Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum – September 28th, 2016

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The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum [1939]

Please join us for a special screening of Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum [Zangiku monogatari] [1939], newly restored by Janus Films.
  • Screening Date: September 28th, 2016 | 7:00pm
  • Venue: Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center
  • Specifications: 1939 / 142 minutes / Japanese / Black & White
  • Director(s): Kenji Mizoguchi
  • Print: Supplied by Janus Films
  • Tickets: $7.00 General Admission / FREE for Squeaky Members

Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Market Arcade Complex (first floor) 617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203

Synopsis

Courtesy of Janus Films:

This achingly gorgeous emotional epic from the incomparable Kenji Mizoguchi is one of the triumphs of Japanese cinema. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum follows the journey of a young actor who breaks away from his wealthy kabuki troupe family to marry his parents’ former servant; cruelly estranged, he and his wife descend into poverty and disillusionment on society’s margins. Featuring the kind of delicate yet dexterous camera movements for which Mizoguchi would forever be known, this patiently observed nineteenth-century drama is a poignant tale of tragedy and redemption and a moving depiction of the potency of love in the face of rigid social strictures.

Director Bio

“You must put the odor of the human body into images…describe for me the implacable, the egoistic, the sensual, the cruel…there are nothing but disgusting people in this world.”

Courtesy of The Criterion Collection:

Often named as one of Japan’s three most important filmmakers (alongside Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu), Kenji Mizoguchi created a cinema rich in technical mastery and social commentary, specifically regarding the place of women in Japanese society. After an upbringing marked by poverty and abuse, Mizoguchi found solace in art, trying his hand at both oil painting and theater set design before, at the age of twenty-two in 1920, enrolling as an assistant director at Nikkatsu studios. By the midthirties, he had developed his craft by directing dozens of movies in a variety of genres, but he would later say that he didn’t consider his career to have truly begun until 1936, with the release of the companion films Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion, about women both professionally and romantically trapped. Japanese film historian Donald Richie called Gion “one of the best Japanese films ever made.” Over the next decade, Mizoguchi made such wildly different tours de force as The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939), The 47 Ronin (1941–42), and Women of the Night (1948), but not until 1952 did he break through internationally, with The Life of Oharu, a poignant tale of a woman’s downward spiral in an unforgiving society. That film paved the road to half a decade of major artistic and financial successes for Mizoguchi, including the masterful ghost story Ugetsu (1953) and the gut-wrenching drama Sansho the Bailiff (1954), both flaunting extraordinarily sophisticated compositions and camera movement. The last film Mizoguchi made before his death at age fifty-eight was Street of Shame (1956), a shattering exposé set in a bordello that directly led to the outlawing of prostitution in Japan. Few filmmakers can claim to have had such impact.

Filmography:

