Lost In Translation

Beware Of A Holy Whore

The final film in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder is Beware Of A Holy Whore (1970). And to be honest it was my least favorite. I had read that some reviewer said that watching the others would lead the viewer to a greater appreciation of this film, which he thought was the best in the collection. It has a very different feel to it than most of the other films, I suppose it most resembles Kazelmacher in execution, since it is mostly made of scenes of people waiting around. I guess I was thinking that there was some solipsistic, meta-narrative going on that was only apparent to Fassbinder and his crew. Perhaps this is more homage to Goddard than film noir as some of the early films, and this cannot be denied by the presence of Alphaville’s Eddie Constantine, as himself. This is Fassbinder's first color film in this series and looks good, he used Hollywood cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. In the accompanying essay by Michael Koresky, he suggests that the climactic work of the first phase of Fassbinder’s career and an expression of his need to start afresh. After this Fassbinder has supposedly made more accessible films. This was his most esoteric in my opinion. I will have to see some late career films to see if this indeed did happen. I am watching Fassbinder, because most critics agree that he is a modern master. The jury is still out.

The American Soldier

The American Soldier (1970) is the fourth of the five films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder collected in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder. It is the third crime drama of the series as well. This film stars Karl Schedyt as Ricky a German-American who has just returned to Germany from a stint in Vietnam. There is plenty of pitiless violence and bad behavior from the cops and the gangsters. A cop's girl Rosa (Elga Sorbus) is sent over to his hotel keep tabs on the killer, when he request a whore and she falls in love with him. Of course there won't be a happy ending for the new loves in the world of crime noir. Fassbinder's cinematic touches continue to inform his film with artistic uses of framing, mirrors, close-ups, inserts, reverse shots, and moving camera work. However, it is the operatic four-minute closing shot that stays with most viewers.

Gods Of The Plague

Gods Of The Plague (1969) is the third film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder. It is another crime drama with noirish elements. The enigmatic Franz (Harry Baer) is released from prison and drifts from woman to woman: from Joanna (Hanna Schygulla) to Margarethe (Margarethe von Trotta)-a move that will have fatal consequences later in the film. Meanwhile, Franz reconnects with his friend Gorilla (African American/German actor Günther Kaufmann) and decides to pull off another heist as his money dwindles. This film is a step forward in the development of Fassbinder's cinematic style it has features missing from earlier productions like: tracking shots and zooms; an elegant employment of multiple planes within frames; and an expressive use of mirrors and set design. Three examples standout in my mind: the set design of Margarethe's room (seen in the still above), a high tracking shot of Franz, Margarethe, and Gorilla driving in the country, and the last scene at he cemetery where three women are juxtaposed in front of graves bearing crosses.

Katzelmacher

The second film in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder is Katzelmacher (1969), the title is a derogatory Bavarian word for a foreigner, especially one from a Mediterranean country. In this film Fassbinder examines the lingering resentment and exploitation of the vast number of guest workers that poured into Germany during the economic miracle of the 50s. However, it takes a while for him to get to that part of the film the beginning of the film establishes the characters—Marie (Hanna Schygulla) and her brooding criminal boyfriend, Erich (Hans Hirschmüller); Elisabeth (Irm Hermann), her deadbeat live-in lover, Peter (Peter Moland); Paul (Rudolf Waldemar Brem) and his clingy girlfriend, Helga (Lilith Ungerer); Rosy (Elga Sorbas), who turns to prostitution, ultimately charging even her boyfriend, Franz (Harry Baer), for sex—in run  down apartments, a beer hall, and on the sidewalk, often in pairs, bickering with one another, and taking advantage of each other. Then Jorgos (Fassbinder), a taciturn Greek immigrant who moves into Elisabeth’s flat, arrives. He threatens the locals simply by being different, not German. Immediately rumors fly about his sexual prowess and Communist sympathies; aggression against him builds to an inevitable attack. The film has a cold austere style with static frames and long takes. It is no surprise that I has been adapted from a play written by Fassbinder. I find the content of his films intriguing so far, but find the cinematic style a bit primitive.     

