Hullabaloo

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - Anderson


Wes Anderson:

Maybe I'm just jealous that I was never as cool and articulate as you were as a child. But over the years I cultivated a true hate for your insular WASP upbringing and your cutesy tendencies (neatly) splattered all over the screen. Moonrise Kingdom is perhaps the most heinous display of all your white-upperclass-precocious-sensitive-boy-fantasies that I love to hate. Your 'Anderson production design' now falls between early Tim Burtons and a sugary gingerbread house. The whole goddamn thing is so harmless and so light and so devoid of meaning and feeling and humor and soul, it makes me angry. It's also the whitest of the white movie you've ever made. But that's understandable. You should stick to what you know. If not, everything nonwhite in your movie becomes gross fetishization. For whom do you make movies? Certainly not for children. Do you really want to show off your clever boy shtick in your forties to your peers? Why?

I don't know. I'm not expecting Schindler's List or Blue Valentine from you. But by golly, why keep repeating yourself? Do you even understand that the color of your room or the tape recorder you own or listening to Françoise Hardy doesn't define who you are? Why do you hide behind all these material things? Who are you really? If your being clever gets you all the fame and money and you are happy, good for you. But I can promise you that I'll never watch one of your movies ever again for as long as I live, not even for lazy Saturday afternoon entertainment.

Abstract Distance

The Dream and the Silence/Sueno y Silencio (2012) - Rosales

An upper middle class Spanish couple with two pre-teen daughters live pretty normal life in France- Oriol is an architect and Yolanda a teacher. One day, they lose their older daughter, Celia, in a car accident. It was Oriol who was driving. He doesn't remember the accident and recovers quickly, mind and body. It's hard for Yolanda. She doesn't understand him not grieving as much as she. She wants to blame him but she can't. This all sounds like an emotionally charged melodrama but Sueno y Silencio is nothing but.

Rosales's detached approach accentuates the disconnect btwn the couple and the weight of their loss - dialog often happens off frame as in monologues, the fluid camera hovers aimlessly through the outdoors in grainy b & w photography and we often watch characters through the corridors in a distance and through the doors ajar.

There is a great poignant sequence where Yol talks to someone (off frame) in the playground, explaining her childhood memories of playing with her sister (she has a twin sister). It turns out that she was either seeing a ghost of her daughter or hallucinating. She insists to Oriol that he needs to go down there and see her himself. He goes down to the playground, looking for the ghost but finding nothing.

There are many things in Sueno y Silencio we are not seeing, like the fateful car accident or Ori grieving but that doesn't mean it never happened or happening. Glimpses of life's abstraction including brief color and painting sequences adds another dimension to what's already obscure. Sueno y Silencio has a lot in common with Lucretia Martel's Headless Woman. The socio-political aspect is not present in Rosales work but nonetheless, the film signals another major arrival of a potent filmmaker working today. I gotta check out Jaime Rosales previous films.

Pobbish

Mekong Hotel (2012) - Weerasethakul

I remember the famed Thai director mentioning this Mekong river project back in 2010 when I interviewed him via Skype for his award winning film Uncle Boonmee. Commissioned by French TV, this slight, less than an hour film doesn't quite work as a standalone. His regular actors show up playing loose characters, ever so softly talking about themes in his other films- ghosts, incarnation, Thai-Lao geopolitics plus recent devastating flood in Bangkok in a grand, if too-modern looking hotel by the wide, sluggish Mekong river. There is a spirit called 'pob' floating around the hotel, inhabiting human bodies, preying on humans and livestock alike. Mekong River lacks hypnotic power and visual grace other Weerasethakul films possess. Accompanyed by an accoustic guitar most of the time by a musician the director interviews in the beginning of the film, the film ends in a languid, long take of jet skiers jig-jagging the muddy river seen from the veranda of the hotel.

I Envision All These Great Small Movies in the Ruins of Hollywood: Christian Petzold Interview

Christian Petzold's fantastic new film Barbara opens in the US on December 21, after garnering critical acclaim; Petzold won the Best Director award at Berlin International Film Festival this year and the film is the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It was exciting to talk to one of the key figures in new German cinema at NYFF this past September. 

I have to admit that I wasn't really familiar with new German cinema until recently. My idea of German cinema always has been that of the 60s and 70s by directors like Schlendörff, Fassbinder and Wenders.

That's also my experience. That's the time I was brought up. Back then we never went to see a German film in theaters. When we did, it must've been to see Jaws or something like that. My first 70s German movie experience happened to be Alice in the Cities by Wim Wenders, partly shot in Wuppertal, the town I grew up in and the music by one of my favorite bands, Can. It was my town and my music! But it was a kind of strange reflection of Germany I knew in the seventies. That was the movie that opened my eyes for the first time.

I met Wenders later on and I told him my story. He told me that Germans are always attracted to something that is very close to them yet strange. I think GDR (East Germany) is just that- very close and very strange.

Far away, so close.

Yes, exactly.

This is very interesting because when you think of Wim Wenders's films and the current crop of German films, Berlin School if you will, there is this ongoing theme of transient life: people are always going somewhere or they are forced to move. I mean, in BARBARA, it's the same. She is being punished for trying to go to the West, so she is sent to a small town ...

But there is a difference. The thing you just brought up is very interesting. I'm sorry but now it's on my mind...

No, please go ahead.

In the 70s, everyone was rich in Germany. We thought that we've won 68' and we thought we could change the society...

Right, right.

Films by directors like Wenders- when they are on the road; they are on the road not because of economic reasons or pressure. They are like Novalis or Hölderlin. They are on the road because they are romantics.

There is a connection to the 70s in Berliner Schule (Berlin School) movies but people are not on the road because they are looking for something. They are on the run; they are migrant workers or refugees. They can't stay in one place.

There is also a theme in your movies that is in relation to the 60s and 70s. More of a reaction I should say. With the social upheaval of that time, the traditional family structure had broken down. In your movies there is a yearning for this ideal family life. Usually it's a mother figure in your films that is needed - Barbara somehow ends up as a mother figure to the young girl who ran away from the labor camp. That theme also plays a pivotal role in GESPENSTER (Ghosts).

That is interesting. When we made Die Innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In) in 2000, the metaphor was something to do with the sea. Say, there is a shipwreck, and people are scrounging up to build a raft out of what's left over. Since 2000, all my movies are about this structural collapse (both economic and familial) and people trying to build a lifeboat to survive. So what's happening on the raft? In Barbara, there isn't a father figure anymore. There is no love (at least for now) between the doctors. In Ghosts, the woman is not the girl's mother. All these films, they are trying to rebuild something you can live with, out of the ruins. Obviously we can't rebuild, say, Russia. The capitalist system is in the ruins. Fascists tried to nationalize the whole world and failed, we can't blame our woes saying Greeks are lazy and Muslims are the enemies and so on. We have to find little survival structures and I think that's what my movies are about.

It's amazing how complex your movies are. At a first glance, they are full-on melodramas and don't seem political at all. But more and more I think about it, it is very political and everything's got to do with the German society. And it fascinates me, especially BARBARA.

It's something to do with me being a novelist. But making film is different. Not everything that you see on screen is on my mind when I write a script. I'm not Orson Welles. The film you see is not the realization of what's in my head. I have an open, short story and the group of people I work with, the (acting) ensemble, the team (crew), we discuss it for weeks before the shooting begins - we go on long walks and to libraries together. The whole team and the actors, we go to cinema together ten times. For instance, Jerichow, about this Turkish immigrant worker, who tries hard to be a German, by reaching that German Dream - fantastic cars, a big house and a beautiful wife. But he becomes stranger and stranger still. Very melodramatic. It's not based on a novel that I've written. But it was born out of our collective, as we built upon it. You realize how the political side of it is scurrying around just beneath the surface, that our collective work makes everything not too in the face. But to have that kind of result, it takes a lot of work and time.

That leads me the next topic. Nina Hoss. What an amazing performance!

She is so disappointed that she can't be in New York. I think, in two hours, she needs to be on stage in Hamburg. You know, theater in Germany is very important. In Germany, film is like a dilapidated house and theater is like our Parliament. It's the culture: the distinctions between the two disciplines are very big. I hate that. But she is the most famous actress on stage in Germany right now. She really hates not being here but like Barbara, she can't leave. (laughs)

She is really amazing. From what I've read about you, you make a big distinction between what is written (script) and actual filming process. That your filmmaking is all about communication. So when you are not rolling the camera, you are constantly talking to each other?

Yeah. For our first meeting (for Barbara), we met at this fantastic loft building and everybody was sitting there and I talked for three hours. I was really exhausted. I don't think I talk too much but others have different opinions about that. (laughs) I told them the chronology of the project - how I found the story, what I thought about it, what I've made in the last half years, what music I listened to when I was writing it. Chopin... why I used Chopin's Nocturne because in The Deer Hunter by Cimino, this barkeeper plays Nocturne when Walken and De Niro and others are all lying around there in the bar. They hear Chopin, mind you that they are all working class steel mill workers. Their lives destroyed by the war and for that little moment while listening to Chopin, they realize something. But it's too late. And around the same time (Barbara is set in 1980) in GDR, Barbara's playing the same music. But she is playing it like a weapon to keep those Stasi police away. So I put on a Pollini's Nocturne CD and we listened the whole thing together. These are the things I love so much.

That's really fantastic.

It is not a typical film shoot. I consider it as a collective.

I've  got to ask you about the Rembrandt painting, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. I totally get that it is the reflection of the character André as he shows Barbara the painting. He made a mistake and he is pointing to something else to evade the eyes of authorities. But the whole time I was thinking that you were saying something about the folly of Communism.

Yeah, it is a metaphor for Communism.

So I wasn't wrong about that. How did putting that Rembrandt in the film come about?

I've read a book Rings of Saturn by Sebald. In the novel, he is thinking about this Rembrandt. For him, Rembrandt is criticizing the Age of Reason- Descartes, Kant, "We are now the owner of our fate," "We build our own society." attitude. And we got it for free without violent upheavals like the French Revolution. But we lost something on the way- faith, respect and so on. In this picture by Rembrandt, there is a group of scientists who haven't got any empathy nor sense for the complexity of life, but just looking at the anatomy book with pictures. For them the world has to be like the pictures. That kind of thinking creates violence. Communism is the direct result of Descartes and Kant, so as our current capitalistic society.

That's exactly right.

Right now new German cinema is not really well known in the States. A good friend of mine introduced me to your work and other German directors' films. So that's how I found out about Berlin School. But their films are not really available even though I want people to know and watch these films.

Yeah, there will be a big retrospective of Berlin School next year at MoMA. I just had a lunch with the curator there. It will be in September some time.

That's great. I'll definitely cover that.

Let me give you an example: Kelly Richardt's, Meek's Cutoff is a fantastic movie. I think it's the best Western I've seen in years. We have two cinemas playing that in entire Germany. We have about five cinemas playing a Gus Van Sant movie. Yes, Americans don't know about Berlin School but I think there is a crisis in cinema internationally. There is no relationship anymore that existed in cinema in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s or even in the 70s- Truffaut was in a Spielberg movie and Arthur Penn got to direct Bonnie and Clyde because Truffaut hadn't had the time. They were in connection. They were looking at each other's work. When an American director met a German director, they talked about movies. This relationship was interrupted at some point. And it's not the fault of the directors but this big industrial structure we call the film industry. American companies own all movie theaters in Germany, so they have 800 theaters playing this and 800 theaters playing that. There is no room or time for small films. I read a lot about some great American movies but I can't see them. Margaret was a fantastic movie but you can't see it in Germany. You have to buy DVD online. We have all these resources, we really have to open the channels again and communicate with each other.

