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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Informal Processing

The Master (2012) - Anderson

A sprawling, ambitious work. I enjoyed it just as I enjoyed There Will be Blood and both of them happen to rely heavily upon the tremendous lead performances. Id vs super ego, embodied by Joachim Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is still very much a PT Anderson acting workshop but more subdued (still hurt my ears with all that shouting though). They still talk plainly what's exactly on their minds like lovelorn teenagers. There is no character arc, no change of minds in Anderson's protagonists. At first, they want to be sympathized with (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia). But after There Will be Blood, the writer/director seems less concerned with them being understood. They have always been arrogant, self-assured pricks. It's all about them pitted against one another for a dogmatic battle. There Will be Blood could have easily been called The Master.

Still, Phoenix is really amazing, slumped like an injured ape, slurring his words from one side of his mouth, so as Hoffman, red faced most of the time. Amy Adams and others are negligible, barely registering on the radar. PT Anderson movies usually annoy me. The Master didn't. I see it as a departure of sort for him. It's not a character study, doesn't have the strong narrative nor flash camera movement or innovative photography, even though it was shot on crisp 70mm (I do like close ups and constant shot from a low angle). Don't read this as a backhanded compliment. I really do like the Master. There are some great individual scenes in that film. I let out a short laugh and almost cheered Freddie on when he drove off with his bike near the end. I even liked the clunky ending. It might be my new favorite Anderson so far.

Truth on Film

A Man Vanishes (1967) - Imamura

Imamura's search for the truth goes beyond a representation of reality on film. A plastic salesman has gone missing. The strong willed, pretty wife of the missing man with a film crew in tow sets out on a journey to find him. Interviews after interviews with various people in the man's life reveal no clear picture regarding the disappearance. The film is also a reflection of a society in a specific time and place. People got married for their financial stability without really knowing each other. "How can a man be missing in such a small place?" the voice over in the beginning asks.

Even though Imamura announces in the middle of the film that what we are seeing is a fiction, even after he takes away the studio walls to reveal the sound stage, there is no trace of irony. The wife falls in love with the interviewer/crew member. The film winds down to a sibling rivalry- the case of she said/she said. The shoot ends, director calls cut. People disperse. And we are left with many heady questions: Where is Oshima the plastic salesman? Who is telling the truth? What makes a man? What is reality? A great precursor to current crop of shape-shifting, postmodern cinema, A Man Vanishes is an invigorating experience.

Faith, Memories and Sacrifice

Nostalghia (1983) - Tarkovsky






I'm in awe of this film...and speechless...

Tarkovsky fashions a breathtaking meditation on his usual themes: faith, memories and sacrifice. It's filled with unforgettable images. We follow a Russian poet Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky) accompanied by his translator, a Rafaelite beauty (Domiziana Giodano) in an ancient hot springs hotel in Italy. There he meets Domenico (Bergman regular Erland Josephson), a local kook who had locked himself and his family up in his house for 7 years, believing the end of the world is imminent. The poet feels a kinship with the madman. The film slowly progresses to an unforgettable speech by Domenico in Rome. He calls for human unity and urges us to go back to our origins. Then he douses himself with gasoline and sets himself on fire. The ending with Andrei carrying a candle through the drained outdoor hot springs really made me very emotional.

*No Country for Old Bond

Skyfall (2012) - Mendes

Ever since 007 franchise decided to 'go back to its roots' with Daniel Craig as a no-nonsense, cold blooded MI6 killing machine, the makers were left with fewer and fewer options. The world is changing: the machismo, sexism and patriotism all sound as unattractive and outdated as the word 'computer'. It's been harder and harder to differentiate this blunt instrument from any other Bourne action hero types. So it has to be and only can be a character study even if it means sacrificing sex appeal and glitz. Because its breakneck speed though, to keep up with other actioners, the character arc and whatnot can't be stretched out long enough for them to keep Craig as Bond. And as much as I'm excited about the rumor that Idris Elba as the next Secret Agent, I am very sad to see Craig go. In my humble opinion, Craig has been the best Bond ever.

Mendes and the team sets out what maybe the last Craig 007 the same way as Rocky 4. Hardly any older than his counterparts in their primes (I remember one 80s Sean Connery Bond movie where they make incessant jokes about his age), Skyfall starts with picturesque Istanbul setting where he gets shot off of the moving train. Hard to believe Daniel Craig as an aging, failing Bond, considering Roger Moore's never athletic flabby Brit-twit JB. It's all about honor and code and stuff. Monstrous Silva (scene chewing Javier Badem), an ex-secret serviceman, has it out for M (Judi Dench, playing mother of all mothers). In order to protect her, 007 first has to go off the grid and do Driving Miss Daisy routine to Scotland, then do an OK Corral style shotgun battle. I was half expecting either Eye of the Tiger or Hank Williams to kick in.

But it's no less fun than the previous two. OK maybe a little less. It's also the first time anyone notices the cinematography (shot by Roger Deakins) in a Bond movie. Shanghai and Macao never looked better. The final showdown in misty Scotland, backlit by burning mansion is perhaps second best this year, losing only to another Scottish movie, Wuthering Heights.

*the title courtesy of Robbie Bruens.

Colors and Shadows

Tren de Sombras (1997) - Guerin





Gerard Fleury, a Parisian attorney and amateur filmmaker, disappeared while vacationing in Normandy with his extended family in 1930. He left countless disintegrating home movie reels. José Luis Guerin, using some of Fleury footages and reenacting scenes with actors, makes an utterly captivating film. The film starts with a prolonged b&w home movie- the family on vacation in their big country estate. Sound of projector running is audible. Then it's the present- rustling of the wind, fallen leaves, the empty, decaying opulent estate, shadow play on decorative walls, rain. The long sequence is just as beautiful as any later JLG films. Tren de Sombras doesn't catch fire 'til half way in, when it becomes a reconstruction of the Fleury family through the home movie reels. Guerin playfully edits- using jump cuts, juxtapositions and split screen, suggesting the scenario of illicit affair between a maid and the elder son. This voyeuristic process is not unlike Antonioni's Blow Up or Zapruder reenactment. But the film is much more than that. It is obvious that Guerin is playing with the genre and form. The films works on many levels. With elegant and poetic images, the film never feels sordid or trivial. There is no dialog- as in In the City of Sylvia, he utilizes sound of the street and nature. And there is a glorious, Brakhage-like experimental element to the whole thing. Tren de Sombras hits all the right notes in what I'm looking for in movies right now.