  • Street of Shame (1956)
  • Taira Clan Saga (1955)
  • Princess Yang Kwei-fei (1955)
  • A Story from Chikamatsu (1954)
  • The Woman of Rumour (1954)
  • Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
  • A Geisha (1953)
  • Ugetsu (1953)
  • The Life of Oharu (1952)
  • The Lady from Musashino (1951)
  • Miss Oyu (1951)
  • Yuki fujin ezu (1950)
  • Flame of My Love (1949)
  • Women of the Night (1948)
  • Joyû Sumako no koi (1947)
  • Utamaro and His Five Women (1946)
  • Josei no shôri (1946)
  • Hisshôka (1945)
  • Meitô bijomaru (1945)
  • Miyamoto Musashi (1944)
  • Danjuro sandai (1944)
  • The 47 Ronin (1941)
  • Geidô ichidai otoko (1941)
  • Naniwa onna (1940)
  • The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939)
  • Aa kokyo (1938)
  • The Song of the Camp (1938)
  • The Straits of Love and Hate (1937)
  • Sisters of the Gion (1936)
  • Osaka Elegy (1936)
  • Poppy (1935)
  • Maria no Oyuki (1935)
  • Aizô tôge (1934)
  • Jinpu-ren (1934)
  • The Downfall of Osen (1934)
  • Gion matsuri (1933)
  • Taki no shiraito (1933)
  • The Dawn of Mongolia (1932)
  • Toki no ujigami (1932)
  • Shikamo karera wa yuku (1931)
  • Tôjin Okichi (1930)
  • Fujiwara Yoshie no furusato (1930)
  • Tokai kokyogaku (1929)
  • Tôkyô kôshinkyoku (1929)
  • Nihonbashi (1929)
  • Musume kawaiya (1928)
  • Hito no isshô – Kuma to tora saikai no maki: Dai sampen (1928)
  • Hito no isshô – Ukiyo wa tsurai ne no maki: Dai nihen (1928)
  • Hito no isshô – Jinsei banji kane no maki: Dai ippen (1928)
  • Kôon (1927)
  • Kane (1926)
  • Kaikoku danji (1926)
  • Furusato no uta (1926)
  • The Passion of a Woman Teacher (1926)
  • Shinsetsu ono ga tsumi (1926)
  • Kaminingyô no haru no sasayaki (1926)
  • Ningen: kôhen (1925)
  • Ningen: zenpen (1925)
  • Nogi shôgun to Kuma-san (1925)
  • Ningen (1925)
  • Akai yûhi ni terasarete (1925)
  • Shirayuri wa nageku (1925)
  • Daichi wa hohoemu daiippen (1925)
  • Gakuso wo idete (1925)
  • Musen Fusen Uchien Puchan (1925)
  • Â tokumukan Kantô (1925)
  • Kyokubadan no joô (1924)
  • Kanraku no onna (1924)
  • Koi o tatsu ono (1924)
  • Samidare sôshi (1924)
  • Itô junsa no shi (1924)
  • Shichimenchô no yukue (1924)
  • Jinkyo (1924)
  • Josei wa tsuyoshi (1924)
  • Gendai no joo (1924)
  • Akatsuki no shi (1924)
  • Kanashiki hakuchi (1924)
  • Toge no uta (1923)
  • Yorû utsukushikî akumâ (1923)
  • Yorû yami no sasayakî (1923)
  • Chî to reî (1923)
  • Yoru (1923)
  • Haikyo no naka (1923)
  • Kiri no minato (1923)
  • Hachi ichi san (1923)
  • Haizan no uta wa kanashi (1923)
  • Jôen no chimata (1923)
  • Seishun no yumeji (1923)
  • Kokyô (1923)
  • Ai ni yomigaeru hi (1923)

Links

Here is a curated selection of links shared on our Facebook page for additional insight/information:

  • 9/20/16 – “‘Read all the Russians, and then reread them,’ goes a line in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake. ‘They will never fail you.’ After seeing a film by Kurosawa or Mizoguchi, that’s how I feel about the great Japanese directors. They make most other filmmakers come off as magicians or children.” Michael Sragow, Film Comment magazine – link
  • 9/21/16 – “If Mizoguchi was the poet of women, he was also the poet of houses, rooms, landscape and urban vistas. His period detail and sumptuous camera style lent his stories a fantastic naturalism, heightened by an almost musical editing style. He was capable of everything from waspish comedy to tenderness to epic battle scenes. He was a director for all seasons, and Kurosawa – far better known in the west – freely acknowledged Mizoguchi as his master.” Derek Malcolm, The Guardian – link
  • 9/23/16 – “The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum by Kenji Mizoguchi is a dazzling demonstration of a perfectly calibrated cinematic style.” Glenn Kenny, The New York Times – link
  • 9/26/16 – “Mizoguchi’s genius lies in the judicious, brilliant way he adjusts (like his camera) to what develops before him, while ever holding his sensibility intact. He is like the kabuki actor—dancer, really—who, in memorable moments, works gradually toward an exquisitely expressive posture he knows how to hold before eventually releasing it: a mie, this is called. At once stately and quivering with life, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum stands before us more mie than monument.” Dudley Andrew, The Criterion Collection – link

The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga – March 25th, 2016

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The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga [2014]

Please join us for a special screening event of Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga [2014]. The director will be in attendance to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A.
  • Screening Date: Friday, March 25th, 2016 | 7:00pm
  • Venue: Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Arts Center
  • Specifications: 2014 / 73 minutes / Polish & Russian with English subtitles / Color
  • Director(s): Jessica Oreck
  • Print: Supplied by Myriapod Productions
  • Tickets: $7.00 General Admission / FREE for Squeaky Members
  • Extras: Stop in early for FREE Breadhive granola while supplies last!