Love Is Colder Than Death

Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) is the first film in the Eclipse Series 39: Early Fassbinder from Criterion featuring the early films of Rainier Werner Fassbinder. The film was dedicated to French New Wave directors Claude Charbol, Eric Rohmer, and Jean-Marie Straub, but the greatest influence I can see on the film was Jean Luc Goddard's Band of Outsiders. A similar story of two hoodlum friends and a girl. If possible this film feels more stylistic and cold in execution, perhaps, reflecting the cynical and cold behavior of the characters on display: the pimp roughneck Franz (Fassbinder), his girl and prostitute Joanna (Hanna Schygulla), and the petty gangster recruited by the syndicate Bruno (Ulli Lommel). The film is pretty avant-garde in that it is comprised of mostly completely static shots. The characters often just stare at the camera before action takes place. There is also homage to traditional film noir throughout, but I mostly see the homage to Jean-Paul Melville and Goddard in this film. this is my first Fassbinder film, s it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. I have often come across references to the films of Fassbinder, but I was inspired to seek out his films after reading an appreciatory essay on Fassbinder by the critic Philip Lopate.

Dragnet Girl

Dragnet Girl (1933) by Yasujiro Ozu, from Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu-Three Crime Dramas, might be the most American film by the director known for being the most Japanese of Japanese directors. This film's art design seems to ape the hardboiled film noir crime dramas of the 30s. As Michael Koresky's written commentary on the film points out, throughout the film the viewer can see a poster for Wallace Beery's The Champ and a Jack Dempsey fight flier in the boxing gym, English language house rules in the poll hall, and in the record shop the Victor logo and statues of the logo dog, Nipper as a promotional mannequin. It is the story of a gangster Joji (Joji Oka) and his office lady moll, Tokiko (Kinuyo Tanaka-Mizoguchi's muse) as tough talking dame with a soft spot. She is given to extreme fits of jealousy but can see the good in people and can even long for it for herself and Joji. Their relationship is jeopardized by the arrival of an up and coming flyweight boxer who wants to join Joji's illicit gang, Hiroshi (Hideo Mitsui) and his pure-hearted sister Kazuko (Sumiko Mizukubo) intervenes on his behalf with Joji. A bit melodramatic for my taste, but probably not uncommon for the time. This film has some of the most extravagant camera movements that match the flamboyant set design. For example, there a couple of great sequences in which Ozu focuses on a car headlight reflection as a car speeds on its way. There's a camera pan onto  a teapot. And there's a pool table level closeup sequence. There are some great location shots, the most impressive is the bluff overlooking Yokohoma that has been seen in films of his contemporary Hiroshi Shimizu. Of course there are the trademarks of Ozu's style: masterly framing and interesting still life transitions throughout.

That Night's Wife

That Night's Wife (1930) is another Yasujiro Ozu crime film from Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu-Three Crime Dramas. And like other early films there are visages of his later style, for example, there are several still life transitions used throughout the film. However, it is the youthful cinematic experimentation that always strikes me in the early films: camera pans, close ups and camera pull backs, and crane shots, because they are used so infrequently in his later films. In this film a desperate husband (Tokihiko Okada) is driven to robbery to get money to pay for the doctor of his ailing child. During the man hunt the ensues after his crime, he stops in at a payphone booth to check in with the doctor in a dramatic scene in which the police are closing in. He manage sot escape by taxi home, but it turns out the taxi driver was an undercover detective (Togo Yamamoto) who is determine dot bring him in. A tense evening standoff ensues when, the man's wife (Emiko Yagumo) turns the tables by using her husband's gun to prevent the detective from bringing him in until the morning when the doctor will arrive and give his prognosis on their daughter's sickness. It is a simple and melodramatic story that is told in a brisk 65 minutes.

