“Moral Tales”

Tokyo Story - Yasujirō Ozu (1953)

An elderly couple (Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama) visit their grown children in Tokyo. The children are preoccupied with work and their own young families, and make little effort to accommodate their parents. On their train ride home, Tomi (Higashiyama) becomes critically ill and dies soon afterward. Now it is the children’s turn to visit their parents. 

Tokyo Story is a film about family, aging, and the relationship between generations—a film as rich and complex as life itself.

Love in the Afternoon – Éric Rohmer (1972)

The sixth and final film in Rohmer’s series of “moral tales,” this is my favorite. Bernard Verley plays Fréderic, a prosperous lawyer, happily married and living in the Parisian suburbs. But he misses the city, the sensation of the crowd, the absence of routine.

Chloé (ZouZou), a woman from Fréderic’s past suddenly reappears and the two begin to spend time together. As the rapport builds, Chloé confesses that although she does not plan to get married she would like a child and asks Fréderic to be the father.

I’ve grouped these films together because I consider Ozu and Rohmer two of the great sages of cinema. The most impressive thing about each film is its economy. Both “Tokyo” and “Love” distill the essence of a life’s worth of experience into just a few hours. Each film captures the tension between love, desire, and responsibility one must negotiate in any loving and committed relationship.