MovieChat Forums > Ukigusa (1970) Discussion > Comparison to 'Sawdust + Tinsel'

Comparison to 'Sawdust + Tinsel'

posted 12 years ago by RashomonLaStrada
2 replies | jump to latest

Just saw Bergman's 1953 "Sawdust & Tinsel" then wracked my brain to remember the name of the Japanese movie that had some similarities.

S&T was about a circus troupe rather than acting troupe. But both troupes were barely surviving and had older impresarios with pretty young performer girlfriends. Both impresarios were bringing their performers to a town where a wife/woman and son lived (in both cases the sons did not know this man was their father).

A lot was different. The stories played out in different ways. But there was a similar feeling to the two movies.

Has anyone else noted these similarities? Any chance Bergman's movie influenced this one?

The odd thing was, after I saw "Floating Weeds" last year I thought this script seemed much more likely to be an Italian movie!

"The good end happily, the bad unhappily, that is why it is called Fiction."

[–] adrianbkelly 12 years ago

Just watched the gorgeous MoC bluray & lived it! I was also thinking about the similarities with Sawdust, although they are quite different films.

Difficult to say who influenced who (if at all); Sawdust was made before Floating Weeds, but this was a remake of Ozu's earlier silent The Story of Floating Weeds.

[–] pfr_77 10 years ago

I did not even begin to think about that. To be fair Sawdust & Tinsel is one of my least favorite Bergman films and despite watching it twice, it simply doesn't connect with me at all and have a terrible memory of it. I probably couldn't have even told you that much about it (content in OP) off the top of my head without thinking about it rreeeaalll hard.