In Akira Kurosawa's first film after the end of World War II, future beloved Ozu regular Setsuko Hara gives an astonishing performance as Yukié, the only female protagonist in Kurosawa's body of work and one of his strongest heroes. Transforming herself from genteel bourgeois daughter to independent social activist, Yukié traverses a tumultuous decade in Japanese history. With Takashi Shimura.

There's nothing quite like the Sound of Bread. Since they were first formed in 1969 they have produced some of the most sophisticated pop music the world has ever heard.
It all began when three studio musicians decided to use their considerable talents for their own ends. David Gates, Robb Royer and James Griffin were all fine session men - and knew each other via a group called Pleasure Faire. From that basis came Bread.

Their hit single Make It With You gave them immediate success, and It Don't Matter To Me clinched it. Five albums and a string of hit singles between '70 and '72 kept the band almost constantly in the charts. They changed their line-up twice in that time: Adding drummer Mike Botts and substituting Larry Knechtel for Rob Royer (who left to concentrate on songwriting).

Loaded is without doubt The Velvet Underground's most popular album. At the same time, it is not their least groundbreaking one, considering how revolutionary their earlier works had been. Despite this, however, "Loaded" is a solid album of clever pop tunes, quirky instrumentations, and Reed's simultaneously humorous and sad lyrics.

The opening three tracks, "Who Loves the Sun," "Sweet Jane," and "Rock & Roll," are the album's disputed pop masterpieces, and have grown to become some of the most beloved rock tunes ever. On Loaded: Fully Loaded Edition, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" are replaced by their original, full-length version instead of the cut down versions originally released on the album in their radio edit single format. This is a nice touch for the above-average fan of the band, as it allows for the tracks to be heard as they were originally intended. "Cool It Down" is a rockin' tune as well with particularly scratchy and erratic vocals from Lou Reed. On the special edition, "New Age" also sees its paired down version replaced by an original, longer edit. The rest of the album is in its original form as not to differ too much from the original release of Loaded.

Try Whistling This by ex-Crowded House frontman Neil Finn was one of the most awaited releases of 1998, at least outside of North America. Despite frequently being lauded as the most accomplished songwriter since Lennon-McCartney, and despite producing memorable song after memorable song, Finn and his band were never able to really make an impact in this vital market.

Nonetheless, those that did know him eagerly purchased his new album. Established Finn territories New Zealand (his home and birthplace) and Australia (home of Crowded House) sent Try Whistling This to number one in its first week. And the response in the United Kingdom was almost as impressive, with the album having to settle for the number five spot.

THE CLOUD MYSTERY is a scientific detective story. It tells how a Danish scientist, Henrik Svensmark, through pioneering experiments in Copenhagen, solved the puzzle of how supernova explosions in our Galaxy and variations in the Sun govern climate changes on the Earth.

Scarcely audible above the noise about global warming, Svensmark has reported a new kind of aerial chemistry triggered by events in our Galaxy that shower our planet with atomic particles – the cosmic rays. This celestial mechanism determines cloudiness and temperatures on Earth. It is so powerful that we now have to re-evaluate the causes of global warming.

Mohib Ebrahim has created this amazing poster. To better appreciate the past and what was exposed by the CRU emails, the Timeline chart consolidates and chronologically organizes the information uncovered and published about the CRU emails by many researchers along with some related contextual events. That the chart exists at all is yet another example of how skilled experts are flocking in to the skeptics’ position and dedicating hours of time pro bono because they are passionately motivated to fight against those who try to deceive us. All original emails referred to in the PDF are included for reference.

One of the defining moments of the 1990s, despite happening at the start of the decade. The guitars start jittering, then "BOOMA-ABOOMA-ABOOMA-ABOOM!", the drums kick in and grunge splatters itself all over a generation of MTV viewers. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" will surely always speak to alienated teenagers, while giving them something to thrash around their rooms to, kicking the whole thing off as it means to go on. "Come As You Are" is dark and twisted, while "Lithium" and "In Bloom" show Kurt Cobain's often overlooked sense of humour, and "Stay Away" highlights the best way to shred your vocal chords. It's nigh-impossible not to love this album, and it will remain Nirvana's most affectionately remembered work. It's just a shame that a misplaced sense of "selling out" (stupid term if ever there was one) led to such an internal rejection of "...Teen Spirit". A work of genius, no question.

