KAZUO OHNO & The Portrait of Mr.O

Published 2004 by Canta Ltd. 79minutes DVD
5,500yen

"KAZUO OHNO": 14 min. Color. Featuring Kazuo Ohno and Chie Ohno.
Directed by Daniel Schmid
"A Portrait of Mr.O": 65 min. Monochrome. Featuring Kazuo Ohno.
Directed by Chiaki Nagano.
Region code: ALL

In 2004 Canta produced a DVD featuring two classic works from the Kazuo Ohno audio-visual archives: reissues of Daniel Shmid's Kazuo Ohno and Chiaki Nagano's A Portrait of Mr O.

Originally released in 1995 Kazuo Ohno was directed by Daniel Schmid ofLa Paloma and Tosca's Kiss fame. Schmid's short film is a riveting; Renato Berta's beautiful camerawork ushers one right into the depths of Ohno's universe.
Shot on 16mm, A Portrait of Mr O forms part of a trilogy of films directed by Chiaki Nagano featuring Kazuo Ohno. Filmed during a hiatus in the 1970 in which Ohno retired from public performance, this trilogy was incredibly daring for its time. One might now smile at the out-and-out experimental nature of these films, but they proved to be a powerful stimulus upon Ohno's imagination and led him to create his magnum opus in 1977 Admiring La Argentina.