CLASSIC FILMS

KEITH UHLICH

s t e r p a h C r o u F i n e i f L A : i m a s h M i

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985, Paul Schrader, USA/Japan) For a companion piece to Paul Schrader ’ s latest, The Card Counter, check out the writerdirector ’ s inventive 1985 study of Yukio Mishima (played primarily by Ken Ogata), the Japanese writer who challenged norms of masculinity and sexuality even as he slid into increasingly reactionary politics. It’ s an unconventional classic in the way it treats Mishima ’ s life as indivisible from his art. The character ’ s last day on earth—the film dramatizes the final hours before his very public suicide—is interwoven with stylized recreations of scenes from three of his novels, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko ’ s House and Runaway Horses. The MVP here is production designer Eiko Ishioka, whose sets are miracles of surrealist abstraction. And Schrader ’ s life-long obsession with Japanese cinema pays off dividends in his compellingly chilly tonal approach, as well as in the casting, most notably a cameo from frequent Yasujiro Ozu lead Chishû Ryû as a wizened monk. (Streaming on The Criterion Channel.)

Pierrot le Fou (1965, Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy) The recent death of bruiser French movie star Jean-Paul Belmondo occasioned many, well, breathless tributes to his starring role in Jean-Luc Godard’ s foundations-shaking first feature Breathless. But you should also check out this collaboration, which is no less of a classic, and maybe even more moment-tomoment inventive. There ’ s a guy (Belmondo), a girl (Anna Karina) and plenty of guns in this tale of love on the run. Also an early-on appearance, during a deliriously disorienting party scene, from American filmmaker Sam Fuller, who lays out his unassailable thesis of cinema. (“Film is like a battleground. There ’ s love, hate, action, violence, death… in one word: emotion. ”) Belmondo ’ s Pierrot and Karina ’ s Marianne Renoir (because of course) live that heedless philosophy to the fullest. The emotions, the ideas, and the colors (the latter courtesy ace cinematographer Raoul Coutard) are explosive, as is the finale, which is well-nigh unforgettable in its provocations. (Streaming on The Criterion Channel.)

Scenes from a Marriage (1974, Ingmar Bergman, Sweden) The Card Counter star Oscar Isaac and The Eyes of Tammy Faye star Jessica Chastain can also be seen in HBO’ s five-episode remake of Swedish writer-director Ingmar Bergman ’ s classic relationship drama, Scenes from a Marriage. Without passing any kind of

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