Tokyo Eyes

stephen sarrazin stephens
Fri Apr 23 04:28:29 EDT 1999


I've heard of this,a longer version of Tokyo Eyes, but can only hope
there isn't...But for those interested in Limosin's film, I would
suggest that they look at the different films Chris Marker has made
about Japan, such as 'le Mystere Koumiko', 'Sans Soleil', 'Level 5'.
Marker is clearly a major influence on Limosin, who soon after Tokyo
Eyes, shot a little 40 minute documentary on Tokyo for the french-german
network ARTE.
 The Marker connection was obvious. For those interested, I wrote about
this in the last issue of the ICC Center quarterly, InterCommunication.
As was mentionned by A.Kilian, Limosin has done 2 documentaries on film
makers, Cavalier & Kiarostami, for th series
'cineastes de notre temps' and is finishing one on Kitano. Limosin comes
from Les Cahiers du Cinema, during its seventies period. He's worked
mostly in the documentary genre, but did co-direct in the early eighties
a fiction feature called Faux Fuyants, with another ex-Cahiers  writer,
Alain Bergala. A better film than Tokyo Eyes, which has the charm of its
cast going for it in any case.

Wanted to add briefly that I'm also quite a fan of Sakamoto Junji.I
found Aaron's comments on the Osaka films accurate, but I differ on
'Tokhalev'(which I think is a strong piece), and even more on the remark
made concerning the fact that Sakamoto and Iwai Shunji are Yokohama
U.alumni, and that Sakamoto, well...the same old thing about Iwai being
an inferior director. 
I'm happy to report that there are film scholars and film critics over
here that share my appreciation for Iwai's films.It's just a matter of
time before Iwai gets the 'international' treatment reserved to Japanese
directors who end up winning prizes. Possibly his Y2K project will
trigger this.

Stephen Sarrazin,
Paris (minus 12 days)




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