mizoguchi kenji ‘one scene, one shot’ his visual style
TRANSCRIPT
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Mizoguchi Kenji
‘One scene, one shot’
His visual style
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Mizoguchi as Auteur• Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-19
56)• Born as the son of a poor
carpenter• His sister sold as a geisha• Father’s brutal treatment o
f Kenji’s mother and sisters
• He quit school at 13 and worked as a graphic artist and then as an film actor.
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Mizoguchi as Auteur• Melodramatic representation of: Suffering women, feminine self-
sacrifice, brutality and cruelty of men• ‘Feminist’ indictment of: feudalism /
patriarchic system, oppression of
women• Or idealization and glorification of ‘feminine virtues’, atonement and forgiveness brought about by women
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (Montage)• LONG-TAKE (shot of long duration)
‘One-scene-one-shot’; A scene is constructed without cuts (or editing)
• Why does Mizoguchi rely on long-take? (*Shot = a single continuous strip of motion p
icture film that runs uninterrupted (without editing)*Take = a single continuously recorded performance*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)
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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 psycholo
gical tension• Though demanding for performers and cameram
en
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Expansive screen space• Continuous space created b
y fluid pan and traveling shots
• Skillful uses of on- and off-screen space
• Off-screen space further indicated by repeated sound effectsThe Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
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Mise-en-scène• Mise-en-scène is a French term for ‘staging’ -
literal translation ‘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.
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• One of the great mise-en-scene directors along with Murnau, Ophüls, and Wells
(Mise-en-scène = what to show and how to show it.)
• Chiaro-scuro lighting - strong contrast between light and shade
(Rembrandt lighting - Mizoguchi learned western paintings when young.)
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Rembrandt Lighting
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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.
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Ugetsu• The scene in which t
he 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 long take with full dramatic power and irony.
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• REALISTIC and SYMBOLIC representation
• Visual REALISMConstruction of setsDesigning costumesFinding locationsBased on meticulou
s historical researc
h
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Sansho the Bailiff • The opening shot shows tra
velers 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.
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)
• Frequent uses of high-angle shot
• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic choice
• Composition inspired by traditional prints and scroll paintings
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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)
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène)• Formal characteristics o
f composition and movement
DIAGONAL Composition and movem
ent
• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic sensibility as a painter
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Mizoguchi’s Visual Style• LONG TAKE, LONG SHO
T, OFF-SCREEN SPACE, SOUND EFFECT, DIAGONAL COMPOSITION AND MOVEMENT articulate emotions, intensify drama, clarify meanings, provide aesthetic and formal pleasure.
• The Life of Oharu