Raxivace
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@raxivace
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Post by Raxivace on Jun 20, 2020 5:40:02 GMT
Nerdwriter1's videos are hit and miss but this recent one about Ozu I thought was pretty good. Really makes me want to rewatch Late Spring and think about the vase shot in the larger context of the film.
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Post by Fox in the Snow on Jun 20, 2020 13:30:20 GMT
Interesting video. Ozu is among my all time favorite directors and Late Spring is one of his best films. A truly intriguing and beautiful shot.
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 22, 2020 5:01:41 GMT
Between scenes it was characteristic of Ozu to use "pillow shots." That is, shots of a vase, a train station, a street, anything really, to bridge the gap between one scene and the next. They don't have anything to do with anything. It is just a stylistic way to transition.
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Raxivace
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@raxivace
Posts: 40
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Post by Raxivace on Jun 22, 2020 19:42:14 GMT
Between scenes it was characteristic of Ozu to use "pillow shots." That is, shots of a vase, a train station, a street, anything really, to bridge the gap between one scene and the next. They don't have anything to do with anything. It is just a stylistic way to transition. The vase shot talked about in the video isn't used to transition between scenes though. Its inserted between two shots of Noriko within a single scene, not between two different scenes.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Jun 30, 2020 9:09:51 GMT
Between scenes it was characteristic of Ozu to use "pillow shots." That is, shots of a vase, a train station, a street, anything really, to bridge the gap between one scene and the next. They don't have anything to do with anything. It is just a stylistic way to transition. The vase shot talked about in the video isn't used to transition between scenes though. Its inserted between two shots of Noriko within a single scene, not between two different scenes. Not only that, but even the scenic transitions aren't always arbitrary. In Tokyo Story, Ozu uses images of a train on tracks as a pillow shot early in the film, and after the mother's death , returns to that same shot, but this time without the train, lingering on the emptiness. I think he does the same thing with an empty alley (earlier kids were playing) and an empty harbor (where earlier there was a boat).
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Jun 30, 2020 9:19:35 GMT
I don't think Ozu meant it to be explicitly symbolic, but I remember when I rewatched the film with that scene in mind I was reminded strongly of Keats's Ode to a Grecian Urn, which was very much a meditation on the nature of time & change in contrast with the permanent, static, eternal image captured in the art:
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Raxivace
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@raxivace
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Post by Raxivace on Jul 1, 2020 6:02:12 GMT
The vase shot talked about in the video isn't used to transition between scenes though. Its inserted between two shots of Noriko within a single scene, not between two different scenes. Not only that, but even the scenic transitions aren't always arbitrary. In Tokyo Story, Ozu uses images of a train on tracks as a pillow shot early in the film, and after the mother's death , returns to that same shot, but this time without the train, lingering on the emptiness. I think he does the same thing with an empty alley (earlier kids were playing) and an empty harbor (where earlier there was a boat). See now you're just making me feel bad that I haven't watched my blu-ray of Tokyo Story yet.
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Raxivace
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@raxivace
Posts: 40
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Post by Raxivace on Jul 1, 2020 6:11:26 GMT
I don't think Ozu meant it to be explicitly symbolic, but I remember when I rewatched the film with that scene in mind I was reminded strongly of Keats's Ode to a Grecian Urn, which was very much a meditation on the nature of time & change in contrast with the permanent, static, eternal image captured in the art: Interesting poem. I don't know very much about poetry but it did kind of remind me of Shelley's Ozymandias in a way.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Jul 1, 2020 6:19:50 GMT
Not only that, but even the scenic transitions aren't always arbitrary. In Tokyo Story, Ozu uses images of a train on tracks as a pillow shot early in the film, and after the mother's death , returns to that same shot, but this time without the train, lingering on the emptiness. I think he does the same thing with an empty alley (earlier kids were playing) and an empty harbor (where earlier there was a boat). See now you're just making me feel bad that I haven't watched my blu-ray of Tokyo Story yet. I prefer Late Spring, but Tokyo Story is mandatory viewing too. It would make a good back-to-back with Make Way for Tomorrow.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Jul 1, 2020 6:44:02 GMT
I don't think Ozu meant it to be explicitly symbolic, but I remember when I rewatched the film with that scene in mind I was reminded strongly of Keats's Ode to a Grecian Urn, which was very much a meditation on the nature of time & change in contrast with the permanent, static, eternal image captured in the art: Interesting poem. I don't know very much about poetry but it did kind of remind me of Shelley's Ozymandias in a way. Both are fundamentally about time, though from very different perspectives. Keats's is wondering at art's ability to capture time and life in a timeless form and our relationship with that years after the people and life being depicted are so far gone we have no direct knowledge of them; Shelley's is more about the the art that still remains (even if in pieces) as an ironic mockery of the vanity and ego of the temporary ruler it depicted. Both are heavily indebted to Shakespeare's sonnets, which were obsessed with time and art's ability to preserve what time destroys. The 64th always reminded me of Ozymandias too:
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