FILMS. 4th EDItION AI NO CORRIDA Sato, Tadao, Currents in Japanese Cinema(in English), Tokyo, 1982. Rayns, Tony, in Film Comment(New York), September-October 1976. Magrelli. Enrico and Emanuela Martini. I rito, il rivolta n cinema di Eder. Richard. in New York Times. 1 October 1976 Nagisa Oshima, Rome, 1984 Interview with Nagisa Oshima in New York Times, 3 October 1976 Polan, Dana B. The Political Language of Film and the Avant-Garde, Bonnet, J C, in Cinematographe(Paris ), October-November 1976 Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985. Passek, J L, in Cinema(Paris), November 1976 Danvers, Louis, and Charles Tatum, Nagisa Oshima, Paris, 1986. McCormick, R, in Cineaste(New York), Winter 1976-77 ms of Nagisa Oshima; Images of a Japanese Silverman, M, in Film Quarterly(Berkeley), Winter 1976-77 Iconoclast, Berkeley, 1998 Bouras, J, "In the realm of the Censors, in Film Comment(Ne Berman. B Heath, Stephen, " The Question Oshima, ' in Wide Angle(Athens, Bonitzer, P, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), March-April 1976. Positif Ohio), no. 1, 1978. High, P. B,Oshima: A Vita Sexualis on Film. in Wide angle Bernheim, N L, Entretien avec Nagisa Oshima, in Cinematographe Athens, Ohio), no 4, 1978 (Paris), June 1976 Dawson, Jan, in Monthly Film Bulletin(London), May 197 Monty, Ib, in Kosmorama( Copenhagen), no. 132, 1976 Oshima, Nagisa, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), May 1978 mmer,J., in Image et Son(Paris), September 1976 Grossini, G, in Cinema Nuovo(Turin), June 1979 Special Issue"of Filmcritica(Rome), September 1976 Oshima, Nagisa, " Le drapeau de leros flotte dans les cieux, in Cinema Papers(Melbourne), September-October 1976. Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), March 1980 Bonitzer, P, ""L'Essence du pire, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), Garroni, E, and A Balzola, "Le funzioni della critica e la critica dell September-October 1976 erotismo, in Cinema Nuovo(Bari), April 1980
FILMS, 4 AI NO CORRIDA th EDITION 21 Ai no corrida Sato, Tadao, Currents in Japanese Cinema (in English), Tokyo, 1982. Magrelli, Enrico, and Emanuela Martini, Il rito, il rivolta: Il cinema di Nagisa Oshima, Rome, 1984. Polan, Dana B., The Political Language of Film and the Avant-Garde, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985. Danvers, Louis, and Charles Tatum, Nagisa Oshima, Paris, 1986. Turim, Maureen, The Films of Nagisa Oshima; Images of a Japanese Iconoclast, Berkeley, 1998. Articles: Bonitzer, P., in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), March-April 1976. Positif (Paris), May 1976. Bernheim, N. L., ‘‘Entretien avec Nagisa Oshima,’’ in Cinématographe (Paris), June 1976. Monty, Ib, in Kosmorama (Copenhagen), no. 132, 1976. Zimmer, J., in Image et Son (Paris), September 1976. ‘‘Special Issue’’ of Filmcritica (Rome), September 1976. Cinema Papers (Melbourne), September-October 1976. Bonitzer, P., ‘‘L’Essence du pire,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), September-October 1976. Rayns, Tony, in Film Comment (New York), September-October 1976. Eder, Richard, in New York Times, 1 October 1976. Interview with Nagisa Oshima in New York Times, 3 October 1976. Bonnet, J. C., in Cinématographe (Paris), October-November 1976. Passek, J. L., in Cinéma (Paris), November 1976. McCormick, R., in Cineaste (New York), Winter 1976–77. Silverman, M., in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Winter 1976–77. Bouras, J., ‘‘In the Realm of the Censors,’’ in Film Comment (New York), January-February 1977. Berman, B., in Take One (Montreal), March 1977. Heath, Stephen, ‘‘The Question Oshima,’’ in Wide Angle (Athens, Ohio), no. 1, 1978. High, P. B., ‘‘Oshima: A Vita Sexualis on Film,’’ in Wide Angle (Athens, Ohio), no. 4, 1978. Dawson, Jan, in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), May 1978. Oshima, Nagisa, in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), May 1978. Grossini, G., in Cinema Nuovo (Turin), June 1979. Oshima, Nagisa, ‘‘Le Drapeau de l’eros flotte dans les cieux,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), March 1980. Garroni, E., and A. Balzola, ‘‘Le funzioni della critica e la critica dell’ erotismo,’’ in Cinema Nuovo (Bari), April 1980
