This paper briefly explores the depiction of Japanese female central characters in
the classical cinema of Ozu and Mizoguchi and the reasons surrounding why
these directors chose to do use women as protagonists.

Revered by such legendary fellow directors as Ingmar Bergman and Jean Renoir, Julien Duvivier is one of the greatest figures in the history of French cinema and of world cinema in general. He is perhaps the most neglected of the “Big Five” of classic French cinema (the other four being Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, Jacques Feyder, and Marcel Carne), partly due to the uneven quality of his work. But despite his misfires, the cream of his oeuvre is simply stellar and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as …

Vincente Minnelli is remembered as one of American cinema’s most distinctive and creative visual stylists. His lavish use of color and, in the 1950s, widescreen, was praised by French critics who deemed him a master of “mise-en-scène.” A generation of younger American filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese (whose 1977 New York, New York starring Vincente and Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli, contains many touches in homage to Minnelli) has cited him as an influence. His best-known screen work was done in the musical genre, where he also worked as a stage …

Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-born American film director who moved from the theatre to Hollywood, directing over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel. In the 1950s and 1960s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955), rape (Anatomy of …

Discover the work of William Wyler, one of the top 5 directors during the classical era. He was a three-time Academy Award-winning motion picture director.