Filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel aren¡¯t known for blockbusters, but their films, including the duo¡¯s 1994 debut feature ¡°Suture,¡± have a reputation for artful framing and pensive little spaces of silence in the dialogue. McGehee and Siegel attribute this trick to their deep admiration for Japanese films, particularly ¡°Tanin no Kao (The Face of Another)¡± by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
¡°That movie was made in the mid 1960s, and back then, everything was widescreen,¡± Siegel tells The Japan Times. ¡°But Japanese movies were different, a lot of directors didn¡¯t use widescreen. So they had a completely different sense of time, space and texture.¡±
Siegel¡¯s directing partner McGehee was once a high school exchange student in Shiga Prefecture, and he says, ¡°I can still make out some Japanese words and phrases. So it¡¯s fun for me to listen to the translation during press interviews. I try and match up the Japanese phrases to what I¡¯ve been saying.¡±
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.