A Page of Madness/ Special Screening

[Aaron Gerow]

Thanks to Mark for the report and for Markus for mentioning my book.

The screening of A Page of Madness was aligned with the 63rd Congress 
of FIAF (the international federation of film archives) which is being 
held in Tokyo right now (for the first time). The "restored" print was 
really just a cleaned up print, with no new scenes (i.e., no 
restoration of the many scenes cut out of the film after its initial 
release). A few subtitles were added for the credits (including 
incorrect ones: e.g., "Starring by Masao Inoue" and "Written by 
Yasunari Kawabata" (when it should be "Original Story by Yasunari 
Kawabata")). The discussion on the film was limited to a few words by 
FIAF representatives (including a very incorrect statement that the 
film was influenced by Soviet cinema). No word on a DVD in the making, 
but the Film Center has just completed a booklet complete with DVD of 
some of Onoe Matsunosuke's films, so it is slowly getting around to 
making DVDs of its own collection.

Takahashi Yuji's score was probably the most intriguing ("understated" 
is probably an understatement): while many musicians use Kurutta to go 
wild, Takahashi did not play as much as he played and there were 
repeatedly long stretches with no music. When he did play he often did 
not "match" the images (i.e., playing to the rhythm or playing wildly 
during chaotic scenes).  One can question whether this was the right 
for a film that was always discussed as very rhythmic, but it curiously 
matches Tokugawa Musei's understated style. Takahashi in general is an 
avant-garde musician, in a few cases, however, his playing was 
narrativized, playing dramatic chords when the daughter first sees the 
father.

The FIAF congress has been quite fascinating, and the FC people did a 
great job of putting it together. The theme this year has been 
short-lived formats, so there were a lot of presentations of defunct 
technology (and the repeated calls--including the one before 
Kurutta--to preserve not just content but also the context and the 
carrier). One presentation on the 100 years of 3-D film was fantastic. 
The presentations on short-lived Japanese formats were also quite good, 
including an utsushie performance and talks on the Baby Talkie, toy 
films, 8mm film, large screen formats, and even recycled film.  One of 
the funner moments was Matsumoto Natsuki's presentation--with benshi 
accompaniment--of some of the toy films and also a Norakuro paper film.

It just so happens that the 15th issue of Otona no kagaku is featuring 
paper film this time: the magazine and box sport not only a projector 
you can put together yourself, but also paper films prepared by the 
likes of Aoyama Shinji and Yamamura Koji (Aoyama's film is shown at 
http://otonanokagaku.net/feature/vol6/index.html ). This is a great way 
not only to play with movies, but also to understand how middle-class 
Japanese families brought the cinema into their home in the 1930s. So 
get it while you can:

http://otonanokagaku.net/magazine/vol15/index.html

Aaron Gerow
Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu