Shell production

[Michael Raine]

Hello Mathieu,

These films sound like The Rival World (dir: Bert Haanstra, 1955) and The Back of Beyond (dir: John Heyer, 1954). They were both famous films, widely shown. The first was shown at the same Brussels festival as Tokyo 1958 and is briefly discussed in an issue of Geijutsu shincho, March 1958. I haven't seen it but I imagine that it uses the same microphotography techniques seen in the award-winning films from Tokyo Shinema (http://tokyocinema.net/tcci-50.htm) at the time. The second film is actually an Australian production, but shown around the world. I think it's available on DVD there if you're interested. Again, I haven't seen it... 

Michael

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Mathieu Capel [mailto:mathieucapel at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 9:36 AM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Shell production

Dear Kinejapaners,

The following question isn't directly related to japanese cinema, I
hope you'll forgive me for that, but as I am reading a testimony from
producer Kusakabe Kyûshirô about the origins of Hani/teshigahara's
Cinema 58 and ATG, I was wondering if any of you knows some movies he
talks about, i. e. two experimental films produced during the 50s by
the Shell oil company in England, and which he refers to as 人類の敵
(Jinrui no teki) and 砂漠に住む人達 (Sabaku ni sumu hitotachi).
Many thanks,

Mathieu Capel
Paris