Still Lives
May 2012
18 posts
“Nothing is “unimportant” in Ozu’s view. The story is not meant to stand as an “exceptional” dramatic incident, but rather as part of the context of the ebb and flow of life. “Unimportant” people and actions are part of this ebb and flow. In fact, so are the places and inanimate objects surrounding them.”
— David Ehrenstein
“I had the great fortune of speaking and even working with two men who knew Ozu themselves. One of them is the cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta, who told me a great deal about Ozu’s way of working and about the exactitude and precision with which Ozu himself adjusted every detail in the picture and the actors’ every word and movement. Especially with what precision he would move objects here or there and how objects were just as important to him as the dialog and characters.”
— Wim Wenders
“Empty rooms, uninhabited landscapes, objects (rocks, trees, tea kettles), textures (shadows on shoji, the grain of tatami, rain dripping), play a large part in Ozu’s world, and the extreme simplicity of this view is matched by a like simplicity of construction once the film has begun.”
— Donald Richie
