FINAL ESSAY
Yasujiro Ozu
Examination of the formal properties and stylistic features of Ozu’s The End of Summer (1961) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962), with particular reference to their difference from classical Hollywood cinema.
Janna van der Linden [Erasmus student]
129040467
Researching World Cinemas [HA2030]
Dr Ian Roberts
10.05.2013
In their study of Hollywood cinema, David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson and Janet Staiger had performed a formalist analysis on a random selection of 100 Hollywood films from 1917 to 1960. They came to the conclusion that during this period a distinctive cinematic style had developed they called classical Hollywood cinema.1 After World War I, Hollywood had become the dominant market for producing films worldwide. Because of this global dominance, the authors claimed that the classical Hollywood style had become the dominant model of how movies were supposed to look like, and influenced the production of movies in other courtiers, also in Japan.2 After World War I, Hollywood films were more and more cited, copied and remade and inserted into Japanese movies.3
The most controversial claim of Bordwell, Thompson and Staiger has been that filmmakers anywhere outside Hollywood basically faced two choices. Either they succumb to the classical Hollywood style and follow its example, or they revolt against it and try to consciously to subvert its norms.4
This essay will discuss the cinematic style of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963), who did not conform to most of the Hollywood conventions. There is a wide appreciation for his style, innovation, aesthetics and themes. It is argued that the film style of Ozu is most stinking in his later films, therefor two of his last films will be central in this essay. The formal properties and stylistic features of The End of Summer (1961) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962) will be discussed with reference to their difference from the characteristics and conventions of
Examination of the formal properties and stylistic features of Ozu’s The End of Summer (1961) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962), with particular reference to their difference from classical Hollywood cinema.
Janna van der Linden [Erasmus student]
129040467
Researching World Cinemas [HA2030]
Dr Ian Roberts
10.05.2013
In their study of Hollywood cinema, David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson and Janet Staiger had performed a formalist analysis on a random selection of 100 Hollywood films from 1917 to 1960. They came to the conclusion that during this period a distinctive cinematic style had developed they called classical Hollywood cinema.1 After World War I, Hollywood had become the dominant market for producing films worldwide. Because of this global dominance, the authors claimed that the classical Hollywood style had become the dominant model of how movies were supposed to look like, and influenced the production of movies in other courtiers, also in Japan.2 After World War I, Hollywood films were more and more cited, copied and remade and inserted into Japanese movies.3
The most controversial claim of Bordwell, Thompson and Staiger has been that filmmakers anywhere outside Hollywood basically faced two choices. Either they succumb to the classical Hollywood style and follow its example, or they revolt against it and try to consciously to subvert its norms.4
This essay will discuss the cinematic style of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963), who did not conform to most of the Hollywood conventions. There is a wide appreciation for his style, innovation, aesthetics and themes. It is argued that the film style of Ozu is most stinking in his later films, therefor two of his last films will be central in this essay. The formal properties and stylistic features of The End of Summer (1961) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962) will be discussed with reference to their difference from the characteristics and conventions of
Bibliography: Bordwell, David, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988. McDonald, Keiko I. Reading a Japanese Film: Cinema in Context, Honolulu, Univeristy of Hawai’I Press, 2006. Richie, Donald, Japanese Cinema: Film Style and National Character, London, Secker & Warburg, 1972. Thompson, Kirsten and David Bordwell, ‘Space and Narrative in the Films of Ozu’, Screen, vol Filmography An Autumn Afternoon (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu, 1962) The End of Summer (Japan, Yasujiro Ozu, 1961)