AKALER SANDHANE FILMS. 4 EDITIoN Oshima, Nagisa, and others, in Contracampo(Madrid), July- The major reversal of the conventions of the porno film lie in August 1980. Kichizo' s aim of giving pleasure to Sada. She gradually changes from Frias, I. Leon, El ascetism erotic de El imperio de los sentidos, addressing him as""(of the inn where she has worked as in Hablemos de Cine (lima), May 1982. a maid) to adopting male speech and giving him orders. Some Polan, Dana, ""Politics as Process in Three Films by Nagisa Oshima, psychiatrists have seen this as a calculated role reversal, in which in Film Criticism(Meadville, Pennsylvania), Fall 1983 Kichizo takes on first a passive quality, then a maternal aspect for Tesson, C,"L'Image et son echo, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), Sada. Indeed Sada becomes the aggressor, initiator and possessor in April 1984 every sense. But Oshima characteristically ends the film without any Lehman, P, "Oshima, in Filmihullu(Helsinki), no 5. 1989. comment but the historical facts: Sada was arrested with Kichizo's Novielli,R, ""L impero dei dissensi nei film di Nagisa Oshima, genitalia on her person, tried and jailed for murder. But she became Turim, Maureen, ""Wie es ist, nicht mehr jung zu sein: Sex, Tod und celebrated as a folk heroine Quaderni di Cinema( Florence), May-August 1989 Aside from the universal interest of the possession urge in Leben, in Frauen und Film(frankfurt am Main), June 1991 sexuality, Oshima layers his film with cultural references. He uses the Iskusstvo Kino(Moscow), July 1992. formula of the Kabuki theater, the lovers' journey(michiyuki, as they Breillat, Catherine, ""L'empire des sens: Nagisa Oshima, in Cahiers go to the inn that will be their refuge and site of the murder)to presage du Cinema(Paris ). 1993. a doomed alliance. He taps the rich pornographic history of feudal Piazzo, Philippe, "Le scandaleux de Tokyo, in Telerama(Paris), Japan in the voyeurism, exploitation, and sado-masochistic play of 2 October 1996 the geisha and maids at the inns, and he mocks the elaborate ritual of Marran, Christine, Cinematic Sexualities: The Two Faces of Abe the Japanese wedding ceremony. Use of traditional Japanese musical Sada in Japanese'porunofilms, in Asian Cinema( Drexel Hill instruments on the sound track, lush color photography even in the vol 8. no. 2. Winter 1996-1997 confinement of the small inn room, and superb acting from non-stars and amateurs add to the disturbing appeal of this psychological landmark of the cinema The first film to break down the barriers between the commerci Audie bock art film and hard-core pornography, the all-explicit Ai no corrida was for Japanese director Nagisa Oshima both a political and a psycho- sensitive issues in the guise of dramatic films, Oshima conceived this AKALER SANDHANE project at the suggestion of French producer Anatole Dauman to de a hard-core film. Immediately subsequent to the abolition of anti- (In Search of Famine) obscenity laws in France, Corrida was the sensation of the 1976 Cannes International Film Festival, where an unprecedented thirteen India, 1981 screenings were mounted to meet the demand. Shot entirely in Japan, here police ordinarily seize in the developing laboratory films Director: Mrinal Sen revealing so much as a pubic hair, the exposed footage was sent to France for processing. When re-imported to Japan as a French Production: D K Films Enterprise; colour; running time: 131 min- production, with every explicit scene air-brushed into white haze by utes(also 124 minute and 115 minute version ) language: Bengali the censors, it was nevertheless hailed as the first porno film for First public screening 12 February 1982. Filmed on location in Hatui in the screenplay, which had been published in book form in Japan. After four years in court, he was found innocent by the supreme court, Producer: Dhiresh Kumar Chakraborty; screenplay: Mrinal Sen, but he did not succeed in overturning the legal concept of obscenit from a novel by Amalendu Chakraborty; photography: K.K. Mahajan; Like all of Oshima's films, Corrida is based on a true story, the editor: Gangadhar Naskar, art direction: Suresh Chandra; music: apprehension of Sada Abe, who strangled her lover with his consent Salil Chowdhury and then cut off his genitals in 1936, months before Japans full-scale aggression against China would open World War Il. The appearance Japanese flags and marching soldiers elucidate a background Cast: Dhritiman Chaterjee(Director); Smita Patil(Actress): Sreela theme of sexuality as escape from political and social oppression, one Majumdar(Woman): Gita Sen(Widow): Dipankar Dey (Star) Corrida is an exploration of the limits of sexuality. Sada(Eik Awards: Silver Bear. Berlin 1981 Matsuda) and Kichizo (Tatsuya Fuji) gradually reject the outside world in order to pursue the ultimate in sexual pleasure. Couched a linear narrative with few but important stylistic deviations from Publications a conventional exposition, the sexual exploits quickly lose any rurient quality. These lovers are too analytical; they comment too Script much; they allow and seek out too much intrusion upon their acts. Finally, they develop too much need for violence to stimulate Sen, Mrinal, In Search of Famine: a film by Mrinal Sen, script themselves as over-indulgence dulls the pleasure. The desire to reconstructed and translated by Bandyopadhyay, Samik: Cal possess another person ends in Kichizo's death
