up this commotion from their window. The man on the street remains there, lonely, holding his small box with the human hand in it until he is hit by a car. The other man by the window seems to be deeply impacted by the event unfolding downstairs. The background tango song is back. The man in the window looks at the woman besides him in a rather scary way and then the shock: He tries to sexually assault the woman by his side even though she refuses his advances. The woman pushes him and runs inside the bedroom and tries to protect herself in any way she can.

Then the man pushes the strings of two pianos and the audience can see two dead donkeys and two priests also being pushed, which weights down on the man heavily. Would it be a representation of the weight of the church and authorities over the back of common citizens? Upon seeing this, the woman leaves the room in horror. The man tries to follow her to no avail and then it is still visible to the audiences the ants on his hand, which might mean his wish to kill and the fact that his bad passions dominated him. Right afterwards the man is suddenly shown laying down on the bed in the same room where he was in the previous scenes.

“Around three in the morning” (as an intertitle says), another man rings the bell and the woman who was previously in the bedroom opens the door. This new man goes straight to the bed where the another man is laying down and he apparently urges him to stand up. The man laying down is quite puzzled and has a submissive attitude. Would this new man be the boss urging his employee to stand up and work, perhaps?

Another intertitle says “Sixteen years before”. Both guys now appear to look the same, even though the submissive guy keeps his oppressed attitude unchanged. There is a messy office desk with torn and dirty papers on it. One guy hands over a book to the other, the image blurs briefly and the submissive man is holding a gun towards the bossy man. He shoots. Would it be the embodiment of the oppressed becoming the oppressor and representing the change of luck of a person in life?

When the shot guy falls, he falls in a place outdoors and we can see the back of a half naked woman, who looks like the woman who was previously in the bedroom. The woman disappears after a short while. Some men are shown in this outdoors place and they find the body of the man who was shot and he is carried by the other man. It seems it was already too late to save his life. Would it be a representation that everything in life will eventually come to an end?

The old bedroom is shown once more. The woman is returning to the bedroom, there is the close up of a small butterfly. The man was waiting for her, which means that the old couple of the bedroom is reunited once more. The man rubs his hand on his lips and we can see that his mouth was deleted from his face. The woman applies some lipstick in her own lips. The man still has no mouth and the woman realizes that her body hair was also gone. She pulls a face on the man and leaves the bedroom again.

It’s windy outside, we can see the man on a beach, the woman walks towards him and the man on the beach is appears to be the same man who has just been seen in the bedroom but in another outfit. He shows his watch to the woman, as if he was reprehending for having arrived late. The woman kisses the man and they embrace. The beach gets muddy and they see some garbage, including old clothes, which look like the clothes that belonged to the man who fell off the bicycle in the beginning of the film. Would it be a representation of leaving the past behind and start a new life?

The couple walks happily on the beach and then another intertitle says “In the spring” and the couple is shown buried in the sand, apparently dead. A strong scene which maybe would mean that life is brief and that, despite all ups and downs, it eventually ends for everyone?

A surrealist work of art gives room for all sorts of interpretations. It can mean nothing and everything, all at the same time, but the imagery always makes people uncomfortable and raises lots of thoughts, which is the intent of the surrealist movement. Definitely it is not a film for everyone and it helps if audiences are open minded about non linear plots.

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The Only Son (Japan, 1936)

This film talks about a poor widow and her son. At first the mother couldn’t really afford the son to continue with his education. However, her son had a teacher who really encouraged her to make her son to keep on studying. But to do it, the mother would need to send her son away to Tokyo because they lived in a small city. She would need to send him to Tokyo and pay for his education, which was too much for her because it was a really poor family. However, she realized that the boys of the neighborhood were going to Tokyo to have an education and she didn’t want her son to miss an opportunity, so she made all the sacrifices possible, she struggled so her son could have an education in Tokyo. Many years have passed and her son was now 27 years old and then she decided to visit him there by surprise.

When she arrived in Tokyo, she realized that her son wasn’t as successful as she imagined. At first, she was scared, not necessarily with the city, but with the neighborhood where he lived, which was really poor, and she also got to know that her son was married and had a baby son of his own. And of course she was in shock because she imagined that her son would study and be successful. And the son, he was happy to see his mother, of course, but he was extremely sad that his mom saw him in this situation. He would rather her to visit him later when he had a better financial situation.

The son’s wife was a really good person. She treated his mother as it was her own mother. She was very gentle with her. The son treated his mom wonderfully too. He tried to borrow money from other people, so he could take his mom to places. But, of course, that she couldn’t disguise the fact that she was disappointed. The son talked to his mom in private and confronted her about it. And he said that he knew that she was very disappointed, that he did everything he could, that he was aware of how much she suffered to pay for his education, that he tried his best to honor all her effort. But Tokyo is a very populated and big city, competition was wild, that he wanted to be more than a night school teacher. Then the mother said that he shouldn’t give up so easily, he was still young, his life was just beginning, and he shouldn’t act like a coward, that he should keep on trying to improve his situation, he was still young, he had the means.

And then when they talked about the same subject again at night, his wife overheard everything and started crying. And she was feeling very bad that her mother-in-law was in this situation, sad all day long, taking care of her grandson. And then she decided to do something. She sold her kimono and gave the money to her husband so he could afford taking his mother to places, to go out with her so at least she could cheer up a little bit. And they planned to do just that. The entire family would go out, take his mother to no more corners of Tokyo. However, a boy of the neighborhood had an accident with a horse and he needed to go to the hospital.