Occupy Sandy

Just saw a news clip of Red Hook relief activities. Red Hook is an area in Brooklyn right near the water where my friend Sean lives. The water overran everywhere and the damage has been enormous. While FEMA and Housing authorities scrambling to provide hot food and water for Red Hookians who don't have power and running water, with their twitter and smartphone, Occupy Wallstreet stepped up their game by providing food, supplies and transportation. They are becoming more and more like Hamas sans blowing stuff up.

Now I wish I had a car and a twitter account. All I could do was donate some money:

http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/

Their website is slow but after a minute or two it will come up. Donate if you can. I might trek down to one of the gathering sites and volunteer this weekend if the power doesn't come back on in those areas.

Immersion

Colossal Youth (2006) - Costa





For two and a half hours, we follow Ventura, an eldery resident of Lisbon's slum known as Fontainhas, as he visits his various 'children' and have lengthy conversations with them. Costa concludes his trilogy with this tall, erect man in a dark suit and white shirt in almost every frame. This DV shot film is remarkably beautiful. As with his other two in the trilogy, the film is an immersive experience: with its quiet protagonists and deliverately slow, leasurely pacing, you get to 'live in' with these souls in their darkness, listening to their stories. Costa's docufilms are nothing like I've experienced before and Colossal Youth, with its poetry, is the most beautiful of them all.

In Vanda's Room Review

Ossos Review

Obsession

La Captive (2000) - Akerman

Akerman's parable about jealousy, possessiveness is that of simplicity- an obsessive love story devoid of pettiness and emotional outbursts. Instead, she prefers carefully composed shots and operatic narrative to illustrate a tragedy born out of controlling jealousy in man-woman relationship. Simon (Stanislas Merhar) first seen perving over the images of Ariane (Sylvie Testud) having a good time at the beach with her friends. Then we find out that he already has her living in his grand mansion where he and his grandma reside. Ariane is passive and defenseless- "If you like," or "As you wish." are her most common answers to Simon's incessant demands. He trails Ariane's whereabouts whenever she leaves the house and imagines wild lesbian escapades she may or may not be up to. There is a funny scene- convinced that Ariane is having a lesbo relationship, Simon visits a lesbian couple and thoroughly asks them about the nature of their relationship. After accusing her of lying, he declares the end of the relationship and of course it is for her benefit. She obliges, saying even though it would hurt her, "as you wish". For her in relationship, there should be some mysteries remain in your partner. For him, it's the opposite. Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead is a perfect fit to the stormy finale to this moody, intriguing piece of filmmaking.

Trumping Masculinity

The Loneliest Planet (2011) - Loktev

Julia Loktev's breakdown of masculinity is very interesting. A young, engaged American couple, played by non-Americans (Gael Garcia Bernal and Israeli actress Hani Furstenberg) are trekking breathtaking Georgian outdoors with a enigmatic local guide Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze). The couple are playful, and very much in love until one act of cowardice changes the foundation of their relationship. Loktev slowly builds up to a turning point mid-way. Everything is stripped down. Nothing is stereotypical. There is no emotional breakdown, just a lot of brooding and self reevaluating. Bernal underplays his usual hunky masculinity and internalizes his thought process silently and it's a site to see. Deeply uncomfortable yet fascinating, The Loneliest Planet is an Antonioni-esque film where dissection of masculinity is at its sharpest.

Aftermath: Julia Loktev Interview

It's been six years since we heard from Julia Loktev after her minimalist, downright Bressonian suicide bomber film, Day Night Day Night. Her new film The Loneliest Planet, shot in the Caucasus mountains in Georgia, is just as enigmatic and elliptical as her first one, if not more. In person, Loktev appears to be fiercely intelligent and thoughtful. But just like her films, I had a very hard time pinning her down on what the film is all about.

It's been a while since your last film Day Night Day Night, why the gap?

What a rude question to ask a filmmaker?! (laughs)

Oh I didn't mean to be rude...

I was just talking to someone about how we were supposed to shoot the film one year earlier. We had to delay it for a year because it took a while to get the money together. It's amazing how long it takes to get everything done. I wish I could make a film a year. In this day and age, I think that's very hard to accomplish. In this case we had most of the budget, we needed about twenty five percent of it. And the story takes place in the mountains, so there is a very short window to shoot from the month of May through September. After that, it's all snow and they are closed for business. We were going to shoot the previous summer and had an investor who came in and said, "We will give you the last 25 percent of the money, if you could move the location to China. So we were going to move to China even though the script was originally set in Georgia. Then they pulled the plug two weeks before the shoot, and we had to wait another year. Luckily, by that time I had Gael (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Hani (Israeli actress Hani Furstenberg) cast and they both stuck with the project and came back after a year to do it.

That's pretty awesome. How long did it take you to write the script?

That's a hard thing to measure because you know, it takes a while to come up with the initial idea and there is a germination period before you flesh out what you want to say. I never understand people asking "what version of the script are you on?" because I keep on writing everyday even on the set. And I'm constantly editing while I am writing it, it's much more of a fluid process for me.

You said it was conceived with Georgia in mind and the film is stunning to look at. Why Georgia?

I was born in Russia (technically in Soviet Union) when Georgia was part of the USSR. It's where I can still get around speaking Russian even though it is a different country with their culture and language. That's where my mother used to go for hikes when she was a university student. So there was this kind of family connection to the mountains even though I went to Georgia for the first time for a film festival a few years back.

Was it very hard to shoot in the mountains?

It was the hardest thing I've ever done. Yes, it was incredibly difficult. Not because we were shooting in Georgia. Georgians are actually amazingly easy to work with and made everything very easy for us, we really couldn't have done it without them. We had a small international crew and some of them were made up of Georgian mountaineers. It was run like an expedition, so in terms of organization, it was fantastic. But what made difficult was the sun because I had a very specific visual in mind. Most of the time the sun was too harsh to shoot. We had very short windows to shoot with a particular direction in mind and it really, completely limited how we shot. Perhaps limited is not the right word. The sun was definitely an obstruction and a challenge.

There was a rainy scene in the film though.

We did manage to get one rainy day scene. We planned it and waited for it and got it done. Most of the time we couldn't find a cloud in the sky. We wanted to get a nice overcast look but no luck. There was a heat wave and we had to wait for the sun to go behind the mountain so we could get some relief.

How big of a crew did you have?

About a dozen on set. It had to be very small and mobile because we had to hike into a lot of our locations. We came back all thinner and healthier. (laugh)

I find it interesting to see non-American actors (Bernal and Furstenberg) playing an American couple. Same with Day Night Day night, where young suicide bomber (Louisa Williams) is of unknown ethnicity. Do they share the theme of anonymity?

