WINTER 2007
LONG TAKE ON MIZOGUCHI
JANUARY 26-FEBRUARY 27
Born impoverished in 1898 Tokyo and exposed first-hand from an early age to the systematic oppression of women in Japanese society - his sister was sold as a geisha and his father abused his mother and sister - pantheon film director Kenji Mizoguchi had numerous influences molding his worldview. From early silent films such as A PAPER DOLL'S WHISPER OF SPRING (KAMI NINGYORU NO SASAYAKI, 1926), to his first sound masterworks OSAKA ELEGY (NANIWA EREJI, 1936) and STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUM (ZANGIKU MONOGATARI, 1939), to such final treasures as UGETSU (1953) and SANSHO THE BAILIFF (SANSHO DAYU, 1954), Mizoguchi created a sublimely timeless body of work that transcends the aggression and exploitation of the world-at-large. A painstaking attention to period detail, lighting, frame composition and long takes, coupled with his intuitive outlook and empathy for his characters, reveal a simple poetry of supernatural power. Along with Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, Mizoguchi remains at the pinnacle of not just Japan's motion picture legacy, but of international cinema. All films in Japanese with English subtitles. Seven New 35mm Prints!
Series Pass: $50/35 NWFF Members
JAN 26-FEB 1 Fri-Thurs at 7, 9pm
UGETSU
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1953, 35mm, 94 min.)
A work of unsurpassed lyricism and emotional power and one of the most beautiful films ever, UGETSU ranks among the greatest films of all time. Simultaneously realistic, allegorical and supernatural, it features magnificent examples of Mizoguchi's panoramic, long-take shots in a 16th-century story of an ambitious village potter who abandons his devoted wife for the wealth of the city and the illicit pleasures of a ghost woman. A poignant evocation of the illusory nature of worldly desires, as well as one of the most haunting depictions of the supernatural ever committed to celluloid. Winner of the 1953 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion.
"Ravishingly composed, evocatively beautiful...Its reputation as a landmark of the Japanese cinema has remained undented." -TIME OUT, LONDON
JAN 29-30 Mon-Tues at 7, 9:30pm
SANSHO THE BAILIFF
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1954, 35mm, 120 min.)
Early Japan comes to life in this deeply moving period piece based on a folktale about a provincial governor whose forced exile affects this his wife and children. Pitting humanism and democratic ideals against cruelty and barbarism, SANSHO was the third Mizoguchi work in a row to win a major prize at the Venice Film Festival. Shot by UGETSU and RASHAMON cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.
"SANSHO THE BAILIFF is a film of breathtaking visual beauty." -NEW YORK TIMES
FEB 5-6 Mon-Tues at 7, 9:30pm
THE LIFE OF OHARU
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1952, 35mm, 136 min.)
Based on one of Japan's most revered novels, THE LIFE OF OHARU established the director's international reputation with its exquisite compositions and breathtaking sequence shots. The film offers a study of a beautiful 17th-century Kyoto court lady expelled for dallying with a lower-class man (Toshiro Mifune in his only Mizoguchi appearance) and gradually reduced to prostitution and begging. Most critics place it with UGETSU at the pinnacle of Mizoguchi's artistry, and the filmmaker himself called it his masterpiece.
"[THE LIFE OF OHARU] should further enhance Mizoguchi's reputation as the cinema's greatest ever director of women, and as one of the most meticulous craftsmen of the period film." -TIME OUT, LONDON
FEB 12-13 Mon-Tues at 7, 9pm
UTAMARO AND HIS FIVE WOMEN
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1946, 35mm, 89 min.)
Mizoguchi's fictionalized biography of the famous artist, UTAMARO details the "floating world" - the licensed pleasure zone of bars and bordellos in 17th-century Edo - and some of its most beautiful (and entrapped) denizens. By linking the stories of five women using long, fluid shot sequences, Mizoguchi reveals Utamaro's as an artist whose obsession to capture women's haunting beauty clearly echoed the director's own. UTAMARO marks the first appearance in a Mizoguchi film of Kinuyo Tanaka, who would be a cornerstone of his later work.
"The exercise of an exceptionally active and intricate intelligence." -NEW YORK TIMES
FEB 19-20 Mon-Tues at 7, 9pm
STREET OF SHAME
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1956, 35mm, 87 min.)
Sympathetically, but without sentimentality, Mizoguchi depicts the plights and dreams of women working in a post-World War II Tokyo brothel as rumors fly about an impending anti-prostitution law. An in-depth exploration of Mizoguchi's perennial interest in exploited women, the director's last completed film is said to have influenced actual anti-prostitution laws passed in Japan the following year.
FEB 26-27 Mon-Tues at 7pm
SISTERS OF THE GION
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1936, 35mm, 69 min.)
Widely regarded as the finest Japanese film of the prewar era, SISTERS OF THE GION focuses on two geishas in Kyoto's red-light district who differ in their attitudes toward men, but share a sad fate. Condemned as decadent by government censors, the film was applauded as a landmark in the development of Japanese realism. It is a marvelous example of Mizoguchi's characteristic thematic concerns (the social position of women, the redemptive power of their love) and of his beautiful visual style. Winner of Japan's prestigious Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film in 1937.
FEB 26-27 Mon-Tues at 8:30pm
THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1939, 35mm, 142 min.)
An exploration of female self-sacrifice set in the world of 19th-century Japanese kabuki theater, LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS is considered Mizoguchi's best by some. A young actor on his own is joined by a former servant who offers him unquestioning loyalty and devotion. A passionate period piece featuring dazzling camerawork - including a famous ten-minute take - and a shattering climax.
"A true find: a heart breaker to end them all." -TIME OUT, LONDON
