The Man Who Left His Will on Film

Nagisa Ōshima's 1970 Japanese film begins with a student chasing the thief who took his camera; the thief jumps from a building and dies, and once the police take the camera as evidence it becomes unclear whether there was ever a thief at all. What remains is the footage on that camera of empty streets and buildings. Ōshima's interest is the obsession with recording during the breakup of the student movement: can filming everything count as an action, and to whom does the footage belong. The film builds a structure in constant argument with its own images and never lets the viewer settle. The black and white photography and repeated scenes are deliberately wearing. It closes without resolution. Who it's for: viewers interested in Japanese political modernism and cinema about cinema. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a followable plot, or who would rather not watch unaware of a scene involving sexual violence.