I wouldn't say it's anonymous. But they are not caricatures. They are not a blonde haired, blue eyed couple from Wisconsin and I wanted to make a point of that. Look at us here sitting and talking. Where are you from?

Korea.
You are from Korea and I'm from Russia. To me that's the world that surrounds me- many people I know are from somewhere else and to me that's very natural.

What happens in the middle of the film, I have to say, I never have seen such a subtle and sharp criticism of masculinity anywhere.

I don't know if it's a criticism of masculinity or desire for masculinity.

I've seen some other films that deal with the same theme, Bruno Dumont's "29 Palms" and possibly Claire Denis' "White Material" in which emasculating circumstances bring about the violence and destruction. Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal)'s action in the film baffles himself.

That's a very... reductive way to look at it. But it's incredibly hard to be a man now for sure. (laughs) Yes. In our culture it is incredibly difficult. As a woman I have a lot of flexibility: I can be strong, I can be vulnerable. I can kind of choose how I want to play that. And we are telling guys to be sensitive. I do like sensitive men. But there are times part of me wants a man to be a man with a capital M. That's always kind of confusing to me, about myself.

There is something vulnerable and boyishness about his behavior, like hiding behind his mom...

I don't really equate vulnerability and boyishness.

Cowardice?

No, cowardice will fall in any case. I mean we all have a case when we feel vulnerable. All the way from our childhood to old age, there are moments that challenge who you are and catch you off guard, that aren't planned for and wherein you fail. And then what do you do? It's always the aftermath, that's the question. I wouldn't call it cowardice. It's quite natural. Then, would it be more forgivable if it was a woman in his shoes? Most people would say that I wouldn't have a movie if it was like that. That's so screwy now, I mean, all this talk about challenging gender roles, we always come back to that fact. It could've been man and man or woman and woman. But we are veering off from the subject...

Well, the character's played by Gael, who obviously brings in certain masculinity and that's why that scene is so surprising.

Yeah, I think it's very important but it's not someone big. You would expect this to be built into their character but what he does something that is very out of character. That was the reason I cast Gael. Because he always seems like he knows what he's doing.

How did it come about casting Gael and Hani?

Obviously they were committed to the project even though it was delayed. I think they were both attracted to the central question in the script. They tried to find a way into those characters and tried to unpack all those very complicated yet very simple and primal emotions. The way they worked together was incredibly important to me. How they clicked from the very first day they met. They had a very good chemistry together. On the first day, they looked like a believable couple and they brought things out from each other. And also how they fit with the guide (Bidzina Gujabidze). I think the chemistry among them is what made the film work.

There is something very Antonioni about this film. How does the location factor into the couple's relationship?

I think it is like music. It colors the tone and feel of the film. The landscape completely affects the emotions and I don't mean in a straightforward way necessarily. I didn't want to have an emotionally difficult story in a difficult landscape. Like a desert for example. I actually like the idea that it is set in a soft and lush landscape. It becomes more and more beautiful as their relationships get more and more strained. It's a beautiful place. I've traveled a lot and went up a lot of mountains. But it really is an astonishing looking place and I've never been any place like that before.

Are there any contemporary filmmakers you find affinity with?

I don't know if I can say I find affinity with any particular directors. There are certainly directors I like. And I like a lot of different directors- from Claire Denis to Park Chan-wook. But I tend to be attracted to the movies that deal with image and sound more strongly than just talking.

The last half of the film is pretty much dialog-less, except for Bidzina's long monologue at the end. How did you approach that with the actors?

It's all about their inability to talk about this thing- it should be talked about but it can't be talked about. What on earth can they possibly say afterward? How do they negotiate the space between them and try to find the way toward each other? They have no idea what to say and don't have any space to talk either because they are not alone. There is the guide present the whole time. So they try to show it with their body language and so on. I think they did a tremendous job.

Is there anything you are working on right now?

Not enough I want to talk about. (laughs) It's always easier to talk about it afterward. And I don't want to jinx it.

Both of your films are really fascinating. And I'm hoping you come out with more films, because I'm really interested in what you are after.

Well thank you. I hope so too.

The Loneliest Planet opens Oct. 26 in New York and Los Angeles and will be available on VOD Oct. 30.

I Live on an Island Called Cinema: Leos Carax Interview

Leos Carax, once the wunderkind of French cinema, the heir apparent to the French New Wave, has made only five feature films in his almost 30 year career. He is roaring back to the scene with his fantastical new film Holy Motors. His third feature, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, made some 20 years ago, happens to be my favorite film of all time, so my anticipation for the interview was extremely high, to say the least. I knew the interview wouldn't be easy, considering his bad boy status and reclusive persona. I had to prepare for it: no easy questions such as, the casting of Kylie Minogue and Eva Mendes, and nothing too gossipy about his tumultuous love affair with Juliette Binoche and Yekaterina (Katya) Golubeva (with whom he had a daughter and to whom the film is dedicated). It would've been ideal to have Carax all to myself and be a total fanboy. But I had to share the honor of interviewing this elusive director with three other journalists.

Deeply reflective of his rocky career, Carax turns out to be an ethereal sage of some sort. He almost inaudibly, almost incoherently, rambled on. It was all kinds of wonderful. As he often paused for a long time, searching for the right words and connections to describe his thoughts, I could see the glimpse of a gifted artist who's been fighting against his own demons rather than against the world. I just hope this new found artistic freedom and (hopefully) flexibility in funding with the success of Holy Motors will help his future endeavors.

[The interview was originally set up for Carax and one of the stars from the film, the Brit pop icon Kylie Minogue, but because of scheduling conflict, Miss Minogue couldn't make it. Many thanks to my journalist compatriots: Steve Erickson and Hillary Weston.]
 
You've directed Denis Lavant over the course of three decades now, how has your process of working with him evolved over the years?

We don't talk much. I didn't know Denis in real life and we lived about 500 meters apart in Paris, we had mutual friends and went out to dinners together, and so on. But I was lucky. It was almost miraculous that I found him for my first feature (Boy Meets Girl). I was looking for this boy (Carax's alter ego Alex) for a long time. We had to postpone the project looking for him. But I haven't used him in his full physical capacity. The film was quite static. So in my second feature (Mauvais Sang), I finally got to use his physical talent. Then the third film (Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) came along ... then, we didn't work together for 16 years until we made Tokyo!