Would you ever consider doing an American production if you were asked?

They did ask me two times now. But I don't know anything about America really. I've read Howard Zinn's book...

People's History of the United States?

Yes, and I grew up in this Americanized culture but I'm still a German. I don't really know how to tell the story there other than maybe the Germans in America. But as far as doing an American film, I don't really see it happening.

You are not going Hollywood and doing big movies as Tom Tykwer does?

My goal has never been Hollywood. I'm dreaming of the new Hollywood. I don't live in the 50s. I'm not a retro man. I envision all these great small movies in the ruins of Hollywood.

Barbara Review

Love and Death: Michael Haneke Interview

Austrian film director Michael Haneke took home the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes for the second time after his The White Ribbon in 2009 and swept the year end European film awards with his austere, devastating film Amour. I got a chance to attend a roundtable interview with the director at this year's New York Film Fest. As the interview unfolded in the Executive Room at the Trump International Hotel where myself and six other journalists were served with 'Donald Trump approved bottled water', my expectations were met -- Haneke outright avoided many pointed questions we asked and when he did answer, they were very concise and to the point. But also, there was a lot of laughter to be found in the room. This mild mannered, white bearded old man could be anyone's grandfather, I thought, temporarily suspending the truth that this is the director responsible for Funny Games and The Piano Teacher. But in his answers, I found that his films are not so cut and dry as they often appear to be.


Q: Amour is being called as a very humanist film. I don't argue with that. But I feel there is something more at work here. I feel that the film is pushing the audience to an end point that there is no option but to condone the unconscionable act. Was that your goal, if so where did that desire comes from?

A: That's not my impression at all. My impression is that I'm not trying to condone what I'm showing. I'm trying to present the film in its entirety. This film and that scene in particular, is presented in such a way that it's open to a number of interpretations.

The title of the film is very simple, yet provokingly so. I've heard that it was not your first choice. Why did you go with it?

I chose the title because I couldn't come up with a better one. I had a list of about 20 titles. None of them I was satisfied with. I was having lunch with Jean-Louis (Trintignant) and I read him the list of titles. And Jean-Louis said, the film is about Love, why don't you just call it that? I thought that was a very convincing argument. If I were making a conventional love story I would've never chosen that title because it would've been too obvious.

For Trintignant it must've been very personal approach since he starred in A Man and a Woman and its sequel twenty years later and now Amour, almost 50 years later. Did you talk about this symbolism with him?

You have to ask him about that. We never talked about it. I'm not a fan of A Man and a Woman.

What was the effect on shooting with Emmanuelle Riva ? You take her to a place where even in films that are that are supposedly looking at the subject, most films usually turn away before you do. Considering the amount of time and her coming back day after day to this role, what was the impact on her?

You have to ask her that. I can't answer that. (everyone laughs). From some of the interviews I've heard of her talking about the film, she had said that it was a pleasure working on this film.

Did you lipserve anything during the filming?

One scene was very difficult for her. Because she was scared to death of that electric wheelchair, the one with the control stick. After we completed shooting for the day, we spent two evenings getting used to the wheelchair. In fact, I had to learn it before she did so I could show her and reassure her that it wasn't that difficult.

Did you do any preparations and research for the film? If so, how extensive were they?

Yes of course. It was a personal story that motivated me to deal with this theme. I have nothing to do with what you see on the screen. So it was necessary for me to do a lot of research. For that I went to hospitals and spent time in old age homes and talked with doctors. I also sat in on number of speech therapy sessions for the stroke victims where they regain their speech. Emmanuelle didn't want to do a research herself and asked me to do it for her and show her what she had to do. She had that trust in me and that's how it worked. I felt that it was important that we have that precision of accuracy in the film.

You started the film with what could be called a 'happy ending' to just reveal everything in the very beginning and the whole film is kind of a continuous flashback. I understand that it was a crucially important structural decision you made. Is it because in order to eliminate any kind of suspense for the viewer?

Yes.

Can you elaborate on that?

No. (everyone laughs)

As you said, I wanted to eliminate any kind of false suspense. It is quite clear quickly in the story how it might be the only possible ending. But what interested me was not how the film ended but rather the events that lead up to it.

What interested me was not the death per se, but how to cope with the suffering of a loved one.

I've read something about the film being advisory for young couples. The quote is, "the film should be shown to any young couples who are considering getting married and committing their life together."

Who said that?

I read it in one of the reviews.

Oh good, that means that it will have larger audience. (laughs)

Many of your films takes place in France and in French. I was wondering where your love of France comes from?

When I was going to school I studied French rather than English. Sorry if I studied English I would be speaking directly to you now. Back when I was at your age, France was the core attraction for young intellectuals, the object of our desire. It was the age of existentialism and Nouvelle Vague. Now everyone's looking to America. But it was a matter of chance collaboration that brought me to France. Juliette Binoche had seen my Austrian films and called me up and suggested to work together and that lead to our first project (Code Unknown) and the collaboration worked very well since then.

I have a related question about language. When you write a script, do you write it in French or German then translate it?

No I can only write in German. Ever since I started making films in French, I've worked with the same translator. He does the first draft of translation and we revise it together. My French is not good enough to judge in a dialog that that's what I'm looking for.

When you write a script, do you have certain actors in mind?

It is the case for this film. I wrote a script with Trintignant in mind. Similarly, I've done this for certain German or Austrian actors in the past. It's more efficient means of writing a script because you are able to write into the scripts when you know who (the character) it is. But that's not always possible.

In the case of The White Ribbon, I've written the part of Pastor for Ulich Mühe, one of my favorite actors who played a lead in several of my other films and you may also know him as the lead in The Lives of Others. Unfortunately he died before I made the film, but I never gave up the challenge to replace him. However I was lucky enough to (the role eventually went to veteran theater actor Burghart Klaußner). So you never know.

Do you think if the story was told in America would it be differerent?

I've never really thought about it because from the very beginning, I wanted to work with Jean-Louis. So right now I can't come up with any American actors who would be able to play the part, certainly not the ones who exude such warmth as he does.

Did you choose to set the majority of the film in the apartment to illustrate the confines of their lives?

Yes. When you are elderly or infirmed, then your life is restricted to the four walls that you live in. That was the external reasons for the choice. In terms of aesthetic reasons for the choice, it occurred to me that when you are dealing with such serious theme as this, you have to find a fitting place like a stage. That's why I went back to a form of classical theater- real time based action seemed appropriate for the reduction of their lives.

Did you attempt to shoot this film in sequence given the limited setting and if not how did you take your actors through the extreme states that they had to go through?

We sought as far as possible to shoot the film chronologically. The one exception was the nightmare sequence, which we left for the end. But we had to tear down the sets and rebuild them. On the second half of the shooting, we had to make changes because Jean-Louis had broken his hand and we couldn't show it in certain scenes because of the scheduling issues.

You do a lot of long takes. I think it's good because it adds depth to the real old couple's rhythm of life. It's very slow and stretched out. But also I was wondering if you sometimes decide not to use long takes, cutting them before the audience to see what you'd like to avoid, for example, the mirror scene or the toilet of this ill woman whose body is unresponsive.

(Immediately after translator has finished translating the question)Yes. (laughter from everyone)

That's cruel. (another round of laughter)

Since the fate of the female character is predetermined as revealed in the opening sequence, and therefore the suspense is gone. I couldn't help focusing on the pigeons. At the press conference after the screening that you said it's up to the viewers to decide the symbolism of the pigeons. The guy next to me joked that if it was the early stages of your career, the pigeons would have been killed. The message is that now you are not into torture and cruelty, but more humane and mild. (again, laughter from everyone)

I'm OK with every interpretation anyway. As long as the film drives many interpretations out from audience, I'm open to them. Perhaps the revision of it will change in my next film.

Is there a script for the next film?

Not yet.

Can you describe an idea for us?

Not at the moment.

If you are OK with whatever the audience takes away from it--

It has to be OK. (laughs) Sorry. Go on.

However, they approach you to get you to endorse their view, say in favor of euthanasia, are you willing to sign on for that?

That's not my task.

If you are writing a film like this in sort of questions rather than themes, like how I deal with the suffering of a loved one rather than death, was there something sparked in your personal life to pursue this?

Yes there was. But I don't want to talk about it. It was a private, personal experience.

Could you talk about the music or the theme of the music in your films? I've noticed that you seem to be drawn to musicians or characters who are musicians. In fact, the characters in Amour are both music teachers. I'm wondering if you know how to play any instrument or trained as a musician.

When I was a young man, it was my dream to becoming a musician. If it had been up to me, if I was up there when the talents were bestowed, then I would've liked to have been a musician instead of a director. I would have liked to be a conductor or composer. My stepfather who himself was a conductor and a composer warned me that I was only a mediocre pianist. That stirred me away from becoming a musician. And I count myself lucky to have become a director because there is nothing more depressing that a mediocre concert pianist.

Nevertheless I've maintained my love of music and always enjoyed whenever possible to use it in my films when the occasion arises. But I don't use it the same way as how it's usually done in mainstream cinema where it's applied to cover up the directorial sins and weakness. I love music too greatly to use it for those reasons.

Do you think then other filmmakers use music as crutch?

I don't think so. I'm sure of it. (laughs)

Why do you say that?

It really depends on what kind of films. If it's a genre film, say Spaghetti Westerns, you can separate them with the music of Ennio Morricone. The music in those kind of films has a fiction in them. I have nothing against musicals or genre films for example: films of Fred Estaire or films of Hitchcock. Without Herrman, there would be no Hitchcock. But those aren't realistic films.  But for most of the films, the music is there to fill the emotions there otherwise lacking. Most films claim to be realistic. I understand if there is a musician present or radio playing in the scene, but find it problematic to make up for lack of tension or emotions the director failed to create.

The pianist in the film is the real concert pianist (Alexandre Tharaud) isn't he? How did you get him involved? Did you just discover his music?

We did auditions for pianists and actors. And he was the best actor who was also a pianist among them.

As a writer/director with a definite vision, do you find that you are very demanding of your actors or do you have a lot of trust in them?

Both. I have a lot of trust in my actors and I expect a great deal from them.

In this country, it's really hard to have a rational, mature conversation about assisted suicide. There was a case recently in Britain where the High Court struck down the case of Tony Nicklinson, a former athlete who had been suffering from lock-in syndrome and his right to end his own life. I wonder if it's any different in Europe to have a mature discussion about keeping one's austerity and dignity in euthanasia cases.

You'd have to ask someone who are more knowledgeable than I am about that.

Were you at all concerned about avoiding making this film about assisted suicide?

As I said, I wasn't making a film about assisted suicide, I was making a film about how one copes with the death of a loved one. There are any number of related tangential issues and themes that are touched upon because of that question. But I never set out to deal with these themes. That is never my approach. My starting point is always certain feelings that I experienced or witnessed or read about and that emotion leads me want to explore. It's the opposite approach of television where they deal with theme of the day or theme of the week. That's not my approach.

