<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>And whilst we're speculating about embassy screenings, what are the chances of Kurosawa having attended screenings of Japan's allies during the war ?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I had thought I had seen something of Rossellini's 1943 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">L'uomo dalla croce</I>, in <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Shichinin no samurai</I>, particularly in the 'night-time lull' episode.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's pretty unlikely to have screenings after the war.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>And, as a fellow senior-citizen of this list, I'm also doubtful that Kurosawa would have volunteered an easily falsifiable statement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Incidentally, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">International Literature</I>, a Soviet publication in various languages for foreign consumption, in the thirties stoked up, unwisely I would have thought, tales of derring-do by the Tokyo ambassador, passing clandestine material to underground party members.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I didn't spot any that involved film material, though!<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 6pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>But one has to accept that memory does play tricks, working on the material supplied, such as trailers and excerpts, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>creatively.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Given, M. McCaskey, that you seem to accept that, I was perplexed that you wanted to show the Odessa steps sequence out of context to students whom you do not think have seen it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Wouldn't that be a kind of generational revenge?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The kwaidan that Kurosawa never made ?!?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>Roger<BR><BR>--- On <B>Mon, 17/1/11, mccaskem@georgetown.edu <I><mccaskem@georgetown.edu></I></B> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: mccaskem@georgetown.edu <mccaskem@georgetown.edu><BR>Subject: The Vagaries of Film Viewing (Started re: Potemkin)<BR>To: KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<BR>Date: Monday, 17 January, 2011, 16:37<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>If Potemkin did get shown in Japan, maybe piracy wasn't involved, but p;ossibly <BR>"underground" viewings. In those days, film was on jumbo reels, in flat round <BR>cans, enough cans for a full-length film taking up the space of a few jumbo <BR>pizzas in boxes, stacked up. That could have fitted in one large suitcase back <BR>then.<BR><BR>Japan established diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1925, so it might have <BR>been possible for the Russian Embassy to bring films in without Customs <BR>inspection. Katayama Sen, a flounder of the JCP, was a Comintern leader in the <BR>USSR then, and he's likely to have been pleased if some people sympathetic to <BR>the USSR in Japan were to see the film. Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia was legally <BR>shown in Japan, and apparently so was Pudovkin's earlier film Mother, the same <BR>year Kurosawa says he saw Potemkin.<BR><BR>The details of how people might have seen the film, if they
did, would be hard <BR>to find now.<BR><BR>In the same way, in the period 1945-1953, it seems pretty clear that Kurosawa <BR>must have seen some Italian Neo-Realist films, judging from the various echoes <BR>of some of them in his own, though it's unlikely that most Japanese ordinary <BR>audiences got to see many foreign films, other than US ones, during those years.<BR><BR>Even so, Kinema Junpo resumed including foreign films in its annual Bests in <BR>1946. All Foreign Bests were American or British in 1946.<BR><BR>In 1947, it was the same, except for 1 Russian film, Stone Flower.<BR><BR>In 1948, 5 of the 10 Foreign Best were French, the first French ones since 1940. <BR><BR>In 1949, out of the Foreign Best Ten, two were Italian, Vivere in Pace and Paisa, <BR>and 3 were French. <BR><BR>In 1950, three - Bicycle Thieves Open City, and Shoeshine - were Italian, 2 were <BR>French, and the Usual Remaining 5 were US. <BR><BR>In 1951, 7 were US or UK,
2 French, and 1 Italian.<BR><BR>In 1952, 3 were US, 4 were French, 1 - Miracle in Milan - was Italian, Froeken <BR>Julie was Swedish, and the last, The River, was directed by Jean Renoir, but acted <BR>in English, and set in India. <BR><BR>In 1953, 8 were in English, 1 was French - Forbidden Games, and 1 was Bunuel's <BR>Los Olvidados.<BR><BR>Though so many foreign films were shown in Japa, 1946-1953, it's unlikely that <BR>most Japanese audiences saw many of them.<BR><BR>But it's also very likely that someone like Kurosawa, along with the KJ Judges and <BR>a select no. of people in Tokyo, got to see all of them. It's also more than likely <BR>that he got to see foreign films, some in US facilities, that many Japanese had no <BR>way to see at all then.<BR><BR>For those who'd like to go deeper, check for errors, etc., these dates and nos. are <BR>from Kinema Junpo Besuto Ten, 1924-2006, ISBN 978-4-87376-656-0.<BR><BR>The whole book is filled with
terrific information about Japanese Best Ten Films <BR>over the course of ca. 80 yrs. - minus some war years. They stopped having <BR>Foreign Bests after 1940, and there were no Best 10s at all after 1942, until they <BR>were resumed in 1946.<BR><BR>Best Regards,<BR><BR>M. McCaskey<BR>Georgetown Univ.<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>