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[Rhidian Davis]

When I was researching Stanley Kubrick's archive last year I found a set of images that he was working with as textural explorations of 'other worlds' that might exist beyond the stargate in 2001. One of them was a landscape of floating islands much along the lines of those seen in Avatar. Which isn't to say that this was a source for Cameron, rather that this sci-fi conception has had currency with film-makers for some time. Cameron has the tools to realise it - and his virtual landscape works as an amusing reposte those who say CGI worlds don't convincingly convey forces of gravity ..

Any technical glitches don't seem to be impacting too much on box office, seeing as the movie now seems poised to overtake Titanic in the 'biggest ever' stakes worldwide. We're screening the film to packed houses at the BFI IMAX at all times of day, and I have to say the receipts are going a good way towards offsetting increased overheads elsewhere in the organisation - like considerably higher costs for importing Japanese prints into the UK for the big retrospectives. So we're glad this particular film is in cinemas and not just "a Disney attraction" - though given that Disney's increased clout in the sector and commitment to 3D will likely force the digital issue for cinemas everywhere, it looks like we're all headed for Disneyland anyway.

In response to Aaron, I'm not sure Cameron's ideological cake was ever meant to be eaten really, but I'm equally unconvinced that Miyazaki's films are much less a part of our 'industrial technological capitalism' than Cameron's. However charming his aesthetic, he's not painting clay pots for neighbours and friends, but participating in a globalised, multi-platform media entertaiment industry. And of course the technologies of reproduced and distributed cell animation began the Disneyfication of the known world in the first place.



Rhidian Davis  |  Curator - Public Programmes  
BFI Southbank
tel: +44 (0)20 7849 4474 - direct line (ext. 4474)  



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu [mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Stefan Nutz
Sent: 19 January 2010 12:49
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Cc: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Avatar

Actually I don't think Cameron was influenced by Miyazaki at all. I even would consider Cameron as having no doubt what Miyazaki does or who he is. I guess the whole design of the film was created by visual artists who are very aware of Japanese popculture... who are aware of the fact that Mecha-fighters were cool (Scott's Alien 2) and are still very popular among RPG players.
I am not really into videogames but as one growing up in the late 70's and 80's I do remember nearly every RPG from Japan had floating islands (Final Fantasy, Zelda, Phantasy Star...) and so I think these RPG influenced rather the animation artists then Cameron himself.

Just a thought

Stefan



Am 20.01.2010 um 05:38 schrieb Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>:

> Just a quick response:
>
> When you look at it, the similarities with Miyazaki are there: the 
> image of the forest, the non-human world, of flying, etc. But I do 
> wonder if this film doesn't have a very different vision of nature.
> Miyazaki's paean to natural forces is not unrelated to his insistence 
> on sticking to some analog animation techniques, but Cameron's film 
> falls into the contradiction that many cinematic celebrations of 
> nature do: they praise the premodern, pre- technological world using 
> the most advanced technology there is.
> Avatar, I think, tries to avoid this, but only by radically re- 
> defining nature in a way I doubt Miyazaki would approve. Many can of 
> course see that the narrative situation of Avatar is essentially that 
> of video games, especially online RPG where you, immobile at your 
> station, get to roam the world, kill people, and get the girl via your 
> avatar. Avatar plays off the discontent with modern technological 
> reality by offering the fantasy of really abandoning one's body for 
> the game world. But the trick here is that the Avatar planet, with its 
> database of souls and memories, of creatures with Firewire plugs, of 
> trees that allow one access to the network, is essentially the 
> Internet rendered into a Gaia-like deity. In other words, I think 
> Avatar tries to have its ideological cake and eat it too by spouting a 
> critique of industrial technological capitalism (mining and machines) 
> and praising a natural, premodern society, while all the while 
> defining that society as precisely the new media technological 
> capitalism that we have today. I very much doubt Miyazaki, regardless 
> of all his own ideological ambiguities, would buy this.
>
> That was my initial reaction upon seeing the film (albeit at a theater 
> in Japan with a bunch of technological glitches--quite appropriate, I 
> might add!).
>
> Aaron Gerow
> Associate Professor
> Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures Yale 
> University
> 53 Wall Street, Room 316
> PO Box 208363
> New Haven, CT 06520-8363
> USA
> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
> Fax: 1-203-432-6764
> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
> site: www.aarongerow.com
>
>