Tuesday, January 14, 1997
FILM:
Kenji Mizoguchi’s movies get a deserved second look in seriesBy
Brandon Wilson
Daily Bruin Staff
The best expression of director Kenji Mizoguchi’s quiet mastery
comes with an unassuming shot in the middle of "Osaka Elegy." A
woman joyously greets a man who runs up a flight of stairs to meet
her. They move toward a nearby boudoir to talk, the woman harboring
a secret that could destroy their relationship.
The above is filmed all in one take and without cuts, and it is
only until about midway through the sequence that even the most
acutely trained viewer realizes that the camera is moving, either
by track, by crane or both. The composition and the choreography
between actors and camera is so seamless that the doubtlessly
complex shot passes by almost without notice.
In this day and age, when filmmakers sound trumpets for even
less elaborate maneuvers and wait for adulation (for showy tracking
shots which have become the measure of a director’s prowess),
Mizoguchi’s choice to design a sequence shot to look static is
nothing short of startling.
"Osaka Elegy" (1936), along with "The Woman of Rumour" (1954),
kicked off "The Art of Kenji Mizoguchi" last Saturday night at
Melnitz Hall. Sponsored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in
conjunction with the Cinematheque Ontario and the Audio-Visual
Division of the Japan Foundation, the series runs through Feb. 4
and features 20 of the surviving films of the more than 70 he
directed over his long career.
Though his films won top prizes in international film festivals
during the ’50s, neither Mizoguchi’s name nor films enjoy the
popularity of his compatriots Yasujiro Ozu or Akira Kurosawa. Yet
Mizoguchi was championed over Kurosawa by no less than the
influential film journal Cahiers du Cinema by then-film critics and
future auteurs Jacques Rivette and Jean-Luc Godard.
Born in 1898, Mizoguchi’s artistic and personal obsession with
women and their often-lamentable position within Japanese society
probably began when his sister was sold to a geisha house to
alleviate his family’s financial strain. Many of his films take
place in and examine the tradition-sanctioned world of the geisha
house, which is in essence a legally sanctioned, time-honored form
of prostitution. His final film (before his death in 1956) "Streets
of Shame," a look at streetwalking , was instrumental in forcing
the hand of Japanese legislature in banning the practice (though
the geisha houses are still in existence).
Mizoguchi’s arena of choice was the melodrama; his films
typically chronicled the struggles of women who sacrificed all for
loutish and/or leeching men all too willing to use them up.
His biography bears a not-accidental resemblance to his life; as
a young man, the director was a frequent visitor to the houses and
was supported by his geisha sister and mistresses well into
adulthood, until he abandoned his plans to be a painter for the
more steadily lucrative job of studio director.
Though his films take an almost daring stance in support of and
sympathetic to his heroines, it isn’t exactly accurate to place the
laurel of Pioneer Feminist on the director; his longtime
on-screen/off-screen relationship with lead actress Isuzu Yamada
was ended when Mizoguchi unsuccessfully tried to thwart her own
then-fledgling career as a film director.
While he managed to enjoy a great deal of creative control,
Mizoguchi was subject to the winds of war like other Japanese film
artisans, and the result was the samurai-oriented films he was
commanded to make to drum up nationalistic pride during the war
effort. Films from the 1940s like "The Loyal 47 Ronin" (Parts 1 and
2 screen Jan. 19) show Mizoguchi skillfully negotiating the rather
foreign terrain of the samurai film, walking the fine line of
satisfying both the specifications of the genre and his own unique
creative muse.
Jan. 16 features two films which cover the same subject matter
at different periods in the director’s career. "Sisters of Gion"
(1936) deals with a pair of female siblings who are both geishas in
a house in Kyoto. The older sister is traditional, the younger
sister modern and free-thinking. In the 1953 "A Geisha," Mizoguchi
details the bond which forms between two geishas (the older more
molded by her subservient role, the younger one challenging the
notion that they are both just chattel) who find themselves serving
the same upper-crust master. Seeing how the director’s approach to
virtually the same story changes over the years speaks more about
his depth and development as an artist than any summation or
written appraisal.
As with almost any great director, Mizoguchi’s career is also
marked by the successful collaborations he enjoyed over the years,
including the ill-fated but distinguished relationship with Isuzu
Yamada, his partnership with screenwriter Yoshikata Yoda, who time
again found compelling narrative vehicles for the themes that
Mizoguchi was so consumed with, and cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa,
who enabled one-time painter Mizoguchi to make the screen his
canvas with his trademark long takes, impeccable sense of
composition and painter’s sense of perspective apparent with every
shot.
What remains of Mizoguchi’s work gives evidence to his
underrated genius, and the series at Melnitz provides a rare
opportunity to get acquainted with the work of a master.
FILM: "The Art of Kenji Mizoguchi" continues Thursday night at
Melnitz Hall.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
"The Life of Oharu" (1952), which won international acclaim at
the Venice Film Festival, will screen Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in
Melnitz Hall.Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
"Sansho the Bailiff" will screen Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. in Melnitz
Hall.