Clarification: The 10 American and European films that have affected Japan the most.

John Gorman macfugu
Tue Mar 11 22:57:06 EST 2003


Micheal,

Thanks much for your response.  I will definitely pursue your leads on vernacular modernism.

Perhaps it might be wise to limit the films as you mentioned but I'm not quite ready.  Initially I'd like to consider from Louis Lumi??re to Rob Marshall, thinking that many films will have continued to influence different generations, possibly to different effect. From my own experience as an American; 'M', 'The Ten Commandments', '12 Angry Men' and 'Dr. Strangelove' come to mind. 

As my thesis is only to be of ten to fifteen thousand words I've been told to limit my study to three films. From the vast possibilities, rather arbitrarily I???m hoping to find one film to represent each of three periods: before the Second World War, during the Occupation and since the Occupation.  If I were to focus on just one of these periods it would be the latter.  Another possibility would be three films, each which promoted one of the above aspects of ???Westernization???/Americanization.

Again my hope just to get the ball rolling is that experts in the field will put forth their lists of which 10 American/European films have influenced Japan the most exclusive of their influence on Japanese films.

Thanks again.

John
(Would like to see some of your on the cuff work.) 

 
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003, at 02:52AM, Michael Fitzhenry <michael.fitzhenry at artsit.usyd.edu.au> wrote:

>(Briefly, and off the cuff)
>
>I suppose that one further clarification would be that the films should be released within the living memory of the "seniors" who you say you will survey? If this is not really one of your stipulations I can suggest a couple. One of which would be Josef von Sternberg (The Underworld / Ankoku machi, released
>in 1929) and his influence on the Tendency filmmakers--particularly Murata Minoru (Kaiji and Skyscraper, both Nikkatsu, 1930 cf Yamamoto Kikuo). I have a chapter in my thesis about this and democracy--although I don't take a sociological perspective. However, considering there seems to be quite a lot of
>interest in the influence of Americanism (I am thinking back to a previous thread on vernacular modernism--perhaps you can retreive that from a Kinejapan archive) you could consider having a look at Harry Harootunian _Overcome by Modernity_ (on Americanism), Robert Warshow _the immediate experience_ (recently
>reprinted, on the gangster film), Gilles Deleuze _cinema 2_ (on political cinema), and I dare say would will discover what I am talking about. This is the idea, of course, that film is a democratic art, and that the socially critical film is also socially responsible, the idea that a new realism addresses the
>audience in a new way--in terms of thought and engagement--and so produces social/political effects.
>
>You could also look at Aaron Gerow's discussion of the film _Zigomar_ (V. Jaseet, 1911-1913), and also that of HASE Masato (ICONICS, 1998), where they discuss the idea of cinephobia (a direct sociological effect).
>
>Michael
>
>John Gorman wrote:
>
>> By Western films I mean films from America and Europe.
>>
>> Also I prefer to stay away from the well-trodden ground of the comparison/exchange of influence between Japanese and American/European films. Instead, I hope to focus the on influence of Western cinema upon Japanese culture in other areas, specifically regarding; democracy, women's roles and individualism.
>>
>> Thanks much to John and Matthew for getting the ball rolling.
>>
>> John
>
>
>




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