A few years ago. I discovered that he became a much better actor since then. Because at the time (of my Alex trilogy), he was great, but limited. Even ten years ago we couldn't have made Holy Motors together. He could have played parts of it, I think, like the motion capture scene. But I don't think he could've pulled off a scene with a father and daughter or of him in a deathbed. I knew this much going in -- that the film would be shot in Paris with little money and it will be shot on digital and it would be with Denis and I would not watch dailies. Then I thought the two or three scenes I mentioned wouldn't be good. Still, I thought, "OK, let's try it." So I was very surprised with the results. I don't think now there is any role that he can't play.

Was there any initial scene that sparked to make this film?

....

I'd rather you said you had sort of an image of a theater full of people and you didn't know if they were sleeping or dead ...

I'm not a writer so I don't write script from A to Z. With every film, I have two, three images and feelings, then I try to edit this feelings and images together. There was obviously the limousine, which has been attracting me that I saw first in America and since then .... My neighborhood I live in Paris is a Chinese neighborhood and they use limousines for their wedding .... This I find strange because I find them morbid, more like coffins. But I was very intrigued by them. I thought they were great vehicles for today's fiction. They are like a virtual world. They want to be seen but you can't see inside them. People feel very protected inside. They play a role -- you don't buy them, you rent them, like a rented life. They are like avatars themselves. They are also very cinematic.

And I had this image of an old beggar, which is in the second scene of the film. I pass these gypsy beggars all the time. They are out there every day. They dress the same and their back completely bent. I thought, "how can anyone [be] more alone then them," "what life is left of them?" And so on. Then I was thinking about making a documentary about one of those women and me. We build this bridge between us and I'll try to relate to her and probably have to go to her home country to understand her story.... Then my fear was, if I start making this documentary, there will be no end and I might have to devote myself to this documentary forever. Even in fiction I have a hard time with the ending, how do you end a documentary? So I went completely opposite way. This woman would be played by an actor and I would play my words into his mouth. I guess I associated this role-playing limousine idea with this and put them together.

The last time I saw you was at the Q&A session of the TOKYO! screening here in New York. And you mentioned not getting any funding for any of your projects. You mentioned making HOLY MOTORS cheap and fast. And it's very different from the films you've done. It seems much more energetic and freer than anything you've done. Did the lack of funding play a big role in it being so different?

This movie was born out of rage, rage of not being able to make other projects, so it was imagined very fast. I think the whole idea came about in two weeks. If it seems stronger and freer, it's because it was put together very quickly I think. It was only in a few weeks the idea was conceived. It took us about a year to find the money. But it was shot very fast right after that.

Watching HOLY MOTORS, I couldn't help noticing your ambivalence toward cinema. If someone would've walked up to you and asked, "Should I devote my life to the movies?" what would you tell them?

Devotion is such a strong word. It's really a miracle that cinema exists. It has to be invented. No other art is an invention. In cinema, it needs machines. In French, it's "motor! (equivalent of camera roll!)" before director calls it. "Action!" I was around 16 years old when I discovered this island called cinema where I can see life and death from another perspective, from many different angles. I think every young person should be interested in that island. It's a beautiful place. I haven't made that many films so I don't really consider myself a filmmaker. It's really arrogant for me to say this but I do believe that I live on that island. It's worth living there.

Do you feel any kinship with other directors of your generation?

No. But I'm not looking for any. I started very young. I was a shy young man of 17 when I first came to Paris. I didn't know anyone. I was kind of a bluff -- I didn't study film, I've never been on a film set before, so when I was asking money for film, I was bluffing. I was proud of being alone. So I paid the price for this pride. It gave me strength but also it made me very isolated in the industry. I can't say it's good or bad but that's my story. I happened to be a director (sometimes) and happened to be born in France. But I don't really see myself as part of a certain generation in French cinema.

We are living in a virtual world. There are people living their lives without any real human connections. With the main character going in and out of the situations without any consequences, is that something you wanted to address in Holy Motors?

Yeah.... Actions, the notion of experience is what I was after.... I am interested in virtual reality. But it's something I don't want to impose upon someone, neither I want it being imposed upon me. The film is not against anything. It's about just a fighting for survival. I think we lack in courage. Not only as filmmakers but us as human beings. I think courage should be taught in school. [Everyone laughs.] Whether it's civics, politics, poetry, even physical... if we lose courage nothing is possible.

Did it take you a lot of courage to do this film? It's very personal, like your other films. It's always about Alex, your alter ego played by Denis Lavant. I saw your daughter's name in the credit. And that father and daughter scene, which was very poignant (and mean too). How close was that scene to the relationship with your daughter?

I wouldn't say there is any courage in my filmmaking business. I do what I can. It happens that Denis and I are about the same age. Although I don't know him well but I know he has three daughters. I have one, who appears in the beginning of the film. She's 8 years old. So, you use your fears and all the questions marks in to your film. You know the father and daughter relationship can be one of the most beautiful relationships, but at the same time it's also the basis for many horror stories. I mean a father can be a monster, very easily. That's my fear, being a monster. But it's got nothing do do with my actual relationship with my daughter, I hope.

What I admire about this film is that you have a rich understanding of the cinema's past. All the different genres that are considered dead -- musical, monster films, etc. -- are used and made in a such a new way. I was wondering what your relationship is like with the classic cinema?

What's strange is that I discovered the film at the same time as I started making films. It doesn't really happened that way for most of the people. Usually one comes first and the other later. It just happened to me that way. I watched a lot of films from 16-24. A lot of silent films, Hollywood films of course and the New Wave. But I stopped watching films after my second film. I thought I paid my dues for my love of the cinema and I needed to go my own way. People see lots of references in the film but I don't. I just live on this island called cinema. I just want it to be seen as it was imagined, not with some cinephile's hat on. Hopefully, this film is a success showing the experience of human life today and not come across as some new cinematic language invented. Cinema permits you to see things, like ghosts. And so, I don't care much about cinema's history.

Holy Motors garnered accolades in various film festivals this year and opens on Wednesday, Oct. 17 in New York City.

Dignified Death

Amour (2012) - Haneke

Getting old is an ugly business and seldom a subject for cinema. I can't think of anyone more fitting than Michael Haneke to tackle this uncinematic, almost taboo subject. Amour is a somber and completely unsentimental depiction of a slow, agonizing death of a loved one. An old Parisian couple Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) an Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are first seen at a piano concert among the audience. They are retired music teachers, attending one of their successful pupils' piano recitals. They start as audiences then quickly become our subjects.