Walk Cheerfully

Walk Cheerfully (1930) is the first film in the Yasujiro Ozu's Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu - Three Crime Dramas. Early Ozu films are quite striking when compared with the austere later films in which his style has become crystallized in a very identifiable pattern of film making. However, in Ozu earlier films there is much more experimentation with camera movement and foreign influences are much more evident-particularly the Hollywood influences. (The same is true of Mikio Naruse's early films as well). I note this, because I recently re-watched his Ozu's 1949 classic Late Spring. Walk Cheerfully is a perfect example of the early Ozu style, it seems to be influenced by the Hollywood crime dramas. Ozu employs innovative camera movements. For example, there are several interesting tracking shots: the film opens with a crowd chasing a man, a petty thief Senko (Hisao Yoshitani) who turns out to be the crime partner of the handsome and rough hood Kenji, a.k.a. Ken the Knife (Minoru Takada) and a camera mounted on a car to give a bird's eye perspective of the road. Ozu also uses bold set designs: including walls covered in American movie posters and a song written in English)—the kind of experimentation one would see much less of in his later films. In this film these two hoodlums decide to go straight after Kenji has met a citizen to his liking-Yasue (Hiroko Kawasaki), who implores him to go straight before she'll see him and Senko decides to follow suit. But this is not easily done since it involves spurning his crooked former squeeze, Chieko (Satoko Date) and former criminal associate Gunpeo (Teruo Mori). They will not let the former gang dissolve peacefully. Unlike most of Ozu's later films, this one has what would be called a conventional "Hollywood" ending.

Eclispe Series 41: Kinoshita And World War II

I was happy to see that Criterion brought out Eclispe Series 41: Kinoshita And World War II (Flowering Port 1943, Living Magoroku 1943, Jubilation Street 1944, Army 1944, Morning in the Osone Family 1946) since there are so few Keisuke Kinoshita films available remastered or with subtitles. In fact the only other film I have seen is his anti-war masterpiece Twenty-Four Eyes (1954). He worked for 10 years as an assistant to Yasujiro Shimizu, an early master of film, before getting his first chance to direct for Shochiku. He is known in Japan and among critics as one of the great postwar humanists along with Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, and Kon Ichikawa, but seems to have the least familiarity abroad. In fact he formed a production company following Kurosawa's failure with Tora!Tora!Tora! with him, Kobayashi, and Ichikawa. Kinoshita seems to have dabble in a variety of genres like Ichikawa and is hard to pin down. Kurosawa was a fan of his comedies (Carmen Comes Home 1951), but it is safe to say that Kinshita also had success with other genres such as dramas like The Ballad of Narayama (1958), which Shohei Imamura would find great success with his version of the film.

The first film Kinoshita directed was Flowering Port (1943) which was a comedy/propaganda film that promoted selfless values attempted to stir up national pride. It is the story of two con men who travel to a remote Kyushu town to swindle the population with a shipbuilding ruse, but they are charmed by the location people, and national pride so they abort their plans. It's somewhat distressing to see Chisu Ryu, in a supporting role as a town leader. cheering the victory at Pearl Harbor after seeing him in so many Ozu films as the kindly father. Already, his humanist leanings can be seen in his first film. Second in the series is The Living Magoroku (1943), which can be seen as a war propaganda film in its didactic message of doing one's best (int his case cultivating food) for the country while at war and overlook ancient customs (the sanctity of the ancient battlefield). Other ways of seeing this message can be: pragmatism vs. superstition or collectivism vs. individuality. The surprising five minutes cold opening depicts the 1573 clan war on the field. there are several other subplots within the film and again Ken Uehara has a starring role as the local militia commander who helps get everyone in the right frame of mind by promoting that everyone do their par to for the nation. The next film, Jubilation Street (1944) is another family drama about wartime evacuees with messages about uniting and staying strong for the nation. However, these sentiments aren't expressed until the conclusion, throughout we have the distinct problems of several different families face as they prepare for evacuation in lieu of American bombing. The action takes place in a small neighborhood, which has inspired Kinoshita to use a variety of camera techniques: close ups, tracking shots, overhead, as well as other innovative visual techniques. Once again Ken Uehara is featured as one of the main characters. Army (1944) is yet another propaganda film from Kinoshita, but epic in scope-it is a multinational that follows Japanese military forays from the Sino-Japanese War to the Russo-Japanese War and into WWII. Again, there are urges for ordinary to suppress their individual desires put everything behind their striving for the nation to win at war. The ultra nationalistic Tomohiko, is the most unlikeable role I've seen Ozu regular Chisu Ryu in, also stars Kinuyo Tanaka (know for her work with Mizoguchi) as the worried mother gives a subversive performance as she sees her son off to war fervently praying with a worried face as the other onlookers cheer the soldiers on. According to Michael Koresky's noes, Kinoshita was reprimand (his next project was summarily cancelled) and he wasn't allowed to direct another film for the rest of the war. The last film in the series, Morning For The Osone Family (1946) is the first Kinoshita directed after the surrender and gives him the chance to promote liberal values more along his own. Here he has a chance to dish out blame for the war and the sacrifices that were made. It ends on a hopeful note, with the surviving family members coming together and pledging got build a new democratic country. Kinoshita would revisit this theme in his greatest success Twenty-Four Eyes (1954).

