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Dec 28 2025

1949 – Late Spring

1949 – Late Spring – (Banshun)

It’s a Japanese drama film directed by the great Yasujirō Ozu. It stars Chishû Ryû as Shukishi Somiya (the father) and Setsuko Hara as Noriko Somiya (the daughter). The plot is about a 27 year old woman taking care of her widowed father, and the societal pressure that she experiences, because she’s not married yet; even her father is even trying to convince her of this. It’s the first of the so-called “Noriko trilogy” in which Setsuko Hara plaus a woman named Noriko on each one – the other two being “Early Summer” and the much more famous “Tokyo Story“. I saw it on YouTube here.

People love telling others what to do, what they should spend their money on, how they should raise their kids, heck, even if, when, and how many kids they should have. In today’s society it is often seen as meddling, we have become quite individualistic, but we forget that often this advice comes from a place of good, that people actually care.

That is basically what I felt while watching the movie. In the beginning, I grew, if not angry, then annoyed at the aunt interfering in her niece’s life and even convincing her brother. But by the end she was so happy, convinced that good fortune was going to come upon their family, that even the father plays that game.

It’s a testament to the movie that I am still ambivalent about what the right path is. On the one hand, hey, it’s her life, she should decide what to do with it. On the other hand, it’s not like she’s harboring some grand plan or passion that would be destroyed if she got married. No, she just doesn’t want things to change. But in a society in late 1940s Japan, where everybody is still reeling from the war, personal fulfillment sort of takes a back seat.

Ok, so the themes seem pretty clear, how about the execution? Be ready for it to be slow. But so slow, that you get lost in that Japan with an amazing cinematography. At one point, they visit Kyoto and the pictures are so vivid, I swear, I could almost see color. And the slowness helps in discerning the feelings of everyone. How somebody says something matter-of-factly, but the camera lingers on a face, a sake cup, a dress for just long enough to let us know what’s really going on.

Most of the time that was fine, great even. However, at some points it became so slow as to become tedious. For example, there is a visit to a traditional Noh theater, which just drags and drags, I became restless and missed a realization, which thankfully was explained later.

I am quite happy that I chose this 25th movie as my last of 2025, it makes you contemplative heading into the New Year. I really loved this little project so far, picking out the next movie every 2 weeks, discovering something new or finally scratching something off an inner mental list. Next blog post will be a quick one with a ranking and then off we go with 1950-1974 in 2026! But for now, Happy New Year, may it bring you joy, health, good luck and of course… great movies!

Aug 24 2025

1940 – Ahí está el detalle

1940 – Ahí está el detalle (You’re missing the point)

The movie is a mexican comedy, directed by Juan Bustillo Oro. It stars the great “mexican Charlie Chaplin” Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) as himself with a great supporting staff. It is his breakout role, even though he had portrayed this character in many skits and even films before. I saw it on YouTube for free thanks to the restoration of Cineteca of the UNAM from material of Televisa A.C.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is a black hole for productivity. It’s often a period of lounging from food coma to food coma and boring family visits; kids running around, adults getting out some whiskey with a snicker, everybody trying out their new Christmas presents, whether it is clothes, toys, perfumes, etc. In the background there is some movie playing that always plays during that time and you take it in, sometimes non-consciously, sometimes jumping into the middle or not finishing it.

Even last year, that’s how I spent my week, with my mother in law on her last Christmas (she passed away in April) – watching the original Sissi marveling at the beauty of Romy Schneider or Little Lord Fauntleroy with Alec Guiness, a staple of movies shown that week. I guess in the US, they probably watch It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas and The Sound of Music over that week.

Well, growing up in Guatemala, back when we didn’t have cable or were visiting relatives that didn’t have cable, it was Cantinflas time. I don’t remember details of what I saw, it’s more like feelings, like watching the one where he gets to become a pilot at my aunt’s place with my dad, while my cousin had fallen asleep next to me. The shtick of Cantinflas movies is always the same – he gets in a situation way above his vagrant status (e.g. becoming an ambassador, a musqueteer, a congressman, an anthlete, a prince, a movie star, a priest, etc.) and hilariousness ensues. Yes, in Guatemala Cantinflas is cult, even if it is a Mexican figure! And growing up even as kids, you copied the mannerisms of him, his affected way of speaking hilariously mocked in the kids program Chiquilladas, which I also saw as a kid by Carlos Espejel’s Carlinflas. I personally like Chespirito much more and he is (sort of) more of my time, but you have got to acknowledge the tremendous influence he had over Mexican cinema and Latin-America as a whole.

