The specious, superficial nature of The Good Earth, an extravagant production from Hollywood’s “golden age,” can be attributed to the impersonality of executive producer Irving Thalberg, who died at 37 prior to the film’s release, and principal director Sidney Franklin. Pearl S. Buck, the author of the persistently popular 1931 novel on which the film […]
Daily Archives: April 2, 2009
Yasujiro Ozu spent three years making Soshun, a tedious film. The opening is extraordinary, however. At dawn the whir of a train passing through a Tokyo suburb gently breaks the night’s silence. Inside the home of the Sugiyamas, a childless married couple (we later learn they have lost a child), an alarm clock awakens Masako, […]
Dennis Grunes 