I think Kinoshita has early on mastered the technical aspect of film making,however, I think these films would be only of interest to academics, people interested in Japan, and complete-ists. My understanding is that Kurosawa preferred his comedies and it seems he was known for his eclecticism. If I had the choice I would have started here for an overview of Kinoshita, however, I am grateful that Criterion has made these available since it does gives a good idea of how many people in Japan thought during the war. The series is know for their bare-bones approach, but the essays by Koresky were illuminating.

Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse

The fact that Criterion had only carried is one Mikio Naruse title, When A Woman Ascends the Stairs, until the 2011 release of Eclipse Series 26: Silent Naruse (Flunky, Work Hard / No Blood Relation / Apart from You / Every-Night Dreams / Street Without End) bodes well. In my opinion Naruse is worthy of being included in the pantheon of great Japanese directors like Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi. The British equivalent of Criterion, Eureka!, has released several worthy Naruse films, hopefully Criterion will do so as well in the near future, because Naruse deserve a larger audience. Some of this might have to do with the fact that many of his early films have been lost, but Criterion has managed to find several of those early ones that still exist. Criterion has commissioned noted musicians Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz to create original scores for these films as well that I think add o the enjoyment. Again this collection has informative essays from Criterion staff writer Michael Koresky. The first volume, contains two films: Flunky Work Hard (1931) and No Blood Relation (1932). Flunky Work Hard is a 28 minute short that anticipates Ozu's I Was Born, But... (1932 in the story of a working-class father and son. It is a nansensu comedy that is essentially a comic tragedy. There is a sequence where there is a montage with prismatic effects, split screens, and super impositions triggered by shocking news that exhibits Naruse's experimentalism at this stage. This sort of experimentalism has been completely excised in his later works from what I have seen. No Blood Relation is a typical female driven melodrama that would become his forte in his later years. The story of a woman who leaves her family only to achieve great acclaim as an actress in America, who then tries to reclaim her daughter and thugs intervene. This one has some impressive location scenes and clever plot was adapted from a shimpa play by longtime Ozu collaborator Kogo Noda. There is some camera zooming experimentation as well as the use of deep focus that is not seen in late Naruse films. Apart From You (1933) is yet another female driven melodrama about a household with an aging geisha and her wayward son who resents his mother's job and a young geisha that was forced into the profession by an alcoholic father and spineless mother.  There is more of the experimental zooming and camera affects in this film as well, as well as interesting outdoor locations and interestingly framed shot inside. Every-night Dreams (1933) is another geisha drama where a single mother is struggling to raise a son on her own, until the father returns to try and make amends for not being able to support his family. It is similar to No Blood Relation, but perhaps less melodramatic. The mother is clearly stronger than the husband and will be a survivor. Street Without End (1934) would be Naruse's last silent film and his last for Shochiku. It seems that this film was based on the lurid tale of a tea hostess, but in Naruse's hands he manages to find a stirring melodrama rather than focusing on the exploitative elements of the tale. A working class girl falls for a rich man after an auto accident, while turning down an offer to become a film actress. There is some bold commentary on the restrictiveness of conventional marriage, the tea hostesses brother asks: "Think you'll be happy as a bourgeois housewife?" and a direct inter-title that says: "Even today, feudalistic notions of 'family' crush the pure love of young people in Japan." His next film for what would become Toho Studios was Wife! Be Like A Rose!, which would not only win Kinema junpo's first prize, but would also be theatrically shown in America. Naruse rose in prominence in the 50s when his camera would move less and less severe cuts in his editing, but the tales of woe and suffering would continue.