A stroke leaves Anne half paralyzed and wheelchair bound and her health steadily declines. Before Anne loses her marbles, the couple serenely talks about their imminent future. She doesn't wish to go back to the hospital ever again. Georges obliges. As her conditions worsen, devoted Georges takes care of his wife 24/7, despite emotional protests from their daughter (Isabelle Huppert). Dying is a grisly, undignified, degrading affair where no one is to blame. Georges is old enough to know this. But the question is this: how much can you take the suffering of your loved one?

 Just like Haneke's other films, Amour is not a film to be enjoyed. Watching it makes you uncomfortable and sad- much sadder than his other films even. It's very straightforward and direct. Shot economically and with no visual flares by Darius Khondji (in their second collaboration), its cinematography takes a backseat to immense performances by the two principals. Riva gives, hands down, the best performance of the year. In her graceful face, you see the remnants of that beauty from Hiroshima Mon Amour- it makes the whole experience all the more devastating. Trintignant too is amazing. There is no music to guide us emotionally, even though they are pianists. It starts and ends in silence. In typical Haneke fashion, watching Amour, you don't get overly emotional, rather, you feel numb. It certainly deserves all the recent accolades.

Resurrection of Alex Oscar

Holy Motors (2012) - Carax

I'm pretty sure I won't see anything more audacious this year than Leos Carax's self reflexive, funny, goofy and touching ode to cinema. Holy Motors follows Alex the performer (Carax's alter ego played by Denis Lavant) as he goes through 9 different lives in one night. The film makes full use of Lavant's acrobatic skills- especially in 'the motion capture' segment that highlights the actor's physical agility and pays a tribute (on a treadmill) to his own film, Mauvais Sang. It also features some of the most bizarre casting choices- aside from Lavant, Michel Piccoli, Edith Scob, it also stars Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue. Carax retraces his steps onto the Pont-neuf even, ever so slightly: after 20 years, old lovers Jean (Minogue) and Alex meet at empty Le Samaritaine department store overlooking the famed bridge which was the setting for Carax's magnum opus (and my personal favorite) Lovers on the Bridge (1991).

Holy Motors marks a comeback of a major French auteur (his last feature was Pola X in 1999). It was very disconcerting to see him all broken up and bitter at a Q&A session for an omnibus film, Tokyo!, in which his contribution Merde was definitely the highlight of the three. He was having a hard time financing any of his projects. He talked about his desire to use his character Merde (Lavant)- a flower eating, deformed creature living in the Tokyo sewer, again in some other occasions and I'm glad he gets to do that in this film. Holy Motors is a product of a frustrated artist finding ways to express himself under difficult financial circumstances. Its disjointed, episodic narrative reflects that. It's vastly different from his earlier work but just as mesmerizing nonetheless. And how can anyone get tired of watching Denis Lavant on screen? He is in top form in this.

Lived In

Our Beloved Month of August/Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto (2008) - Gomes

Because of financial problems, a film crew is stuck in a small Portuguese mountain town, Arganil, without any actors. Director Miguel Gomes uses the woes to his advantage and concocts a charming doc/narrative fusion. It's the way he goes about it that seems so right- with two and a half hours running time, he slowly builds the relationship between the townspeople and the audience. There are scenes of normal folks talking about the movie production that is taking place in their town. They are discussing their acting abilities. There is not a shred of Altmanesque irony in them. Everything, from the religious procession to various travelling music groups to the towns old bridge, has a role to play. The original story which director had is some cliché summer fling story. But it becomes much more poignant because of the films first 2/3rds. There is fluidity to Gomes's filmmaking that is gentle yet furiously inventive. It's a great film.

Haptic Cinema

Leviathan (2012) - Castaing-Taylor & Paravel

It's dark. First, you hear the eerie clanking of metal and waves: sound of something heavy, something industrial getting pulled out of the bubbling sea. It's all abstract: saturated colors- iridescent blue, yellow, red and green all mixed in. It takes some time to realize that we are on a giant commercial fishing boat, and the crew are detangling an enormous chain that is connected to the fishing net. It's a tedious and also dangerous process by the looks of it. The whole scene reminds me of late Godard films where he manipulates his video image into an abstraction. This is just the beginning of Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel's jaw dropping second feature, Leviathan.

The images, shot entirely on tiny GoPro cameras, are startling and breathtakingly beautiful. For its tiny size, weight and durability, GoPro is widely used in extreme sports videography. Here, the filmmakers jerry rig and hand-hold them in various places on the ship. Thanks to no depth of field and limited exposure range, the image that this camera captures- dark and ominous, is unlike anything you've seen in a feature film before. There are many scenes that are just mindblowing: In one scene, the camera, mounted in front of the mast, plunges into roiling water, bobs up, down, up, over and over again, contrasting the sea and the sky in a spectacular manner. Amazing sound design by Ernst Karel adds to this visceral sensory experience.

The film, at times, becomes nauseating, considering many of the scenes are hand-held and seeing massive amount of dead fish with their bulging eyes and innards spilling out of their mouth swishing across the frame in blood. Even though there are some humans appearing in the frame, everything in Leviathan appears distant and abstract. It's the cruel nature seen and heard unapologetically and without much filter.

Leviathan is categorized as a documentary, but it is only considered as one in a sense that it's non-narrative. As I was watching it at the press screening, the only comparable movie experience I could think of was watching the films of French filmmaker/visual artist Philippe Grandrieux- especially Un Lac. Described by some critics as the haptic cinema, Grandrieux's work is regarded as the cinema of the senses before the intellect. That human brain processes many types of information that are not formed into thoughts before experienced and embodied. Leviathan needs to be seen on the big screen to get the full impact. It's an enthralling theater going experience from beginning to end.

True story: as I was standing in line to attend the press screening for the film, I noticed a little wild salt-pepper haired Frenchman with dark glasses in front of me. Could he be Philippe Grandrieux? I thought to myself. Grandrieux turned out to be a good friend of the filmmakers, as he joined the Q & A session after the screening, defending the filmmakers from a barrage of asinine questions like "What's the meaning of this film?"


Leviathan screens on Oct. 13, 6pm. For tickets, please go to NYFF website.

Playful Elegy

Tabu (2012) - Gomes

Playful in its formality, Miguel Gomes's Tabu is a thing of a wonder and best kind of ode to cinema. Shot on full frame B&W, Tabu jumps from colonial past to modern day Lisbon and jumps back to a mystical setting in a sleepy colonial town at the foot of Tabu mountain. At once gentle and dreamlike,Tabu concerns Pilar, a good natured middle aged lady, her senile neighbor Aurora and her African maid Santa in modern day Lisbon.

