Kenji Mizoguchi

[FrauBlucher]

I found the article from a Janus retweet. Take that for what it's worth.

[George Kaplan]

Very careless writing and editing to not mention the venue, which happens to be the Francesca Beale & Walter Reade Theaters at Lincoln Center. Also, for what it is worth, the press screening notice identifies this as a Janus Films release.

[Trees]

Is this Ugetsu restoration screening at Cannes brand new?

• Ugetsu monogatari (Ugetsu) by Kenji Mizoguchi (1953, 1h37, Japan)
Presented by The Film Foundation, KADOKAWA Corporation, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Restored by The Film Foundation and KADOKAWA Corporation at Cineric Laboratories. Special thanks to Masahiro Miyajima and Martin Scorsese for their consultation on this restoration. Restoration funding provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in association with The Film Foundation and KADOKAWA Corporation.

http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/62136.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[movielocke]

I wonder if that "consultation" means Scorsese supplied a print for timing / grading reference?


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[Trees]

I just finished the fantastic documentary Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975). I found this documentary deeply informative and fascinating. The interviewer, whose grunting affirmations are hilariously Japanese, managed to sit down and have serious, insightful, often amusing conversations with nearly ever major player in Mizoguchi's career, including Yoda and Tanaka. The picture that emerges is one of an obsessed, hard-working perfectionist, with deep desires to create meaningful art. Mizoguchi was shy and bashful in private, a intimidating taskmaster on the set, a hard drinker who could be reckless after hours (he was knifed by a hooker), and a director who fell in love with his leading lady,

Spoiler

but never had the courage to tell her

.

Documentaries like this teach us not only about the filmmakers we admire, but about the film industry and societies of the time. For Mizoguchi fans who have not yet seen it, you are in for an amazing treat. I cannot recommend this documentary enough.

It is available on youtube and on the Region 1 Criterion Collection release of Ugetsu (1953).

[ando]

Yeah, just wanted to second that high rating of the Mizoguchi doc. I've only watched it once many years ago but I remember it being one of the most unusually revealing psychological portraits of a filmmaker that I'd ever seen up to that point. And, really, no film has equalled it in terms of research and scope with regard to the filmmaker and his times. (There is an exceptional one on Fassbinder that comes with the Berlin Alexanderplatz set but it's one of a handful of conventional narrative docs that successfully compare to the Mizoguchi film.)

[Trees]

The fact that the doc was made back in the mid 1970s is great, also, because nearly all of his contemporaries were still around to speak about him.

[ando]

Born today in 1898 Mizoguchi is the subject of a career overview and the obligatory top ten treatment over at sensesofcinema.

[swo17]

the obligatory top ten treatment over at sensesofcinema

Ha, isn't that Naruse in their lead image?

[knives]

Yes.

[nosy lena]

Is that list supposed to be reversed?

[theflirtydozen]

Think you meant Taste of Cinema... Senses of Cinema is actually good.

[Werewolf by Night]

They appear to be arranged chronologically. Never heard of this site, TASTE of Cinema, before. Looks like a 2005 Blogspot blog.

[Trees]

I'm just teasing, ando!

[ando]

Oh, yeah I saw the Naruse pic. Probably the editor's mistake. But it is SENSES. 8-[

Rewatching Five Women Around Utamaro tonight. Still my favorite Mizoguchi. And the more I learn about his personal life it seems the one film closest to his own creative life.

[Michael Kerpan]

Utamaro is defiunitely one of Mizoguchi's "underappreciated" films.

[Trees]

What is the best version available now for "Five Women Around Utamaro"? Is it available streaming anywhere? Amazon, Netflix, etc?

[rockysds]

Artificial Eye's Mizoguchi blu-ray box, I'm fairly certain.

[Michael Kerpan]

Artificial Eye's Mizoguchi blu-ray box, I'm fairly certain.

How much better is the Blu-Ray version than the DVD one (unless one has an immense screen)?

[ando]

Artificial Eye's Mizoguchi blu-ray box, I'm fairly certain.

Oh yeah. I've only ever owned a vhs copy (of Utamaro) and the blu-ray box set. Needless to say, there's a great deal of difference between these versions. DVD Beaver has an adequate write-up/comparison page dedicated to the box set.

[ando]

Ugetsu tonight. Always an event, isn't it?

[Trees]

Ugetsu tonight. Always an event, isn't it?

I got food poisoning and missed the new UGETSU restoration screening at Cannes. To rub salt in the wound, I found out later that Scorsese himself introduced the film with a long talk about its restoration.

[ando]

Wow. Sorry to hear that. One of the original posters from its premier at The Venice Film Festival -

full image

[Trees]

I'm hoping maybe someone video'd Scorsese's intro and will upload it. On the positive side, I heard that the restoration of Ugetsu is phenomenal! Image quality "pristine".

[Roscoe]

TCM ran 47 RONIN the other night, and it looked significantly improved over the screen caps I've seen of other releases of the film. There was a Janus logo at the top -- does this augur a possible Criterion or Eclips release?