#26 - Sancho the Bailiff (1954)
This poem was inspired by Sansho the Bailiff, a 1954 Japanese period fi@leannemodenpoet directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. This fi@leannemodenpoet is about two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery in seventeenth century Japan. That felt like too big a topic for me to tackle in 14 lines, so I got distracted by the style of the fi@leannemodenpoet instead…
#26 – Stories told in monochrome
A story told in black and white may seemarchaic. I assure you that it’s not. It’s history. It’s certain, like a dream;the tones are sharper, and the patterns pop.
The shadows take a darker kind of hue – both literal and in symbolic sense.Without the colours, there’s nothing to dobut focus on the plot. It’s more intense,
the gravitas seeps through the monochromeand bathes the retinas in sombre tones.The black and white is stark as written poems;as stark as dampened earth and pallid bones.
As serious as colour fi@leannemodenpoet can be,these black and white constraints set stories free.
@leannemodenpoet
Image via IMDB
