The Sun's Burial

Nagisa Oshima - 1960
This is a really brutal film. Shot in a lot of 'scope, with some really jerky movements (much more than 'Night and Fog in Japan'). The takes are rarely extremely short, but it gives a sense of crashing about. The edit also is like this; nearly every cut seems to be a shot cut. Tone to tone, place to place, far to near. We expect one story to continue, another crashes in; it is unclear to what extent what we see is chronological. The sense of violent urgency is more explicit than are a cohesive, classical storytelling.
The images themselves are a mixture, often pretty long, but there are also some distinctive framings of just heads. The version I saw was a terrible transfer, but it seemed to be pretty incredible colours. Blood orange absolutely everywhere, sidelit for sweat, darkness on the faces. The locale is absolutely filthy. Also some incredibly dramatic deep blues.
This must have hit the screens with a crash, it portrays the end of a country, so far beyond redemption, better just to be annihilated, everyone is grim. The violence is horrible and explicitly shown; rape, other physical forms. Everyone is at once self-serving and masochistic, brutal in all. The sun is buried, we have to start again.