The Flavour of Rice over Coca-Cola. Yasujirō Ozu. An Autumn Afternoon / Sanma no aji / 秋刀魚の味

presentation by Corry Shores
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[Below is quotation. My own notes are bracketed in red.]

The Flavour of Rice over Coca-Cola

Yasujirō Ozu

An Autumn Afternoon

Sanma no aji
秋刀魚の味

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 2: The Time Image

Cinéma 2: L'image-temps

Ch.1
Beyond the Movement Image
Au-delà de l'image-mouvement

2b

Everyday banality

La banalité quotidienne

American ordinariness helps break down what is ordinary about Japan, a clash of two everyday realities which is even expressed in colour, when Coca-Cola red or plastic yellow violently interrupt the series of washed-out, unemphatic tones of Japanese life. And, as the character in The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice [sic: An Autumn Afternoon ?]: what if the opposite had occurred, if saki, samisen and geisha wigs had suddenly been introduced into the banality of Americans. . .? [Deleuze Cinema 2, 1989: 14-15]

l'ordinaire américain vient percuter l'ordinaire du Japon, heurt de deux quotidiennetés qu s'exprime jusque dans la couleur, lorsque le rouge Coca-cola ou le jaune plastique font brutalement irruption dans la série des teintes délavées, inaccentuées, de la vie japonaise. Et comme dit un personnage du « Goût du saké » : si ç'avait été l'inverse, si le saké, le samisen et les perruques de geisha s'étaient soudain introduits dans la banalité quotidienne des Américains...? Deleuze Cinéma 2, 1985: 25c]

[In The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice, there is not a conversation like what is described in the quotation above. The French title for The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice it seems is Le Goût du riz au thé vert. However, the title Deleuze uses in the Cinéma text is Goût du saké, which we understand is the French title for An Autumn Afternoon. In this movie there is a conversation that is vaguely like what Deleuze describes. Here is that scene, in case it expresses Deleuze's point. Before it is a small clip from End of Summer, showing a Coke sign on the wall.]

[Videos should play when the button is clicked, despite not showing an image until then.]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. London & New York: 1989.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 2: L'image-temps. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1985.