AKALER SANDHANE FILMS, 4th EDITION 22 Oshima, Nagisa, and others, in Contracampo (Madrid), July— August 1980. Frias, I. Leon, ‘‘El ascetismo erotico de El imperio de los sentidos,’’ in Hablemos de Cine (Lima), May 1982. Polan, Dana, ‘‘Politics as Process in Three Films by Nagisa Oshima,’’ in Film Criticism (Meadville, Pennsylvania), Fall 1983. Tesson, C., ‘‘L’Image et son écho,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), April 1984. Lehman, P., ‘‘Oshima,’’ in Filmihullu (Helsinki), no. 5. 1989. Novielli, R., ‘‘L’impero dei dissensi nei film di Nagisa Oshima,’’ in Quaderni di Cinema (Florence), May-August 1989. Turim, Maureen, ‘‘Wie es ist, nicht mehr jung zu sein: Sex, Tod und Leben,’’ in Frauen und Film (Frankfurt am Main), June 1991. Iskusstvo Kino (Moscow), July 1992. Breillat, Catherine, ‘‘L’empire des sens: Nagisa Oshima,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), 1993. Piazzo, Philippe, ‘‘Le scandaleux de Tokyo,’’ in Télérama (Paris), 2 October 1996. Marran, Christine, ‘‘Cinematic Sexualities: The Two Faces of Abe Sada in Japanese ‘poruno’ films,’’ in Asian Cinema (Drexel Hill), vol. 8, no. 2, Winter 1996–1997. *** The first film to break down the barriers between the commercial art film and hard-core pornography, the all-explicit Ai no corrida was for Japanese director Nagisa Oshima both a political and a psychocultural exploration. In keeping with his consistent treatment of sensitive issues in the guise of dramatic films, Oshima conceived this project at the suggestion of French producer Anatole Dauman to do a hard-core film. Immediately subsequent to the abolition of antiobscenity laws in France, Corrida was the sensation of the 1976 Cannes International Film Festival, where an unprecedented thirteen screenings were mounted to meet the demand. Shot entirely in Japan, where police ordinarily seize in the developing laboratory films revealing so much as a pubic hair, the exposed footage was sent to France for processing. When re-imported to Japan as a French production, with every explicit scene air-brushed into white haze by the censors, it was nevertheless hailed as the first porno film for women. Oshima was therefore arrested and prosecuted for obscenity in the screenplay, which had been published in book form in Japan. After four years in court, he was found innocent by the supreme court, but he did not succeed in overturning the legal concept of obscenity. Like all of Oshima’s films, Corrida is based on a true story, the apprehension of Sada Abe, who strangled her lover with his consent and then cut off his genitals in 1936, months before Japan’s full-scale aggression against China would open World War II. The appearance of Japanese flags and marching soldiers elucidate a background theme of sexuality as escape from political and social oppression, one of Oshima’s persistent concerns. Corrida is an exploration of the limits of sexuality. Sada (Eiko Matsuda) and Kichizo (Tatsuya Fuji) gradually reject the outside world in order to pursue the ultimate in sexual pleasure. Couched in a linear narrative with few but important stylistic deviations from a conventional exposition, the sexual exploits quickly lose any prurient quality. These lovers are too analytical; they comment too much; they allow and seek out too much intrusion upon their acts. Finally, they develop too much need for violence to stimulate themselves as over-indulgence dulls the pleasure. The desire to possess another person ends in Kichizo’s death. The major reversal of the conventions of the porno film lie in Kichizo’s aim of giving pleasure to Sada. She gradually changes from addressing him as ‘‘master’’ (of the inn where she has worked as a maid) to adopting male speech and giving him orders. Some psychiatrists have seen this as a calculated role reversal, in which Kichizo takes on first a passive quality, then a maternal aspect for Sada. Indeed Sada becomes the aggressor, initiator and possessor in