At her deathbed, Aurora calls for her long lost love Ventura and Pilar is on the mission to find him. This sets up the sprawling romance back in colonial Africa where story of young Aurora and Ventura's illicit love affair takes place. The old Ventura narrates the whole affair and the whole thing is without dialog. Gomes's playing on colonialist past and its taboo (talking about it) contrasting with the make-believe nature of the African part of the film is just brilliant. Tragic yet uplifting, daring in it's minimal aesthetics, Tabu isn't anything like I've seen out there. Loved it.

"I want my movie to start with a big explosion..."

Ginger & Rosa (2012) - Potter

Director Sally Potter (Orlando, Tango Lesson)'s new film starts with stock footage of an atomic blast. A great way to open a film if it was an Ed Wood B-picture. But it's not. It's the story of BFFs Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert, daughter of Aussie director Jane Campion) both born in 1945, going through their lives in 60s London where everyone lives under the shadow of nuclear annihilation. It's also the time of the nuclear family. Rosa's father split early on. Ginger's ultra liberal dad, Roland (Alessandro Nivola), can't seem to keep his pants zipped, causing heartaches for mom (Mad Men's Christina Hendricks) and not providing any emotional support for the increasingly confused Ginger.

These feisty teenagers do everything together. Rosa usually leads Ginger to their little vices - staying up late, smoking, drinking, making out with the boys, etc. Shot by Robbie Ryan (Wuthering Heights, Red Road), these shenanigans are all blissful close-ups and sun flares and the camera obviously adores the two young leads: ethereal redhead Ginger and pouty vamp brunette Rosa.

Things get a little hairy when the atheist, pacifist, autonomy of mind-and-body preaching Roland takes a shine on Rosa, leaving Ginger jealous and very confused. She tries to take solace in the company of adults- her two fairy godfathers Mark 1 (Tim Spall) and Mark 2 (Oliver Platt) and Bella (unrecognizable Annette Benning). But you can see the emotional waterworks coming from miles away with tearful confrontations and a lot of finger-pointing.

Potter gets the 60s setting right and the largely non-British cast does a great job, especially newcomer Englert, who exudes a certain charisma and confidence. I understand Potter's desire not to make anyone antagonistic in Ginger & Rosa, but Roland is an irrevocably contemptible, immoral man. Just because of that, the film suffers greatly in the second half. Too bad, because it could've been a great film about finding one's identity in the time of imminent destruction. Instead, it gets bogged down in high melodrama and never recovers.

Ginger & Rosa premiered at this year's TIFF and plays NYFF on October 9 and 10. For more information and tickets, please visit NYFF 2012 website. It will open theatrically in the UK and Ireland on October 19.

Social Experiment

Something in the Air (2012) - Assayas

At the outset, Olivier Assayas's Something in the Air is a biographical nostalgia piece about growing up in the aftermath of the May '68 events in France. But what it really is, is a social experiment in which 18-19 year olds, most of them first-time actors, reenact the youth of perhaps the most volatile time in contemporaneous French society, when the revolution seemed palpable.

As it was revealed in my interview with Mia Hansen-Løve (director of Goodbye First Love and the current wife of Assayas) early this year that Assayas has a real knack for connecting with and getting great performances out of young actors (Hansen-Løve herself was in Assayas's Late August, Early September when she was 17 and swears that the experience changed her life).

The French title (Après mai) refers to the student uprising and General Strike of May 1968. Something in the Air starts with a group of high school students' violent confrontation with baton wielding, teargas shooting cops on motorcycles. The scene is too energetic and immediate to be nostalgic. Set in 1971, this semi-autobiographical, ensemble piece about a group of friends in tumultuous times when everything seemed possible, is at once personal and sprawling. After vandalizing their school with revolutionary banners and graffiti, they end up injuring one of the security guards and are told to lay low during the summer. Puppy eyed, mild mannered aspiring painter Gilles (newcomer Clément Métayer), who just broke up with his ethereal poetess girlfriend (Carole Combes), hitches a ride with the Leftist filmmakers, along with a devout of the cause, Christine (Lola Créton of Bluebeard and Goodbye First Love) and artistically inclined Alain (Félix Armand) to Italy.

I don't pretend to be an expert in French history; I only have vague memories of that time period of France from textbooks and films. Assayas got all the political jargon and lingo down, as everyone was into politics at the time. If you think today's left is fractured and sectarian, France in the 70s would make your head spin: there was the French Communist Party, CGT (French Trade Union Federation), Trotskyites, Leninists, Le Secour Rouge, the Maoists, VLR (Vive la revolution), FLJ (Front de Liberation des Jeunes), and the list goes on.
Our Gilles is in the thick of all these political activities, but, at the same time, independent minded. He reads a newly published book criticizing (first of its kind) Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, despite the disapproval of many upper classmen. He also finds his own voice through art -- first painting then filmmaking -- while maintaining his counter culture attitude and general skepticism of the world. Assayas's energetic camera also turns to many of the sunny Tuscany locations, as many of his young protagonists pour out their youthful enthusiasm in art, love and politics. There is no voice over or flash forward. Assayas, born in 1955, who was of age back then, never once steps in to remind us that this is all in the past. No, this is not a nostalgia piece.

The film's hopefulness and youthful energy is quite infectious. In addition to the aforementioned great young actors (Metáyer, Combes, Créton and Armand), newcomers India Manuez and Hugo Conzelmann shine as Leslie, a free spirited American girl, and as Jean-Pierre, a dignified, honorable fellow student activist. One can't help but compare youth in the film with today's largely disaffected, docile young people. What happened to that passion, awareness and dedication? This is where Assayas's genius kicks in. He uses actual teenagers of today to play the part of youth of his generation! It's a social experiment on a smaller scale. None of the characters seem out of their element. His even handed attention to each character brings out a well-balanced, strong ensemble piece that is both relatable and affectionate without ever being coy or stereotypical. The more I think about the film, the more I like it. It is one of the best films I've seen at this year's New York Film Festival.

(Something in the Air screens on Oct. 5 6 p.m., Oct. 8 12 p.m. and Oct. 12 6:30 p.m. at Film Society of Lincoln Center. For tickets, please go to NYFF 2012 website.)

