The Precipice
Rare, not-on-DVD films from Yasuzo Masumura
(Hyoheki). In this mountain-climbing adventure set in the snowy Japanese Alps,
poetry and death imagery take over, if not subvert, the action. A married woman
(popular star Fujiko Yamamoto) is loved by two young men, climbing partners in
their better moments. When one of the men falls to his death, the other (Kenji
Sugawara) is blamed. (As so often with Masumura, the matter becomes one of
industrial intrigue.) Yamamoto portrays Minako as a woman lost between
tradition and desire; in the end she doubles as a mother figure both to her
industrialist husband (Ken Uehara) and her lover. But where another director
might have focused on character, Masumura opts for cinema, and not just in the
challenging mountain-climbing scenes. Minako serving tea and cream puffs to
the all-knowing husband is a matter of complicated gazes; a Sirkian mirror shot
in a garish red and green bedroom echoes the grim cheer of Christmas that
haunts this film
The Precipice
Free show!
Sponsored by The Japan Foundation
Wed November 16, 2011, 7:00 only, Muenzinger Auditorium
Japan, 97 min, 35mm, 1958, 2.35:1, Color, Not Rated
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
International Film Series
(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
C.U. Film Program
(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.