Though the sky is sunny on the cover, Emmerdale is quite a melancholy affair. First song Sick & Tired (the single) hints that all is not well in the Cardigans' camp, and later songs (Black Letter Day,After All..., Cloudy Sky) also capture a depressed mood which conflicts with the mostly upbeat and positive arrangements. Of course, all but two of the original songs were written by a converted metal fan, bassist Magnus Svenignsson. In keeping with that fact, the cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath shouldn't surprise anyone, though its clever arrangement and the touching vocals of Nina Persson -- even though she's throwing around Ozzy Osbourne lyrics -- render the song practically unrecognizable. In the end, the battle between positive arrangements and melancholy lyrics creates a wistful mood that suits the Cardigans well. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Based on an ancient legend, as recounted by celebrated author Mori Ogai (in his short story of the same name, written in 1915), and adapted by Mizoguchi in 1954, Sanshô Dayû is both distinctively Japanese and as deeply affecting as a Greek tragedy. Described in its opening title as “one of the oldest and most tragic in Japan’s history”, Mizoguchi depicts an unforgettably sad story of social injustice, family love, personal sacrifice, and fateful tragedy.

This production is characterized by its intentional seediness. Rigoletto and Sparafucile seem to live in some kind of shanty town, and even the Duke's "palace" is affected by post-nuclear decay and disrepair. The ripped chain-link fences and aluminum siding contradict the costumes, which are vaguely of the period Hugo and Verdi intended. The opening scene finds a small orgy in progress, with full frontal nudity from both genders, plus simulated intercourse. (You might want to send the young ones to bed before watching this.)

The Super Furry Animals have been speaking a different language to the majority of the 'competition' since they emerged in the mid-1990s. This time around, of course, they truly are speaking in tongues. Mwng or 'Mane' (as in horses) is a purely Welsh language album and is a theoretically disorientating and complex, but triumphantly audacious, experience.

This fascinating 19-song collection is more than just the only full concert document of Simon & Garfunkel at the peak of their career; it is also a chronicle of the time, a snapshot of an era when folk tradition was entering the pop-rock mainstream, as evidenced by the disc's deft juxtaposition of sociopolitical screeds, old-fashioned troubadour tales, and neo-Brill Building love songs. You'd be hard pressed to find a more naked recording - which is certainly a compliment. The acoustics of Lincoln Center, one of America's most renowned musical performance spaces, allow the simple elements (nothing but the duo's crisp harmonies and Simon's ringing acoustic guitar) to resound with both power and grace. Deftly mixing their poppiest material (like the breezy 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)) with the sort of offbeat interludes that made them a favorite among folk connoisseurs (the medieval-sounding Benedictus and the fleeting take on Davey Graham's jazzy instrumental Anji), Simon & Garfunkel were clearly at the top of their collective game on this evening. Effortlessly shifting from booming power (I Am a Rock, the classic John Cory) to incredible delicacy (Leaves That Are Green, the Garfunkel-carried For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her), S&G exhibit both the mortar that held them together and the fissures that ultimately tore them apart.

The Woodface Singles Collection contains rare and live tracks from the double-CD singles Fall At your Feet, Four Seasons In One Day, Weather With You and It's Only Natural.
The highlight of this set for many is the collection of live tracks featuring Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn, known as The Byrdhouse Tracks, recorded in L.A. in 1989.

Considering the legacy of films left by the great John Ford (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath), it is a little strange that Criterion chose Young Mr. Lincoln as the first of his films to get the luxe treatment it typically provides. Most movie-goers - even cinefiles - probably haven't seen the film, or even heard of it.

Nonetheless, here we are, with a mid-career, somewhat fictionalized story about Abraham Lincoln's days as a kid with gumption and a desire to become a lawyer, despite never attending law school for the training. The first act of the film gives us Lincoln (Henry Fonda, with the perfect haircut for the job) losing his first love and meeting Mary Todd, then starting up a bootstrap law practice where his primary means of settling disputes is the threat of kicking his clients in the rump.

Spanish director Víctor Erice has only completed three films in a career spanning nearly three decades. This is his spellbinding debut feature, which was made towards the end of General Franco's dictatorship, but which unfolds in rural Castille shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1940. Young Ana (Ana Torrent) is both captivated and puzzled by the screening of James Whale's "Frankenstein" in her village cinema, particularly by the scene in which the creature meets the little girl. Her elder and more knowing sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) mischievously explains that the monster of the film doesn't die: instead he survives as a living spirit and that if Ana closes her eyes, she can summon him herself. Isabel also tells her sibling that he can be seen at an isolated barn, which is where Ana discovers a wounded Republican soldier...