Itami Mansaku (Peter High's Excellent Book)

[Alex Zahlten]

Fanck wrote a (self-published) book about his experiences with the film, and it includes (if I remember correctly) parts of his diary from the time, some recollections - in which he expresses regret about the "misunderstandings" with Itami - and lots of reviews from the German press praising the film. Fanck would have been quite aware, of course, that the press had been ordered to praise the film (no one in the film business was that naive), but presents the reviews as a great triumph of his. 

A copy of the book is in the Japan Foundation library in Tokyo- I haven't been able to locate it anywhere else.

Alex


-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:16:14 +0000
> Von: Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
> An: kinejapan <kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Betreff: RE: Itami Mansaku (Peter High\'s Excellent Book)

> 
> Talking of resources on this film, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the
> work of Janine Hansen.From my notes:
> Hansen,
> Janine. ?Celluloid Competition: German-Japanese Film Relations,
> 1929-45.? In
> Cinema
> and the Swastika: The International Expansion of Third Reich Cinema,
> ed. Roel Vande Winkel and David Welch. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
> 2007
> _.
> ?The New Earth (136/37): A German-Japanese Misalliance in
> Film.? In In Praise of Film Studies: Essays in Honor of Makino
> Mamoru, ed. Aaron Gerow and Abé Mark Nornes. Ann Arbor: Kinema
> Club, 2001: 184-98.
> 
> And in the German language:
> Arnold
> Fancks Die Tochter des Samurai: Nationalsozialistische Propaganda und
> japanische Filmpolitik. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1997.
> 
> 
> Jasper Sharp: Writer & Film Curator Homepage
> http://jaspersharp.com/
> 
> Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
> http://www.midnighteye.com
> 
> Zipangu Fest: Japanarchy in the UK
> http://zipangufest.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:01:07 -0500
> > From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu
> > To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > Subject: Re: Itami Mansaku (Peter High's Excellent Book)
> > 
> > Dear FB,
> > 
> > I just read the pages you refer to, in my copy of Peter High's book.
> It's excellent 
> > information, and I was surprised to find that my bits and pieces fit
> well into the 
> > bigger picture. I should have looked there sooner, rather than assuming
> there 
> > wasn't much available in English.
> > 
> > I never knew that the Itami version was shown in theaters in Japan. That
> must 
> > have been very interesting!
> > 
> > As for Fanck, I may be wrong, but I think he was a naive person who
> liked to do 
> > outdoor filming. Most of his films are Berg-Film/Mountain Film, in which
> the 
> > scenery is almost more important than the actors.
> > 
> > Leni Riefenstahl began acting in Fanck's mountain films early on. Fanck
> did not 
> > like using doubles, and wanted his actors to do all the climbing,
> slipping, and 
> > hanging in space themselves. Hitler saw her onscreen in one of them
> later, and 
> > that's how she got mixed up with Nazis.
> > 
> > Fanck really just wanted to make another mountain film, starring a
> volcano in 
> > Japan. In the long finale of the film, Hara Setsuko and the male lead do
> a very 
> > long and slow trek, one trying to catch up with the other, over fissures
> with 
> > steam coming out, etc. Hara is supposed to be trying to jump in the
> volcano's 
> > core because her "fiance" maybe doesn't care for her, and he schlepps
> through 
> > all perils to save her and prove his love for her.
> > 
> > I'm not sure anyone in Japan had tried much to make this kind of outdoor
> film. 
> > Fanck was famous for them in Germany & Austria, and it was his main
> talent.
> > 
> > Apart from this film, Fanck had a fairly dreary career under Nazi Rule. 
> > Riefenstahl & Goebbels always hated each other, so Fanck's connection
> with LR 
> > didn't help him so much in the big picture.
> > 
> > After the war, unlike Harlan Veit, a notoriously Nazi director through
> and 
> > through, who resumed his bigtime career in the 1950s in W. Germany after
> a 
> > discreet hiatus, and later died while vacationing in his villa in Italy.
> Fanck instead 
> > ended up with a new kind of mountain gig, cutting down trees for a
> living for a 
> > while. Later mountain film nostalgia helped him economically.
> > 
> > http://www.nevasport.com/nevablogs/retro-ski/art/arnold-fanck--maestro-
> > de-peliculas-de-montana---arnold-fanck--the-master-of-mountain-
> > films/2625/
> > 
> > 
> > Thank You Very Much For The Good Information!
> > 
> > mmcc
>  		 	   		  

-- 
alex at nipponconnection.de

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