KINEJAPAN digest 2225

[Nancy Stalker]

I will be away from Jan. 11 - 26 with sporadic access to email, but  
will handle your message as soon as possible.




On Oct 7, 2007, at 11:07 PM, KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu wrote:

>
> 			    KINEJAPAN Digest 2225
>
> Topics covered in this issue include:
>
>   1) Bordwell Ozu reprint
> 	by "M Arnold" <ma_iku at hotmail.com>
>   2) Re: Bordwell Ozu reprint
> 	by amnornes at umich.edu
>
> From: "M Arnold" <ma_iku at hotmail.com>
> Date: October 7, 2007 4:17:41 PM CDT
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Bordwell Ozu reprint
>
>
> Thanks to Markus Nornes for his Yamagata reports!
>
> The Univ. of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies digital reprint  
> of David Bordwell's "Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema" has already  
> been mentioned here a few times, but two days ago Bordwell  
> announced that the "improved online edition" is up, with clearer  
> images and a new intro.
>
> http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=1383
>
> I'm reading the new introduction now. I remember watching ads for  
> Kamakura Cinema World on old Shochiku VHS tapes from the mid-90s. . .
>
> Michael Arnold
>
>
>
>
>
> From: amnornes at umich.edu
> Date: October 7, 2007 10:45:20 PM CDT
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Re: Bordwell Ozu reprint
>
>
> Michael and David both beat me to this. I guess I better write  
> something, but swiftly. The next film is starting in minutes.
>
> I have to say, Bordwell's Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema is one of  
> the best books on a single director i can think of. I sense that  
> something clicked with David. Aside from the talents of both  
> director and author, I suspect David found a strange and strong  
> affinity with Ozu. Both love intricasy. Finding it in the world, in  
> cinema, and building it into their respective works. There is great  
> power in these close textual analyses. Many people had written on  
> the major features of Ozu's style at the time of his writing.  
> However, no one had unpacked the films with such care. I remained  
> stunned at some of the analyses, the way they uncover the  
> spectacular and peculiar logic built into his films. Aside from  
> this, it is also one of best introductions to the potentials of  
> Bordwell's historical poetics. I have found many of the criticisms  
> of the book unconvincing, and often informed mostly by unreasonable  
> expectations for what someone like Bordwell can (or should) do.
>
> So I:m proud that I have had a hand in keeping the book alive. As  
> David explains in his new introduction, which is definitely worth  
> reading, the book went out of print and no press was interested in  
> reviving a tome with some 500 images. We were, tho. Unfortunately,  
> some entrepeneurial netizen discovered the draft site and it went  
> public before we were ready. David had yet to write his  
> introduction. And there were ongoing discussions about what to do  
> about the photographs. This was Princeton's first book produced  
> digitally, in pay layout software. This helps explain why the  
> images are so grainy and hard to read. As you probably know, one  
> impressive and precious aspect of his publications are the  
> images----frames snapped in an analog fashion and not grabbed  
> digitally. His original photos were of very high quality, but you'd  
> never know it from the book.
>
> So the new UM Center for Japanese Studies electronic reprint has  
> replaced all the images with high quality scans----David went the  
> extra mile and helped us with both the financing and actual  
> scanning of these materials and we are forever grateful for this  
> help. We also added color----why not? It's the internet and easy.  
> On top of all of this, we decided to  play with a new interface  
> developed by the people in our library (the same office that has  
> been collaborating with Google for all these years). You will find  
> tabs for each frame blow-up to the side of each page. If you click  
> the tab, a window will open with a new interface allowing you to  
> study the image at various sizes. You can also download it, or any  
> page, or the entire book for that matter.
>
> I'd like to thank David Bordwell for allowing us to republish his  
> work and offer the book for free. It makes it all the easier to  
> return to, search a key word, and also to assign to classes on  
> Japanese cinema.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Markus
>
>
>
>
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