Filmstelle

As their house is being foreclosed, Barkley and Lucy Cooper have to move in with their children for a while. As none of the five children is able or willing to host them both, they have to split up and live separately on opposite sides of the country. For the first time since they married, the couple can’t be together. But not only the pain of not having their loved one near is getting to them. Their children show little to no interest in them and only view them as bothersome. At the same time, the elderly couple tries to make the best of the situation.

Make Way for Tomorrow is a truly heartfelt movie about ageing, losing your place in the world, and of course, family. The film was a huge inspiration for Ozu’s Tokyo Story and is in no way inferior to that. The way the family dynamic is portrayed feels so naturalistic and directly taken from life, which makes the film all the more heart-wrenching. Made during the Depression, it is no surprise that the film carries an inherent sadness and touches on themes of poverty and feeling lost in the world, as well as the changing of times and generations. There is a scene near the end in a ballroom that so perfectly encapsulates this feeling and shows McCarey’s talent for timing. Coming from comedies and being influenced by the death of his own father, Leo McCarey elevates this forgotten masterpiece from just another drama to one of Hollywood’s greatest Tear-Jerkers and a film for eternity. Orson Wells once said this film “would make a stone cry”, and, indeed, there won’t be a dry eye by the time the credits roll.

Jérôme Bewersdorff

Introduction shorts: We will start the screening with La maison en petits cubes from Kuni Kato, 2008 (12 min)