Elizabeth, that was a lovely piano improv this afternoon. Very nice chord phrasing, too. You could write a piece around it, and maybe you are doing that anyway. :) I also liked the photo you posted in FB Stories, especially the geometric light patterns on the wall and shelf above the piano. It looks great!
Well, before I tell you about the movie tonight, I have to briefly mention a cat. Not The Black Kitty, the semi-feral stray who's been living at Pearl's since 2010, but another cat I call The Big Orange And Grey Kitty. She lives across the street, but she's never there because she's always here. I think I've mentioned The Lunch Club, which consists of The Black Kitty, The Big Orange And Grey Kitty, and White Paw, a male black cat with - you guessed it - white paws. I don't know where White Paw lives, but he's always here, too, so it doesn't matter. Both he and Big Orange are here at Pearl's all the time, morning noon and night (probably cause I feed 'em, ahem...).
Well anyway, what I wanted to mention is that, for about the last week, Big Orange And Grey has been sitting in the driveway waiting for me when I return to Pearl's after my evening break. And when I drive up, she won't move. So for five nights in a row now, I have had to pull about halfway into the driveway, and then open my driver's side door and say, "C'mon, Kitty, move"! And some nights it has taken more than one command. Finally she gets up and lumbers away, just far enough so that I have a foot or two to spare. It's annoying that she won't budge, but I have also found it humorous and so I had to mention it, just because I have to stop the car, open the door, and tell her to move her Big Orange And Grey self out of the doggone way so I can park. :)
Tonight I watched another film by Kenji Mizoguchi, the fourth in my own personal retrospective at The Tiny Apartment, entitled "Ugetsu" (1953). This one was not from my four-pack of early Mizoguchi movies on the Eclipse label, but instead was from the Libe. Though it was out of chronological order as far as his filmography is concerned, I had to watch it this week because of the Library due date. "Ugetsu" is regarded as one of the director's greatest works, attested to by the 8.2 rating it has garnered at IMDB. I'd seen it once before, about ten years ago before I knew much about Mizoguchi. I think I found it on VHS at another Libe and gave it a shot, and though I had forgotten much of the story, once it got going and the central character appeared, I remembered.
"Ugetsu" takes place in 17th century Japan, in the countryside. A civil war is brewing. Two men live with their wives in shacks near the fighting. One man is a farmer by profession who also owns a kiln. He is a talented potter who is just discovering how much money he can make from his wares. He and his wife have a child, a small boy, and he believes the war will make him rich, that he will be able to sell a lot of crockery to people who need to restock their shelves. The other man and his wife are childless, and he is something of a buffoon, a macho wannabe who fancies himself a Samurai. His wife knows him better, she calls him a fool when he chases after the invading soldiers, seeking to be one of their elite. Both men seek to use the war to enrich themselves. The first man, by money alone. The second man, by his ego. Their wives are an afterthought, though both men promise to return to them once the war is over.
The story is part fable and part fantasy. If I tell you it is part ghost story I hope that will not be a spoiler. I guess it won't if I reveal no more of the plot. From what I have discovered on IMDB and Google, the Ghost Story or legend has an important place in Japanese culture. The Spirit World has a lot to convey to folks on Earth who are tempted by greed or ego or any number of things, and that is the real message of this movie. Mizoguchi has advanced quite a bit as a technical filmmaker from the early works we have seen so far. He has moved on from a stationary camera inside cramped interiors to complex tracking shots and wide outdoor vistas. This is a Japanese film, so 96 minutes feels like two hours, but the reward for your patience is a work of art, a story that veers from war to profiteering, to escape into a new life.......and then into a dreamworld, one in which lessons are learned.
"Ugetsu" is not the quick and easy viewing of early Mizoguchi, which plays like Film Noir, but instead it is his development into a cinematic artist of the highest order. The early movies are like a police report, just the facts, but "Ugetsu" is philosophical, and it takes into account the ill thought out and rationalised material and egotistical desires of men and how those desires fare in the long run, when they run up against genuine affairs of the heart that have been pushed aside for quick gains.
Two Big Thumbs Up, this movie will leave you blown away, with acting of the highest order.
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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