New Book by Roberta Novielli

Martin Vieillot eigagogo at free.fr
Mon Aug 9 21:14:24 EDT 2010


Speaking about book, a promising & unexpected (for me at least!) english translation of Kazuo Hara's texts is now available!
No doubt Facets DVDs have helped the editor to launch this project.

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Camera Obtrusa
by Kazuo Hara

Throughout the four decades of his career, filmmaker Kazuo Hara has stalked the bizarre and disturbing margins of Japanese society with his camera, certain that central truths can be found through an unrelenting examination of individuals and their interactions. His notoriously confrontational method of creating what he calls “action documentaries” has transformed the art of documentary filmmaking. Now, in this first full-length translation of Hara’s writings on his life and method, Hara tells his own story of growing up an outsider, detailing the fascinating processes that led to each of his groundbreaking documentaries. In addition, this book includes a full translation of the production notes for his most acclaimed film, The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On, which has been described by the Village Voice as “one of the most harrowing, astonishing documentaries about war ever thrown onto celluloid.”

Details:
$22.95 | 400pp | Paperback | ISBN 9781885030443 

http://www.kaya.com/books/24




----- Mail Original -----
De: "Mark Nornes" <amnornes at umich.edu>
À: "KineJapan" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Envoyé: Mardi 10 Août 2010 03h03:39 GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlin / Berne / Rome / Stockholm / Vienne
Objet: New Book by Roberta Novielli


Roberta Novielli has just published an open source book, one of the very first in Italy. Here is the description: 




METAMORFOSI - SCHEGGE DI VIOLENZA NEL NUOVO CINEMA GIAPPONESE 
In the last twenty years Japanese cinema has gained an international popularity with no precedent in its history. Many movies, often screened at the most prestigious film festivals, are now available on the internet in different formats, distributed on dvd and also broadcast on various TV channels. In recent years we have witnessed an increase of sites and blogs which have dedicated a huge space for reviews and comments to these movies, but it is however clear that they in some cases lack those elements useful to coherently connect these works to the Japanese cultural background, a gap this book partially has been trying to fill. 


The selection method followed for the contents and the works, here divided in four great spheres depending on the “monsters” who people them — horror and supernatural, psycho-horror, science and technology, B-movies on yakuza and erotic matters —, refers to the cinema known to the Western audience. Only after completing this book it became clear that the leitmotiv of the selected works is violence, often linked to a substratum of solitude and incommunicability to which the technological and productive race, together with the recent finalcial crisis, has exiled many individuals. From this point of view, they can be considered universal themes, and this helps us understand the reasons for the international success of this cinema. 

Sounds great! But I'm afraid the book itself is in Italian. 

http://venus.unive.it/asiamed/vetrina/proposte/metamorfosi.html 


Markus



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