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Kenji Mizoguchi, Ugetsu (still), 1953; image: courtesy Janus Films

Film

Ugetsu

Saturday, Oct 22, 2016

8 p.m.

Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein.

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“Quite simply one of the greatest of filmmakers,” said Jean-Luc Godard of Kenji Mizoguchi. And Ugetsu, a ghost story like no other, is surely the Japanese director’s supreme achievement. Derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, this haunting tale of love and loss—with its exquisite blending of the otherworldly and the real—is one of the most beautiful films ever made.

“Mizoguchi is one of the greatest masters who ever worked in the medium of film; he’s right up there with Renoir and Murnau and Ford, and after the war he made three pictures [including Ugetsu] that stand at the summit of cinema. All of his artistry is channeled into the most extraordinary simplicity. You’re face-to-face with something mysterious, tragically inevitable, and then, in the end, peacefully removed.” —Martin Scorsese, Criterion.com


Film Details

Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 1953
Running time: 97 min
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Writers: Matsutarô Kawaguchi, Hisakazu Tsuji, Yoshikata Yoda
Cinematographer: Kazuo Miyagawa
Editor: Mitsuzô Miyata
Music: Fumio Hayasaka, Tamekichi Mochizuki, Ichirô Saitô
With: Machiko Kyô
Print Source: Janus Films


Films and schedules may be subject to change.