"This is my tribute to Yasujiro Ozu. Ozu's cinema is a kindly cinema. He values interactions, natural relationships, the natural human in all his films. His long shots, are everlasting and respectful. The interactions between people happen in the long shots and this is the respect that Ibelieve Ozu felt for his audience. Maybe one of the reasons for Ozu's everlasting appeal is that he worked on simple subjects and in his mise en scène, he respected the rights of the audience as an intelligent audience. His films were not usually very technical, which would make them appear nervous and melodramatic which you find with today's montage facilities."

- Abbas Kiarostami on Ozu

FIVE dedicated to Ozu
Abbas Kiarostami / 2003 / 74 min

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (A Taste of Cherry, Through the Olive Trees) pays homage to Yasujiro Ozu, the brilliant Japanese filmmaker whose spare but evocative style has been a major influence on Kiarostami's work. Canny and sublime, the 74-minute film is comprised of five long, apparently single takes of a beach on the Caspian Sea, all focusing on the ocean, comprised of virtually no camera movement and enveloped in rapturous natural sound. Richly poetic and shot on a hand-held DV camera, the film features five extended, apparently single-take sequences:

1. The camera accompanies a piece of wood with which the waves are toying, at the beach.

2. People are walking along, by the seaside. Older people stop, look at the waves, then walk away.

3. Indistinct shapes on a beach in winter. A group of dogs. A love story.

4. Ducks noisily cross the frame in one direction, then the other.

5. A pond. Nighttime. Frogs. A chorus of sounds. Then, a storm, and finally, dawn.

 


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