every sense. But Oshima characteristically ends the film without any comment but the historical facts: Sada was arrested with Kichizo’s genitalia on her person, tried and jailed for murder. But she became celebrated as a folk heroine. Aside from the universal interest of the possession urge in sexuality, Oshima layers his film with cultural references. He uses the formula of the Kabuki theater, the lovers’ journey (michiyuki, as they go to the inn that will be their refuge and site of the murder) to presage a doomed alliance. He taps the rich pornographic history of feudal Japan in the voyeurism, exploitation, and sado-masochistic play of the geisha and maids at the inns, and he mocks the elaborate ritual of the Japanese wedding ceremony. Use of traditional Japanese musical instruments on the sound track, lush color photography even in the confinement of the small inn room, and superb acting from non-stars and amateurs add to the disturbing appeal of this psychological landmark of the cinema. —Audie Bock AKALER SANDHANE (In Search of Famine) India, 1981 Director: Mrinal Sen Production: D.K Films Enterprise; colour; running time: 131 minutes (also 124 minute and 115 minute version); language: Bengali. First public screening 12 February 1982. Filmed on location in Hatui and neighboring villages, Bengal. Producer: Dhiresh Kumar Chakraborty; screenplay: Mrinal Sen, from a novel by Amalendu Chakraborty; photography: K.K. Mahajan; editor: Gangadhar Naskar; art direction: Suresh Chandra; music: Salil Chowdhury. Cast: Dhritiman Chaterjee (Director); Smita Patil (Actress); Sreela Majumdar (Woman); Gita Sen (Widow); Dipankar Dey (Star). Awards: Silver Bear, Berlin 1981. Publications Script: Sen, Mrinal, In Search of Famine: a film by Mrinal Sen, script reconstructed and translated by Bandyopadhyay, Samik: Calcutta, 1983
FILMS. 4th EDItION AKALER SANDHANE
FILMS, 4 AKALER SANDHANE th EDITION 23 Akaler Sandhane
AKASEN CHITAI FILMS. 4 EDITIoN address culminate in the actress Devika plucking her eyebrows and utting her hair short, and being summarily expelled from the cast. Famine. calcutta The second history features the village itself, invaded by mass culture Uma da, The New -1980. New Delhi including a Communist Jatra(Bengal has had a Communist govern- John w, Chasing i 1993 ment in power since 1967)which has taken to"Hitler, Lenin and Mukhopadhyay, Deepankar, Maverick Maestro Mrinal Sen, Indus Stalin"in the words of Haren, loudspeakers advertising The Guns of Navarone, and the film unit which promptly buys up all the the village and is accused of starting a new famine. Some led by Haren(played by noted filmmaker Rajen Tarafda cooperate with the crew, but divisions erupt when Haren tries to get Guha, Jagannath. ""Films and Famine: On Mrinal Sen's Search for Chatterjee's daughter to replace the expelled Devika as an actress Famine"in Maadhyam(New Delhi), March/April 1981 (because the role is that of a woman reduced to prostitution during the Hoberman, Jim."New Delhi's Film Bazaar""in American Film(New famine). The schoolmaster has to remind Chatterjee, and other local York), Vol 6 no. 7, May 1981 notables, that they were themselves descendants of 1943 war profi Chakravarty, Sumita S, "An Interview with Mrinal Sen"in Cine- teers. The third, and the most poignant, is that of the dying Zamindar Tracts(Quebec), Summer/Autumn 1981 and his wife, in whose abandoned mansion the crew lives: this story is Malcolm, Derek, ""Guerilla Fighter: Mrinal Sen,in Sight and Sound juxtaposed with that of Durga, who forms the only living memory of ondon), Autumn 198 the tragedy of 1943, and whose intimations of the future-the'flash- Ciment, Michel,"Entretien avec Mrinal Sen"in Positif( Paris), forward "death of her son-making up the end of the film(as the January 1982 crew returns to Calcutta, their film unfinished) Swapan Mullick in Cinema in India, Vol. I no. 4, October. style,ordeen is of course best known for his late 1960s and 1970s Sen, Mrinal, Towards Another Moment of Truth interview with Urinal se wheeling, politically involved and didactic cinema December 198 using numerous alienation-effects that he once described as"playing around with tools as often as I could, as a child plays with building blocks. Partly out of sheer playfulness, partly out of necessity, also partly to shock a section of our audiences [to violate the l outrageously Mrinal Sens self-critical film, and one of his best known 1980s conformist mainstream of our cinema. ( Towards Another productions, shows the experiences of a contemporary film unit