Friday | December 14, 2007 9:45 pm

A History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess
(Nippon sengo-shi: MadamuOmboro no seikatsu)

Screening on Film

Directed by Shohei Imamura.
Japan, 1970, 35mm, color, 105 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Japan Foundation

Rather than an “official story” of Japan's postwar economic miracle, Imamura offers the pointed views of the resilient, lower-caste Madame Omboro, brilliantly contrasting the bar owner's story of her life with newsreel footage of major events from 1945 to 1970: from Japan's surrender at the end of WWII through U.S. occupation to student protests and the Vietnam War.

December 1 – 14, 2007

Vanishing Points: The Films of Shohei Imamura

August 21–October 19

The Cold Heart is More Precious than Diamonds. The Cinema of Graham Greene

September 11–October 30

João César Monteiro, Poet-Provocateur

September 18–November 15

Marie Antoinette and Friends, Three Films by Sofia Coppola

September 19–December 12

Nostalgia, A Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque Program

September 27–28

The Adventures of Lotte Reiniger

October 2–18

The Human Condition

October 23–November 20

Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema, 1945 – 1960

November 6–9

Visions of a City, Or A Weekend in San Francisco

November 21–December 14

Once There Was History ... Andrzej Wajda at 100