A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese silent film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The film follows a retired sailor who becomes a janitor at a mental institution in order to release his wife, who is a patient there. The film is a surreal portrayal of madness and delusion, with fragmented and dreamlike sequences depicting the experiences of various inmates and the janitor's own inner turmoil.
As the story unfolds, the janitor becomes increasingly consumed by the madness of the institution, with flashbacks revealing his wife's descent into psychosis and her subsequent confinement. He begins to blur the lines between reality and fantasy, imagining himself as various historical figures and becoming embroiled in the hallucinations of the patients around him.
The film is notable for its experimental use of cinematography and editing techniques, with Kinugasa employing distorted imagery, rapid cuts, and complex visual montages to evoke the experience of mental illness. It was initially poorly received in Japan and quickly fell into obscurity, but has since been rediscovered and recognized as a masterpiece of avant-garde cinema.
A Page of Madness is a haunting and hallucinatory exploration of the human psyche that remains a touchstone of early Japanese film and a testament to the power of cinematic expression.