going ment of Truth,”1987) yle changed dramatically with Ek into a Bengali village to fictionally reconstruct the 1943 man-made Din Pratidin(1979), a relatively straightforward tale with a minimal Bengal famine. The director describes that tragedy plot-in which a middle-class woman"disappears"for a night-into country, in Bengal, still undivided, not a shot was fired, not a bomb a realist idiom usually set in Calcuttas middle-class, where a large burst. And yet in a year five million people starved to death. They just number of characters would respond in various tell-tale ways to an starved and dropped dead event that disrupts their lives and values for the brief period The 1943 Bengal famine-one of pre-independent Indias most ( Chaalchitra, 1981; Khari, 1982)before normalcy returns horrifying human disasters-has been the subject of considerable Akaler Sandhaney is the most ambitious of this genre. The story here too is straightforward, but the numerous disruptions on the literature and several plays and films. One of the reasons for so much soundtrack, the playful effects of several Bengali and Hindi(Smita literature is that, in a real sense, the event remains impossible to assimilate or even understand. An estimated five million people died Patil) actors and Sen regulars playing themselves, and the freeze frame ending on Durga, is more reminiscent of his late 1970s Cale million). It was as a consequence of war profiteering, a complacent trilogy, more inclined to break out of linear dramatic idioms tate administration that refused to acknowledge a crisis until the amine was a reality, and a quiescent peasantry that refused to rise up -Ashish Rajadhyaksha in revolt In 1943 the Indian Peoples'Theatre Association made its debut ith the epochal production of Bijon Bhattacharya's Nabanna, ad- AKASEN CHITAL of the landmarks for the modern Indian theatre. In 1960 Mrinal Sen himself made a film set in the famine, baishey Shravana(The ( Street of Shame) Wedding Day), and in 1973 Satyajit Ray adapted a Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay story to make Ashani Sanket(Distant Thunder). This was not the only famine to hit the region, as Akaler Sandhaney's film unit shows when they play the game of guessing from photographs Director: Kenji Mizoguchi which year the corpses could have come from. But the extent of the literature, theatre and cinema that address the 1943 event is an Production: Daiei Kyoto: black white; running time: 94 minutes. important sub-text for the film, which critiques that body of work as Released 18 March 1956, Japan. Filmed at Daiei Studios in Tokyo much as it critiques itself and its maker There are three sets of histories that weave into the plot: the film Producer: Masaichi Nagata; screenplay: Masashige Narusawa, from unit arrives in Hatui on 7 September(presumably the day Sens own the short story""Susaki No Onna"by Yoshiko Shibaki; photogra unit began filming) and quickly has problems. The unit's own phy: Kazuo Miyagawa; sound: Mitsuo Hasagawa; art director professional unconcern for the issues their production seeks to Hiroshi Mizutani; music: Toshiro Mayuzumi
AKASEN CHITAI FILMS, 4th EDITION 24 Books: Bandyopadhyay, Samik, editor, In Search of Famine, Calcutta, 1983. Cunha, Uma da, The New Generation: 1960–1980, New Delhi, 1981. Hood, John W., Chasing the Truth, Calcutta, 1993. Mukhopadhyay, Deepankar, Maverick Maestro Mrinal Sen, Indus Publishing Company, 1995. Articles: Guha, Jagannath, ‘‘Films and Famine: On Mrinal Sen’s Search for Famine’’ in Maadhyam (New Delhi), March/April 1981. Hoberman, Jim, ‘‘New Delhi’s Film Bazaar’’ in American Film (New York), Vol. 6 no. 7, May 1981. Chakravarty, Sumita S., ‘‘An Interview with Mrinal Sen’’ in CineTracts (Quebec), Summer/Autumn 1981. Malcolm, Derek, ‘‘Guerilla Fighter: Mrinal Sen’’ in Sight and Sound (London), Autumn 1981. Ciment, Michel, ‘‘Entretien avec Mrinal Sen’’ in Positif (Paris), January 1982. Sen, Mrinal, ‘‘Towards Another Moment of Truth’’ interview with Swapan Mullick in Cinema in India, Vol. 1 no. 4, OctoberDecember 1987. *** Mrinal Sen’s self-critical film, and one of his best known 1980s productions, shows the experiences of a contemporary film unit going into a Bengali village to fictionally reconstruct the 1943 man-made Bengal famine. The director describes that tragedy: ‘‘. . . in our country, in Bengal, still undivided, not a shot was fired, not a bomb burst. And yet in a year five million people starved to death. They just starved and dropped dead.’’ The 1943 Bengal famine—one of pre-independent India’s most horrifying human disasters—has been the subject of considerable literature and several plays and films. One of the reasons for so much literature is that, in a real sense, the event remains impossible to assimilate or even understand. An estimated five million people died through starvation (official figures in 1945 put the figure at 1.5 million). It was as a consequence of war profiteering, a complacent state administration that refused to acknowledge a crisis until the famine was a reality, and a quiescent peasantry that refused to rise up in revolt. In 1943 the Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association made its debut with the epochal production of Bijon Bhattacharya’s Nabanna, addressing the famine. This play, staged by Sombhu Mitra, remains one of the landmarks for the modern Indian theatre. In 1960 Mrinal Sen himself made a film set in the famine, Baishey Shravana (The Wedding Day), and in 1973 Satyajit Ray adapted a Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay story to make Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder). This was not the only famine to hit the region, as Akaler Sandhaney’s film unit shows when they play the game of guessing from photographs which year the corpses could have come from. But the extent of the literature, theatre and cinema that address the 1943 event is an important sub-text for the film, which critiques that body of work as much as it critiques itself and its maker. There are three sets of histories that weave into the plot: the film unit arrives in Hatui on 7 September (presumably the day Sen’s own unit began filming) and quickly has problems. The unit’s own professional unconcern for the issues their production seeks to address culminate in the actress Devika plucking her eyebrows and cutting her hair short, and being summarily expelled from the cast. The second history features the village itself, invaded by mass culture including a Communist Jatra (Bengal has had a Communist government in power since 1967) which has taken to ‘‘Hitler, Lenin and Stalin’’ in the words of Haren, loudspeakers advertising The Guns of Navarone, and the film unit which promptly buys up all the food from the village and is accused of starting a new famine. Some villagers, led by Haren (played by noted filmmaker Rajen Tarafdar), try to cooperate with the crew, but divisions erupt when Haren tries to get Chatterjee’s daughter to replace the expelled Devika as an actress (because the role is that of a woman reduced to prostitution during the famine). The schoolmaster has to remind Chatterjee, and other local notables, that they were themselves descendants of 1943 war profi- teers. The third, and the most poignant, is that of the dying Zamindar and his wife, in whose abandoned mansion the crew lives: this story is juxtaposed with that of Durga, who forms the only living memory of the tragedy of 1943, and whose intimations of the future—the ‘‘flashforward’’ death of her son—making up the end of the film (as the crew returns to Calcutta, their film unfinished). Mrinal Sen is of course best known for his late 1960s and 1970s style, of a freewheeling, politically involved and didactic cinema using numerous alienation-effects that he once described as ‘‘playing around with tools as often as I could, as a child plays with building blocks. Partly out of sheer playfulness, partly out of necessity, also partly to shock a section of our audiences [to violate the] outrageously conformist . . . mainstream of our cinema.’’ (‘‘Towards Another Moment of Truth,’’ 1987). The style changed dramatically with Ek Din Pratidin (1979), a relatively straightforward tale with a minimal plot—in which a middle-class woman ‘‘disappears’’ for a night—into a realist idiom usually set in Calcutta’s middle-class, where a large number of characters would respond in various tell-tale ways to an event that disrupts their lives and values for the brief period (Chaalchitra, 1981; Kharij, 1982) before normalcy returns. Akaler Sandhaney is the most ambitious of this genre. The story here too is straightforward, but the numerous disruptions on the soundtrack, the playful effects of several Bengali and Hindi (Smita Patil) actors and Sen regulars playing themselves, and the freezeframe ending on Durga, is more reminiscent of his late 1970s Calcutta trilogy, more inclined to break out of linear dramatic idioms. —Ashish Rajadhyaksha AKASEN CHITAI (Street of Shame) Japan, 1956 Director: Kenji Mizoguchi Production: Daiei Kyoto; black & white; running time: 94 minutes. Released 18 March 1956, Japan. Filmed at Daiei Studios in Tokyo. Producer: Masaichi Nagata; screenplay: Masashige Narusawa, from the short story ‘‘Susaki No Onna’’ by Yoshiko Shibaki; photography: Kazuo Miyagawa; sound: Mitsuo Hasagawa; art director: Hiroshi Mizutani; music: Toshiro Mayuzumi
