52-59 / BD 36-37, 71-72 Late Mizoguchi: Eight Films, 1951-56

[Gregory]

Ozu's Hollywood prefernce seems to have been for films like those of Lloyd and Lubitsch, rather than melodramas. Certainly he was influenced by films like Docks of New York (and Last Laugh) -- but films like these were more of an influence on 1930s Mizoguchi -- while there is little to suggest that Mizoguchi took much interest in American comedies.

According to Noël Burch, Ozu had a particular fondness for Ophüls. I'd like to know more, but would love to think that he saw and appreciated great Hollywood melodramas such as Letter from an Unknown Woman and The Reckless Moment. I certainly find that a plausible thing to suppose, given Burch's comment (though of course Ophüls's use of the camera was very different from Ozu's own, to say the least).

[Michael Kerpan]

Basically Ozu saw almost everything Western he could get his hands on during the period prior to the cut-off of Western films in the late 30s. In terms of more serious directors, Ozu really admired Ford and King Vidor. And then he saw a huge trove of later, "contraband" Western films during 1944-45, while posted in Singapore to make propaganda films (that he never made much progress towards completing). Not sure how much he watched during the post-war period, perhaps his diaries tell us (once available in French translation, now long out of print -- alas, I didn't get these in time). We know he saw -- and disliked -- widescreen films. My sense is that while Late Summer shows some traces of 40s Hollywood, he did not follow through with this in his later films.

Some Japanese directors were also quite enthusaiastic about French cinema -- for instance Gosho was a big fan of Rene Clair.

Getting back to Mizoguchi, during the 50s, he was apparently quite obsessed with William Wyler's films -- and considered him his only real "competitor" (Bordwell, Figures Traced in Light).

[Drucker]

With a day left, there's a copy on ebay with a current bid of $107.50.

This thing is already at Naruse territory for price.

[Michael Kerpan]

Don't it always seem to go. That you don't know what you've got. Till it's gone.

[MichaelB]

The Cinema Ritrovato Awards for 2014 have just been announced, including:

BEST SPECIAL FEATURES ON BLU-RAY: LATE MIZOGUCHI – EIGHT FILMS, 1951-1956
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan) – Eureka Entertainment

The publication of eight indisputable masterpieces in stellar transfers on Blu-Ray is a cause for celebration. If Eureka is not exclusive in offering these individual titles, what makes this collection especially praiseworthy and indispensable is the scholarship, imagination and care that went into the accompanying 344-page booklet. Over 60 rare production stills are included, many featuring Mizoguchi at work. Striking essays by Keiko I. McDonald, Mark Le Fanu, Mori Ogai, and Nakagawa Masako are anthologized along with extensively annotated translations of some of the key sources of Japanese literature that inspired some of Mizoguchi’s late films. The volume closes with tributes to the great director written by Tarkovsky, Rivette, Godard, Straub, Angelopoullos, Shinoda, and others. Tony Rayns provides spoken essays and some full-length commentaries.

(Full press release and other winners here)