Shuji Terayama

[Peter Grilli]

Andrew Grant:

You're right.  Terayams's films are much too little seen in the US, and much
too little has been written in English about them.

You may find some interesting material about him through the La Mama
experimental theater in New York, where "Tenjo Sajiki" performed (at least
once, but perhaps twice) in the late 1970s-early 80s.  La Mama's visionary
director, Ellen Stewart, was quite close to Terayama, and she arranged an
extraordinary memorial service for him at La Mama shortly after his death.
Excerpts from several of his films were shown at that event.  (I remember
that during the screening of one of his early experimental short films, the
projector kept getting stuck or skipping at several key spots -- leading
everyone to think that Terayama's ghoulish spirit was in the theater,
cutting up and having fun with us!)
Ellen may have kept clippings, reviews, etc. in her personal files or in
LaMama's files.  Write to her at:
La Mama E.T.C.
74-A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
Tel: 212-475-7710
http://www.lamama.org

"Den'en ni Shisu"  (Pastoral) was shown at the NY FIlm Festival (I forger
the year -- must have been around 1979 or 80), and you might also find some
information by contacting the
Film Society of Lincoln Center (which sponsors the Festival) at
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10024.

Good luck!

Peter Grilli

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Peter M. Grilli
President, Japan Society of Boston
One Milk Street, Boston, MA 02109
Tel:  617-451-0726
Fax:  617-451-1191
E-mail:  grilli at us-japan.org


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Andrew
Grant
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 8:06 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Shuji Terayama


Hello all --

I am writing an article about four films by Shuji Terayama:

Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Throw Away Your Books,Rally in the Streets
Pastoral: To Die in the Country
Farewell to the Ark

I've not had much luck while doing research for this article (i.e., have not
found much in the way of analysis of these films in English) and was
wondering if any member(s) of the list would be willing to discuss them with
me. Much has been written about his poetry and his theater work, but sadly
little about the films, especially the two early ones. I won't bore the rest
of the list with my questions/observations, some of which I'm afraid are
terribly naive.

Thanks.

Andrew Grant