It's always dangerous especially politically when you decide to make a film about a certain theme. In television, you say, 'oh this theme is talked about a lot. It's a hot topic, let's make a film about it'. In Austrian film history I can only think about a handful of films that dealt with themes successfully. The results are usually quite terrible. And when I say successfully, I mean not from the box office point of view but artistic point of view.

You say political dangers. Yet many of your films you deal with topics that eventually step on some potent political landmines. Are you not afraid of doing that?

If you are a film director who is making films today and you are dealing with our contemporary reality, then you are automatically expected to talk seriously about the society you are living in. And you are automatically going to touch upon raw points which you can't cover up or alter. You can't avoid that. But the point is that you are not seeking to exploit those but sticking to what you are interested in, your vision.

In many of my films I talked about the role of the media in our society not because it seemed to be important theoretically but rather  because I am part of that media landscape: it touches me and part of it angers me and that's why I want to deal with it. Theoretical films are terribly boring and well-intentioned films are even more boring.

Talking about actors. The two leads are magnificent.  But Isabelle Huppert is in your film again who has a brief role as the daughter. What sets her apart from her generation of actors?

I've worked with her before and we have a great working relationship. It would be foolish to change that and use some other actors I've never worked with. I asked her for the role and she did it for a personal favor. She is used to playing the leading roles and here I was asking her for a supporting role and she accepted without a moment's hesitation.

I don't know if you might not want to answer this question but I wonder since it's such a personal film and personal subject, you might consider it to be your most personal film that you've made? And thus far, I wonder if you discussed the content of your film with your family prior to making the film and what their reaction was to it?

First of all, both of my parents are dead. And the second of all, as I said in my acceptance speech at Cannes, my wife and I promised to each other that we will do everything in our power to avoid the other person being shunned off to the old age home or hospital at the end of our lives. And that's all I have to say about the question.


Just in time for Christmas, Haneke's harrowing film Amour opens in NY  and LA on Dec. 19. Please visit Sony Pictures Classic's website for more information.

My Amour Review

Lovely Solitude

Two Years at Sea (2011) - Rivers









To call Two Years at Sea an observational documentary is too simplistic, inadequate description at best. We follow a bearded fellow who resembles poverty-stricken Gandalf, a wizard on skid perhaps. He lives in a dilapidated, cluttered old house in the woods. He does house chores while listening to some Ravi Shanka tinged music on his tape deck or turntable. He constantly whistles and sometimes mumbles to himself. Seasons change. He finds his trailer on the treetop one morning. Hmm, nice tree house idea. Let's do some fishing on a makeshift raft made out of window frames, an air mattress and some plastic water jugs. There are remnants of his past, shown in cutaways- the old postcards and photographs of children, women. We don't know who the bearded man is but we get to live in his house, intimately observing his life weathering seasons in the English wilderness together.

It's rarely the case for me to look into those DVD extras of any movie: the making of docs, interviews and whatnot. I honestly have absolutely no interest in seeing technical, logistical side of filmmaking in general. Ben Rivers's name was mentioned here and there before and have seen some of his experimental shorts. I hear Rivers develops his own films, often exposing the negatives to the environs each film was shot in. Two Years at Sea seems apparent that this is the case. Its grainy B & W anamorphic photography, blinking, stuttering exposure and all the blemishes and scratches are quite lovely.

But more importantly, I wanted to know more about this Jake Williams (we only get to know his name at the end credits). Unlike the title suggests, there is no hint of loneliness in Williams' life. As the film's only inhabitant (not counting his cat), Williams seems to be in complete ease at being alone. While watching the film, even though I knew some aspects of it were staged, I had a strong desire to communicate with him. I wanted to get his attention when his back was turned. What are you thinking? What are those photographs? What are you writing in that notebook? Aren't you at least a bit lonely sometimes? As the 8 minute ending sequence comes to a close where he falls asleep in front of the bonefire, I thought to myself, I'd love to be like him. This ends up in my year end top list.

Devil's Contract

Faust (2011) - Sokurov

Alexandr Sokurov's interpretation of Faust is one extraordinary, hallucinatory trip. It starts with Dr. Faust dissecting a corpse, looking for/failing to locate the exact location of the soul. Living in extreme poverty, he tries to pawn his ring to a dark eyed, deformed, devilish pawnbroker (Anton Adasinsky). Instead, the pawnbroker convinces Faust to sign away his soul in blood (ink is expensive!) in exchange for one night with virginal Magarete (Isolda Dychauk), whose brother he just killed during a fit of rage in the bar brawl. Last of his tetralogy (Moloch, Taurus, The Sun) about power/seduction of power, and not based on an actual historical figure, Faust can also be read as parody of the Age of Enlightenment.

Technically, it's an amazing looking film. Even though it is not shot all in one take like Russian Ark, it's visually so cohesive and fluid, you don't get to notice the edits much. It's soft edges and shallow depth of field, dutch angle, dark, rembrandt cinematography and mirror tricks give it its hypnotic, nightmarish feel. Adasinsky is perfect as a ratty, Goya-ish Mephisto. I haven't seen Moloch or Taurus, but Faust is much more engaging than The Sun, the one about emperor Hirohito. There is no stuffiness in Sokurov's period pieces: the camera and actors are constantly moving. Giddy and playful, it almost works as a comedy. It does have enough beautifully weird moments that are not out of character as a whole, Faust provides a fascinating movie experience.

The Complete Pier Paolo Pasolini Retrospective at MoMA

Fiercely political and highly controversial poet/writer/artist/filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini gets a comprehensive citywide retrospective Dec. 13, 2012 - January 5, 2013. Regarded by many as a visionary thinker and major literary figure, Pasolini's legacy extends far beyond his work as a filmmaker. During his short lifetime, he was a public persona through his poetry, fiery newspaper editorials and political activism in post war Italy. Before his sensational murder death in 1975, Pasolini the filmmaker had made 22 films (including 8 shorts) in 14 years. His complete, rare cinematic output will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art. A well-timed Criterion release of Trilogy of Life in November saw Pasolini's three later works, of adaptation - Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights on Blu-ray. But hey, why not come out and see them on the big screen all in new 35mm prints along with other rare gems?

NEW YORK, November 21, 2012--The Museum of Modern Art, Luce Cinecittà, and Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna present Pier Paolo Pasolini, a full retrospective celebrating the filmmaker's cinematic output, from December 13, 2012 through January 5, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. Pasolini's film legacy is distinguished by an unerring eye for cinematic composition and tone, and a stylistic ease within a variety of genres--many of which he reworked to his own purposes, and all of which he invested with his distinctive touch. Yet, it is Pasolini's unique genius for creating images that evoke the inner truths of his own brief life that truly distinguish his films. This comprehensive retrospective presents Pasolini's celebrated films with newly struck prints by Luce Cinecittà after a careful work of two years, many shown in recently restored versions. The exhibition is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Luce Cinecittà; with Roberto Chiesi, Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna; and Graziella Chiarcossi.

The film retrospective will be accompanied by a series of events that pay tribute to Pasolini's multifaceted career. On December 14, an evening of recitals by well-known Italian and American actors highlights Pasolini's accomplishments as an acclaimed essayist, beloved poet, and composer. On December 16, MoMA PS1 will host a program of performances by contemporary artists inspired by Pasolini. A roundtable discussion about his artistic legacy will take place on December 12 at Casa Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, and on December 13, The Italian Cultural Institute hosts a seminar titled Pasolini: A Writer for the New Millennium, with a panel of experts, moderated by Fabio Finotti, and a book launch of Pier Paolo Pasolini, My Own Cinema, an anthology including interviews, stories, journal notes, preliminary texts, subjects, and screenplays from Pasolini's archives; edited by Pasolini's sole heir Graziella Chiarcossi, with the collaboration of Roberto Chiesi (Fondo Pasolini/Cineteca di Bologna) and published by Cineteca di Bologna and Luce Cinecittà.

MoMA PS1 presents Saló, or 120 Days of Sodom, Teorema and Medea as continuous cinematic installations running throughout the film retrospective. Opening on December 15, Location 1 will host a gallery exhibition bringing together over 40 rarely exhibited drawings and paintings by Pasolini from the Fondo Pier Paolo Pasolini holdings in the Archivio Contemporaneo "Alessandro Bonsanti" at the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario Vieusseux in Florence, Italy.

ACCATONE

Pasolini's portrayal of a sub-proletariat in Rome (based on his own novel, A Violent Life) is both raw and tender in his debut feature. Franco Citti's scrounger is an affable pimp who is destined for a self-destruction. He gets into drunken brawls in his usual neighborhood hangouts and tricks his friends for a bowl of pasta. He tries to go straight after falling in love with an innocent girl but slips back into thieving. With non-actors playing themselves and sluggish pacing, Accatone is an uneven ride. But one can't deny its raw lyricism and beauty.


IN SEARCH FOR LOCATIONS FOR THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW

From the beginning of his Palestine trip in 1964, it is clear that Pasolini can't find the setting he wants in Isreal, the Occupied Territories or Jordan. He is surprised by the uncinematic nature of historical sites with Biblical importance. The documentary is a good example of how Pasolini's working method is like. Humbled by the underwhelming scenery but not discouraged, and yet with an emphasis on authenticity (but not on a superficial level like Mel Gibson's bombastic The Passion of Christ, where he made every actor speak Aramaic), he later ended up shooting The Gospel According to St. Matthew in a remote Italian village, with locals playing most of the parts. This documentary is an important companion piece to that austere masterpiece.


THE EARTH AS SEEN FROM THE MOON

Pasolini was asked to be part of several omnibus films in the 60s (all his segments represented in this retro). The Earth as Seen from the Moon is one of the five segments from the film The Witches. Other directors involved were Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Franco Rossi and Lucino Visconti, each contributing a short involving the biggest Italian starlet of the era, Silvana Mangano. This candy colored, slapstick comedy features the famed comedian Totò and Ninetto Davoli as father and son (they also starred in Hawks and Sparrows as father and son which is said to be Pasolini's favorite), on the road looking for a perfect wife and mother. They find one in Mangano's deaf witch, who marries into the family without questioning. They are all happy living in squalid shack. But the father and son want the best for the new wife and mom, so they devise a plan to earn money. Mangano pulls out an adorable Chaplin act. Lighter and sillier than his other, more satirical films, The Earth as Seen from the Moon shows Pasolini's versatility as an artist.


NOTES FOR AN AFRICAN ORESTEIA

Pasolini preps the Greek tragedy of Orestes in Africa (Tanzania, Uganda). Like the previous documentary, Notes for an African Oresteia is a loose travelogue of sorts - part location/talent scouting, part lecture and discussion, part jazz improvisation. He saw parallels in the newly independent Africa (many nations gained their independence in the 60s) with Orestes and his trial after killing his mother Clytemnestra in revenge of the murder of his father Agamemnon (shedding off traditional ways and moving onto democracy). Under the shadow of the bitter Biafran War (1967-70), Africa in the 70s was still a volatile place to be. They thought the communist proletariat society (with the support of China) was possible. There is an interesting segment in Notes, where Pasolini asks room full of African college student about the film he is trying to make. Unfortunately, the English dubbing doesn't extend to the answers of the African students who speaks French and Italian. From what I gather, they don't seem to agree with the filmmakers view of Africa as a whole. But Pasolini is a smart, inquisitive man. While being respectful, he admits that shooting this film in the 70s in Africa is already outdated. It's too bad the film never actually happened.

