Pitfall

1962 - Hiroshi Teshigahara
This is an extremely difficult film to get a grip on, as their is, quite deliberately, no stability, no single scheme run through. We have very long shots, and some very close ones, but quite a few medium shots as well. There is a little SRS, but some scenes prefer to be kept as twos. There is a notable number of pan and scan sequences, usually pretty close, sometimes using nearly swish pans. Dialogue from off screen is often used as well.
The editing is interesting; disruptive, abrasive, in time with the music. There are also a number of jump cuts, of continuity broken within an individual scene. We also skip from part of the story to another.
Indeed, the story itself jumps, moving into dislocated worlds. We think we know where we are, then there is a turn, not hyper dramatic. The characters are completely caught in this. From this kind of determinism, we have a strong sense of place. Not of literal geography, but of an atmosphere, an overweeing kind of precise dirt.
The music, by Toru Takemitsu, is extremely famous. It is more than atonal, and clahing with the image; it also provides a message for the image, discomfitting.
This is clearly a film with a very strict social message, the need for union solidarity against the creeping owners, conveyed through this fractured lens, and supernatural jars. For this, we have documentary footage, again reminding us of modernist masters. The non-realist element is completely subordinated to this theme, bringing out a very disruptive mixture. An extremely curious picture.