From commentary I’ve gathered that during the 30s Mizoguchi adhered rather strictly to a formal set of rules about filmmaking. One of these was to film each scene in a single shot. While that would have some clear advantages, it would also leave you at risk of creating a ponderous and sluggish movie. The task would be all the harder since they didn’t have zoom lens back then.
By the time of our movie, Mizoguchi had relaxed on his rules and expanded his camera toolkit. So while he still did mostly long takes and avoided close-ups and cut-away reaction shots, he was using cuts as internal punctuation in scenes.
What do you think of the visual style of this movie? And besides the camera work, what about the visual details? One thing I noticed is that we are not shown battle scenes between the armies. We see the fighters frequently, but mostly we see them looting and scrounging for food.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I don't usually notice things about visual style, but I did notice that a some of the scenes with a lot of people had a claustrophobic feel. Some of those shots were really tight.
The people in the DVD extras talked about how the camera was always moving. In most scenes that is really obvious. The camera is not just following the action; it is moving with the action. It's part of it. A moving point of view is part of the aesthetic. But I think it was the cinematographer who remarked that even when the camera didn't appear to be moving, it was.
I did notice the lack of close-ups because sometimes I was momentarily confused about which character was which. We didn't see their faces very closely (especially the women), and I occasionally got them mixed up.
Ben, imagine how busy the wardrobe crew must have been getting so many extras decked out in period costume.
As I recall, the scenes full of people were: when the villagers were fleeing from the army sacking their village, the town across the lake where Genjuro sells his wares, the warlord’s camps where Tobei first tries to join up and latter brings the head, and the brothel where Tobei finds his wife. In contrast to that bustle, for the time Genjuro spends with Lady Wakasa, the outside world seems to disappear.
Post a Comment