For the complete list of films, schedule and tickets for the PPP retro, please visit MoMA website. It runs from December 13, 2012 through January 5, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.

Labyrinthine Tales

Arabian Nights (1974) - Pasolini

"Truth lies not in one dream but many". - Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights starts with a story of a confident, beautiful slave girl choosing her next owner, a young man she deems the handsomest. It's a story within a story within a story within.... The film is filled with plenty of nudity, frank sexual scenes involving both sexes, decapitation and dismemberment. It's like watching more down to earth and raunchier Fellini. There is no Sinbad or Ali Baba or Genie, but other stories Pasolini chooses for the film are just as colorful and fascinating. Men are often foolish and women often exude wisdom. Beauty and youth are worshipped. World weary wisdom only comes after hardships. Lovers perish, lovers reunite. It jumps from many majestic African settings to that of Middle East and India and back and forth. Ennio Morricone's score and Dante Ferretti's production design help bring out these fantastic tales too. Over all, Arabian Nights plays out like a film totally unencumbered by Western influence (eventhough some Italian actors playing the parts are a little distracting). A fascinating, strangely moving film.

The Zone

Stalker (1979) - Tarkovsky





Tarkovsky's usual theme of faith and sacrifice in the age of science is told metaphorically, making full use of the grimiest looking industrial wasteland ever as a backdrop. Stalker is not an insufferable borefest as I remembered. On the contrary, it's a pretty straightforward and simple road movie with clear destination and purpose. Writer and Professor are guided by Stalker to the zone where people's innermost wishes come true. These are earnest people: Professor tags along with an intention of blowing up the zone so it won't fall into the hands of bad people, Writer is a doubtful holy fool and Stalker is a true believer who is burdened with guiding non-faithful to happiness. They talk, move along and talk. The action here is always breathtaking cinematography- amazing slow tracking shots.

Ginger and Afro Beat

Beware of Mr. Baker (2012) - Bulger

Ginger Baker, a legendary 60s rock drummer for such influential mega bands as Cream and Blind Faith, is the subject of Jay Bulger’s revealing documentary. Known for his unparalleled virtuosic drumming and also his explosive temper, Baker is first seen assaulting Bulger with his cane, leaving the young director with a bloody nose.

Borne out of Bulger’s Rolling Stone interview, the film tracks Baker down living in Tulbagh, South Africa with his 4th wife and several horses in near seclusion. The subject is a very cranky old man. Bulger’s approach is just as aggressive- barking questions at the man whom everyone was afraid to work with some forty years ago. But the floodgate opens and a wild, colorful tale of a crazy eyed, puffy redhead spills out.

Just like Charlie Watts of Rolling Stones, Baker started as a jazz drummer. Heavily influenced by the African rhythm, his style revolutionized the rock sound and became the root of many genres of music that came after him. But it was his temper and heavy drug use that others found difficult to work with. Both admirers and detractors acknowledge his talent, from Eric Clapton to Johnny Rotten but are wary of his madness.

The highlight of the film is definitely what comes after the segment of his short-lived stint with Cream and Blind Faith. As his daughter aptly describes his condition: ability to constantly move or inability to stay in one place, Baker hopped on his Range Rover and drove across the Saharan desert. He ended up in politically tumultuous Nigeria in 1970, playing with legendary Fela Kuti and setting up a studio in Lagos. Using footages from Tony Palmer’s vibrant 1971 recording, Ginger Baker in Africa, it reveals Baker’s true love- Afro Beat and polo.

There are many juicy bits in the film- Jack Bruce recounting getting beaten up by Baker only to be asked by him again later to join Cream, Baker’s many ‘drum battles’ with his jazz heroes– Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Phil Seaman, etc., him being resurfaced in the 90s only to be taunted by the metal fans on stage and being stupefied by a question if Nirvana was the new Cream, all the while keeping up his charming relationship with the director: “Do you see yourself as a tragic hero?” “Go on with the interview and don’t try to be an intellectual dighead!”

Well armed with interviews and stock footage and a certain cocky flare (not necessarily bad in this case), Beware of Mr. Baker paints an in-depth, entertaining picture of an artist who never apologizes for who he is.

Rudeness, Violence and Filth

The Exterminating Angel/El Angel Exterminador (1962) - Buñuel

Elegant guests arrive for a dinner party at an opulent mansion, while servants excuse themselves to be off for the night. As the dinner progresses, the guests gossip and boast about their bourgeois whatever. Uncharacteristically, as if under a spell, all of them rationalize themselves to stay the night at the study. They say they have places to be and businesses to attend but they lay themselves down on various furniture and floor even. The next day, they rationally talk about this phenomenon. But no one wants to take the first step out of the study and through the dinning room to the door, not even to the kitchen. Days become weeks become months. They soon run out of food and water. Ming vases in the closet become toilets. Tempers fly and fights break out. It's a total anarchy. They burn furniture and floorboard for heat and cooking. They break water pipes under the brick wall (with an ornamental mace, no less) to quench their thirst. Sick die and couples commit suicide. Many succumb to hallucinations and madness.

The outside world- including family members of the self-imposed prisoners and police, has a standoff with the mansion. No one's taking a first step into the house either. One of the kids whose parents are in the house tries to get in, only to scamper away at the doorstep. His balloon flies away. Someone say the stench from the house is unbearable.

Buñuel's absurd take on hypocrisy of bourgeoisie is a great fun to watch. He is a brilliant satirist with a great sense of humor. The film never feels ham-fisted the way José Saramago's Blindness does. Love the cyclical ending too.

Tokyo 1955 - 1970: New Avant Garde at MoMA

Two of the most striking things I've seen in Tokyo 1955 - 1970: New Avant Garde exhibit at MoMA:

Circular Train A by Hiroshi Nakamura


For the Damaged Right Eye (1968) -Toshio Matsumoto


Check out MoMA Website

MoMA Presents: Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960 - 1986

Oh man, this is huge!! As a big fan of Japanese New Wave, I am very excited about this upcoming program at the Museum of Modern Art. There are 70+ rarely seen films present with many guest speakers. If you consider yourself a fan of cinema, you don't have any excuse to miss this once in a blue moon event. I'll see you up there!!

MoMA Press Release: Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960 - 1986

Guest Presenters Include Filmmakers Nobuhiko Obayashi and Susumu Hani, and Author Ian Buruma. Retrospective Also Features Works By Other Celebrated Filmmakers Including Masao Adachi, Takahiko Iimura, Shohei Imamura, Toshio Matsumoto, Nagisa Oshima, Donald Richie, Kaneto Shindo, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Koji Wakamatsu, and others.

Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960-1986
December 6, 2012–February 10, 2013
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

NEW YORK, November 15, 2012—The Museum of Modern Art and The Japan Foundation present Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960-1986, the most comprehensive U.S. retrospective ever devoted to the Art Theater Guild, the independent film company that radically transformed Japanese cinema by producing and distributing experimental, transgressive, and genre-shattering films from the early 1960s until the mid-1980s, running from December 6, 2012-February 10, 2013, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters. This exhibition is curated by Go Hirasawa, Meiji-Gakuin University; Roland Domenig, University of Vienna; and Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; with curatorial assistance provided by Julian Ross, University of Leeds.

Free from the strictures and conventions of the mainstream Japanese studio system, the cinema of the Art Theater Guild was characterized by its provocative depictions of sex, violence, politics, and social upheaval. The ATG also provided a fresh testing ground for collaboration among filmmakers, composers, dancers, novelists, artists, performance artists, and avant-garde theater companies. This exhibition of approximately 70 titles features such seminal Japanese directors as Shohei Imamura, Toship Matsumuro, Nagisa Oshima, Kaneto Shindo, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Koji Wakamatsu, and runs concurrently with the gallery exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde. Also presented are several non-ATG programs of Japanese underground cinema of the period, including experimental films and videos by Donald Richie, Masao Adachi, Takahiko Iimura, and others. Two of the leading filmmakers of the Art Theater Guild, Nobuhiko Obayashi and Susumu Hani, will make rare New York appearances to introduce their work, as will the artist Takahiko Iimura and the author Ian Buruma.

Screening Schedule
Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema, 1960–1986
December 6, 2012–February 10, 2013
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Thursday, December 6
6:30 Tenkosei (Transfer Student/Exchange Students/I Am You, You Are
Me). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Wataru
Kenmotsu, Hisashi Yamanaka. With Toshinori Omi, Satomi Kobayashi, Makoto
Sato. Obayashi, the director of the 1977 cult classic House, makes a rare
appearance for the opening weekend of MoMA’s Art Theater Guild exhibition. His
1982 film Tenkosei is a kind of Japanese Freaky Friday: an astute exploration of
gender politics disguised as a tender coming-of-age comedy. A paranormal
incident causes an adolescent boy and girl to swap minds and bodies, leading
them to discover the blessings and foibles of becoming the opposite sex. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 112 min. Introduced by Obayashi.

Friday, December 7
6:30 Haishi (The Deserted City). 1984. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Screenplay by Chiho Katsura, Makoto Naito, based on a novel by Takehiko
Fukunaga. With Satomi Kobayashi, Kisuke Yamashita, Toshie Negishi. Obayashi’s
second ATG production is a romantic, melancholy melodrama born of the elegiac
atmosphere of Yanagawa, a city famous for its canals. After reading a newspaper
article about a tragic fire that took place in Yanagawa, a man recalls the summer
he spent there as a student and the family who gave him room and board. Secrets
of a love triangle simmering between the daughter, her sister, and her sister’s
husband return to memory. In Japanese; English subtitles. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. 105 min. Introduced by Obayashi.

Saturday, December 8
2:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 1: Nobuhiko Obayashi and Yoichi
Takabayashi
Nakasendo (Nakasen Road). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Digital projection. Courtesy the filmmaker. 17 min.
Emotion. 1966. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Obayashi,
Kyoko Hanyu. With Sari Akasaka, Kyōko Hanyū. Digital projection. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 39 min.
Hinanokage (The Shadow of Doll). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoichi
Takabayashi. 20 min.
This program reunites two luminaries of Japanese underground cinema, Obayashi
and Takabayashi, who with Takahiko Iimura set up the collective “Group of Three”
and screened films together. Their innovative experimental 8mm movies were
harbingers of their subsequent feature work. Iimura is the subject of his own
program on January 12 and 13. Program 76 min. Introduced by Obayashi.
4:45 Otoshiana (The Pitfall). 1962. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
Screenplay by Kobo Abe. With Hisashi Igawa, Kazuo Miyahara, Sen Yano.
Together with The Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another, The Pitfall marks
an astonishing and masterful collaboration among filmmaker Teshigahara, novelist
and playwright Kobo Abe, and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara described
The Pitfall as a “documentary-fantasy”: an existential murder mystery involving
3ghosts and doppelgangers that he infused with social realist depictions of
hardscrabble coal mining life. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles.
95 min.
7:30 Tobenai Chinmoku (Silence Has No Wings). 1966. Japan. Directed by Kazuo
Kuroki. Screenplay by Yasuo Matsukawa, Hisaya Iwasa, Kuroki. With Mariko Kaga,
Minoru Hiranaka, Rokko Toura. A strange and wondrously imaginative film:
Kuroki’s meditation on the history and politics of postwar Japan is told through the
fanciful and difficult journey of a caterpillar from the south of Japan to the north,
and through its metamorphosis into a butterfly and a beautiful, elusive young
woman. Silence Has No Wings has a breathtaking formal audacity, with soaring
cinematography by the great Tatsuo Suzuki and an ethereal soundscape that
interweaves voices both real and imagined. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min.

