Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

The Shinjuku Musashinokan theater (3-27-10 Shinjuku; http://shinjuku.musashino-k.jp) celebrates the renaissance of Hollywood cinema in the ’60s-’70s with a series of “Ziggy Films.” Screening from July 3 is Brewster McCloud (1970; pictured), a rarely seen Robert Altman oddity about a young man hiding out in the Houston Astrodome while building a flying machine. That’s followed by the cult classic Harold and Maude (1971), which explores the relationship between a withdrawn teenager and a free-spirited 80-year-old woman

Being a farmer in the south of France may seem like an idyllic existence, but a more realistic picture is given in Modern Life (2008), a documentary by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Raymond Depardon. The film, currently being screened at Shibuya’s Image Forum (2-10-2 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku; www.imageforum.co.jp), offers portraits of people concerned about maintaining their livelihoods in the face of modernization

Soeur Sourire, a French-language biopic on “the singing nun” Jeanine Deckers, will screen at Ginza’s Cine Switch (4-4-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku; www.cineswitch.com) from July 3. Deckers was living in a convent in Belgium in 1963 when she recorded a song intended to be sold as a souvenir. The single became a surprise international hit, and Sister Smile, as she was known, appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a few weeks before The Beatles.