reply to Rajesh Balkrishnan and Jaspar Sharp

[Lorenzo.Torres@quierotv.com]

Hi, Janet: I'm very interested in Ozu too. In fact, I'm doing my doctoral
thesis on him. I just want to follow, of all your interesting e-amil, the
question you put at the end: "why Ozu and Kurosawa were so readily accepted
here in the west?. Ok, of course, in my thesis, my pont of view is very
influenced by Zen, less with japaneseness, but too with psicoanalisis etc.
My answer to your questions would be that these directors are closer to
what we can understand by Clasic Cinema, I mean, a kind of cinema that, was
born in Hollywood in the 50's and that can be considered as the last mitic
and simbolic example of our civilitation.
What do you think?

Nice to discuss with you.


Lorenzo.




                                                                                             
                    "J Rand" <axis at freeuk.com>                                               
                    Enviado por:                          Para:   "Kinejapan"                
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                                                          Asunto:      reply to Rajesh       
                    30/05/00 18:41                        Balkrishnan and Jaspar Sharp       
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Thanks for information about where to get videos.  I had tried to contact
Shochiku but couldn't get in - so will try again another time.  I have
friends in Holland who might be able to get copies for me - can you give me
the names of the shops/distributors so I can get them to look for me.

Its great to find so many people interested in Japanese films.  I feel
quite a novice compared with some of the contributors.  I saw Shindu's
Onibaba years ago on the television and it stayed with me for years.  I now
have a copy of it and have managed to see a few other of his films and any
other films by Japanese directors that I come across.

I was really knocked out by Ozu's films when I went to the retrospective at
the National in London.  The reason I decided to go to that was because he
was an inflluence on a director that I was studying at the time, Wim
Wenders, and I wanted to see for myself.

The difficulty with having such a limited viewing experience of a national
cinemas is trying to see whether there are any differences that appear
across the cinema generally (rather than limited to an auteur) that you
could say was a national difference in opposition to the American classic
realism.  The reason I have started with Ozu is that I do feel that the
simplicity of his narratives contain a depth and meaning that crosses
cultural barriers and the very lack of action offers communication that is
beyond the words of the narrative.  I have only just started on the bulk of
the reading  and as yet have only read a couple of books by Ritchie, Noel
Burch's "From a Distant Observer" and Joan Mellen's "Voices from the
Japanese Cinema.  I am just starting on Bordwells book as I believe he is
offering a different viewpoint from Ritchie.  I enjoyed the way in which
Donald Ritchie wrote and felt he expressed a lot of the ideas and feelings
that I had obtained from watching the films myself.  Its good to read the
interviews in Joan Mellen's book with the directors themselves as well as I
find it brings the films alive and actually makes me feel desparate to see
a lot of the films when I read the way the directors speak about them.  I
have also read some of the essays in Desser's book and have a pile of
articles to get through in the next few weeks.

I decided to concentrate on Ozu because I enjoyed the films so much and
also because his films appeared to me to offer a different way of viewing
the world.  I realise there are acadamic arguments around the influence of
Zen and his Japaneseness, but speaking from a subjective and purely
uninformed viewpoint that was the impression that I had from his films when
I first saw them.  I thought therefore that if I tried to understand the
essence that was there in his films then perhaps I would be able to see
whether there werre aspects of this that appeared in other Japanese films.

I am interested in how Ozu and Kurosawa are received in Japan itself.  I
understand fhat although they are recognised as being masters it is very
hard for many other film makers to get their work shown in the shadow of
these two.  Why do you think that Ozu and Kurosawa were so readily accepted
here in the West  (the fact that they are brilliant films is not
necessarily a guarantee of success!)

Anway, its great to have a response from people.

Many thanks

Janet