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In the everyday Bresson replaces the “screens” with a form. By drawing attention to itself, the everyday stylization annuls the viewer’s natural desire to participate vicariously in the action on screen. Everyday is not a case of making a viewer see life in a certain way, but rather preventing him …

A tracking shot is a moral judgment, Jean-Luc Godard once remarked, and so, for that matter, is any camera shot. Any possible shot—high angle, close-up, pan—conveys a certain attitude toward a character, a “screen” which simplifies and interprets the character. Camera angles and pictorial compositi…

The disparity in Ozu’s films is primarily internal: man cannot find nature within himself. The disparity in Bresson’s films is primarily external: man cannot live harmoniously with his hostile environment. In Ozu, there are no futile protests against the frailty of the body and the hostility of the…

Ozu’s use of character ambivalence and irony is similar to that of Czech director Milos Forman, and an interesting comparison can be drawn between their films. Both perfected a form of light comedy which contrasted documentary “realism” with flashes of human density. In their comedies, disparity is…

A potential disparity between man and nature underlies Ozu’s films. He suggests that the flow of man and nature may be separate rather than unified, which, within the context of his traditional structure, certainly does create a schizoid reaction. This disparity becomes obvious when Ozu juxtaposes …