Late Autumn

In this beautiful, touching, bittersweet comedy, a mature masterpiece made three years before his death in 1963, Ozu brought his delicate minimalist technique to bear on the story of three middle-aged businessmen matchmaking for the widow and daughter of their closest friend. In different ways – visual texture, sharp social criticism underlying an apparently bland surface, the tensions of quiet lives – I was reminded of affinities between Ozu's films and those of Douglas Sirk and Eric Rohmer.