Eight years after her death and six decades following her quiet retirement from the film world, Setsuko Hara arguably remains the best-known twentieth-century Japanese actress. Audiences worldwide remember her unique beauty (she was often suspected to be of partial European heritage)1 and the humane performances she gave in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. “Decidedly unglamorous,” wrote Stephen Harvey in a 1974 issue of Film Comment, “this least histrionic of actresses relied on little more than an irrepressible half smile and decorously hushed voice. Yet her performances are invariably so moving that no pyrotechnics were needed.” Cementing Hara’s status as a film icon was her premature disappearance from cinema screens in 1963 the year of Ozu’s death and not long after her swan song in Hiroshi Inagaki’s 1962 Chushingura. Per film historian Donald Richie, she withdrew from the public eye claiming to have never enjoyed acting,2 and secluded herself in Kamakura, south of Tokyo.
We don t ever find out exactly what happens with Calum (Paul Mescal), the young father, whose 11-year-old daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio), he s just taken on an end-of-the-summer holiday on a Turkish beach in Charlotte Wells sublime debut feature, "Aftersun." But we do understand how he uses this trip as a way to let her know how much he loves her, no matter what else happens next (quite literally, actually, he writes a letter to her that says, heartbreakingly, "I love you very much. Never forget that.")
Odes to cinema from Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg and Damien Chazelle will jostle for Oscar glory next year – until then, here are 20 of the best films about film-making well worth dimming the lights for