Andrea Arnold Interview

With only three feature films under her belt, Andrea Arnold has already established herself as one of the most prominent British film directors currently working today. Her brooding, sensual, class-conscious dramas, Red Road and Fish Tank, were well received by cinephiles world wide. But I wasn't really ready for her thrilling adaptation of Emily Brontë's gothic novel Wuthering Heights. It's an enrapturing experience to watch, especially on the big screen.

After making the festival rounds, it is finally getting a release in New York this weekend with further cities to follow. Even though jetlagged, Arnold was very friendly and chatty in discussing her breathtakingly beautiful re-conceptualization of the classic.  

You were known as a writer/director prior to Wuthering Heights. I was surprised that your next film after Fish Tank was an adaptation and also a costume drama. Why adaptation? How did it come about?

I often wonder why too. (laughs) It was a strange journey in a way. I was writing something else on my own and out of the blue I got an email from my agent if I was interested in doing Wuthering Heights. I knew it was in the works with a different director attached. I was quite jealous thinking, 'oh, I wish I could get my hands on that!' So I immediately stopped what I was doing and asked about the project a little bit more. Then I went on a journey, I just couldn't put it down. I couldn't stop. It was as if something possessed me. It wouldn't let me go. My first thought was of Heathcliff: In the book, Heathcliff turns out to be quite a dark character and that he had a really abused childhood. And I remember thinking, yes, his story needs to be told. But it was a difficult journey. I knew at some level it was a stupid thing to do because it is such a famous book, and I was joining something that had already been in production with two directors and actors attached, [it] had history and momentum and there was a script. There were producers who had been involved developing it and wanted to take [it] on quite fast. In hindsight, I don't want to join something in the middle of it ever again. But I couldn't put it down, worrying about Heathcliff and telling his story.

Was it a fast process? How long did it take you to do the project?

I think it took longer than they expected to. I wanted to get things right from script to everything. I remember when I first had a meeting with producers and they asked me about the crew and I hadn't even looked at the script properly. And I remember thinking, 'oh, this is a bit quick'. I remember feeling a bit alarmed by that. So there was this constant push to do it fast and there was a constant pull back from me trying to do the way I wanted to do it. And at the same time you try to do it right by everyone else. So you get into a muddle. It was tough actually and I wouldn't want to repeat that really.

So when I have an image in my mind, I can't just leave it alone and that's what happened. I always have an image that keeps me on track when I'm passionate about something. My image for this (which was never realized in the film), was on the moor in the twilight when the sky is blurring the land and in the middle of that is this large animal, you don't exactly know what kind of animal until you come closer and realize it's a man with rabbits on his back: that was my image of Heathcliff. That was the image! And every time I lost my way I would remember this and it would keep me going. But when it came to film that scene, we had ten minutes to film it and there was bright sunshine with blue skies and we didn't have very many rabbits to cover Solomon (Solomon Glave, who plays young Heathcliff)'s back. The string broke on the rabbits, so they kept falling off and we didn't have time to wove them back up to get a wide shot. The moor was not the moor I imagined that day. The shot came out completely different. But it's in the film.

I love it though. It's all hand-held, we see the back of Heathcliff with rabbits.

It was completely different than how I imagined. But you know the essence of it is in the film. But that's filmmaking for you.

Obviously the second half of the book is omitted from your film. How did you decide where to stop?

Yeah somebody asked me if there was anything that I missed out from the book that I feel sorry about, I say the whole second half (laughs). Partly it was because I joined something that was already going. But I actually believe that it's good to be instinctive. The filmmaking is such a deliberate process, especially [since] there is a lot of money and people involved. I do like when things are moving fast, that can bring about some interesting, instinctive decisions. And I always felt that the second half of the book was too complicated. I never intended to make a 'faithful' adaptation anyway. I just wanted to capture the essence of what Emily was going for. The kind of film I like to make is where I can explore details. For that, the book was just too much to deal with. I do love the second half of the book. It comes a full circle with Heathcliff's death and as a book it's fantastic. I don't like Heathcliff wandering by himself on the moor. That's sad. I'd rather he died. So I wasn't happy about leaving it out. But I couldn't see a way to include that in unless I had a resource and the right circumstances to do a ten-hour film. (laughs)

About casting black actors as Heathcliff...

Right.

I mean it's about time, I thought. We are not living in the time of Laurence Olivier...Where they put cocoa powder on his face. (we both laugh)

I know that the movie came out in the UK last year. I was wondering how it was received with a black Heathcliff.

I can only go by Q&As (where people are always nice) I did, because I don't read reviews or anything. And people always ask me about that. There must be a big debate about that on some Brontë webpage, I'm sure. It's always mixed.

I think having a black man playing that role was the right choice. I mean, he is describe as a foreigner in the book. It's very topical for this day and age.

I wanted to ask you about your process with non-actors in this film. I remember you describing the process in Fish Tank in a Q&A session a couple years back. You said you were holding back parts of the script from actors until just before the shoot, and encouraged them to improvise. Did you do that with Wuthering Heights?

Well, it's a famous book everyone knows. Everyone knows what happens at the end. So I didn't really do that too much in this. Obviously with Solomon and Shannon (Shannon Beer, young Cathy) I did that a bit because they are new and I didn't want to overwhelm them too much. We couldn't afford to shoot it in chronological order anyway. So no, not really on this one.

The look of the film, my god, it's so gorgeous.

Probably too gorgeous actually.

Too gorgeous?

If the style sticks out that much, you failed a bit actually. That's what I think. (Dustin laughs) I always think that if one of the disciplines sticks out, I failed to bring all the elements together. But I think there is no music and much of the dialog taken out, it relies on the images even more and sticks out more. But I can't really tell if it's sticking out the right way or wrong way.

It's stunning. For me, definitely the right way. I mean it takes place on the moor where everything is elemental. It has rain, wind, mud, blood, sweat and tears. It has to be cinematic. I first saw it on a smaller screen, then I saw it on the big screen.

Yeah, it has to be seen on the big screen.

That's what I mean! The emotional impact is much stronger when you see it on the big screen.

I wonder how your collaboration process with your DP Robbie Ryan went. I mean, he will be known for this film (he won various cinematography awards for Wuthering Heights). There are some absurd amount of hand-held scenes.

He loves to run around. He gets a little depressed when he can't run around. Yes, we've done four films together now. We have a shorthand: he pretty much knows what I want. We did a lot of tests with different stocks and we talked about what we try to achieve. The moment I worked with him, I immediately felt in tune with him in terms of aesthetics from the very first film together.

So will you always choose shooting full frame (4:3 ratio) from now on?

