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The A-Z of Ozu
A bluffers' guide to the films of Yasujiro Ozu
P is for...
Pillow Shot
Ozu’s most important contribution to film language is his much-copied manner of cutting from a character’s sufferings to an unrelated still life – famously, in ‘Late Spring’, a vase. Far from diluting our emotional response, this intensifies it by giving us time to share the feelings unfolding on screen.
Comments
This is a common misconception about Ozu's style. He rarely used low angles. He did, however, prefer a low camera height and would shoot most objects 2/3 rds of the way down from its centre. The tatami mat thing is also a misconception that many people make. If you look at the films carefully a lot of the time the camera height will be much lower than anyone seated on a tatami mat.
Does anybody have biographical information about actress Yagumo Rieko, who plays Otaka in the 1934 version of Floating Weeds (Ukigusa Monogatari)? Thanks
For an incomplete lists of the crews and casts of Ozu's 54 films, see: http://bit.ly/cKxN4x
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