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Kitano Takeshi Mannerist Aestheticism. Mannerist Style Mannerism - the aesthetic style that uses...
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Transcript of Kitano Takeshi Mannerist Aestheticism. Mannerist Style Mannerism - the aesthetic style that uses...
Mannerist Style
• Mannerism - the aesthetic style that uses exaggerated and artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) expression to produce drama, tension, exuberance and grandeur in painting, and sculpture.
• Mannerism was born as a reaction to harmonious and naturalist ideals of Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.
Kitano’s Mannerist Style
Conventional filmmaking ⇔ Mannerist filmmaking
• STORYTELLING• Medias res (Latin for ‘into the middle of the thi
ngs) - is a literary and artistic technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning (ab ovo, or ab initio).
• e.g. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Quentin
Trantino’s Pulp Fiction
Kitano’s Mannerist Style Storytelling
• Radical ellipsis • Ellipsis (Greek for ‘omission’) - a narrative d
evice: omitting a portion of the sequences of events, allowing the reader to fill in the narrative gaps.
• Kitano omits significant portions of narrative.
• e.g. Ozu Yasujiro’s films and his own, Kikujiro
Kitano’s Mannerist Style Storytelling
• Constant narrative diversions • Episodic storytelling which is only loosely conne
cted with the main story line.• The longest diversion is the middle part of Sona
tine, in which time seems to have stopped and almost absurd episodes are accumulated.
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Mise-en-scene of Kitano’s films: creation of ascetic atmosphere
• Stillness, silence, emptiness, nothingness• Empty sea, empty land, empty school groun
d, empty swimming pool
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Empty sea with Horibe and empty lake with Nishi and his wife
• HANA-BI
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Empty snow-capped mountain top and empty path in autumn colours
• Dolls
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Static composition - a shot in which nothing moves as if frozen.
• Small subject sizes and protracted shots• e.g. Murakawa’s men aftermath of the bombi
ng of the Anan’s office
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Mannerist distortions of the cinematic conventions
• Spatial treatment and screen composition
• e.g. medium shot of three people with too much head space in Boiling Point
• e.g. medium shot of the killer whose face is cut by the top edge of the screen
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Unconventional composition• Main figures and objects placed in the dead
centre of the frame• Textbook composition - main figures and objects
must be placed slightly off-centre, particularly in a widescreen format.
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Wim Wenders’ classic widescreen composition in Paris, Texas
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Frontal shots - as if you were watching still photos.
• Long and medium shots are norm in Kitano’s early films. More close-ups in his later films, though they are not many.
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Frontal shots of Yakuza, and Uehara and Kazuo
• Boiling Point
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Frontal shots of surfers, and Takako and Shigeru’s surfing board
• A Scene at the Sea
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Frontal shots of Nishi and Horibe in the police car and Nishi and his wife
• HANA-BI
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Frontal shots of Kikujiro after seeing his mother and after saying farewell
• Kikujiro
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Is there such a thing as ‘Kitano Blue’?• Conscious use of thick blue colour
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Conspicuous since Sonatine• Aesthetic and atmospheric rather than symb
olic meaning
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Started using the colour unconsciously and unintentionally
• Conscious use of the colour
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Kitano began to use colours more strategically after HANA-BI
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Mise-en-scène
• Minimalist visual style: simple settings (empty space); simple compositions (frontal shots); simple camera movements (static shots); long take
• Minimalist visual style renders Kitano’s films pensive mood
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Montage
• Editor since his second film, Boiling Point
• Languid pace, relying on long takes• → pensive mood• Effective use of dissolves and overlaps
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Montage
• Jagged editing ignoring continuity- A scene abruptly cut in the middle of an
action- A scene abruptly begin in the middle of
an action• → Estrangement (endfremden) effects • → Preventing the audience from psychologic
ally being involved in actions • → Action ends abruptly, refusing to show the
emotional reverberation caused by it. Emotional reticence
Kitano’s Mannerist Style; Montage
• Frequent use of cross-cutting • Contrast and correspondence• Horibe is painting a lyrical picture while Nishi
is painting his police car in HANA-BI• Azuma is playing baseball while his sister is
gang-raped by yakuza in Violent Cop
Reference to Other Films
• Kitano refers to and quotes from other films, works of Ozu, Coppola, and Kubrick
• Static shots and frontal composition• Cross-cutting• Representation of violence• Stanley Kubrick’s An Clockwork Orange and
Kitano’s Violent Cop (openings)• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWLByMshYIU