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<DIV>Following a suggestion made here, I did e-mail the Kawakita Institute
about getting a still from Kinugasa's "Crossroads" for my book. What they
said, however--and this will be, I think, of interest to others here because of
the issues it raises--is that the film is copyrighted by Shochiku (which is news
to me), that they are very strict on copyrights and I need to go to them and get
their permission first before they (Kawakita) can send anything to me.
Considering that without any difficulty at all I will be able to get photos from
great American silent classics like "The Big Parade" and "Ben-Hur" which really
are in copyright, I find this response a bit bizarre. It's my
understanding that all Japanese silent films are as much in the public domain as
all Chinese and Russian/Soviet silents. And in any case, Shochiku never
released "Crossroads" on VHS or DVD. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In any case, I'm back where I was and if anyone here can provide me with a
still from "Crossroads," either a hard copy or a high resolution copy sent
as an e-mail attachment, I will be very grateful and, of course, you will
receive credit in my acknowledgments. As I've said before, I have to get
all the photos in the next week or ten days.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Also, while this is not a Japanese film, I'm sure there must be some here
who know of good sources for stills from German silents, too. So does
anyone know where I might be able to get a still from Hanns Schwarz's 1928 UFA
production, "Hungarian Rhapsody," with Willy Fritsch, Lil Dagover and Dita
Parlo? It's another film that is discussed in my book.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>William M. Drew</DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML>