Japan and Cult

Bernd Standhaft berndstandhaft at gmx.de
Tue Feb 16 11:10:26 EST 2010


Hi,

Nathen Clerici wrote,

> I can relate to your experiences with the gap between the Japanese
> films we watch in university courses and what people "really" watch.
> That we notice it, or are frustrated by it, is probably a relatively
> recent development-- maybe in the last 20 years or so?

I don't think that this "problem" is a recent one and I don't think that it
is specific in the context of the Japanese Film Industry. There always was a
gap between Popular Cinema and Art Cinema and only in certain times and
circumstances that gap was not as wide as it is at the moment. One such
periode may be the French New Wave. Being from Germany I can assure you that
no one outside of Film Studies or Cinephilia will know about such directors
as Lang, Murnau, Pabst, Lubitsch or Wenders, Herzog, Fassbinder,
Schloendorff, Kluge or Ade, Hochhaeussler, Grisebach, Petzold, Schmid,
Schanelec, Kohler, Weingaertner. Someone in Japan studying German Film will
normaly know much more about the German Film than most of Germany's
citizens. I think the same applies for America.

Greetings
Bernd



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