Switzerland and Japanese Cinema

[Roger Macy]

Hi, Beat,
Although the magazine 'Close Up' was published in Switzerland in the late twenties and early thirties and was about the first place where anything much was written on Japanese cinema in the west, the material was submitted by correspondents in Japan and through Robert Herring in London.  Suzuki Shigeyoshi's stills that appeared in 'Close Up' must have been briefly on Swiss soil, but they must have been returned to Robert Herring, as Hiroshi Komatsu managed to buy them in London a few years ago.
The personal correspondence of the publishers' of Close Up does NOT suggest that they saw any Japanese films in Switzerland.  The business records of Close Up would have been abandoned in 1940, if they still existed at that time.  Perhaps they're still buried under a shubbery somewhere ....   Where are you, Beat ?

Perhaps someone could clarify about the origin of the title of the Suzuki Shigeyoshi film 'Das Mädchen Sumiko' mentioned at
http://www.edition-filmmuseum.com/product_info.php/info/p34_Forthcoming-releases.html
I can see that the film has been shown in the German-speaking lands under this title since the Soviet rediscovery of Naniga kanojo o so saseta ka, but did the title have an earlier provenance ?
All I can get out of the 'filmmuseum' is that the 'executing archive' hasn't scheduled it yet, not even which archive.

And there were Japanese delegates to the 1929 Congress of Independent Cinema where the lost short 'The Storming of La Sarraz' was shot.  Ito Shunya, in the blurb to Eiga Kantoku tte Nan de! hopes to show his film there 'someday'.  But perhaps this was your entry point ?

I have more details off-list.

Roger


From: "Beat Frey" <beatfrey at gmx.ch>
To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 12:55 PM
Subject: Switzerland and Japanese Cinema


>A rather peculiar question (and nothing to do with Roman Polanski):
> 
> Does anyone have information regarding Switzerland in Japanese cinema and vice-versa, i.e. swiss/japanese locations or themes in japanese/swiss movies, other relations like coproductions etc.?
> There's probably not much more than Takahata's 'Arupusu no shojo Haiji', Morimoto's adaptation of 'Ichigensan' and Daniel Schmid's 'Written Face', but if something pops up in your mind, I'd be glad to know. It can also be some anecdotal detail. Answers off list are welcome.
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> Beat
> 
> -- 
> Neu: GMX Doppel-FLAT mit Internet-Flatrate + Telefon-Flatrate
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