(Chibusa yo eien nare, Kinuyo Tanaka, Japan 1955, 106 min., DCP, Japanese with English subtitles)
Fumiko, a mother of two and wife to an unfaithful husband, attempts to balance domestic responsibility with her work as a poet. Just as her writing career takes off, she divorces her husband and is diagnosed with breast cancer. As she grapples with changes to her life, a young journalist, who is enamored with her poetry, wants to write about her to help further her career. Stripped of the accepted cultural markers of femininity—family, domesticity, and even her breasts—Fumiko must rediscover her place as a woman in the deeply patriarchal Japanese society.
This humanist drama, with its almost Sirkian vision, was directed by Kinuyo Tanaka. She was among the most popular actors in Japanese cinema and worked with many of Japan's greatest filmmakers. In 1953, she became only the second woman ever to direct studio films in Japan. Forever a Woman is Tanaka’s third feature film and represents the height of her delicate cinematic style. In it, she explores a woman’s difficulty with letting go of her past, her loss of who she was, and her attempt to make a new life.
Introduction by and post-screening discussion with Selznick student Andrew Bacon.