Mizoguchi Kenji Onesceneinoneshot His visual style Mizoguchis Visual

Mizoguchi Kenji ‘One-scene-in-one-shot’ His visual style

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage) • LONG-TAKE * Take = a single continuous recording • Shot - Scene - Sequence *shot = the shortest unit of film which is continuously shown without interruption, that is, without editing; *scene = a shot or a series of shots that comprise a single, complete event or action; *sequence = a series of scenes which show related events, settings or stories • ‘One-scene-in-one-shot’; an entire action in a scene is shown in one shot

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage) • Why does Mizoguchi rely on long-take or insist one scene in one shot? *Average Shot Length (ASL) = a cine-metrical measures; 5. 9 second per shot in D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance and 2. 5 seconds on average in American films made in 2007) • 22 seconds in Osaka Elegy, 33 seconds in Sisters of Gion, 57 seconds in Last Chrysanthemum, 92 seconds in The 47 Ronin, 29 seconds in Ugetsu

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage) ‘… the most precise and specific expression for intense psychological moments. ’ Mizoguchi Kenji • Long-take is an effective way to create psychological tension • Though demanding for performers and cameramen

Long take in Sisters of Gion (1935) with mainly static camerawork. 29. 00

Consistent use of long take in the post-war films; but the camerawork is more eloquent in the postwar films. Life of Oharu (1952) 44. 20

Ugetsu: long take but Miyagawa’s cinematography is more eloquent than that of prewar films with pans and changing camera angles in each scene. By boat

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Expansive screen space • Continuous space created by fluid pan and traveling shots (Oharu) • Skillful uses of on- and offscreen space • Off-screen space further indicated by repeated sound effects (e. g. Chrysanthemums)

Expansive space indicated by fluid pan and travelling shot in Life of Oharu 59. 50

First three figures in the frame talking. Another voice is heard, ‘Yes, I agree. ’ from the off-screen space on the right and the camera pans right. The Last Chrysanthemum 1. 29. 20

Kikunosuke and Otoku Start their new life as husband wife in humble lodgings, but near theatre. The offscreen space is indicated by the sound of clappers. 1. 07. 30 After Kikunosuke’s departure, Otoku returns to the lodgings on her own. She has lost her husband the same sound of clappers heard from the offscreen space. 1. 55. 40

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • One of the great mise-en-scene directors along with Murnau, Ophüls, and Wells • Mise-en-scène = ‘staging’ (‘to put it in the scene’) • It includes all the elements placed before the camera or within a frame - actors, their performance, sets, props, make-ups, costumes, etc. • It also includes the way in which those elements are shown - visual arrangement and composition lighting, camera angle, camera movement, shot size, lens choice, etc.

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Chiaro-scuro lighting - strong contrast between light and shade (Rembrandt lighting - Mizoguchi learned western paintings when young. ) • Atmospheric, moody and powerful images

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Rembrandt Lighting

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Mizoguchi’s chiaro-scuro cinematography (e. g. Sansho the Bailiff)

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise -en-scène) • Long-shot (a camera view of a character or object from a distance) (or no close-ups) • Related to long-take; the longer a take is, the more information needs to fill the screen, so that the viewer can spend more time seeing and contemplating on it. Long shot provides more information.

Long shot and deep space composition • Multiple actions are shown in long shots and deep space. Different objects are shown in long shots and deep space. 2. 22. 00

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • The scene in Ugetsu where the heroine is dying in agony while the soldiers on the run squabble for pathetic rice balls for which they killed her. • A tragedy and human waste is staged in a long shot with multiple actions.

• Deep space composition is consistently seen from Mizoguchi’s earliest films. Foreground (chest of drawers and screen), middle ground (Omocha and Furusawa) and background (Shoji) Sisters of Gion

• Describe the compositional style in this scene from Sisters of Gion • Deep space composition

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • REALISTIC and SYMBOLIC representation • Visual REALISM Construction of sets, designing costumes finding locations based on meticulous historical research

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Sansho the Bailiff : The opening shot shows travelers walking across a river bed. • Its symbolic visual meaning retroactively becomes apparent as the film progresses. • Our life is a only journey-in-progress from eternity to another eternity.

Realistic and Symbolic Representation • • Symbolic meaning of water Passage from one life to another Passage separating this world from the other world Repeated in many films by Mizoguchi

Realistic and Symbolic Representation • A canal separates Gion, a Kyoto pleasure district, where two sisters work as geisha and commercial its districts. • Water trade / ephemeral world / floating world

Realistic and Symbolic Representation • The lake Biwa separate a village from a large town • The lake Biwa also separates this world from the other

Realistic and Symbolic Represent ation • The world on reality and dream in Oyu Sama • Giving up the torrid triangular love, a woman lives like a recluse in a house near the Yodo River. Her former lover secretly visits her, but being no longer able to distinguish what he is seeing is real or not.

Realistic and Symbolic Representation • Water is an important motif in Lady of Musashino • Fleeting affairs between a married woman and a younger student • Water separates the mundane world and the dreamy world

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Frequent uses of sharply angled shot • Mizoguchi’s aesthetic choice • Composition inspired by traditional prints and scroll paintings

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • POV from high in the air and looking down on a scene • High angle shot like the traditional Japanese painting • The beginning of Legend of the Taira Clan (Shin Heike Monogatari, 1955)

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Formal characteristics of composition and movement DIAGONAL Composition and movement • Mizoguchi’s aesthetic sensibility as a painter

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Diagonal compositions constructed from the lines of floor, ceiling, beam, and tatami are frequently seen in Mizoguchi’s films.

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Horizontal composition (examples) • Ozu preferred horizontal to diagonal

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Naruse Mikio, follower of Ozu in his penchant for horizontal composition

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Painterly cinematography - composition and subdued colour scheme reminding of the ink painting

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (montage) • Montage - editing • The same or similar visual motifs repeated in a film • Young Anju and Zushio breaking tree branches and collecting grass for a shelter. The similar scene with the same composition to be repeated later. Sansho the Bailiff

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style • LONG TAKE, LONG SHOT, OFF-SCREEN SPACE, SOUND EFFECT, DIAGONAL COMPOSITION AND MOVEMENT articulate emotions, intensify drama, clarify meanings, provide aesthetic and formal pleasure. • The Life of Oharu

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style • Describe the opening scene of The Tales of the Taira Clan from the viewpoint of Mizoguchi’s auteuristic visual styles.