The Dance of Life

IT MAY be that the profoundest works of stage and screen perceive comedy and drama as not just jostling each other, but actually interpenetrating until they become almost indistinguishable. Such plays are The Misanthrope, Uncle Vanya, The Glass Menagerie; such films are The Children of Paradise, I Vitelloni, Tokyo Story, and now Masayuki Suo’s superb Shall We Dance?, one of the great films of all time.

Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to write about. First, because so much of it is conveyed through a glancing remark, a mere suggestion, even a silence. Second, because there are so few grand incidents that one hesitates to give away any of them. The very silences are twofold: those in which an important thing hovers shyly, tremulously just this side of speech; and powerful, abrupt lacunae the viewer has to fill in with his imagination. This is a movie so understated that much of it is told by the eyes and feet of its characters.

JS

About the Author

John Simon

Featured Tags

IT MAY be that the profoundest works of stage and screen perceive comedy and drama as not just jostling each other, but actually interpenetrating until they become almost indistinguishable. Such plays are The Misanthrope, Uncle Vanya, The Glass Menagerie; such films are The Children of Paradise, I Vitelloni, Tokyo Story, and now Masayuki Suo’s superb Shall We Dance?, one of the great films of all time.

Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to write about. First, because so much of it is conveyed through a glancing remark, a mere suggestion, even a silence. Second, because there are so few grand incidents that one hesitates to give away any of them. The very silences are twofold: those in which an important thing hovers shyly, tremulously just this side of speech; and powerful, abrupt lacunae the viewer has to fill in with his imagination. This is a movie so understated that much of it is told by the eyes and feet of its characters.