FILMS. 4th EDItION AKASEN CHITAI Homer, Eric, Rue de la Honte in Arts(Paris), no 642, 1957 Demonsablon, Phillipe,""Plus de Lumiere"in Cahiers du Cinema Paris), December 1957 Gillett, John, in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1958. Gortori, Carlos, in Film Ideal (Madrid), January 1965 Tessier, Max, " La Rue de la Honte"in Image ef Son(Paris) r1980 Magny, Joel, "Le Testament de Mizoguchi?"in Cinema(Paris), October 1980 Masson, Alain, L'ordre du bordel'in Positif(Paris), Novem- ber 1980 Burdeau, Emmanuel others, ""Mizoguchi encore, in Cahiers du Cinema(Paris), July-August 1996 Everyone interested in Japanese film must be deeply indebted to Noel Burch's To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese Cinema-but indebted more for the questions his strictly formalist analyses raise than for the tendentious and problematic answers. At their root is Burch's antagonism to Hollywood and American cultural imperialism: films are valued or not according to their deviation from the shooting/editing codes of classical Holly wood cinema. As far as Mizoguchi is concerned. Burch's interest is restricted to certain films of the 30s and 40s; everything subsequent is dismissed Street of shame, Mizoguchi's last film, raises interesting questions about the relation between form an aning: it reverts to the akasen chitai thematics of the 30s and 40s, realized in the stylistics of the 50s Clearly well outside Burch's range of interest, it contains not a single Cast: Machiko Kyo(Mickey): Aiko Mimasu (Yumeko): Ayako shot that would be out of place in a classical Hollywood movie(while Wakao (Yasumi): Michiyo Kogure(Hanae ); Yasuko Kawakami retaining the dominant characteristics of Mizoguchi's late peri airly long takes, with much use of camera movement, depth of field (Shizuko); Eitoro Shindo(Kurazo Taya): Kenji Sugawara(Eiko); and much use of foreground/background simultaneous action) Bontaro Miake(Patrolman): Toranosuke Ogawa(Mickey's father) My own position is that a film should be evaluated not according Kumeko Urabe(Otane); Sadako Sawamura(Tatsuko Taya): Hiroko to its formal devices (deviant or otherwise) but according to its Machida(Yore). totality: the richness and complexity of meaning that has been realized in the interaction of all its elements, thematic, stylistic, political. Street of Shame is the last in the series of impassioned Publications feminist protests that(in forms varying sharply from period to period traverses Mizoguchi s entire career as far as we can know it(many Books early films are lost). One may compare it, then, with two earlier films Sisters of the Gion(1936, admired by Burch) and My Love Has been Mesnil, Michel, Mizoguchi Kenji, Paris, 1965 Burning(1949, ignored, hence presumably dismissed). The former is Douchet, Jean, Connaissance de Kenji Mizoguchi, Paris, 1978 built upon a system of extremely long takes, mainly in long shot, McDonald, Keiko, Kenji Mizoguchi, Boston, 1984 mainly static, employing only one or two brief camera movements whose function is to hold us back from. rather than draw us toward Andrew, Dudley, in Magill,'s Survey of Cinema Foreign Language the characters. The latter also employs very long takes, often se- Films, volume 6, edited by Magill, Frank, New Jersey, 1985 quence-shots, but their function is entirely different: there is a great al of camera movement, much less camera distance, and scenes end with the camera leading us in toward the heroine, the scene embodying a lesson she has learned and that we share with her. The Yamauchi, Matsuo, ""Street of Shame and Objective Depiction"in earlier film is built upon distanciation(there is no character with whom we can identify, we are to see all of them, male and female, Variety(New York), 25 July 1956. trapped within and corrupted by a specific social system); the latter is Takizawa, Osamu, ""Watered-down Sake: Kenji Mizoguchi's Street built upon a subtle and beautifully realized form of identification, the of Shame" in Eiga Geijutsu(Tokyo), September 1956 heroine being an exemplary feminist figure whose progress toward a full awareness of the oppression of women within patriarchal Lane, John Francis, in Films and Filming(London), November 1956 culture we are invited to share