Sunday, December 9
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 2: Nihon University Cinema
Club and Motoharu Jonouchi
PuPu. 1960. Japan. Directed by Nihon University Cinema Club.
22 min.
Tatsumi Hijikata. 1967. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. 1 min.
Gewaltopia Yokokuhen (Gewaltopia trailer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Motoharu Jonouchi. 13 min.
Shinjuku Station. 1974. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 14 min.
Wan (Bowl). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema Club. 25
min.
Nihon University New Cinema Club holds a unique and significant role in the
history of Japanese experimental film, not only for its association with student
politics but also for its explicit stance against authorship. The Club, whose
members included Motoharu Jonouchi and Masao Adachi, would present films in
unconventional settings, and indeed, Jonouchi would often reedit his films and
insist on projecting them in different ways for each screening. Jonouchi works
courtesy Mineko Jonouchi; Nihon University Cinema Club works courtesy The FilmMakers’ Coop, New York. Program 76 min.
5:00 Seishun no Satsujinsha (The Youth Killer). 1976. Japan. Directed by Kazuhiko
Hasegawa. Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura. With Yutaka Mizutani, Ryohei Uchida,
Etsuko Ichihara. Based on a true crime adapted into a short novel by Kenji
Nakagami, this debut film by Hasegawa is an operatic tragedy about the psychic
breakdown of a young man and the disintegration of his family. Hasegawa’s
mesmerizingly intense depictions of violence chart the criminal act and its
consequences. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 116 min.

Monday, December 10
4:00 Shura (Pandemonium). 1971. Japan. Written and directed by Toshio
Matsumoto. With Katsuo Nakamura, Yasuko Sanjo, Masao Imafuku. “The most
important and beautiful film made in Japan since Kurosawa’s prime” (Noël Burch).
Matsumoto’s second ATG feature is a pitch-black adaptation of a play by Nanboku
Tsuruya. Relentlessly pessimistic, this tale of bitter betrayal and brutal revenge is
intensified by Matsumoto’s characteristic blurring of fantasy and reality and his
4aestheticization of violence. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy the
filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.

Wednesday, December 12
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 3
Ryakusho Renzoku Shasatsuma (AKA Serial Killer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Masao Adachi, Susumu Iwabuchi, Masayuki Nonomura, Yutaka Yamazaki, Mamoru
Sasaki, Masao Matsuda. A companion to Nagisa Oshima’s The Man Who Left His
Will on Film (also screening on December 12), AKA Serial Killer documented the
social upheaval and political oppression that roiled Japan in the 1960s. Director
Adachi, screenwriter Sasaki, and film critic Matsuda put fukeiron (landscape
theory) into practice in their profile of nineteen-year-old serial killer Norio
Nagayama. An indictment of media sensationalism, the film humanizes the young
man by situating his crimes in the larger context of his surroundings. Courtesy
Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In Japanese; English subtitles. 86 min.
7:00 Tokyo Senso Sengo Hiwa (The Man Who Left His Will on Film). 1970.
Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masato Hara, Mamoru Sasaki.
With Kazuo Goto, Emiko Iwasaki, Sugio Fukuoka. Following activist
demonstrations, a student filmmaker discovers a last will and testament recorded
on film by a man who may or may not have existed. Much like Antonioni’s BlowUp (1966), the footage seems to be innocuous and visually uneventful, yet its very
banality suggests a tantalizing mystery that invites imaginative speculation. The
student concludes that the only way to understand the ghostly man’s last will is to
re-shoot the landscape locations himself. The tension between subjective
experience and historical fact lies at the heart of fukeiron, a landscape theory that
gained currency in Japan in the 1960s. Print lent by Harvard Film Archive;
courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min.

Thursday, December 13
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 1: Nobuhiko Obayashi and Yoichi
Takabayashi
Nakasendo (Nakasen Road). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Digital projection. Courtesy the filmmaker. 17 min.
Hinanokage (The Shadow of Doll). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoichi
Takabayashi. 20 min.
Emotion. 1966. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Obayashi,
Kyoko Hanyu. With Sari Akasaka, Kyōko Hanyū. Digital projection. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 39 min.
Program 76 min. (See Saturday, December 8, 2:00)
6:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 2: Nihon University Cinema
Club and Motoharu Jonouchi
PuPu. 1960. Japan. Directed by Nihon University Cinema Club.
22 min.
Tatsumi Hijikata. 1967. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. 1 min.
Gewaltopia Yokokuhen (Gewaltopia trailer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Motoharu Jonouchi. 13 min.
Shinjuku Station. 1974. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 14 min.
Wan (Bowl). 1961. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema Club. 25
min.
5Jonouchi works courtesy Mineko Jonouchi; Nihon University Cinema Club works
courtesy The Film-Makers’ Coop, New York. Program 76 min. (See Sunday,
December 9, 2:30)

Friday, December 14
4:15 Tobenai Chinmoku (Silence Has No Wings). 1966. Japan. Directed by Kazuo
Kuroki. Screenplay by Yasuo Matsukawa, Hisaya Iwasa, Kuroki. With Mariko Kaga,
Minoru Hiranaka, Rokko Toura. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min. (See Saturday, December 8,
7:30)
7:00 Koshikei (Death by Hanging). 1968. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Michinori Fukao, Oshima. With
Yun Yun-Do, Fumio Watanabe, Masao Adachi. “The late 1960s marked a
remarkably productive and creatively intense period for Oshima as he began to
define a truly revolutionary approach to narrative. Death by Hanging marks a high
point of these fertile years as one of Oshima’s most potent, stylistically daring,
and intensely debated works. His first film to draw the attention of international
critics, Death by Hanging was inspired by the highly publicized death sentenced
received by a Korean youth for the strangling of two young female schoolmates.
The film opens with a gripping documentary-style reenactment of the execution
that is suddenly derailed by an uncanny and inexplicable mishap, plunging the film
into a dizzying mode of political theater where the authority of the executioners
and truth claims of cinema are brilliantly put on trial. An uncompromising ode to
Brechtian aesthetics, Death by Hanging is an awe-inspiring and urgent work of
political cinema” (Haden Guest, Harvard Film Archive.” In Japanese; English
subtitles. Print lent by Harvard Film Archive; courtesy Janus Films. 119 min.

Saturday, December 15
2:00 Tenkosei (Transfer Student/Exchange Students/I Am You, You Are
Me). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by Wataru
Kenmotsu, Hisashi Yamanaka. In Japanese; English subtitles. 112 min. (See
Thursday, December 6, 6:30)
5:00 Haishi (The Deserted City). 1984. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi.
Screenplay by Chiho Katsura, Makoto Naito, based on a novel by Takehiko
Fukunaga. In Japanese; English subtitles. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. 105 min. (See Friday, December 7, 6:30)
7:30 Seishun no Satsujinsha (The Youth Killer). 1976. Japan. Directed by Kazuhiko
Hasegawa. Screenplay by Tsutomu Tamura. With Yutaka Mizutani, Ryohei Uchida,
Etsuko Ichihara. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution.
In Japanese; English subtitles. 116 min. (See Sunday, December 9, 5:00)

Sunday, December 16
2:00 Ryoma Ansatsu (The Assassination of Ryoma). 1974. Japan. Directed by
Kazuo Kuroki. Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Yasushi Tanabe. With Yoshio Harada,
Renji Ishibashi, Rie Nakagawa. Using the perceived failure of student
demonstrations against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty as a contemporary
backdrop, Kuroki recounts the legend of nineteenth-century revolutionary Ryoma
Sakamoto, the low-ranking samurai who engineered a bloodless revolution against
6Shogunate feudalism and paved the way toward Japan’s rapid modernization.
Kuroki’s dramatic retelling of a timeworn popular legend focuses on the three days
leading up to Ryoma’s assassination, and is given a strikingly modernist look by
cinematographer Masaki Tamura. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 118 min.
5:00 Shura (Pandemonium). 1971. Japan. Written and directed by Toshio
Matsumoto. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy the filmmaker. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min. (See Monday, December 10, 4:00)

Monday, December 17
4:00 Otoshiana (The Pitfall). 1962. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
Screenplay by Kobo Abe. With Hisashi Igawa, Kazuo Miyahara, Sen Yano. Courtesy
Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 95 min. (See Saturday, December 8,
4:45)

Wednesday, December 19
4:00 Ryoma Ansatsu (The Assassination of Ryoma). 1974. Japan. Directed by
Kazuo Kuroki. Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Yasushi Tanabe. With Yoshio Harada,
Renji Ishibashi, Rie Nakagawa. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 118 min. (See Sunday, December 16,
2:00)

Friday, January 4
4:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 4: Expanded Cinema
Tsuburekakatta Migime no Tame ni (For My Crushed Right Eye). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Toshio Matsumoto. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection.
13 min.
Jidai Seishin no Genshogaku (Phenomenology of Zeitgeist). 1967. Japan.
Directed by Rikuro Miyai. Courtesy the filmmaker. Multiple projection. 37 min.
America America America. 1965. Japan. Directed by Kenji Kanesaka. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy Kumiko Shimamoto.
Digital projection. 13 min.
Great Society. 1967. USA. Directed by Masanori Oe, Marvin Fishman. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. 17 min.
Expanded cinema became a true phenomenon in late 1960s Japan. Artists began
exploring multiple projection, film as performance, and various Structuralist
investigations. This program features some of the best practitioners of the period,
including Matsumoto and Miyai, as well as early critiques of television and pop
culture by Kanesaka and Oe that offer a fascinating glimpse of Japanese expat
culture in downtown New York. Program 73 min.
6:45 Tenshi no Kokotsu (Ecstasy of the Angels). 1972. Japan. Directed by Koji
Wakamatsu. Screenplay by De Deguchi (Masao Adachi). With Ken Yoshizawa, Rie
Yokoyama, Yuki Aresa. Extreme leftist politics and candid sex collide in Art Theater
Guild’s most controversial feature, as the bad boys of “Pink Cinema,” Koji
Wakamatsu and Masao Adachi, depict Tokyo as a bombed-out city on the verge of
revolution, anticipating real-life bombings of police stations and internecine
warfare among various splinter activist groups. Courtesy Blaq Out. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 88 min.

