Mizoguchi Kenji

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 shown without interruption, that is, 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 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 cinemetrical measures; 5.9 second per shot in D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance and 2.5 seconds in American films made in 2007)

• 22 seconds in Osaka Elegy, 33 seconds in Gion, 57 seconds in 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

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)

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 it, so that the viewer can spend more time seeing and contemplating on it. Long shot provides more information.

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.

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-inprogress 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

Realistic and Symbolic Representation

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

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

• The beginning of Legend of the Taira Clan (Shin Heike Monogatari, 1955)

Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)

• High-angle composition inspired by traditional Japanese scroll paintings

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)

• Painterly cinematography - composition and subdued colour scheme reminding of the ink painting

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