Then the elderly mother’s son took the boy to the hospital and even helped his mother with some pocket money for the expenses because his son didn’t have anything serious in the accident but he broke her leg so he would need some care and it would be difficult for her because she was very poor too. After a while, when they left the hospital, the son told the mother that this event ruined all the plans that he had for today. He intended to go out with her, to do things together, but this accident, it destroyed everything. Then the mother told him that she was proud of him because when you very poor, the generosity of other people make you feel so grateful and that she knew how the neighbor felt because she was very poor too and she said that it was much better that her son had helped the neighbor than going out with her that it would be the best memory she would have from her time in Tokyo.

When they were talking about the financial situation of the son, she confessed to him that she had to sell her house to pay for his education and that she was sleeping in the dormitory of her workplace, but that he shouldn’t need about her, that she doesn’t care about the housing or anything. All she cares about is that he study hard and then improve his financial situation. After the mother left and returned for her city, the son told his wife that he would return to school and try to specialize to give classes to college students, so he would earn more money, because his son, his baby son, wouldn’t be a baby forever and he would need money.

We can see in the beginning of the film that the elderly mother returned to her village. And when her friend asked about Tokyo and about her son, she said that Tokyo was beautiful, that her son was well, that he became a great man. So she said good things about her son, that he found a good wife. She really liked his wife very much, but we could see on her face that she was extremely sad because she thought her son would be more successful. The plot of this film is very universal because parents always want their children to have a better situation than they have. They always want the best for their children. And when they realize that their children didn’t do as well as they expected of course that they feel sad.

On the other hand, she could recognize that her son was a very nice boy, who had a nice wife, a nice family, who never did anything wrong, never stole from anyone. She also saw that the teacher of her son, who also went to Tokyo, instead of still being a teacher, he was working in a restaurant frying food. So, things were very difficult for his former teacher too. So it wasn’t only her son was struggling. And that competition in a big city is indeed very bad. But she had the highest expectations about her son because he was everything she had in life. And unfortunately, it wasn’t as she imagined and it’s a very touching film, even sad, but it’s a plot that never gets old, it’s delicate as Ozu’s films usually are. It is one of the few Ozu’s films were his sentimentality is openly shown, in contract to most of his films, where it is more covered.

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Why do I have a site?

If you know of my good old blog of silent films, you can rest assured that it still exists and it will always do. Silent Beauties blog on silent films has always brought me lots of joy and I would never voluntarily end it. If you want to take a look at my dear, sweet blog, here is the link: https://silentbeauties.blogspot.com/

Nevertheless, time passed and I have felt the need of writing about other stuff, my interests – including, but not limited to, arts – life in general, random thoughts. Sure, I could definitely include those things in my blog, but I love the format of Silent Beauties blogger as it is and I do not want to change anything there, especially the focus on silent films. Another point is that I have missed the fact of expressing myself out of social medias, where I can write without time or space constraints, where the amount of followers is not important, but the quality of the community that is created. A place that isn’t easily bought by anyone with ulterior motives and that I can control more closely is advisable. And here I am.

We had in the last year the example of Twitter being taken over by problematic ideals and we witnessed the sudden death of a social media. Maybe it is the first time it happens this way, as what happened before was specific social medias losing relevance as time passed, but social media being bought and “killed” the way it was is something unprecedented. It shows that social media is great, but much more fragile than we can imagine. This is something we can already understand, but was unimaginable until a short time ago.

It is great that as time passes, I have had the intellectual urge of knowing about other subjects. It means I will never run short of hobbies. No matter the era or if people are rich or poor, the way they live, the cultural production of the world is always full of cultural opportunities and even common citizens can often have so many interesting things to say. The idea of writing on web site, which provides me a greater degree of control, makes things very exciting and I cannot wait to be here more and more, sharing my impressions of things.

At least initially, I intend to write small texts about topics of my interest. It includes silent films, which is an old passion of mine, but there will also be other things. The size of the posts will probably be no different from the posts of micro blogging applications (Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon and all of them), but longer texts may also appear. Basically, I consider this site as a blank canvas where I can paint a portrait of my interests. As long as I do not insult anyone, there is no rule about size, subject or frequency of posts.

You may think that in the current world there are many problems, but there are great things too. The expansion of social media is giving room for people to be creative without necessarily having to spend money for that. The fact that communication has been easier to unprecedented levels has had a huge impact over our era and, if we have the wish to join this revolution and get our message across, we should definitely do it. The fact that we can research about so many subjects is wonderful and I never take it for granted.

There is always some insecurity involved in launching a writing project, especially because writing is something that we develop and improve all the time. But when we are too perfectionist, it ends up preventing us from doing things because we never think our texts are good enough. Therefore, I always find it good to write without many string attached. The point is recording our feelings and the moment, sharing it with others and anything else is often a mere waste of time. We all have the need to express ourselves according to our truths and beliefs and going for it just makes our lives better.

I am really grateful to everyone who has followed my adventures on line, regardless of media. Without having so many cool friends around, nothing would make sense. In the end of the way, we may become social nomads, the places where we connect may end, but what truly makes a difference is the friends we make. We have all this technology at our reach, but the human brain has not changed too much throughout history. We are social beings, we long for connection, understanding and kindness. And I have always had it all on line, thanks to everyone who has been in this on line journey with me. I hope you all feel comfortable, accepted and welcome in this space too.

A woman is sitting by a desk. We can see a laptop, some books and a glass of water between the books and the laptop.
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