7Saturday, January 5
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 5
Mujin Retto (The Deserted Archipelago). 1969. Japan. Directed by Katsu
Kanai. Screenplay by Kanai, Yuji Yamazaki, Yuki Miyata. With Kazumi Kushida,
Yoshihiro Kato, Shinichi Iwata, Jushin Sato. Kanai’s debut is a landmark in
experimental narrative cinema. Upon reaching adolescence, a young man escapes
the monastery where he suffered a tortured childhood. During his flight, he
encounters strange deities, including overgrown babies played by the performance
artists Zero-Jigen and his own doppelganger, spawned in an utterly creepy
manner. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. In Japanese; English subtitles.
56 min.
4:30 Ikiteiru Koheiji (The Living Koheiji). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuo
Nakagawa. Screenplay by Nakagawa, based on a play by Senzaburo Suzuki. With
Fumihiko Fujima, Junko Miyashita, Shoji Ishibashi. After a thirteen-year hiatus,
Nakagawa, a master of the immensely popular Japanese ghost genre, returned to
the studio one last time to make his most intense, and perhaps most beautiful,
film. Nakagawa stages his love triangle among a traveling Kabuki player, his wife,
and her lover—a drama about crimes of passion—as a theatrically stylized yet
intimate play between illusion and reality. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 78 min.
6:45 Shinju Ten no Amijima (Double Suicide). 1969. Japan. Directed by Masahiro
Shinoda. Screenplay by Taeko Tomioka, Toru Takemitsu, Shinoda, based on a play
by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. With Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, Hosei
Komatsu. In his radical updating of Chikamatsu’s classic bunraku play, Shinoda
explores the familiar tension between familial duty and individual longing through
a pair of desperately passionate young lovers sealed in a doomed fate. Shinoda’s
brilliant theatrical conceits include sets that collapse to reveal their artifice, and
the manipulations of hooded puppeteers who intervene in their characters’
destinies. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.

Sunday, January 6
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 4: Expanded Cinema
Tsuburekakatta Migime no Tame ni (For My Crushed Right Eye). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Toshio Matsumoto. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection.
13 min.
Jidai Seishin no Genshogaku (Phenomenology of Zeitgeist). 1967. Japan.
Directed by Rikuro Miyai. Courtesy the filmmaker. Multiple projection. 37 min.
America America America. 1965. Japan. Directed by Kenji Kanesaka. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy Kumiko Shimamoto.
Digital projection. 13 min.
Great Society. 1967. USA. Directed by Masanori Oe, Marvin Fishman. Print lent
by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. 17 min.
Program 73 min. (See Friday, January 4, 4:00)
5:00 Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masao Adachi, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura,
Oshima. With Tadanori Yokoo, Rie Yokoyama, Kei Sato. Restlessly chaotic
storytelling prevails in Oshima’s brilliant homage to Tokyo’s city center of
Shinjuku—ground zero for cultural experimentation and social protest. Famed
graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo plays a young shoplifter who embarks on a
flirtatious roundelay of gender bending with the beautiful Umeko. Juro Kara’s
8Situation Theatre is one of several counterculture hotspots making a location
cameo. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min. Introduced
by author Ian Buruma.

Monday, January 7
6:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 3
Ryakusho Renzoku Shasatsuma (AKA Serial Killer). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Masao Adachi, Susumu Iwabuchi, Masayuki Nonomura, Yutaka Yamazaki, Mamoru
Sasaki, Masao Matsuda. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 86 min. (See Wednesday, December 12, 4:30)

Wednesday, January 9
4:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 6: Radical Experiments in
Japanese Animation
Ai (Love). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoji Kuri. 12 min.
March. 1963. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Manabe. Courtesy The Museum of
Modern Art, Ehime. Digital projection. 3 min.
Ikedaya Sodo (Battle at Ikedaya). 1961. Japan. Directed by Ryohei
Yanagihara. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. 8 min.
Kiss Kiss Kiss. 1964. Japan. Directed by Tadanori Yokoo. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 3 min.
Kamen no Marionetto-tachi (The Marionettes of Mask). 1965. Japan.
Directed by Keiichi Tanaami. Courtesy the filmmaker. 7 min.
Goho/Don (Time Gun). 1966. Japan. Directed by Akira Uno. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 11 min.
Kage (Shadow). 1967. Japan. Directed by Seiichi Hayashi. Courtesy the
filmmaker. Digital projection. 5 min.
WOLS. 1965. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. Courtesy Mineko Jonouchi.
18 min.
Before Japanese animation became big business, many legendary illustrators,
graphic designers, and manga artists (including the “Animation: Group of Three”
of Kuri, Manabe, and Yanagihara) experimented with the genre. Screened at
prestigious venues like the Sogetsu Art Centre, this program of independently
made animated shorts features some of their most stunning achievements.
Program 67 min.
6:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 5
Mujin Retto (The Deserted Archipelago). 1969. Japan. Directed by Katsu
Kanai. Screenplay by Kanai, Yuji Yamazaki, Yuki Miyata. With Kazumi Kushida,
Yoshihiro Kato, Shinichi Iwata, Jushin Sato. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital
projection. In Japanese; English subtitles. 56 min. (See Saturday, January 5,
2:30)

Thursday, January 10
4:30 Nihon University New Cinema Club and Yukio Mishima
Sain (Closed Vagina). 1963. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema
Club. While depicting a love story between a man and a woman, this film uses
image of a closed vagina as a metaphor—by now considered sexist—for the failed
protest movement during the signing of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. This fifth
production of the Nihon University Cinema Club—the first late-night screening at
the Art Theatre Shinjuku Bunka—had a sensational reputation that extended to
9the larger world of experimental cinema, and had a major influence on the
development of the Art Theater Guild. Courtesy Nihon University Cinema Club. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 56 min.
Yukoku (Patriotism/The Rite of Love and Death). 1966. Japan. Written,
directed by, and starring Yukio Mishima. After receiving orders to take command
of a unit that will exterminate his rebel friends following their failed coup in the
“2.26 Incident” of 1936, a lieutenant and his wife commit double suicide.
Mishima’s chillingly nationalist adaptation of his own 1961 novel attracted
tremendous critical response and public favor, paving the way for Art Theater
Guild productions to follow. Courtesy Sakai Agency. In Japanese; English subtitles.
28 min.
6:45 Ikiteiru Koheiji (The Living Koheiji). 1982. Japan. Directed by Nobuo
Nakagawa. Screenplay by Nakagawa, based on a play by Senzaburo Suzuki. With
Fumihiko Fujima, Junko Miyashita, Shoji Ishibashi. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 78 min.
(See Saturday, January 5, 4:30)

Friday, January 11
4:30 Nihon University New Cinema Club and Yukio Mishima
Sain (Closed Vagina). 1963. Japan. Directed by Nihon University New Cinema
Club. Courtesy Nihon University Cinema Club. In Japanese; English subtitles. 56
min.
Yukoku (Patriotism/The Rite of Love and Death). 1966. Japan. Written,
directed by, and starring Yukio Mishima. Courtesy Sakai Agency. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 28 min. (See Thursday, January 10, 4:30)
7:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 7
Kurejii Rabu (Crazy Love). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Michio Okabe.
With Okabe, Zero-Jigen, Kenji Kanesaka, Yasunao Tone. Capturing the exuberance
of 1960s Japanese counterculture, Crazy Love is an indelible record of
performance art, street happenings, futen hippie life, and wildly popular dance
halls. Performance artists Zero-Jigen, musician Tone and filmmaker/photographer
Kanesaka are among the many familiar faces of the Shinjuku underground who
appear in the film, which also features an infectious soundtrack of contemporary
pop songs. Print lent by Fukuoka City Public Library; courtesy the filmmaker. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 93 min.

Saturday, January 12
2:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 8: Takahiko Iimura and Eikoh
Hosoe
Heso to Genbaku (Navel and A-Bomb). 1960. Japan. Directed by Eikoh Hosoe.
Courtesy the filmmaker. 10 min.
Anma (The Masseurs). 1963. Japan. Directed by Takahiko Iimura. 13 min.
Barairo Dansu (Rose Color Dance). 1965. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 13 min.
Kuzu (Junk). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Ai (Love). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Onan. 1963. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 7 min.
Made for the Experimental Jazz Film Laboratory, a group led by the great
filmmaker Shuji Terayama (a key figure in this exhibition), Navel and A-Bomb
anticipates photographer Eikoh Hosoe’s famous collaboration with Tatsumi
Hijikata, the co-founder of Ankoku Butoh dance, for the photo-book Kamaitachi
(1968). In the beautifully choreographed Anma and Rose Color Dance, Takahiko
10Iimura transforms his camera into an extension of his body. And in Junk, Love,
and Onan, Iimura improvises with vanguard musicians Takehisa Kosugi, Yoko Ono,
and Yasunao Tone with exhilarating results. All Iimura works courtesy The Filmmakers’ Co-op, New York. Program 67 min. Introduced by Iimura.
4:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 9
Gingakei (Galaxy). 1967. Japan. Written and directed by Masao Adachi. With
Akira Hanaue, Rui Takemura. Adachi’s surreal masterpiece Galaxy was the very
first film to premiere at the Theatre Scorpio, with crowds thronging to get in.
Mixing memory and dreams, the film centers on a man who becomes lost within
the Möbius strip of his own consciousness. Adachi uses all manner of cinematic
experimentation—including Yasunao Tone’s chilling soundtrack—to disorient and
unnerve both his protagonist and the audience. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening
Committee. In Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min.
7:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 7
Kurejii Rabu (Crazy Love). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Michio Okabe.
With Okabe, Zero-Jigen, Kenji Kanesaka, Yasunao Tone. Print lent by Fukuoka City
Public Library; courtesy the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 93 min.
(See Friday, January 11, 7:00)

Sunday, January 13
2:45 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 6: Radical Experiments in
Japanese Animation
Ai (Love). 1963. Japan. Directed by Yoji Kuri. 12 min.
March. 1963. Japan. Directed by Hiroshi Manabe. Courtesy The Museum of
Modern Art, Ehime. Digital projection. 3 min.
Ikedaya Sodo (Battle at Ikedaya). 1961. Japan. Directed by Ryohei
Yanagihara. Courtesy the filmmaker. Digital projection. 8 min.
Kiss Kiss Kiss. 1964. Japan. Directed by Tadanori Yokoo. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 3 min.
Kamen no Marionetto-tachi (The Marionettes of Mask). 1965. Japan.
Directed by Keiichi Tanaami. Courtesy the filmmaker. 7 min.
Goho/Don (Time Gun). 1966. Japan. Directed by Akira Uno. Courtesy the
filmmaker. 11 min.
Kage (Shadow). 1967. Japan. Directed by Seiichi Hayashi. Courtesy the
filmmaker. Digital projection. 5 min.
WOLS. 1965. Japan. Directed by Motoharu Jonouchi. Courtesy Mineko Jonouchi.
18 min.
Program 67 min. (See Wednesday, January 9, 4:45)
5:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 8: Takahiko Iimura and Eikoh
Hosoe
Heso to Genbaku (Navel and A-Bomb). 1960. Japan. Directed by Eikoh Hosoe.
Courtesy the filmmaker. 10 min.
Anma (The Masseurs). 1963. Japan. Directed by Takahiko Iimura. 13 min.
Barairo Dansu (Rose Color Dance). 1965. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 13 min.
Kuzu (Junk). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Ai (Love). 1962. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 12 min.
Onan. 1963. Japan. Directed by Iimura. 7 min.
All Iimura works courtesy The Film-makers’ Co-op, New York. Program 67 min.
(See Saturday, January 12, 2:30)

11Monday, January 14
4:00 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 9
Gingakei (Galaxy). 1967. Japan. Written and directed by Masao Adachi. With
Akira Hanaue, Rui Takemura. Courtesy Adachi Masao Screening Committee. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 75 min. (See Saturday, January 12, 4:45)

Wednesday, January 16
4:00 Nikudan (The Human Bullet). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Kihachi
Okamoto. With Minori Terada, Naoko Otani, Yunosuke Ito. Perhaps best known for
his samurai films for Toho studio, Okamoto also wrote and directed a number of
antiwar films based on his own experiences as a soldier. The Human Bullet is the
best of these, a satire centering on a nameless soldier who on the eve of a suicide
mission meets his first—and last—love. Mixing humor with melancholy, the film
offers a conflicted vision of national duty and sacrifice. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
7:00 Gishiki (Ceremony). 1971. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by
Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Oshima. With Kenzo Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku,
Nobuko Otowa. Oshima’s magisterial epic, centering on the ambivalent surviving
heir of the Sakurada clan, uses ritual and the microcosm of the traditional family
to trace the rise and fall of militaristic Japan across several decades. The film was
made in celebration of the Art Theater Guild’s tenth anniversary. Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 123 min.

