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

2. Ozu as auteur Complete grip on film- making in every stage Ozu wrote all his late scripts with Noda Kogo and gave meticulous and final instructions on 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. Stylization

5. Ozu as auteur Ozu-gumi (the Ozu crew) The same crew for many films with Ozu as their absolute head This was made possible in Japan’s studio system

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

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

8. Ozu as auteur Photographer: Atsuta Yuharu (or Yushun) 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 intention.

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.” -- Yûharu Atsuta

11. Ozu as auteur Noda Kogo He co-wrote with Ozu 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 mind. Once a scenario is completed, not a single word is added or taken away (almost!)

13. Ozu as auteur Ozu kept using the same actors: Ryu Chishu, Hara Setsuko, Sugimura Haruko, Tanaka Kinuyo, Yamamura So, Nakamura Nobuo, Tono Eijiro Ozu completely dictates the ways in which actors deliver dialogues and act, allowing them no freedom and improvisation.

14. Ozu as auteur Performers who appeared regularly in Ozu’s films understood his intention and method completely.

15. Ozu as auteur More regular faces in Ozu’s films.

16. Ozu as auteur Rigid, artificial action - lack of spontaneity (criticism) However, Ozu won complete trust from actors Stylized ‘beauty’ - sense of order

17. Ozu operating the camera by himself.

18. Ozu editing the film himself.

19. Ozu directing performance

21. 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)

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

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

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

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

27. Ozu’s Visual Style (Mise-en-scène)

29. - Frontal composition: actors (almost) directly looking at and talking to camera Unconventional and against classic filmmaking rules

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

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

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

33. 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.

34. Ozu’s Visual Style (Mise-en-scène) More examples of Ozu’s favourite interior composition Empty tatami in foreground, figures in the middle ground and small garden and wall at background

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

36. 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

37. Ozu’s Colour Films The same mise-en-scéne is employed in colour films Repeated uses of the same colour - red

38. Ozu’s Colour Films

40. Red is used in ‘pillow’ shots

41. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Montage (Editing) - Rhythmic editing (nearly fixed lengths of shots according to sizes) ‘Ozu’s low camera position is not for long takes. It makes a ryhthm 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)

42. Fade (in)

43. Wipe

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) ELLIPSIS - narrative device used in literature to leave out a (large) portion of an action, an event or situation. Ozu frequently uses this device. The viewer learns of important narrative events only after they have occurred. Tokyo Monogatari: The viewer does not see the grandmother falls ill - the viewer knows it only when her son and daughter receive a telegram; her death taking place between scenes: in one scene, they are at her bedside and in the next they are mourning her death

47. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) - ‘Pillow shots’ or ‘still life shots’ which are not directly related with narratives and function as transitional insertions.

48. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Noriko gets a phone call at work telling that her mother-in-law is ill; medium shot of her at desk with sound of typewriters

49. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Cut to a low-angle shot of a building under construction with riveting machine sounds and music

50. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Cut to another shot of the construction site with the same sounds

51. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Then a cut to Koichi’s clinic with his sister, Shige present. The new scene begins.

52. Ozu’s Visual Style (Montage) Meanings of pillow shot Contemplative and aesthetic Related to story-telling mechanism: frequent uses of ellipsis (a segment of a narrative is deliberately omitted) Pillow shot indicates that an ellipsis occurs.

53. Ozu’s Film Style Ignoring the standard continuity editing - 180 degree rule - Omission of the establishing shot - using space of 360 degrees

56. Ozu’s Montage: the 180 degree rule Ozu comfortably ignores the 180 degree rule: a man drinking tea facing towards the frame right

57. Ozu’s Montage: the 180 degree rule In the next shot, the man facing the frame left. A grave mistake in the classical montage style

58. Meanings of Ozu’s visual style Restrained and minimalist cinematic style Ozu’s film style is often compared to Zen - ‘Ozu’s simplicity of style derives from the fact that his art is essentially religious in nature. It is an art predicated on the Zen Buddhism…’ David A. Cook - Mystery of the everyday ‘… it is only through the mundane and the common that the transcendent can be expressed.’ Donald Ritchie

59. Meanings of Ozu’s visual style - Contemplative and meditative quality; the expression of quietness, motionless, emptiness and nothingness

60. Meanings of Ozu’s visual style - Self-abandonment yielding to fate and destiny without conscious struggle - The tombstone of Ozu’s grave – ‘ 無 ’ Nothing

61. Meanings of Ozu’s visual style How much are Ozu’s images religious expression? How closely are Ozu’s films related with Zen Buddhism and its spirit?