Editing in Memoirs of a Geisha - Essay Example

Editing in Memoirs of a Geisha Memoirs of a Geisha is a beautifully edited movie that captures a woman’s evolution from child to geisha. A geisha’s gestures are deep with meaning and Bob Marshall’s film is edited in a manner that focuses the viewer’s attention on the gestures of its characters. It begins with the gestures of the geisha’s father. In the opening of the movie, the editor cuts back and forth between the father, wringing his hands and rubbing his thighs, his wife on a cot, dieing, and his daughters are peaking out from their sleeping area to listen to him talking.

The viewer watches the geisha grow from child to woman in another scene, as the editor cuts back and forth from the geisha applying her makeup to her training to be a geisha. Later we see her performing, first in the tea house, then for a larger audience. The first instance is shot and edited so the viewer sees the geisha from every angle and the proud glances of her mentor. In the second scene, the film alternates between the geisha on stage and the faces of the captivated and expectant audience members.

The geisha is seen from an audience-eye view, an on-stage view and in close-up. One of the best edited scenes is early on, when the geisha attempts to escape from her new home to meet her sister. The scene bounces back and forth from the geisha’s feet to her making her way across the roof top to the scene in the street below, as seen form above. It makes her struggle all the more believable. Throughout the film attention is placed on facial expressions and conversational interplay. Her conversations with her mentor, her adopted sister, and later at the tea house, while she speaks with the Chairman and Nobu, are enhanced by the back and forth of editing.

In this manner the viewer is able to be “a fly on the wall” and catch all of the facial expressions, which convey deeper meanings, and the physical gestures of all of the players involved. This is especially well done in the sumo wrestling scene, where the viewer is able to watch the geisha, the Chairman, Nobu, and her mentor as they meet and discuss the match and life in the real world outside of the ring and the tea house. This focus on expression and verbal interplay continues throughout the film and enhances the final scenes when the Chairman and the geisha meet and finally express their devotion for one another.

The editor frequently cuts back and forth to the vast sky and the large town, as seen from the rooftops. These scenes are used to convey motion and the growing of the geisha. Her initial journey from the country to the city is played out by cutting from her departure from the train station, to a view of a moving train as seen from a distance, to her arrival at another station. She grows from child to woman when the editor cuts from the scene of her praying at the temple to the city in winter from an aerial view.

When she first considers running away the editor cuts back and forth between her on the roof looking out at the city and the vast amount of rooftops that stretch out below her. The scenery plays almost as important a role, conveying unspoken emotions, as the characters do. Every scene is beautifully edited in a manner that makes the most of the characters’ facial and physical expressions, their interactions, and the world around them, making this an interesting and entertaining movie for the viewer.

It is easy to get swept away and I was left wanting more.