Thursday, January 17
6:30 Shinjuku Dorobo Nikki (Diary of a Shinjuku Thief). 1969. Japan. Directed by
Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masao Adachi, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura,
Oshima. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min. (See
Sunday, January 6, 5:00)

Friday, January 18
4:30 Tenshi no Kokotsu (Ecstasy of the Angels). 1972. Japan. Directed by Koji
Wakamatsu. Screenplay by De Deguchi (Masao Adachi). With Ken Yoshizawa, Rie
Yokoyama, Yuki Aresa. Courtesy Blaq Out. In Japanese; English subtitles. 88 min.
(See Friday, January 4, 6:45)
7:00 Bara no Soretsu (Funeral Parade of Roses). 1969. Japan. Written and
directed by Toshio Matsumoto. With Peter, Osamu Ogasawara, Toyosaburo
Uchiyama. “A carnivalesque melding of documentary vérité and avant-garde
psychedelia, Funeral Parade of Roses offers a shocking and ecstatic journey
through the nocturnal underworld of Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, following the
strange misadventures of a rebellious drag queen fending off his/her rivals. Often
cited as a major inspiration for Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Matsumoto’s
breakthrough film is a visually audacious and lyrically abstract testament to the
vertiginous daring of the postwar Japanese avant-garde art and film scenes.
Matsumoto orchestrates a series of quite astonishing visual set pieces, including
actual performances by the influential street theater group Zero-Jigen” (Haden
Guest, Harvard Film Archive). Print lent by Harvard Film Archve; courtesy the
filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min.

Saturday, January 19
2:00 Nikudan (The Human Bullet). 1968. Japan. Written and directed by Kihachi
Okamoto. With Minori Terada, Naoko Otani, Yunosuke Ito. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
(See Wednesday, January 16, 4:00)
4:45 Shinju Ten no Amijima (Double Suicide). 1969. Japan. Directed by Masahiro
Shinoda. Screenplay by Taeko Tomioka, Toru Takemitsu, Shinoda, based on a play
by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. With Kichiemon Nakamura, Shima Iwashita, Hosei
Komatsu. Courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min. (See
Saturday, January 5, 6:45)
7:15 Mujo (This Transient Life). 1970. Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Screenplay by
Toshiro Ishido. With Kotobuki Hananomoto, Akiji Kobayashi, Eiji Okada. Jissoji’s
feature debut was one of the Art Theater Guild’s biggest international hits, a
sensuous and daring exploration of Buddhist spirituality and eroticism that also
touched on the taboo of incest. The film’s controversial content, combined with the
breathtaking, nearly gravity-defying camerawork, captivated audiences worldwide.
In Japanese; English subtitles. 146 min.

Sunday, January 20
2:30 Gishiki (Ceremony). 1971. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by
Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Oshima. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 123 min. (See Wednesday,
January 16, 7:00)

Monday, January 21
6:15 Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [longer
Japanese theatrical version]. 1967. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima, based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato.
Voices of Shoichi Ozawa, Kei Yamamoto, Akiko Koyama. MoMA presents the longer
Japanese theatrical version of one of Oshima’s rarest and most groundbreaking
films. When budgetary constraints prevented him from making a live-action
version of Band of Ninja, an epic, 17-volume manga about the son of a defeated
warlord who joins a peasant rebellion to avenge his father’s death, Oshima
ingeniously used camera movements and voiceover dialogue to bring Shirato’s
original drawings to life. Courtesy Oshima Productions. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 117 min.

Wednesday, January 23
4:00 Ningen (Human). 1962. Japan. Directed by Kaneto Shindo. Screenplay by
Shindo, based on a novel by Yaeko Nogami. With Taiji Tonoyama, Nobuko Otowa,
Kei Sato. Four tempest-tossed fisherman, adrift and delirious with hunger, turn on
each other in their fight for survival. A pioneer of independent film since the early
1950s, Kaneto Shindo exploited the Art Theater Guild’s characteristically low
budget and skeletal crew to his advantage, deftly conjuring the desperate intensity
of a claustrophobic ship setting. Print lent by the National Film Center of The
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kindai Eiga Kyokai. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 117 min.

13Thursday, January 24
4:30 Nagisa Oshima and Akio Jissoji
Yunbogi no Nikki (Yunbogi’s Diary/Diary of Yunbogi). 1965. Japan. Directed
by Nagisa Oshima. This ethereal montage of still images with darkly somber
undertones, Yunbogi’s Diary is based on photographs that Oshima took during his
two-month research trip to South Korea in 1965, during which he was haunted by
his encounters with impoverished street children in Seoul. The voiceover
comprises diary entries from a six-year-old Korean boy, and Oshima’s own
reflections on Japanese-Korean relations, a controversial subject that he revisited
in his later films Sing a Song of Sex and Death by Hanging (shown in December).
Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Oshima Productions. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 24 min.
Yoiyami Semareba (When Twilight Draws Near/Twilight Falls). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Bored by the emptiness of everyday life, four
students gather to play dangerous games in an apartment. Oshima was
approached by noted television director Jissoji to adapt his script on reckless
youth, and Jissoji delivered with dramatically experimental filmmaking conceits
that influenced such later films as This Transient Life (1970) (also in this
retrospective) and Mandala (1971). Twilight had a successful theatrical run on a
bill with Oshima’s Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969). Print lent by the National Film
Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kodai. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 44 min.
6:45 Ninja Bugeicho (Band of Ninja/Manual of Ninja Martial Arts) [longer
Japanese theatrical version]. 1967. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
Screenplay by Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima, based on the manga by Sanpei Shirato.
Voices of Shoichi Ozawa, Kei Yamamoto, Akiko Koyama. Courtesy Oshima
Productions. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min. (See Monday, January 21,
6:15)

Friday, January 25
4:30 Nagisa Oshima and Akio Jissoji
Yunbogi no Nikki (Yunbogi’s Diary/Diary of Yunbogi). 1965. Japan. Directed
by Nagisa Oshima. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Oshima
Productions. In Japanese; English subtitles. 24 min.
Yoiyami Semareba (When Twilight Draws Near/Twilight Falls). 1968.
Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Print lent by the National Film Center of The
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kodai. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 44 min. (See Thursday, January 24, 4:30)
7:00 Mujo (This Transient Life). 1970. Japan. Directed by Akio Jissoji. Screenplay by
Toshiro Ishido. In Japanese; English subtitles. 146 min. (See Saturday, January
19, 7:15)

Saturday, January 26
2:00 Ningen (Human). 1962. Japan. Directed by Kaneto Shindo. Screenplay by
Shindo, based on a novel by Yaeko Nogami. With Taiji Tonoyama, Nobuko Otowa,
Kei Sato. Print lent by the National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern
Art, Tokyo; courtesy Kindai Eiga Kyokai. In Japanese; English subtitles. 117 min.
(Wednesday, January 23, 4:00)
145:00 Den’en ni Shisu (Pastoral: Hide and Seek). 1974. Japan. Written and directed
by Shuji Terayama. With Kantaro Suga, Hiroyuki Takano, Yoshio Harada. A
virtuoso in a great many artistic disciplines, counterculture icon Terayama drew
upon his poetry collection, also titled Pastoral, for this clever and humorous
exploration of memory and memoir. His alter ego is a filmmaker who is suddenly
confronted with his childhood self. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 102 min.
7:30 Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyo (Throw Away Your Books Get Out onto the
Streets/Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Street). 1971. Japan.
Written and directed by Shuji Terayama. With Eimei Sasaki, Masahiro Saito,
Yukiko Kobayashi. Terayama’s Art Theater Guild debut is a breathtaking collage of
words transformed into street actions and art happenings—a devilishly disjointed
urban narrative loosely held together by a coming-of-age drama. Print lent by the
National Film Center of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 119 min.

Sunday, January 27
2:30 Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyo (Throw Away Your Books Get Out onto the
Streets/Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Street). 1971. Japan.
Written and directed by Shuji Terayama. With Eimei Sasaki, Masahiro Saito,
Yukiko Kobayashi. Print lent by the National Film Center of The National Museum
of Modern Art, Tokyo; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles.
119 min. (Saturday, January 26, 7:30)
5:15 Ningen Johatsu (A Man Vanishes). 1967. Japan. Directed by Shohei Imamura.
With Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Imamura. In this genre-shattering
investigative (and investigation of) documentary, Imamura and his crew follow
one of Japan’s thousands of missing-persons cases. They find their journalistic
integrity suddenly called into question when the missing man’s fiancée begins to
fall in love with the filmmaker. “In a coup de cinéma that has been equaled only
by Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up, Imamura transforms fact into artifice, being into
acting, personal identity into tenuous fabrication” (James Quandt, Cinematheque
Ontario). Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Icarus Films. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 130 min.

Monday, January 28
4:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 10: Donald Richie and Shuji
Terayama
Senso Gokko (War Games). 1962. Japan. Directed by Donald Richie. 22 min.
Cybele (Cybele: A Pastoral Ritual in Five Scenes). 1968. Japan. Directed by
Donald Richie. 20 min.
Ori (Cage). 1962. Japan. Directed by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku
Morisaki. 11 min.
Tomato Ketchappu Kotei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup). 1971. Japan. Directed
by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku Morisaki. 27 min.
Donald Richie, a former MoMA curator and internationally renowned historian and
critic of Japanese culture, was also an avid participant in underground cinema in
Japan. Two of his personal and affecting films are presented in this program: War
Games depicts a sacrificial ritual enacted by children, with the participation of
butoh dancer Tatsumi Hijikata; Cybele is an outrageous naked ceremony
performed by Zero-Jigen. The theme of ritual continues with Terayama’s Cage and
15culminates in the anarchistic revolt of his Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which
scandalized the nation both as a radio play and a film. Program 80 min.

