Pitfall

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Year Released: 1962
Rating: 2.5

This is the kind of film you'd expect from someone who just graduated from film school and is loaded with enthusiasm and influence - story and style-wise, this first feature from Teshigahara veers wildly from social picture to ghost tale to police procedural with plenty of flash in-between. In fact, the only consistent element to this picture is the glorious photography, which is painterly and wonderfully composed (it came as no shock to me to find out the director studied painting and architecture - his picturesque but flat documentary on Antonio Gaud¨ª showed a great respect for the Spanish designer's flair). The score by T¨­ru Takemitsu, though unique, is a little too distracting.