I've done it twice now (starting with Fish Tank). I didn't think about shooting this in 4:3. But we did some tests and we projected on the screen. You know 35mm in raw form is 4:3 and it looks so beautiful. It's great for portrait. It's very respectful for one person, like in Polaroids. I also like that you are not cropping anything. You are using the whole negative. So you get all that information. It feels more honest. It is quite hard to frame a two shot. But because I'm always telling the story from one person's point of view, I think it works. Also, it gets more sky. If you go this way (pointing to the sides), you get more green shooting on the moor. With full frame you get a different version of landscape. For me it takes away nothing. I think it adds more.

Was there any inspiration for the look of Wuthering Heights?

I showed Robbie some Todd Hido photos. I love his pictures, especially the ones through the glass. We did some of it for the film but didn't keep it in too much. I always like the shot of a person looking in from outside and vice versa. For some reason there are a lot of scenes like that in the script and that's why I thought of Hido's photographs. Back then, the glasses were pretty thick and they obscured the image and gave sort of water color feeling- things blurred into each other or [were] hard to see. For some reason that was very important to me. So I encouraged that sort of look.

It must've been tough shooting on the moor.

Yeah really. I think everyone on the crew said it was the hardest thing they've ever done. But they were a really great crew. Without their perseverance and their determination I don't know how I would've gotten it done really. The mud was really deep and it got deeper and deeper as more people trudged along in it. And we couldn't take vehicles so we had to carry all the camera equipment. So if we wanted a wide shot, we had to walk with the heavy camera boxes on our heads. That was very physical. And we had a lot of heavy layers of clothes and big boots because it was always cold and wet. And if you are unlucky, you get boxes with all the lenses in, which was really heavy. Nobody wanted to get that one. (laughs) and you always want to be fair and take what's handed to you. I remember it was the last week of shooting, I think. I was climbing up the hill with a heavy camera box on my head. I was really tired. And my knees gave in and I collapsed, with the box still on my head. I started to cry because I couldn't get back up. I pulled down my hat so no one would see me cry. When I finally got to the top of the hill I saw Rachel (Rachel Clark), Robbie's Camera Assistant, also crying with a camera box on her head (we both laugh). I mean, we were physically exhausted. It was mud everywhere, so we didn't have any place to sit and rest, really. And I don't know why they built the house up there. Because when it rained, all the water came gushing in to the house. And there were all these dead round moles from the ground washed up everywhere. They were so fat gauging on all the earthworms, I imagine. God, it was a tough, tough shoot.

So when we saw the film for the first time projected on the screen, we said, "damn it, that doesn't look nearly as bad as it was. How can I make you feel as bad as it was? You sit there for an hour and a half while we were out there ten hours a day?

Oh, it's beautiful (we both laugh). It's a great story. Do you plan to do another period piece?

No. I don't think I'll ever do it again. It was an experiment and an adventure and in some ways quite liberating for me to do something completely different.


Wuthering Heights opens in New York on Oct. 5 with a national roll-out to follow. For more information, please visit the Oscilloscope website.

My Wuthering Heights Review

The Anatomy Lesson

Barbara (2012) - Petzold

As a leading figure of Berliner Schule, director Christian Petzold has been portraying 'lost' people in both literal and metaphorical sense: desperate souls cornered into making tough and sometimes wrong decisions brought on by economic hardships in the post-global recession era. In his new film Barbara, even though the setting is East Germany and the year is 1980, that portrayal of characters in (im)mobile state fits well and works superbly here.

It's East Germany and the year is 1980. Barbara (Nina Hoss) is a city doctor who gets banished to the country as a punishment when she applies for her exit visa to go west. In her new environment, she is under constant surveillance by secret police and subjected to inspections and body cavity search routinely. Deeply distrustful about her new neighbors and colleagues, she tries to keep a distance and concentrate on what she is good at- taking care of patients, all the while planning her escape to the west with her wealthy West German lover.

A young, good-natured fellow doctor Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld) slowly wins her trust with his talent and sincerity. It turns out that he shares a similar history. Andre uses Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp as an analogy for what it's like to be living under communist regime in the 1980s: you want to divert the attention of the spectators (or in this case, of government officials) to obtain a little bit of relief/freedom in a rigid society. And this applies to Barbara's situation as well. There is a mutual attraction growing.

Things get a little more complicated when Stella, a teen runaway from a labor camp with meningitis is admitted to the hospital. She immediately latches on to Barbara. The official policy is to send her back to the camp as soon as she is well. Later Stella confides in Barbara that she is pregnant. Going back to the camp undoubtedly means an end to her unborn child. As the planned escape date approaches, Barbara's personal ethics and morality are being challenged.

Barbara is the fifth collaboration of Hoss and Petzold. As it is revealed at the skype Q & A session after the press screening, the role was written specifically for Hoss. And she is mesmerizing in it. She gives the character a quiet resolve and strength. Deeply moving and humanistic, the film concentrates on the small heroism of one person rather than looking accusingly at a failed ideology.

Barbara screens on Oct. 1, 6pm, Oct. 6, 12:15pm and Oct. 9, 1pm at Film Society of Lincoln Center. For tickets, please go to NYFF 2012 website.

Invisible Borders

Here (2011) - King





Music video director Braden King (Bonnie Prince Billy, Dirty Three, Totoise)'s meta-road movie Here isn't quite what he hopes it to be. But it's still quite beautiful. Filled with stunning images of Armenia, affable actors (Ben Foster and luminous Lubna Azabal) and poetic audio-visual interludes (by different experimental film artists, narrated by Peter Coyote), it tries to invoke a dream state. But the whole set up is pretty much grounded in reality- Will, an American satellite mapping engineer, Gadarine, a semi-famous photographer, a prodigal daughter coming back home.

As they travel through Armenian countryside as their projects intersect, they fall in love. There are a lot to admire in Here: Foster and Azabal have real chemistry together and the film is gorgeous to look at. And I wish someone put up the compilation of all the Coyote interludes under one roof. Because I can watch them over and over and over again. I really do think wanderlust, being lost in somewhere not familiar is innate human nature. Will trying to eradicate 'the edge of the world' so everything can be viewed on google map and Gadarine's effort to preserve the fleeting moment of time and place clash despite their attractions.

In the age of google, what does it mean being here instead of over there? Why do people have to separate? These are questions King touches upon but never follows through. But does he have to? The film lets us ponder the arbitrariness of the invisible borders between places and human beings. I would've liked it a lot more if King went all abstract and non-linear. It's a lofty concept he is playing with, but not fully realized but only we can, in our minds long after the end of the film.