16.05.1898 - 24.08.1954
One of the initiators of film art, who influenced the formation of the style of Japanese traditional film. He graduated from art school in Tokyo. In 1920 he was assistant directors Tadashi Oguchi and Eizo Tanaka at Nikkatsu Studios. His debut film was The Day Love Returns (1923).
Mizoguchi came to the cinema as a subverter of the theatrical convention that prevailed on the screen. Under the influence of German expressionism, he staged the painting Blood and Soul (1923),
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16.05.1898 - 24.08.1954
One of the initiators of film art, who influenced the formation of the style of Japanese traditional film. He graduated from art school in Tokyo. In 1920 he was assistant directors Tadashi Oguchi and Eizo Tanaka at Nikkatsu Studios. His debut film was The Day Love Returns (1923).
Mizoguchi came to the cinema as a subverter of the theatrical convention that prevailed on the screen. Under the influence of German expressionism, he staged the painting Blood and Soul (1923), filmed works of Western literature: 813 (according to M. LeBlanc, 1923), Port in the Fog (according to J. O'Neill, 1923), which brought Mizoguchi the first success. In the films “Spring Whisper of a Paper Doll” and “Mad Passion of a Teacher” (1926), he turned to social motives, led innovative searches in the field of film language. He created socially problematic works “Tokyo March” and “Symphony of the City” (1929), “Homeland” (1930, later announced). By this time, the main theme of Mizoguchi’s work was determined – the collision of traditional life and worldview with modernity. The director was interested in the tragic fate of the woman, her suffering and self-sacrifice. In the center of attention he put all-consuming love that saves a person. Later, he moved from romantic female images to harsh realism in describing the fates of his heroines. In 1936, according to the script of Yoshikata Eda, with whom Mizoguchi had a long creative community, he staged the films Elegia Naniva and Giona Sisters, which became the pinnacle of pre-war Japanese cinema.
During the Second World War and later shot films about the kabuki theater, on legendary and mythological plots - "The Tale of the Late Chrysanthemum" (1938), "The Life of an Actor" (1941), "Genroku Tusingur" (1942), "The Love of Actress Sumako" (1947), etc., released the paintings "Woman's Victory" and "Five Women Around Utamaro" (1946), "Women of the Night" (1948). By the end of the 40s, Mizoguchi’s special directorial manner had developed. It featured a subtle re-creation of the film's atmosphere, it bizarrely combined reality and unreality, presented as authentic life. The composition and graphic decision of the frames was influenced by the influence of traditional Japanese painting. Mizoguchi came from the primacy of visuality in cinema. His works were dominated by long general plans, shot from one point. “One Scene, One Plan” became a defining principle in Mizoguchi’s art and had a great impact on Japanese cinema.
In the 50s, the director created films that were included in the golden fund of world cinema: “The Saikaku Woman” (according to Ihara Saikaku, 1952, another name “The Life of O-Haru, Courtesans”, the IFF prize in Venice), “The Moon in the Fog” (“Tales of a misty moon after the rain”, according to the legend of Akinari Ueda, 1953, the IFF prize in Venice), “The Manager of Sansa” (according to Ogai Mori, 1954, the IFF prize in Venice), as well as “The Tale of Tikamatsu” (1954). The first ribbons in color are Yekihi (Yan Gui-fei) and The New Tale of Genji (Shinheike Monogatari), both 1955. Mizoguchi's latest work is Red Light District (1956), an ironic variation on female love. In total, he put more than 80 paintings.