mizoguchi kenji ‘one scene, one shot’ his visual style

Mizoguchi Kenji

‘One scene, one shot’

His visual style

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.

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

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)

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

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)

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.


• 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.)


• Rembrandt Lighting


• 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.


• 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.


• REALISTIC and SYMBOLIC representation

• Visual REALISMConstruction of setsDesigning costumesFinding locationsBased on meticulou

s historical researc

h


• 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.


• Frequent uses of high-angle shot

• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic choice

• Composition inspired by traditional prints and scroll paintings


• 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)• Formal characteristics o

f composition and movement

DIAGONAL Composition and movem

ent

• Mizoguchi’s aesthetic sensibility as a painter

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

mizoguchi kenji ‘one scene, one shot’ his visual style

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