New Publication

[Lindsay Nelson]

Is Page of Madness available in DVD format, or in any particular cinema libraries?

                  --Lindsay 

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:17 pm
Subject: Re: New Publication
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu

> I had a chance to read this ahead of time, and I must say it was a 
> 
> very eye opening book. Aaron does some inspired detective work 
> here,  
> some of the most thorough research on a single film we've seen in  
> Japanese film studies. You'll never look at Page of Madness in 
> quite  
> the same way!
> 
> Markus
> 
> 
> 
> On Feb 24, 2009, at 11:46 AM, bew wrote:
> 
> > A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan
> >
> > by Aaron Gerow
> >
> > Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, No. 64
> > x + 130 pp., 2008, 22 illustrations
> > ISBN 978-1-929280-51-3, cloth, $50.00
> > ISBN 978-1-929280-52-0, paper, $22.00
> >
> > Kinugasa Teinosuke’s 1926 film, A Page of Madness (Kurutta  
> > ichipeiji), is celebrated as one of the masterpieces of silent  
> > cinema. It was an independently produced, experimental, avant-
> garde  
> > work from Japan whose brilliant use of cinematic technique was 
> equal  
> > to if not superior to that of contemporary European cinema. 
> Those  
> > studying Japan, focusing on the central involvement of such 
> writers  
> > as Yokomitsu Riichi and the Nobel Prize winner Kawabata 
> Yasunari,  
> > have seen it as a pillar of the close relationship in the Taishō 
> era  
> > between film and artistic modernism, as well as a marker of the  
> > uniqueness of prewar Japanese film culture.
> >
> > But is this film really what it seems to be? Using meticulous  
> > research on the film’s production, distribution, exhibition, and 
> 
> > reception, as well as close analysis of the film’s shooting 
> script  
> > and shooting notes recently made available, Aaron Gerow draws a 
> new  
> > picture of this complex work, one revealing a film divided 
> between  
> > experiment and convention, modernism and melodrama, the image 
> and  
> > the word, cinema and literature, conflicts that play out in the  
> > story and structure of the film and its context. These different 
> 
> > versions of A Page of Madness were developed at the time in 
> varying  
> > interpretations of a film fundamentally about differing 
> perceptions  
> > and conflicting worlds, and ironically realized in the fact that 
> the  
> > film that exists today is not the one originally released. 
> Including  
> > a detailed analysis of the film and translations of contemporary 
> 
> > reviews and shooting notes for scenes missing from the current  
> > print, Gerow’s book offers provocative insight into the 
> fascinating  
> > film A Page of Madness was—and still is—and into the struggles  
> > over this work that tried to articulate the place of cinema in  
> > Japanese society and modernity.
> >
> >
> > THE BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM IN A FEW DAYS. YOU MAY  
> > ORDER NOW DIRECTLY FROM THE CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES, THE  
> > UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, VIA FAX, PHONE, OR POST. PREPAYMENT 
> REQUIRED  
> > BY CHECK OR CC.
> >
> > Bruce Willoughby
> > Executive Editor
> > Center for Japanese Studies
> > The University of Michigan
> > 1007 E. Huron St.
> > Ann Arbor MI 48104-1690
> > ph 734-647-1199
> > fax 734-647-8886
> > bew at umich.edu
> >
> >
> >
> 
>