Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Scheduled Japanese films)

[Stephen Cremin]

And here's the press release online in Italian and English:
http://cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/programme2001/japanese_silent.html

Stephen

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>From: ReelDrew at aol.com
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Scheduled Japanese films)
>Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 23:17:02 EDT
>

>
>
>Some weeks ago, Hiroshi Komatsu sent me a list of many of the Japanese silent 
>films that will be shown at Pordenone this year.  While this is not the final 
>list and there will be additional titles in the retrospective, among the 
>films they will be screening are: MOMIJIGARI (1899); NIO NO UKISU (1900); 
>TAIKOKI JUDANME (1908); NIPPON NANKYOKU (1912); a fragment from an 
>unidentified 1915 film; SESSHOU NO MIYA DENNKA KATSUDOSHASHIN TENRANKAI 
>GOTAIRAN JIKKYO (fragment) (1921); SHIGEKI NANKO KETSUBETSU (1921); 
>KANTSUBAKI (1921); HOTOTOGISU  (excerpt) (1922); KOHITSUJI (1923); SOUTOU 
>(1924); OROCHI (dir. Buntaro Futagawa) (1925); FURUSATO NO UTA ( dir. 
>Mizoguchi) (1925); KETANIMURA ROKUSUKE (1926); NASAKE NO HIKARI (dir. Henry 
>Kotani) (1926); BIJOUBU (dir. Buntaro Futagawa, Shozo Makino); CHOKON (dir. 
>Daisuke Ito) (fragments) (1926); ARAKUMA DAIHACHI (1926); TENICHIBO TO 
>IGANOSUKE (dir. Shozo Makino, Teinosuke Kinugasa) (excerpt) (1926); CHUJI 
>TABINIKKI (dir. Daisuke Ito) (1927); DATEHIROKU MATSUMAE TETSUNOSUKE (1927); 
>AI NO MACHI (1928); JUJIRO (dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa) (1928); TEKKENDAN 
>(1928); FUUN JOUSHI (1928); RONINGAI (dir. Masahiro Makino) (1928-9); AKEYUKU 
>SORA (1929); TOKKAN KOZO (dir. Yasujiro Ozu) (excerpt) (1929); KAIDAN KITSUNE 
>TO TANUKI (1929); MORI NO KAJIYA (dir. Hiroshi Shimizu) (1929); WASEI KENKA 
>TOMODACHI (dir. Yasujiro Ozu) (excerpt) (1929); ASHIGARU KICHIEMON (1930); 
>ISHIKAWA GOEMON NO HOUJI (dir. Torajiro Saito) (excerpt) (1930); OATSURAE 
>JIROKOCHI GOUSHI (dir. Daisuke Ito) (1931); BENI KOMORI (1931); EIKAN NAMIDA 
>ARI (1931); KOSHIBEN GAMBARE (dir. Mikio Naruse) (1931); KOKUSHI MUSO (dir. 
>Mansaku Itami) (excerpt) (1932); KUMA NO DERU KAIKONCHI (1932); TAKI NO 
>SHIRAITO (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) (1933); KEISATSUKAN (dir. Tomu Uchida) 
>(1933); MUTEKI (dir. Minoru Murata) (1934); SANRENKA (1935); KODAKARA SODO 
>(dir. Torajiro Saito) (1935).
>
>Most of these films are being provided by the National Film Center, several 
>by the Matsuda Company and some others by other archives.  Unfortunately, due 
>to Shochiku's high rental fees, the studio's major silent features will not 
>be included this year.  Still, I believe this will represent the largest 
>retrospective of Japanese silents ever screened outside Japan.  And so 
>extensive is the surviving Japanese silent cinema despite its losses with 
>many missing films rediscovered in recent years (perhaps the most remarkable 
>find of a silent anywhere is CHUJI TABINIKKI which was discovered in 1992 in 
>the city of--Hiroshima!)--it's quite likely that this will be the first of a 
>series of Japanese silent retrospectives by Pordenone.  I'm rather confident 
>that, together with the festival's previous successful Chinese silent 
>retrospectives, these Japanese revivals will finally establish the fact that 
>the development of the silent cinema in East Asia is a major part of world 
>film history.
>
>William M. Drew
>