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Mizoguchi Kenji: Master of Long-Take Montage

Explore the innovative visual style of director Mizoguchi Kenji as he crafts intense psychological moments through long-take montage and meticulous mise-en-scène. Delve into his auteur approach focusing on suffering women, patriarchal critique, and symbolic storytelling in films like "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums" and "Sansho the Bailiff."

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Mizoguchi Kenji: Master of Long-Take Montage

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  1. Mizoguchi Kenji ‘One scene, one shot’ His visual style

  2. Mizoguchi as Auteur • Mizoguchi Kenji (1898-1956) • Born as the son of a poor carpenter • His sister sold as a geisha • Father’s brutal treatment of Kenji’s mother and sisters • He quit school at 13 and worked as a graphic artist and then as an film actor.

  3. 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

  4. 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 picture 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)

  5. 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

  6. Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Expansive screen space • Continuous space created by fluid pan and traveling shots • Skillful uses of on- and off-screen space • Off-screen space further indicated by repeated sound effects The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)

  7. 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.

  8. 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.)

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

  10. 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.

  11. Mizoguchi’s Visual Style (mise-en-scène) • Ugetsu • The scene in which 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 long take with full dramatic power and irony.

  12. 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

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 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)

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

  17. 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

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