"Ozu: Passageways"

Assembled by film scholar Kogonada, this hypnotizing survey of scenes and shots in halls, alleys, and passageways by legendary Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu is brief but lovely. Despite the presence of people, it feels lonely...perhaps because they are all rushing around, and we, the viewers, are isolated, watching them all pass by. Ozu was known for his style of cinematography in which the camera rarely moves and is usually positioned below the eye level of the actors.

The music is a track called "A1" from the ambient release "Stare" by Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm (I have a feeling I will be posting something about this wonderful collaboration soon).

I previously posted a Kogonada video in which he surveys the late Stanley Kubrick's one-point perspective camera framing, here.

Go to Kogonada's Vimeo channel to see the other compilations he has made: Tarantino tends to shoot up at his actors from the ground, and Wes Anderson likes to shoot scenes of tableaux, hands, and tables from above.

http://vimeo.com/kogonada