Mizoguchi And Japan

by Fanu, Mark Le

• ISBN13: 9781844570560
• ISBN10: 1844570568
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-11
• Publisher: British Film Inst

Summary

For a majority of filmgoers, the names most usually associated with classic Japanese cinema are those of Kurosawa and Ozu. Yet during the early 1950s, at the same time that Kurosawa was becoming known to the public through the release of classics such as "Rashomon and "The Seven Samurai, another Japanese director, Kenji Mizoguchi, quietly came out with a trilogy of films--"The Life of "Oharu, Ugetsu Monogatari, and "Sansho the Bailiff--that are the equal of Kurosawa's in mastery, and that by any standard rank among the greatest and most enduring masterpieces of world cinema. Despite Mizoguchi's extraordinary qualities as a filmmaker, this is the first full-length study in English devoted to his work in over twenty years. Mark Le Fanu eloquently demonstrates that Mizoguchi's films are as vibrant now as they were in his heyday, and that the director richly deserves the praise lavished on him by the French film review "Cahiers du Cinema, which recently hailed Mizoguchi as "the greatest of all cineastes."

Author Biography

Mark Le Fanu lives and works in Denmark, where he is director of film history at the European Film College. Besides his interest in Japanese cinema, he is the author of a widely-acclaimed pioneer study of the Russian film-maker Tarkovsky (The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky, BFI books), and is a frequent contributor to journals such as Sight & Sound and Positif.

Table of Contents

Why Mizoguchi?

Preliminary clarifications -the historical background -biographical considerations -Mizoguchi on set

The Great Triptych ( The Life of Oharu, Sansho The Bailiff, Ugetsu Monogatari)

Further Historical Masterpieces (The Loyal 47 Ronin, Chikamatsu Monogatari, The Empress Yang Kwei Fei, Tales of the Taira Clan)

Geisha, Prostitution and the Street (Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, Straits of Love and Hate, Women of the Night, Street of Shame, Gion Festival Music, The Woman of Rumour)

Respectable Women ( The Love of Sumako the Actress, My Love Has Been Burning, A Picture of Madame Yuki, Miss Oyu, The Lady from Musashino)

Alive or Dead? ( Mizoguchi's films up to 1936, and The Story of the Last Crysanthemum)

Annotated bibliography

Annotated filmography

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