Wednesday, January 30
4:00 Noyuki Yamayuki Umibeyuki (Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and
the Seacoast). 1986. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by
Haruo Sato, Shinobu Yamada. With Saburo Boya, Sen Hara, Yasufumi Hayashi.
During the fervently nationalist months leading up to World War II, a rebellious
teenager is transferred to a new primary school in a small Inland Sea town. He
vies with the school’s reigning bully, who takes a romantic interest in his older
stepsister. When they learn she’s going to be sold to a brothel to pay off her
father’s debts, they form an uneasy alliance to free her. With surprising moments
of caricature and slapstick, Obayashi celebrates the anarchic world of adolescence
while also satirizing adult hypocrisy and conformism. This is the color version of a
film that was also released in black and white. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.
7:00 Enrai (Distant Thunder). 1981. Japan. Directed by Kichitaro Negishi. Screenplay
by Haruhiko Arai, based on the novel by Wahei Tatematsu. With Toshiyuki
Nagashima, Johnny Okura, Eri Ishida. Distant Thunder charts the urban sprawl
and corrupt materialism of Tokyo in the 1970s, as well as its devastating effect on
farming families in the outlying areas of the city. Negishi’s film, whose protagonist
is a young tomato grower, was made in the characteristically realist style that his
uncle established in the 1930s as the leading producer of the famed Nikkatsu
Tamagawa studios. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho
Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min.

Thursday, January 31
4:00 Den’en ni Shisu (Pastoral: Hide and Seek). 1974. Japan. Written and directed
by Shuji Terayama. With Kantaro Suga, Hiroyuki Takano, Yoshio Harada. Print lent
by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 102 min. (See Saturday, January 26, 5:00)
6:30 Japanese Underground Cinema Program 10: Donald Richie and Shuji
Terayama
Senso Gokko (War Games). 1962. Japan. Directed by Donald Richie. 22 min.
Cybele (Cybele: A Pastoral Ritual in Five Scenes). 1968. Japan. Directed by
Donald Richie. 20 min.
Ori (Cage). 1962. Japan. Directed by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku
Morisaki. 11 min.
Tomato Ketchappu Kotei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup). 1971. Japan. Directed
by Shuji Terayama. Courtesy Henrikku Morisaki. 27 min.
Program 80 min. (See Monday, January 28, 4:30)

Friday, February 1
4:00 Furyo Shonen (Bad Boys). 1961. Japan. Written and directed by Susumu Hani.
With Yukio Yamada, Hirokazu Yoshitake, Koichiro Yamazaki. One of the great
postwar Japanese filmmakers, Hani was a seminal figure of the Art Theater Guild
and presents several of his key works at MoMA. His debut feature, Bad Boys, was
voted best film of the year by prominent critics and launched the Japanese New
Wave. A classic of the genre, it’s a tough, poignant story about teenage
16delinquency that gained its street cred through vérité camerawork, on-location
photography, improvisation, and the use of non-professional actors. Hani’s
reputation as a brilliant and vital new voice in Japanese cinema was cemented by
such films as She and He, The Inferno of First Love, and The Morning Schedule, all
screening in a special weekend with Hani. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 89 min.
Introduced by Hani.
6:30 Kanojo to Kare (She and He). 1963. Japan. Directed by Susumu Hani.
Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Hani. With Sachiko Hidari, Kikuji Yamashita, Eiji
Okada. Although incontestably one of postwar Japanese cinema’s most innovative
and influential filmmakers, Hani today is unjustly neglected. His second feature
film is a finely etched, feminist study of a young modern woman (Hidari) who is
restless in her marriage to a salaryman. The couple live in a shining new
apartment building on a hill overlooking a slum. The wife finds herself strangely
drawn to a rag-picker who lives down below in a tin shack with a blind child and a
dog, and the sheltering comforts of her middle-class existence inexorably fall
away. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media
Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 114 min. Introduced by Hani.

Saturday, February 2
1:30 Noyuki Yamayuki Umibeyuki (Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and
the Seacoast). 1986. Japan. Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. Screenplay by
Haruo Sato, Shinobu Yamada. With Saburo Boya, Sen Hara, Yasufumi Hayashi..
Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 135 min. (See Wednesday, January 30, 4:00)
4:30 Gozenchu no Jikanwari (The Morning Schedule). 1972. Japan. Directed by
Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Hani, Kanji Nakao, Ichiro Araki, Yutaka Hamada.
With Aya Kunikida, Sumei Shau, Takuji Hatano. Continuing his favorite theme of
lost childhood, Hani invented faux home movies—some shot by his own actors—
for this affecting, and somehow jarringly modern, work of nostalgia. Reiko returns
from vacation to inform Shitamura of the suicide of their friend Kusako; together
they watch 8mm holiday films that reveal the melancholic passing of friendships
that once seemed eternal. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 101 min. Introduced by Hani.
7:00 Hatsukoi Jigokuhen (The Inferno of First Love/Nanami). 1968. Japan.
Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Shuji Terayama, Hani. With Haruo
Asano, Kuniko Ishii, Misako Miyato. One of the most powerful themes of this ATG
retrospective is that of incest and childhood abuse. The Inferno of First Love is a
particularly haunting example of this, made all the more disturbing for the erotic
atmosphere that pervades it. The film centers on an adolescent boy whose love for
a beautiful young model is corrupted by memories of sexual molestation. It
remains an unforgettable collaboration between two dramatically distinct voices of
independent Japanese cinema and art, Hani and Terayama (the latter also
represented in the MoMA exhibition with Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Cage, and
Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Streets). Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min.
Introduced by Hani.

Sunday, February 3
2:00 Kanojo to Kare (She and He). 1963. Japan. Directed by Susumu Hani.
Screenplay by Kunio Shimizu, Hani. With Sachiko Hidari, Kikuji Yamashita, Eiji
Okada. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media
Ltd. In Japanese; English subtitles. 114 min. (See Friday, February 1, 6:30)
5:00 Arakajime Uchinawareta Koibito-tachi yo (Lost Lovers). 1971. Japan.
Directed by Soichiro Tahara, Kunio Shimizu. Screenplay by Shimizu. With Renji
Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Tenmei Kano. In their feature debut Lost Lovers,
television documentarian Tahara and avant-garde playwright Shimizu offer an
energetic portrait of Japanese youth after the failed student protests of the 1960s.
While on a trip to northern Japan, a former pole vault champion befriends a young
deaf couple and learns a way of communicating beyond words. Actress Kaori
Momoi makes her impressive debut as a liberated female character that at the
time seemed refreshingly new for Japanese cinema. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 122 min.

Monday, February 4
4:30 Hatsukoi Jigokuhen (The Inferno of First Love/Nanami). 1968. Japan.
Directed by Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Shuji Terayama, Hani. With Haruo
Asano, Kuniko Ishii, Misako Miyato. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy
the filmmaker. In Japanese; English subtitles. 104 min. (See Saturday, February
2, 7:00)

Wednesday, February 6
4:00 Ningyo Densetsu (Mermaid Legend). 1984. Japan. Directed by Toshiharu
Ikeda. Screenplay by Takuya Nishioka. With Mari Shirato, Kentaro Shimizu, Jun
Eto. A cult favorite that deserves to be better known in the United States,
Mermaid Legend was the first feature film of the Director’s Company, established
in 1982 by nine directors, and the first of several co-productions with ATG. In this
wicked and wrathful tale of revenge, a fisherman becomes the unwitting witness
to a murder. He discovers that the victim had been mixed up in a corrupt
businessman’s scheme to construct a nuclear power plant. When the fisherman
himself is then murdered, his wife, a pearl diver, unleashes a torrent of merciless
revenge, quite literally becoming a force of nature. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 110 min.
7:00 Tattoo Ari (Tattoo). 1982. Japan. Directed by Banmei Takahashi. Screenplay by
Takuya Nishioka. With Ryudo Uzaki, Keiko Takahashi, Misako Watanabe. A heist
drama based on a true story, Tattoo marked Takahashi’s switch from a successful
career making sexploitation films to more mainstream fare. A bank robber’s life
story is told in flashback, tracing his frustrated efforts to find his place in society
and culminating in a last-ditch, violent attempt to prove himself. In Japanese;
English subtitles. 107 min.

Thursday, February 7
4:00 Ningen Johatsu (A Man Vanishes). 1967. Japan. Directed by Shohei Imamura.
With Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Imamura. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Icarus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 130 min. (See
Sunday, January 27, 5:15)
187:00 Furyo Shonen (Bad Boys). 1961. Japan. Written and directed by Susumu Hani.
With Yukio Yamada, Hirokazu Yoshitake, Koichiro Yamazaki. Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Iwanami Audio-Visual Media Ltd. In Japanese; English
subtitles. 89 min. (See Friday, February 1, 4:00)

Friday, February 8
4:30 Kazoku Gemu (Family Game). 1983. Japan. Written and directed by Yoshimitsu
Morita. With Juzo Itami, Yusaku Matsuda, Saori Yuki. The illusion of familial
harmony, an undercurrent to so many ATG films, culminates in this wildly
successful and absurdist adaptation of a popular novel by Yohei Honma. Presented
in New Directors/New Films and the winner of 5 prestigious Kinema Junpo
awards—including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for the
brilliant director Juzo Itami’s performance as the patriarch—Family Game was
described by Vincent Canby in The New York Times as “wickedly funny…a stylish
deadpan comedy about Japan’s comparatively affluent, utterly directionless, new
middle class…. [F]rom the opening shots until the last, it's a visual adventure. The
succession of brilliantly colored, often geometric compositions satirize the worst
aspects of what might be called Japan's economic modernism.” Print lent by The
Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107
min.
7:00 Gozenchu no Jikanwari (The Morning Schedule). 1972. Japan. Directed by
Susumu Hani. Screenplay by Hani, Kanji Nakao, Ichiro Araki, Yutaka Hamada.
With Aya Kunikida, Sumei Shau, Takuji Hatano. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 101 min. (See Saturday, February 2, 4:30)

Saturday, February 9
1:30 Tattoo Ari (Tattoo). 1982. Japan. Directed by Banmei Takahashi. Screenplay by
Takuya Nishioka. With Ryudo Uzaki, Keiko Takahashi, Misako Watanabe. In
Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min. (See Wednesday, February 6, 7:00)
4:15 Enrai (Distant Thunder). 1981. Japan. Directed by Kichitaro Negishi. Screenplay
by Haruhiko Arai, based on the novel by Wahei Tatematsu. With Toshiyuki
Nagashima, Johnny Okura, Eri Ishida. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 135 min. (See
Wednesday, January 30, 7:00)
7:30 Kazoku Gemu (Family Game). 1983. Japan. Written and directed by Yoshimitsu
Morita. With Juzo Itami, Yusaku Matsuda, Saori Yuki. Print lent by The Japan
Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 107 min.
(See Friday, February 8, 4:30)

Sunday, February 10
2:00 Arakajime Uchinawareta Koibito-tachi yo (Lost Lovers). 1971. Japan.
Directed by Soichiro Tahara, Kunio Shimizu. Screenplay by Shimizu. With Renji
Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Tenmei Kano. Print lent by The Japan Foundation;
courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 122 min. (See Sunday,
February 3, 5:00)
5:00 Ningyo Densetsu (Mermaid Legend). 1984. Japan. Directed by Toshiharu
Ikeda. Screenplay by Takuya Nishioka. With Mari Shirato, Kentaro Shimizu, Jun
1920
Eto. Courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 110 min. (See
Wednesday, February 6, 4:00)
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