Review of Floating Weeds (1959) by Jimmy L — 04 Feb 2009
Floating Weeds may not hold a candle to Tokyo Story, but it's still a great movie. Better than most as is generally the case for lesser works of a master.
The last half of the movie makes the first half worth it. Specifically, there's a scene near the end where - and I won't use names because I don't want to spoil it - one character tries to light the cigarette of another, and the result is screen magic. The shot selection Ozu uses is par for the course on a film of his: carefully selected and almost always perfect. He sets up the blocking so well that you could understand a scene just by the way everything is arranged. While sometimes this can come off as stagey, it works well for a movie about an acting troupe.
A great movie by any standard, and a heck of a lot less melancholy than Tokyo Story.
This review of Floating Weeds (1959) was written by Jimmy L on 04 Feb 2009.
Floating Weeds has generally received very positive reviews.
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