Ozu Yasujiro

1. Ozu Yasujiro ‘Views from One Foot above the Floor’

2. Ozu as auteur • Complete control of film-making in every stage • The condition for being an auteur • Ozu wrote all his late scripts with Noda Kogo and gave meticulous and final instructions onthe production design and photography to his crew (Ozu Gumi) members.

3. Ozu as auteur Mr. Ozu looked happiest when he was engaged in writing a scenario with Mr. Kogo Noda, at the latter's cottage on the tableland of Nagano Prefecture. By the time he finished writing a script, after about four months’ effort, he had already made up every image in every shot, so that he never changed the scenario after we went on the set. The words were so polished up that he would not allow us even a single mistake.

4. Ozu as auteur • Ozu had most of things in his head: set designs, locations, compositions, lighting, camera positions, camera movements, acting, length of shots, the ways in which film is cut • Once his style was established, he never changed it. • Distinctive stylization

5. Ozu as auteur • Ozu-gumi (the Ozu crew) • His crew members hardly changed. Only possible in Japan’s studio system

6. Late Spring (1949) Producer: Yamamoto Takeshi Script: OzuYasujiro and Noda Kogo Camera: Atsuta Yuharu Editor: HamamuraYoshiyasu Music: Ito Senji Art: Hamada Tatsuo Tokyo Monogatari(1953) Producer: Yamamoto Takeshi Script: OzuYasujiro and Noda Kogo Camera: Atsuta Yuharu Editor: HamamuraYoshiyasu Music: Saito Kojun Art : Hamada Tatsuo Ozu as auteur

7. Equinox Flower(1958) Producer: Yamamoto Takeshi Script: OzuYasujiro and Noda Kogo Camera: Atsuta Yuharu Editor: HamamuraYoshiyasu Music: Saito Kojun Art: Hamada Tatsuo Autumn Afternoon(1962) Producer: Yamanouchi Shizuo Script: OzuYasujiro and Noda Kogo Camera: Atsuta Yuharu Editor: HamamuraYoshiyasu Music: Saito Kojun Art: Hamada Tatsuo Ozu as auteur

8. Ozu as auteur • Photographer: Atsuta Yuharu • Atsuta was an assistant cameraman for Ozu for 6 years and his first photographer for 25 years from 1937 (What Did the Lady Forget?) to 1962. After Ozu’s death he did not work for any other director.

9. Ozu as auteur • Ozu was the only director for whom Atsuta operated his camera. Atsuta had learned what Ozu wanted before he became the first cameraman and he did not need any instruction. • Complete grasp of Ozu’s intentions. • Tokyo-ga

10. Ozu as auteur Though years’ experience as an assistant … I’ve learned what Ozu wanted. I didn’t bother to ask him about the camera position; Occasionally he said, “I don’t like to look down on people. A down shot makes me feel as though I’m looking down. So I like the camera on the horizontal.” -- Atsuta Yuharu

11. Ozu as auteur Noda Kogo • He co-wrote with Ozu the 13 scripts of the 15 post-war films. • For Ozu the script is to a film director as the blueprint is to an architect. - Avoid ‘dramatic’ plots - Ordinary stories of ordinary people - Birth, growth, marriage, aging and death – ‘the wheel of life’

12. Ozu as auteur • Scripts written jointly by Ozu and Noda • Few instructions of action appeared on the scripts and no indications of shot sizes, angles, points of view, camera movements, lightings etc. Everything was already in Ozu’s head. Once a scenario is completed, not a single word is added or taken away (almost!)

13. Ozu as auteur • Saito Kojun provided music for Ozu’s major post-war films. Tokyo Story, Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Floating Weed, Late Autumn,Autumn Afternoon • Light music style with restrained emotional appeal • Give the film distinctive mood and atmosphere

14. Ozu as auteur Music from Tokyo Story Opening music of Late Autumn

15. Ozu as auteur Title and credit scene Letters written in a writing brush against hemp cloth

16. Ozu as auteur • HamamuraYoshiyasu • Ozu’s editor for his major films • Quiet editing • One shot lasts from 2 seconds to 10 seconds: no extremely short or long • In the shot-reverse-shot, a shot is timed according to the length of dialogue • Tokyo Story,Autumn Afternoon 1, Autumn Afternoon 2 • Still-life shots in uniform length

17. Ozu as auteur • Ozu kept using the same actors: RyuChishu, Hara Setsuko, Sugimura Haruko, Tanaka Kinuyo, Yamamura So, Nakamura Nobuo, TonoEijiro • Ozu completely dictates the ways in which actors deliver dialogues and act, allowing them no freedom and improvisation.

18. Ozu as auteur • Performers who appeared regularly in Ozu’s films understood his intentions and filming methods completely.

19. Ozu as auteur • More regular faces in Ozu’s films. • Tanaka Kinuyo and Sugimura Haruko

20. Ozu as auteur • Rigid, artificial action - lack of spontaneity (both strength and weakness) • Ozu won complete trust from actors • Stylized ‘beauty’ - sense of order

21. Ozu operating the camera by himself Tokyo-gainterview of Atsuta Yuharu

22. Ozu editing the film himself.

23. Ozu directing performance Tokyo-gainterview of RyuChishu

24. Ozu directing performance

25. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) Style derives from the consistent use of certain techniques. Mise-en-scène - Motionless camera - Low-level camera placement (one foot above the floor) - One lens (with focal length of 50mm, a slight telephoto, the focal length of the normal lens 35mm)

27. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • The camera placed about one foot from the floor - low level shots without moving the camera (no pans or travelling) • Only slight low-angle

28. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) - Horizontal composition c.f. Mizoguchi’s diagonal composition

29. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • Composition - horizontal and (slight) low angle while Mizoguchi’sfavourite composition is diagonal and high-angle

30. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • Perspectival placement of a group of people • Careful, geometrical arrangement of screen

31. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène)

33. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • - Frontal composition: actors (almost) directly looking at and talking to the camera • Unconventional and against classic film making rules

34. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • More frontal compositions

35. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • More frontal composition

36. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • Frontal compositions • Faces turned to the camera

37. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) Uniform set design • Middle-class Japanese household • Shoji (sliding paper door) wide open and shallow perspective with background view is partly blocked by a wall.

38. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • More examples of Ozu’sfavourite interior design • Empty tatami in foreground, figures in the middle ground and a small garden and wall at the background

39. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • The same interior design consistently used

40. Ozu’s Visual Style(Mise-en-scène) • Japanese architecture and horizontal composition • The camera’s straight-on, horizontal angle and low position creates horizontal composition. • Lack of depth - shallow composition

41. Ozu’sColour Films • The same mise-en-scéne is employed in colour films • Repeated uses of the same colour - red

42. Ozu’sColour Films

44. Ozu’sColour Films • Red is used in ‘pillow’ shots

46. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Montage (Editing) - Rhythmic editing (nearly fixed lengths of shots according to shot sizes and lengths of diaologues) ‘Ozu’s low camera position is not for long takes. It makes a rhythm from a combination of medium long shot, and reverse medium-long shot. Consequently, how long one shot lasts becomes very important. - Cuts - no dissolve, fade or wipe

47. Fade (in)

48. Wipe

49. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) • Almost perfect visual match in shot-and-reverse-shots • Drinking sake from the cup held in the right hand; matching waistcoats and ties; the same hair-style; the pillar at their back on the screen right.

50. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) • Even the position of the beer bottle is the same, on the right of each character and the label of the beer is facing to the camera in either shot.