Mizoguchi

Friday, January 11, 8pm
Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai)
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1936, Japan, 69 minutes, 35mm)
Often called the best pre-war Japanese film, Sisters of the Gion tells the story of two sisters — the older trained as a geisha in the old tradition and devoted to her bankrupt former patron; the younger an apprentice with more modern ideas, who rebels against the conventions of the profession and resents the callous way men treat women. Set in Tokyo’s red-light district, Sisters of the Gion is a harsh and urgent film that showcases Mizoguchi’s remarkable sensitivity towards the plight of women in traditional Japanese society.

Friday, January 18, 8pm
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939, Japan, 148 minutes, 35mm)
The story of a lowly wet-nurse in a powerful family of kabuki actors. A member of the family comes to realize from Otuku, the wet-nurse, that his acting is praised only because of his influential connections; other actors complain of his incompetence behind his back. To succeed, he'll ultimately have to forsake either her or his family. An exquisitely realized film with a rising power, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum is a profoundly moving portrait of the price of fame.

Wednesday, January 30, 8pm
The Life of Oharu     
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952, Japan, 148 minutes, 35mm)
A response to Kurasowa’s then just-released Rashomon, The Life of Oharu ranks among the great tragedies of cinema, an unblinking, brutal, beautiful film. The film chronicles the decline of a woman from a respected member of the Imperial Japanese Court to a whore and beggar. Shot with characteristic artistry by Mizoguchi, the film depends on a number of extremely long, technically demanding takes. Set in feudal Japan, this film was clearly a comment on contemporary Japanese life and it solidifies Mizoguchi’s reputation as the cinema’s greatest director of women.

Friday, February 8, 8pm
Ugetsu
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955, Japan, 120 minutes, 35mm)
A devastating film, Ugetsu focuses on a pair of peasants, the potter Genjuro and his brother-in-law Tobei, who are obliviously trying to make their fortunes during the bloody civil wars of 16th century Japan. As is typical of Mizoguchi, Ugetsu is hyper-aware of how who ultimately suffers will be the women — not Genjuro or Tobei, but their wives. “A subtle, violent yet magical film,” as Pauline Kael wrote, Ugetsu, well-known for its awe-inspiring long takes, is often considered Mizoguchi's greatest work.

Friday, February 15, 8pm
Sansho the Baliff
(Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954, Japan, 120 minutes, 35mm)
A folk tale from feudal Japan, Sansho the Baliff is considered one of the greatest Japanese films and one of Mizoguchi’s finest achievements. The film tells the story of an idealistic governor who is cast into exile after disobeying the reigning feudal lord. His wife and children are left to fend for themselves. “I have seen ‘Sansho’ only once, a decade ago,” the New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane has written, “emerging from the cinema a broken man but calm in my conviction that I had never seen anything better; I have not dared watch it again, reluctant to ruin the spell, but also because the human heart was not designed to weather such an ordeal.”