Stationary Time. Yasujirō Ozu. A Story of Floating Weeds / Ukigusa monogatari 浮草物語 & Floating Weeds / Ukigusa 浮草

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

Stationary Time

Yasujirō Ozu

A Story of Floating Weeds

Ukigusa monogatari

浮草物語

and

Floating Weeds

Ukigusa

浮草

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 2: The Time Image

Cinéma 2: L'image-temps

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

2d

Time as unchanging form

Le temps comme forme immuable

A bicycle may also endure; that is, represent the unchanging form of that which moves, so long as it is at rest, motionless, stood against the wall (A Story of Floating Weeds). [Deleuze Cinema 2, 1989: 16-17]

Une bicyclette aussi peut durer, c'est-à-dire représenter la forme immuable de ce qui se meut, à condition de demeurer, de rester immobile, rangée contre le mur (« Histoire d'herbes flottantes »). [Deleuze Cinéma 2, 1985: 28b]

[Here is the original version. First we see the girl and boy meet. The girl is given the task of seducing the boy, which is what happens at the trees. Afterward we see the bike still-life. The next scene at the tracks is when they decide to stay together. We see there also the still bike. In both cases, a pivotal moment in the story occurs. But it is accompanied by a still-life. We see something that does not change explicitly, all while implicitly the greatest changes of the story take place. It is in this way that Ozu's still-lifes show the unchanging form of time in which all changes take place.]

[Videos will play, even though they show a black screen until play is pressed.]

[In the second version of the movie, we also see the still bike during the seduction scene, and it seems more as though it were leaning against a wall.]

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.