Yoko Uemura (left) and Isuza Yamada in Sisters of Gion.

Another week, another hard-to-find Japanese movie at the Cinematheque Ontario, Sisters of Gion from 1936. (My thanks to Alex for pointing this out on the schedule.) If the Siren has a favorite Japanese movie director, it is probably Kenji Mizoguchi. His movies are gorgeous, emotional and a useful counterexample for anyone who maintains men are incapable of understanding women. This film makes brilliant use of the narrow walkways and crazy-quilt construction of the Gion quarter of prewar Kyoto, evoking a beautiful but cramped and complicated world. Sisters tells the story of two geisha. The older sister (Yoko Umemura) clings to tradition and selflessly devotes herself to a bankrupt former patron. The younger (Isuza Yamada, in a flawless performance) views men as vile, declares that she owes them nothing and will use any means available to secure a comfortable life for herself. For much of the brief movie you enjoy watching this latter-day Becky Sharp connive on nothing a year. But Mizoguchi is a social critic, not a satirist like Thackeray. In the end, it becomes heartbreakingly clear why the younger geisha is named Omocha, which translates as "toy."

In Memoriam: George Fasel

I am sad indeed to see that George Fasel of A Girl and a Gun, a favorite film blog and one of the first I ever linked to, died this week of cancer at age 67. It is strange how glowing an impression you can get of an individual, merely by observing his film taste. George's was exquisite. His writing was elegant and erudite, always done at a high level that demanded engagement from his readers. I am glad to see that his site will remain up, because I refer to it often. His correspondence, and his responses in his comments threads, showed a gracious and thoughtful man. My deepest sympathy to his family.

Charles Laughton as Earl Janoth. Ricky Gervais has nothing on this guy.

Perfume at the Movies Goes Off-Screen

Having covered movies where perfume figures in the action, the Siren now turns to perfume in the audience. Today is Top 10 Scents of Summer Day for the Siren and some of her Magnificent Fellow Obsessives (links above). The big summertime movie-season is almost over, but I am grabbing my chance to talk about summer perfumes as they should be worn by the moviegoing public. I confine myself to perfumes for women, but I hope this isn't altogether without interest for a man. If it is, stroll around the archives. This won't take long.

Let's start with a general observation about which perfumes are suitable for wearing to a movie, and which are not. Above all, you want subtle application and low sillage. (Sillage, for those who don't speak perfumefreak, is the trail of scent left by a perfume.) And when I say low, I mean LOW. Does your date lean close to sneak another handful of Junior Mints, close his eyes and murmur, "Mmmm," then continue? Good job. That's low sillage. You aren't bothering anybody. On the other hand, did you just hear someone two rows back ask loudly, "What the hell are they putting on the popcorn these days? It smells like chocolate," then that is high sillage. Off to the restroom for a good scrub. Furthermore, if it's chocolate, you're wearing Thierry Mugler Angel, which should never, ever be worn in closed spaces, period. There are other perfumes like that (Coco Mademoiselle, I am talking to you), too strong to ever be suitable for any theater unless applied in amounts measurable only with nanotechnology. With one exception, discussed below, save those super-wafters for that charity ball you're attending next month.

The Siren's Top 10 Perfumes for Summer Movie-Viewing:

1. For an evening at an art house, watching the revival of The Conformist or a Mizoguchi film: Guerlain Apres L'Ondee, a refined blend of violet and anise.

2. For venturing out to the corner video store, to cut through the heat and humidity during the walk: Serge Lutens Fleurs de Citronnier, a clean and slightly soapy floral.

3. & 4. For snuggling under the air conditioning with your man of the moment, watching a Sergio Leone flick solely to make him happy: The soft jasmine seductiveness of Chantecaille Frangipane, or the smoky-sweet warmth of Serge Lutens Daim Blond. With any luck you'll distract him and won't have to sit through all three hours.

5. & 6. For an evening watching The Aristocrats: Annick Goutal Petite Cherie or L'Artisan Parfumeurs La Chasse aux Papillons. At least something in the theater will be sweet and innocent.

7. & 8. For an outdoor screening of a classic--say, a film noir like Double Indemnity: Yves St. Laurent In Love Again or Annick Goutal Les Nuits d'Hadrien. Citrus and patchouli don't attract flying insects, and both these slightly tangy, sexy scents work well on a summer evening.

9. For that big, sold-out summer blockbuster: Robert Piguet Bandit. I know, I know, I said subtle, but here is the exception. If you are seated next to one of those awful people who talk to the screen, a big whacking dose of Bandit might get rid of him. Marlene Dietrich wore this. Bandit doesn't mess around.

10. Any movie, any time, any place: Caron Tubéreuse. It's that perfect.

This week, the Siren also watched James Cagney in Great Guy, a low-budget crime drama produced by Grand National in 1936, when Cagney was on suspension from Warner Brothers. He plays an inspector for the Bureau of Weights and Measures. See how innovative movies used to be? You don't catch screenwriters nowadays tapping the dramatic value inherent in, say, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Our man unmasks a crime syndicate that seeks to cheat families by shorting them on things like bags of strawberries. Cagney gets a scene where he compares the amount lost to scams with the national debt. Sounds silly until you consider the Depression, or even Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickle and Dimed. The highlight in Great Guy comes early, when Cagney busts up a grocer's after he discovers lead weights in the chicken. This movie is no classic, but you could do worse than watching Cagney toss a plucked chicken around the store. Mae Clarke, of everlasting grapefruit fame, plays the love interest. What you really notice in an admitted antique like Great Guy is the dialogue. Here's a B picture from a Poverty Row studio, and you still get great lines like this one, from Cagney: ""My best friend gets hit by a streetcar, there's Civil War in Spain, we have an earthquake in Japan--and now you wear that hat!"  

Erratum

In a previous post, The Siren's Compleat Anatomy of Cinematic Badness, I cited Showgirls as Exhibit A for category number 5, "Howling Dogs for the Ages." That is incorrect. Exhibit A in this category is Red Dawn (1984). The Siren regrets the error. She thanks Spike TV for bringing this to her attention with a screening of Red Dawn last night, and for showing the movie the way it should be shown, with a little "SPIKE" logo in the bottom right-hand corner and lots of commercials for Ultimate Fighting.

Chieko Higashiyama and Setsuko Hara, in one of the Ozu film's most poignant scenes.

The Siren begins to track her movie viewing with short posts, and leads with a heavyweight champ in the awestriking Tokyo Story. I saw this last week at the Cinematheque Ontario, a nice space that has defrosted my Bad Toronto Attitude quite a bit. There was a long wait to get into the theater and so I overheard the following conversation, varying only slightly, three different times from three different couples:

"The paper said it's better than Citizen Kane."
"But I didn't like Citizen Kane."

There is some sort of Kane-hating epidemic happening in this town, and the Siren intends to write the Toronto City Council and advise them to nip that in the bud, but quick. I am confining myself to the briefest of remarks, for fear of killing Tokyo Story with kindness as some apparently have managed to kill the Welles film. For the record, the two movies have little in common except greatness. The Ozu film has the stately pace of a long novel, giving you the same inside-out understanding of its characters that you get from a great book. Its power lies in the slow accretion of detail, until something as simple as a child picking flowers or an old couple taking a bus tour has more impact than many a battle scene. The closing images will haunt the Siren for a long time.