Make Way for Tomorrow

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When an elderly couple are evicted from their house, none of their five children will take them both in. Forced instead to separate, the couple take one last outing where they reminisce over their lives together and lament a future alone.

Based on the 1934 novel, The Years Are So Long by Josephine Lawrence the film was (and still is) one of the few American films to take an unflinchingly unsentimental view of old age, in particular in it's ending, which director Leo McCarey refused to change despite studio pressure. The film fared poorly at the box office and Paramount didn't renew McCarey's contract, however it became well regarded and much loved with Yasujiro Ozu taking inspiration from is for his best known film Tokyo Story (1954) and today Make Way for Tomorrow is rightly regarded as one of the director's and Hollywood's greatest, if traumatic achievements.

Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair is presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque and Prince Charles Cinema.