So for 1940, I was almost ready to watch The Philadelphia Story (ah, yes, yet another screwball comedy with Cary Grant…), when I saw the Cantinflas movie way down. Hey, I hadn’t seen that one, and it’s the one that made him famous, so off I go into nostalgia territory.

I had a blast! I do understand that this movie is probably not for everybody, especially non-native spanish speakers as so much of the comedy is wordplay (very simple wordplay, but nonetheless). One thing I like, is that Cantinflas is not perfect, in fact, he becomes a quite despicable character when he’s drunk. He takes advantage of people, he’s lazy, always looks out for himself. But in the end, you can’t help to love the doofus. There’s a reason he became so famous and it’s different from the US-American brand, very Latin-American coded, yet he truly makes it his own (even if he apparently became quite insufferable in his opinions in old age, which thankfully I didn’t consciously experience).

But can I recommend this to anybody? Like, if you want to get to know this “Cantinflas” phenomenon? There are probably better, more visual stories from him that don’t rely on the word play comedy as much, so no, not anybody. But this one goes right up among the best old movies I have seen this year and it’s just the combination of situation comedy, wordplay, but good old nostalgia playing a role. For a little while, I was a kid in Guatemala again, just enjoying the simple life of watching an old movie on the basic local channels.

Mar 13 2013

Keep on truckin’

The picture above I took while traveling through Germany on January 2nd. 2013 is going to be an exciting year in my journey – personally and academically!

I am sorry I did not continue the blog. Part of it was that pressure to finish that blog about the meeting we had on AGN at Ringberg castle. It was an impressive meeting, I learned a lot and Ringberg is a really beautiful location, especially in the snow. But… I felt lazy blogging about it. I grew scientifically, but I don’t know if that interest people that read my blog. I don’t know much to say beyond what was said on David Rosario’s blog on the meeting here and the live tweeting/discussions that I had with people online during the event.

And that became sort of like the blogging dilemma everybody goes through. My numbers of readers did not overly increase. I kept wondering if reaching out to those that read this blog was important. If me writing about my New Year’s scientific resolutions online would be viewed as conceited. If me addressing some “crisis” (philosophical or practical) in astronomy could be viewed as megalomaniacal. I am a postdoc, enjoying what I do, still mostly an observer and wonderer about the world around me. In the last few weeks I have found myself on opposite sides of the “consensus” opinion around me and I wonder if my voicing it in a blog is not adding fuel to a fire to which everybody is entitled to their own opinion (for example, politics).

Another part was that a lot is happening around my life. Many changes are on the horizon for me, many of which I will address on this blog in due time, too. But some things, like job prospects, really shouldn’t be talked about until everything is sorted out. There are people that thrive on it, that are delighted in discussing the rumors of who’s going where and when and why, but I simply don’t like to talk about it.

Then there are other things keeping me away: proposals, observing, work. It seems like every day is filled with meetings that keep me away from the desk and at the end of the day I sit there wondering where it went – I used to be so much more productive.

I was wrong, though. I missed blogging these last two months – those few hours of introspection. I missed putting my thoughts about the week into words. For example, last week I had a 2-day career workshop. It didn’t do wonders or anything, but it solidified me in many decisions I took 2 years ago – staying in astronomy. I still feel like I need to put down those experiences into written words, but also to share it with anybody that is interested in it (that would mostly be astronomy postdocs).

I am not going to be all draconian about it, though. Maybe I’ll write a week, maybe I won’t. Maybe there’ll be two posts in a week, who knows. On Saturday I will be traveling to the US for three weeks. I am sure lots of thoughts will go through my head, plus travel is always good to write about. So with that, if you still have me in your Readers or RSS feeds – thank you. I hope to continue writing stuff about being a postdoc in observational astronomy. In the end, it’s something I really want to communicate to the world, because I really like what I do!