Renoir's "Rules" Japan Release?

[Michael Raine]

In support of Roland's point: Rules of the Game was discussed by Japanese
film critics even in the 1950s (it appeared in the Sight and Sound top-10
critics poll every decade since 1952) and was first shown at the Museum of
Modern Art's then-new 200 seat screening room (not the film center in
Kyobashi) in late 1962, as part of a 90+ French film retrospective put
together by Henri Langlois. The idea was to support the development of the
Japanese film archive, which Kawakita Kashiko was involved in. The print was
one of 8 films that were kept in Japan so I expect it was shown again.
That's not the same as a commercial release of course: the films were only
shown on one day: the daytime screening was first-come, first-served and
seats for the evening screening were decided by drawing lots. Apparently
many students didn't go to classes that fall! It's a reminder of how video
and DVD changed the social nature of cinephilia, which perhaps survived
longer in Japan (all-nighters, rep cinemas) than elsewhere. According to my
notes, there's an article in Eiga hyoron, 1963.4, if anyone's interested. 

I do have a question about the importation of foreign films: I'm sure it's
true that as the film audience declined there was pressure to make more
commercial choices but it's my impression that the currency liberalization
of 1962 actually led to an increase in the number of art film imports. I
thought ATG didn't show many French new wave films, for example, because the
rights were bought by other importers. Some critics even suggested that this
was the way forward for cinema: the mass audience could be ceded to
television and cinemas would become space to see films like The Red Balloon.
Is it just my fantasy that Tokyo was a paradise for cinephiles? On the other
hand, there's a "banzuke" in Kinema junpo from 1965 showing the most popular
films in Japan: the foreign film list is dominated by spectaculars and only
two of the top 50 films were non-american -- and one of those was Mondo
Cane! 

Michael

Michael Raine
Assistant Professor in Japanese Cinema
The University of Chicago
mjraine at uchicago.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Domenig [mailto:roland.domenig at univie.ac.at] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:31 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: AW: Renoir's "Rules" Japan Release?

It is quite obvious why Renoir's La regle du jeu wasn't released during
wartime and as Roger mentioned it was not before 1959 that the film was
"rediscovered" and lauded as masterpiece. The late release in Japan can be
explained by the fact that from around the time the film resurfaced it
became more and more difficult for foreign "art films" to be released in
Japan because distributors concentrated on more lucrative popular films. The
Art Theatre Guild was established in 1961 to counterbalance this development
and Renoir's film was among the many films considered by the ATG programming
committee for their lineup. But ATG itself came under financial pressure and
concentrated on recent films and didn't release films from before 1950 with
a few expectations such as Welles' Citizen Cane and Eisenstein's Alexander
Nevsky (one must not forget the tailback of unreleased "recent" films in
Japan).  When the Iwanami Hall (Equipe de cinema), which followed ATG as
distributor and exhibitor of non-commercial "art films", finally released La
regle du jeu in 1982 the film was already canonized as classical
masterpiece.
The film was imported to Japan much earlier, however, and I remember to have
seen the title in one of Towa's lineups (from the 1950s if IRCC). I can not
rule out that there have been individual screenings of the film in Japan
before its theatrical release in 1982.

Roland Domenig


________________________________________
Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] im Auftrag von Roger Macy
[macyroger at yahoo.co.uk]
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 28. August 2008 00:07
An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Betreff: Re: Renoir's "Rules" Japan Release?

If you haven't already, you might ask the Kawakita Foundation about their
Press Sheet for ge-mu no kisoku
http://database.kawakita-film.or.jp/webdatabase/YougaResult.aspx
I can see why it wouldn't have appeared until the sixties.  Quite apart from
wartime import restrictions and blockades, it bombed on release and wasn't
restored and revived until 1959.  But 1982 seems late.

Others may be able to help you more.
Roger

----- Original Message -----
From: Frako Loden<mailto:frako at well.com>
To:
KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<mailto:KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 5:33 PM
Subject: Renoir's "Rules" Japan Release?



In what year was Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (La Regle du jeu, 1939)
first released theatrically in Japan? I'm seeing September 18, 1982
mentioned in poster captions and imdb.com. Is this true? If so, what are the
circumstances of this delayed release?


Frako Loden
Berkeley, CA