Self Introduction/ Imamura Shohei

[Eija Margit Niskanen]

Marc, do you think Bakhtin's ideas could be used in order to study the aspects
you mention about Imamura's films? The carnevalesque and bodily aspects you
write about have a certain bakhtinian resonance...
Eija

At 09:10 PM 11/9/01 +0000, Marc Williams wrote: 

>
> My theses examined Imamuras's cinema as a "Nativist Carnival". Imamura's
> declared concerns, as well his films, owe much to Yanagita  Kunio .  I also
> suggested that  his work has a markedly carnivalesque  aspect,  which  while
> positing an rather attractive  and alternative Japanese identity , also
> reflects, at psycological level , repression and projection in the Japanese,
> middle class male psyche. Its a bit more complicated than that but there you
> go! 
>
> Those who have seen Ei Ja Nai Ka? will remember  Momoi Kaori as Ine hitching
> up her skirt and urinating to the delight of the dancing mob. Imamuras's
> films have always been about the lower half of the body. Rude, sexual and
> often silly. I don't  think we should be surprised or disappointed by his
> latest theme. 
>