For those of you who missed the film, it is available from the Dogwoof store on Amazon. I’d certainly recommed it. It doesn’t seem to be available from Lovefilm.

Born in 1955 in Hanover, a large part of Doris Dörrie’s education was in the USA, and also included the film school in Munich. Her first feature came out in 1983, but it was with the warm comedy Men… two years later that she achieved her first major success with over six million admissions worldwide.

Cherry Blossoms emerged while conducting research on Ozu’s great masterpiece Tokyo Story, and is a remarkable piece of work on the subject of bereavement, families and transience. We’ve never shown any Ozu, so maybe with the retrospective currently on at the BFI we should seriously look at doing so next season. There’s a good piece by Ian Buruma on Ozu in today’s Guardian.

The film she made before Cherry Blossoms, How to Cook Your Life is a documentary about the Zen chef, Ed Brown, and is also available from Dogwoof. It looks rather fun.

Read More

• Article on Doris Dörrie from University of Victoria, Canada
• David Noh. “Cherry Blossom Time: Germany’s Doris Dörrie ventures to Japan for drama of aging and rebirth.” Film Journal International. 30 December 2008.
• Birgit Rühe. “Doris Dörrie.” FemBio
• Karin Luisa Badt. “From a Line of Ancestors: Talking with Doris Dörrie and Natasha Arthy.” Bright Lights Film Journal May 2008