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Tokyo Story (1953)

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#267 December 9, 2015

Sheila writes: Mike D'Angelo over at the A.V. Club has written a very interesting article called "What I learned from watching the first 10 minutes of 500 movies". He speaks of the challenge, as a film critic, to see as much as he can in any given year, not just the hits but the secondary films, the ones that don't generate any "buzz." In doing so, he started thinking about "the first 10 minutes" of films and how crucial they are. D'Angelo writes, "Basically, I give the movie 10 minutes to grab my attention. Most of them fail, and get turned off at that point. If I’m still interested, though, I’ll watch for another 10 minutes. There are two more potential bail-out points at 0:30 and 0:40; if I still want to keep going after 40 minutes, I commit to watching the entire film, even if it turns awful later." His essay has a lot of observations about screenwriting, first of all, but also the nuts-and-bolts of storytelling.

Roger Ebert

Ozu: The masterpieces you've missed

"Late Spring," 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. Thursday"Record of a Tenement Gentleman," 5:15 p.m. Saturday, 6:15 p.m. Wednesday"Days of Youth" (silent), 3 p.m. Sunday "Tokyo Story," 3 p.m. Jan. 15, 6 p.m. Jan. 20 "What Did the Lady Forget?" 5:30 p.m. Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. Jan. 19 "Tokyo Chorus" (silent), 3 p.m. Jan. 16 "The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice," 5:15 p.m. Jan. 22, 6 p.m. Jan. 26 "I Was Born, But..." (silent, with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in person), 3 p.m. Jan. 23 "Equinox Flower," 3 p.m. Jan. 22, 6 p.m. Jan. 27 "Early Spring," 5 p.m. Jan. 29, 3 p.m. Feb. 2 "Ohayo," 3 p.m. Jan. 29, 6 p.m. Feb. 3 "Dragnet Girl," 3 p.m. Jan. 30 "Floating Weeds," 3 p.m. Feb. 5, 6 p.m. Feb. 9 "Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family," 5:15 p.m. Feb. 5, 6 p.m. Feb. 10 "Passing Fancy," 3 p.m. Feb. 6 "Late Autumn," 3 p.m. Feb. 12, 6 p.m. Feb. 16 "The Only Son," 5:30 p.m. Feb. 12, 6:15 p.m. Feb. 17 "Story of Floating Weeds," 3 p.m. Feb. 13 "The End of Summer," 3 p.m. Feb. 19, 6 p.m. Feb. 24 "Early Summer," 5 p.m. Feb. 19, 6 p.m. Feb. 23 "Walk Cheerfully," 3 p.m. Feb. 20 "An Autumn Afternoon," 3 p.m. Feb. 26, 6 p.m. March 3 "A Hen in the Wind," 5:15 p.m. Feb. 26, 6 p.m. March 2 "Woman of Tokyo and That Night's Wife," 3 p.m. Feb. 27