Talking About Ozu
This post is about three videos no longer available. I replaced the videos with images, that's it! So, I'm speaking about three videos that no longer exist. Life plays bad tricks sometimes to Ozu lovers.
Three film directors talking about Ozu: from Berlin Wim Wenders, from Helsinki Aki Kaurismäki, from Hong Kong Stanley Kwan.
All three videos have now English subtitles, but when I watched them first time the subtitles were missing. So I listened to German, Finnish and Chinese, while using copiously my imagination to overcome the three tongues.
I made some notes as I was watching the three directors speaking each in his own language and I will try now to present these videos as they were understood by me that first time, without subtitles. And let me remind you that I was forced to replace the three videos with three images. That's it :)
So, let's start with Wim Wenders. I have watched Tôkyô Ga, his movie dedicated to Ozu. The mood of Tôkyô Ga is sad: Wenders comes to Tokyo sometime in the 80's to find traces of the master, but traces cannot be found, as everything has changed. Another generation, other social issues, another atmosphere, old good times are gone.
Let's come back now to the video. My German is very poor, but I didn't worry. The images from Ozu's movies speak for themselves, and there is a great selection of them.
And now Aki Kaurismäki. Maybe some of you know German, but I doubt there is among my friends someone speaking Finnish. Again, there are here the images of Ozu, and, subtly, some soundtrack from his movies, creating a great atmosphere.
no copyright infringement intended
(http://article.wn.com/view/2011/12/16/Aki_Kaurismaki_s_Le_Havre_Wins_Louis_Delluc_Prize_in_Paris/)
Director Stanley Kwan is from Hong Kong, so he speaks about Ozu in Chinese. You should watch this video because the references to Ozu are very subtle: there is one scene from Tôkyô Monogatari (the two grandparents alone, sitting in front of the sea: great scene putting drama and stasis together), there is the music that ends the video (captured from the soundtrack of Tôkyô Monogatari, as well), and especially there is the end image, from the same movie: the stasis that ends each of his movies and gives them that great metaphysical depth; the large river, or the sea, with some ships there, impassible to our dramas; our dramas are not that important in the cosmical order, and life goes on.
And only when I had the English subtitles I realized the power of the story in this video: Stanley Kwan parallels the memory of the difficult relationship between him and his own father, with the story told by Ozu.
(Yasujiro Ozu and Setsuko Hara)
Three film directors talking about Ozu: from Berlin Wim Wenders, from Helsinki Aki Kaurismäki, from Hong Kong Stanley Kwan.
All three videos have now English subtitles, but when I watched them first time the subtitles were missing. So I listened to German, Finnish and Chinese, while using copiously my imagination to overcome the three tongues.
I made some notes as I was watching the three directors speaking each in his own language and I will try now to present these videos as they were understood by me that first time, without subtitles. And let me remind you that I was forced to replace the three videos with three images. That's it :)
So, let's start with Wim Wenders. I have watched Tôkyô Ga, his movie dedicated to Ozu. The mood of Tôkyô Ga is sad: Wenders comes to Tokyo sometime in the 80's to find traces of the master, but traces cannot be found, as everything has changed. Another generation, other social issues, another atmosphere, old good times are gone.
Let's come back now to the video. My German is very poor, but I didn't worry. The images from Ozu's movies speak for themselves, and there is a great selection of them.
And now Aki Kaurismäki. Maybe some of you know German, but I doubt there is among my friends someone speaking Finnish. Again, there are here the images of Ozu, and, subtly, some soundtrack from his movies, creating a great atmosphere.
no copyright infringement intended(http://article.wn.com/view/2011/12/16/Aki_Kaurismaki_s_Le_Havre_Wins_Louis_Delluc_Prize_in_Paris/)
Director Stanley Kwan is from Hong Kong, so he speaks about Ozu in Chinese. You should watch this video because the references to Ozu are very subtle: there is one scene from Tôkyô Monogatari (the two grandparents alone, sitting in front of the sea: great scene putting drama and stasis together), there is the music that ends the video (captured from the soundtrack of Tôkyô Monogatari, as well), and especially there is the end image, from the same movie: the stasis that ends each of his movies and gives them that great metaphysical depth; the large river, or the sea, with some ships there, impassible to our dramas; our dramas are not that important in the cosmical order, and life goes on.
And only when I had the English subtitles I realized the power of the story in this video: Stanley Kwan parallels the memory of the difficult relationship between him and his own father, with the story told by Ozu.
(Yasujiro Ozu and Setsuko Hara)
Labels: Ozu
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
2:05 PM
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