FILMS, 4 AKASEN CHITAI th EDITION 25 Akasen Chitai Cast: Machiko Kyo (Mickey); Aiko Mimasu (Yumeko); Ayako Wakao (Yasumi); Michiyo Kogure (Hanae); Yasuko Kawakami (Shizuko); Eitoro Shindo (Kurazo Taya); Kenji Sugawara (Eikoh); Bontaro Miake (Patrolman); Toranosuke Ogawa (Mickey’s father); Kumeko Urabe (Otane); Sadako Sawamura (Tatsuko Taya); Hiroko Machida (Yorie). Publications Books: Mesnil, Michel, Mizoguchi Kenji, Paris, 1965. Douchet, Jean, Connaissance de Kenji Mizoguchi, Paris, 1978. McDonald, Keiko, Kenji Mizoguchi, Boston, 1984. Serceau, Daniel, Mizoguchi: de la revolte aux songes, Paris, 1983. Andrew, Dudley, in Magill’s Survey of Cinema - Foreign Language Films, volume 6, edited by Magill, Frank, New Jersey, 1985. Articles: Yamauchi, Matsuo, ‘‘Street of Shame and Objective Depiction’’ in Eiga Hyoron (Tokyo), June 1956. Variety (New York), 25 July 1956. Takizawa, Osamu, ‘‘Watered-down Sake: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame’’ in Eiga Geijutsu (Tokyo), September 1956. Izawa, Jun, in Shinario (Tokyo), October 1956. Lane, John Francis, in Films and Filming (London), November 1956. Rhomer, Eric, ‘‘Rue de la Honte’’ in Arts (Paris), no. 642, 1957. Demonsablon, Phillipe, ‘‘Plus de Lumiere’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), December 1957. Gillett, John, in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1958. Gortori, Carlos, in Film Ideal (Madrid), January 1965. Tessier, Max, ‘‘La Rue de la Honte’’ in Image et Son (Paris), September 1980. Magny, Joel, ‘‘Le Testament de Mizoguchi?’’ in Cinéma (Paris), October 1980. Masson, Alain, ‘‘L’ordre du bordel’’ in Positif (Paris), November 1980. Burdeau, Emmanuel & others, ‘‘Mizoguchi encore,’’ in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), July-August 1996. *** Everyone interested in Japanese film must be deeply indebted to Noel Burch’s To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese Cinema—but indebted more for the questions his strictly formalist analyses raise than for the tendentious and problematic answers. At their root is Burch’s antagonism to Hollywood and American cultural imperialism: films are valued or not according to their deviation from the shooting/editing codes of classical Hollywood cinema. As far as Mizoguchi is concerned, Burch’s interest is restricted to certain films of the 30s and 40s; everything subsequent is dismissed. Street of Shame, Mizoguchi’s last film, raises interesting questions about the relation between form and meaning: it reverts to the thematics of the 30s and 40s, realized in the stylistics of the 50s. Clearly well outside Burch’s range of interest, it contains not a single shot that would be out of place in a classical Hollywood movie (while retaining the dominant characteristics of Mizoguchi’s late period: fairly long takes, with much use of camera movement, depth of field, and much use of foreground/background simultaneous action). My own position is that a film should be evaluated not according to its formal devices (deviant or otherwise) but according to its totality: the richness and complexity of meaning that has been realized in the interaction of all its elements, thematic, stylistic, political. Street of Shame is the last in the series of impassioned feminist protests that (in forms varying sharply from period to period) traverses Mizoguchi’s entire career as far as we can know it (many early films are lost). One may compare it, then, with two earlier films: Sisters of the Gion (1936, admired by Burch) and My Love Has been Burning (1949, ignored, hence presumably dismissed). The former is built upon a system of extremely long takes, mainly in long shot, mainly static, employing only one or two brief camera movements whose function is to hold us back from, rather than draw us toward, the characters. The latter also employs very long takes, often sequence-shots, but their function is entirely different: there is a great deal of camera movement, much less camera distance, and most of the scenes end with the camera leading us in toward the heroine, the scene embodying a lesson she has learned and that we share with her. The earlier film is built upon distanciation (there is no character with whom we can identify, we are to see all of them, male and female, trapped within and corrupted by a specific social system); the latter is built upon a subtle and beautifully realized form of identification, the heroine being an exemplary feminist figure whose progress toward a full awareness of the oppression of women within patriarchal culture we are invited to share