Naomi Kawase - impressions

Tue Apr 16 05:30:09 EDT 2002

HI Pier Maria!
Yes... I heard just on friday that you were there, and then I couldn't
find you... maybe we can meet at Udine...?

as for Kawase's movies, I liked very much both "Suzaku" and
"Hotaru", though I probably found more convincing Koreeda's "Maboroshi no
hikari", as you said.
But talking about Kawase's work I found more deeply touching, movies like
"Ni tsutsumarete", "Kyakarabaa", "Katatsumori" and "Mangekyo" too (as for
the last one... for its original and mature analysis of human being-environment
relationship and of relationships between human beings who belong to
different environments - cinema, photography, city, countryside).
The final scene of "Ni tsutsumarete" is still one of
the most touching scenes I've ever seen, I think. I was quite
impressed by the way she assembles ordinary life scenes in order to
give a stronger and wider meaning. I think this shouldn't be too
difficult with a scenario, but doing that with images of
her own family or friends, or unknown people... this is what I like
most of her cinema. For example the famous scene of "Katatsumori" in
which Naomi watches her grandma from the kitchen... the way she mixes
the sound of a former question by grandma, the images of grandma from the
window and then the caress..... I found it as much a simple as astonishing and
strong. The same for nature... I don't think she just contemplates
nature, nor that she tries to dig it... it seems to me that nature in her
movies is almost always to be related to human beings relationships
and feelings... I don't think it has a role of its own (except for the
symbological meaning of passing time). Nature is sometimes just a
psychological or cultural environement ("Mangekyo", "Somaudo
monogatari"...); or is the wider environment in which man's life is
placed, which is both comforting (the tween sequences of "Katatsumori"
and "Hi wa katabuki") and extremely sad ("Tsuyoku no dansu" - when
Nishi is in the garden and then he has to come back to his room
because he starts to cough painfully... Kawase doesn't follow him, but
she just stand observing him disappearing behind a bush; after he's
disappeared, she keeps staring a tree in the garden for more than few
seconds - I found this scene extremely touching, thinking about that tree,
which probably was older than Nishi himself and which probably is still there).

Maybe I should see these movies again... I saw them just once and they
had an emotive impact on me, so surely I cannot judge them properly...
anyway, as they had such an emotive impact on me... it's enough for
me!

I'm sorry for my terrible english... I couldn't express what I wanted to say
properly... nor I know if it's understandable... I'm sorry!

ciao

giacomo

PMB> I was in Alba, too (as a member of the festival staff).

PMB> Ok, fine everything Guillermo (whom I did have the pleasure to meet) and
PMB> Giacomo (whom I didn't have the pleasure to meet, too bad) said about Kawase
PMB> and her stuff.

PMB> But I feel to say something.

PMB> As Roberta knows (and Roberta knows me very well), I can't make myself like
PMB> Kawase Naomi that much as anybody around the world.

PMB> Sure, she did something good, also very good. Suzaku is a good thing, and
PMB> her last film, Tsuioku no dansu, has an incredible power to make you bow
PMB> your head, and then raise again and watch, and then bow again. This is
PMB> necessary cinema, 'obscene' in its need to be watched. This is the cinema
PMB> that we need, nowadays.

PMB> Ok for the sensitive approach to people, as Giacomo stated, but I think that
PMB> this approach doesn't go so deep as it seems.

PMB> Suzaku recalls to mind the cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien, using also some
PMB> stylistic 'tools' relating the passage of time, elliptical passages and cuts
PMB> that the tawainese director made a personal sign, but films like 'A Time to
PMB> Live A Time to Die', 'Dust in the Wind', 'Goodbye South, Goodbye' reach
PMB> peaks absolutely higher (and deeper) than those of Kawase. And the style is
PMB> more crystalline and precise in Hou.
PMB> I think also that a film like Moboroshi by Koreeda manages to tell the
PMB> disintegration of people, the loneliness of man on earth and the friability
PMB> of relationships in a more convincing way than Suzaku (and this from a guy
PMB> like me, who doesn't like Koreeda).

PMB> As for Hotaru, the other long feature by Kawase, I think that a not
PMB> indispensable pic like M/Other by Suwa Nobuhiro is harder and stronger in
PMB> its depiction of a falling. Sure, the two films see differences (as Roberta
PMB> said to me, properly) between themselves, but to me the cruelty of M/Other,
PMB> also in terms of style, is more successful than the unbalanced (and I hope
PMB> not to be misunderstood) severity of Hotaru.

PMB> Sure Kawase Naomi digs in human being, and sometimes she gets what she wants
PMB> perfectly and splendidly, but she still has some way to go, according to me,
PMB> especially -I repeat myself, sorry- in the style department, in its
PMB> confidence, in its maturity. She is too much of a filmmaker, and too much
PMB> involved in her 'plaisir' of using her DV camera, contemplating nature more
PMB> than really DIG in it. She is young, and then time will tell.

PMB> Ciao,
PMB> Pier Maria

PMB> ----- Original Message -----
PMB> From: "=%iso-8859-1%q?Guillermo=20Gonzales?=" <mononoaware76 at yahoo.it>
PMB> To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
PMB> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 12:41 AM
PMB> Subject: Re: Naomi Kawase - impressions

>> Hi Kinejapaners,
>>
>> as well as Giacomo I was in Alba and I attended Kawase
>> Naomi's seminar.
>> I guess a lot of people is still moved, beyond the two
>> of us.
>> Naomi's works and words have been really intense and
>> have penetrated deep inside who was in Alba.
>> I must confess I had a few prejudices about her and
>> absolutely I didn't expect to come back home with a
>> totally reversed opinion.
>> ...still overflowing, as Giacomo wrote.
>>
>> ciao
>> Guillermo
>>
>>
>> --- Giacomo Calorio <karisuma at tiscalinet.it> ha
>> scritto: > Hi kinejapaners,
>> > I've just finished to see the extraordinary
>> > retrospective exhibition
>> > about Kawase Naomi's work, in Alba. I'm still
>> > moved... I've never seen
>> > such a sensitive approach to people in a movie. The
>> > way she manages to
>> > communicate her feelings towards an object, and the
>> > way she manages to
>> > dig in human being... it was a really new and
>> > wonderful experience to me.
>> >
>> > I'm happy but my mind is still overflowing with
>> > thoughts and moods... can
>> > cinema do this?
>> >
>> > ciao
>> >
>> > giacomo
>> >
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> Speciale Giochi - Civilization III
>> http://it.yahoo.com/mail_it/foot/?http://civ3.yahoo.it/

-- 
Best regards,
 Giacomo                            mailto:karisuma at tiscalinet.it