Murnau`s influence ?

[David Desser]

>Eija asked,
>
>>Hi! I am taking a class on Murnau here at UCLA, and noticed that a couple of
>>writers mention, that Murnau's cinematic style might have influenced
>>Kurosawa. I myself noticed a similarity in the camera style of Sunrise (the
>>beginning where the man walks to meet the city woman) and Rashomon (the
>>woodcutter walks into the wood): in both these films the camera keeps on
>>moving so that the viewer gets an impression that the character is walking
>>in a circle. Do you people on this list know anything about Murnau`s
>>influence on Japanese cinema? Is there anything written on Murnau by
>>Japanese writers?
>

I have always thought that Murnau's influence was most detactable not on
Kurosawa, but on Mizoguchi.  And the scene specifically mentioned is
reproduced much more closely not in _Rashomon_ but in _Ugetsu_. The scene
with Genjuro and Wakasa in the hot springs followed by the picnic near a
dead tree is right out of the scene in _Sunrise_. And then watch Murnau's
cut to the wife and compare that to Mizoguchi's cut to Genjuro's wife
Miyagi following the respective scenes.

Since Murnau's dominant style was a graceful moving camera with long takes,
often with unassigned pov shots, Mizoguchi is, at this basic level, a more
obvious candidate for influence than the more editing-heavy (so to speak)
Kurosawa.  Much has been made of Von Sternberg's influence on Mizoguchi.
But Murnau heavily influenced Von Sternberg.

David