Wes Ozu

Some video essays are quite a stretch: they postulate similarities between very dissimilar films or filmmakers. Some skin-deep similarity then suffices to make a mash-up or side-by-side comparison that is built on little more than serendipity. Drawing a parallel between Wes Anderson and Yasujiro Ozu is, at first sight, a frivolous endeavor. But Anna Catley makes her point very convincingly in this lovingly crafted video essay.

 

She is well aware of the very disparate filmographies of these two filmmakers, and is upfront about it. But she then proceeds to list stylistic and thematic analogies, opening up these directors’ respective bodies of work. Nowhere does this essay suggest a definitive connection, let alone does it say that Anderson was explicitly influenced by Ozu. But at the very least this imaginative pairing illustrates how very different filmmakers, with distinctive poetics, can still have common preoccupations and a shared dedication to their craft.