Event Sponsors:

Venue Information:

Market Arcade Complex (first floor) 617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203

Synopsis

Courtesy of Myriapod Productions:

Within a dense forest there lingers a sense of sinister foreboding, remnants of a nearly forgotten story, where the fairy tales of childhood persist within the subconscious. For generations of Slavic peoples, this fear manifested itself in the form of the mythical witch Baba Yaga — to roam too near her hut perched on chicken legs was to risk being roasted for her dinner.

In spite of this culturally ingrained dread, the turbulence of war, famine, and destruction that stains the pages of Eastern European history led to the witch’s figurative vanquishing. Refugees fled to her woods for shelter, nourishment and sanctuary, and in so doing, reshaped an entire culture’s perception of nature.

This transition was slow and unconscious, and is best told through the stories of the region — the memories of those who experienced periods of warfare first-hand as well as the recollections that have passed generation to generation. To bring these stories to life, we have merged countless accounts into a single, unified narrative — an animated fairy tale that gathers history, folklore, and memory into one.

This fairy tale is intertwined with an anthropological exploration of modern day, post-conflict Eastern Europe. Combining these elements, The Vanquishing is about more than a single moment in history. It is about the accumulation of history, the accumulation of repetitive action, the retelling of stories retold, the retention of belief, and the unconscious osmosis of ideas. It is a study of collective memory and the sociology of fear, imagination and survival.

Tidbits:

  • True/False Film Festival – 2014
  • BFI London Film Festival – 2014
  • AFI Fest – 2014

Director Bio

“It’s hard to remember how the animation came about; so much of my work is intuitive, so much of it I don’t remember actually writing, I don’t remember editing, it just sort of happens. I do my best work when I’m sort of slightly asleep and I can channel this other entity, that has nothing to do with me, that wants to make this film.”

Courtesy of Myriapod Productions:

Jessica Oreck makes projects large and small that instill a sense of wonder and invite viewers to question their relationship with the natural world. Jessica’s award-winning first feature-length documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, played theatrically around the world and aired on PBS’s Independent Lens series in 2011. Her latest film Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys is in the middle of a nationwide theatrical tour. She is currently in production on several short animated projects, including the recently released web series, Mysteries of Vernacular.

Jessica considers her second home the American Museum of Natural History, where she has worked as an animal keeper and educator periodically since 2006.

Filmography:

  • Memoirs of Vegetation (2020)
  • One Man Dies a Million Times (2019)
  • The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (2014)
  • Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys (2013)
  • Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009)

Links

Here is a curated selection of links shared on our Facebook page for additional insight/information:

  • 3/8/16 – Celebrate ‪#‎InternationalWomensDay‬ by diving into filmmaker Jessica Oreck’s Mysteries of the Vernacular project – link
  • 3/17/16 – “Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga is a staggeringly polymorphous documentary that often suggests a collaboration between Carlos Reygadas, Godfrey Reggio, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Part meditative nature film, part urban observational, part fairy tale, these seemingly disparate parts consistently juxtapose throughout to form not just an evocative mood piece, but a larger, discursive work that achieves something resembling Sergei Eisenstein’s concept of dialectical montage.” Clayton Dillard, Slant Magazine – link
  • 3/23/16 – “I love this film. I’m really proud of it. To me, it is the best film I’ve made so far and I’ve realized it’s not for everyone, as none of my films are, but I do think it’s my strongest work to date, so I’m very proud of it, but distribution and outreach are so deeply against my nature.” Jessica Oreck, Director of The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, IONCINEMA interview – link
  • 3/24/16 – “Folklore, mythology, art, religion – they are all ways we hand ideas across generations. I think a lot of my work is tied to both the conscious and the unconscious build up of culture and social norms through storytelling, through ritual, through habit. I always want people to think about the things we take for granted, the things we think are innate – about ourselves, about our societies, about the tools we use, the language we speak. I want audiences to take a step back and appreciate all the invisible hands that have molded us into what we are. But there are lots of other facets too! I never just want there to be one answer.” Artvoice‘s Jordan Canahai spoke with director Jessica Oreck about her film The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga – link