Ichikawa Book

[Bill Glenn]

The retrospective was extremely interesting, but of course difficult to see so
many films in a month.  I managed to see Enjo,
Mr. Pu, Kokoro, Punishment Room, Nihonbashi (my favorite), The Key, 10 Dark Women,
Dora-Heita (great), and The Outcast.  I missed I am a Cat which seems interesting,
is it worth a trip from Boston to NYC?  I've already seen some of the other
popular ones like Harp of Burma (an excellent film),  Fires on the Plain,  Actor's
Revenge.

Not too many of his films are distributed on video apparently.  Does someone know
if Nihonbashi is available?

Bill Glenn

"A. M. Nornes" wrote:

> Here is some information on the Ichikawa book someone was asking about. It's
> a very hefty, very good book. I wish I could go to the retrospective!
>
> Markus
>
> ----------------
>
> "Kon Ichikawa is one of Japan's greatest directors" - Yukio Mishima
>
> "Indispensable. Expertly researched, packed with information, and
> consistently insightful, this anthology draws together over two dozen
> articles, including interviews with the director, personal accounts by him
> and his collaborators, and, most important, critical essays, some of them
> specifically commissioned for this volume. Few anthologies convey such a
> palpable sense of a director's work and modus operandi; fewer still attain
> such breadth and depth. This anthology will make readers want to rush out
> and see the films."
>
>         * Arthur J. Nolletti, Jr., co-editor of Reframing Japanese Cinema:
> Authorship, Genre, History (Indiana University Press, 1992).
>
> Kon Ichikawa has long been internationally acknowledged as one of the most
> important and prolific masters of Japanese cinema. Celebrated for his many
> adaptations of famous Japanese novels, such as Fires on the Plain, Harp of
> Burma, Kagi, Conflagration, and The Makioka Sisters, Ichikawa is an artist
> with an astounding command of many genres, forms and tones, from ferociously
> humanist war films to sophisticated social satires, formalist documentaries
> (the acclaimed Tokyo Olympiad) to extravagant period pieces (An Actor's
> Revenge). He is both the "deadpan sophisticate" whom Pauline Kael prized,
> with his elegant compositional style, venomous wit, and tonal daring, and a
> crafty master of populist entertainments.
>
> This volume spans Ichikawa's entire career, with over twenty essays and
> commentaries by such leading scholars of Japanese cinema as Donald Richie,
> Tadao Sato, Max Tessier, David Desser, Linda C. Ehrlich, and Keiko McDonald.
> Excerpts from the prodigious study of the director by film historian Yuki
> Mori are augmented by an illuminating article by Ichikawa's wife and
> scenarist, Natto Wada, and a selection of the director's own treasurable
> essays. A new career interview with Ichikawa conducted by critic Mark
> Schilling, and trenchant appraisals by his once assistant director Yasuzo
> Masumura, novelist Yukio Mishima, and critic Pauline Kael, round out this
> complex portrait of one of the most controversial and accomplished artists
> of the Japanese cinema.
>
> 464 pages
> 45 black-&-white stills
> 6 1/4 x 9 $B%/(B
> ISBN 0-9682969-3-9
>
> The retrospective includes twenry-six of Ichikawa's films, most of them in
> new prints made by The Japan Foundation, and is organized by Cinematheque
> Ontario. The tour dates are:
>
> July - Cinematheque Ontario
> July / August - Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
> July / August - Museum of Fine Art, Boston
> September 6 - October 14 - Cin$B;N(Bath$B=R(Bue Qu$B;C;D(Boise, Montreal
> September / October - Museum of Modern Art, New York
> September 29 - October 31 - Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland
> October 26 - December 31 -  National Gallery of Art, Washington; Freer
> Gallery
> November - December - UCLA Film Archive, Los Angeles
> November - December - Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver
> November 16 - December 16 - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
> January - February - College of Moving Images, Santa Fe
> January / February - The Gene Siskel Film Centre, Chicago
> February - Wexner Centre for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio