The Vagaries of Film Viewing (Started re: Potemkin)

[Roger Macy]

And whilst we're speculating about embassy screenings, what are the chances of Kurosawa having attended screenings of Japan's allies during the war ?  I had thought I had seen something of Rossellini's 1943 L'uomo dalla croce, in Shichinin no samurai, particularly in the 'night-time lull' episode.  It's pretty unlikely to have screenings after the war.
And, as a fellow senior-citizen of this list, I'm also doubtful that Kurosawa would have volunteered an easily falsifiable statement.  Incidentally, International Literature, a Soviet publication in various languages for foreign consumption, in the thirties stoked up, unwisely I would have thought, tales of derring-do by the Tokyo ambassador, passing clandestine material to underground party members.  I didn't spot any that involved film material, though!
But one has to accept that memory does play tricks, working on the material supplied, such as trailers and excerpts,  creatively.  Given, M. McCaskey, that you seem to accept that, I was perplexed that you wanted to show the Odessa steps sequence out of context to students whom you do not think have seen it.  Wouldn't that be a kind of generational revenge?  The kwaidan that Kurosawa never made ?!?Roger

--- On Mon, 17/1/11, mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:


From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>
Subject: The Vagaries of Film Viewing (Started re: Potemkin)
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Date: Monday, 17 January, 2011, 16:37


If Potemkin did get shown in Japan, maybe piracy wasn't involved, but p;ossibly 
"underground" viewings. In those days, film was on jumbo reels, in flat round 
cans, enough cans for a full-length film taking up the space of a few  jumbo 
pizzas in boxes, stacked up. That could have fitted in one large suitcase back 
then.

Japan established diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1925, so it might have 
been possible for the Russian Embassy to bring films in without Customs 
inspection. Katayama Sen, a flounder of the JCP, was a Comintern leader in the 
USSR then, and he's likely to have been pleased if some people sympathetic to 
the USSR in  Japan were to see the film. Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia was legally 
shown in Japan, and apparently so was Pudovkin's earlier film Mother, the same 
year Kurosawa says he saw Potemkin.

The details of how people might have seen the film, if they did, would be hard 
to find now.

In the same way, in the period 1945-1953, it seems pretty clear that Kurosawa 
must have seen some Italian Neo-Realist films, judging from the various echoes 
of some of them in his own, though it's unlikely that most Japanese ordinary 
audiences got to see many foreign films, other than US ones, during those years.

Even so, Kinema Junpo resumed including foreign films in its annual Bests in 
1946. All Foreign Bests were American or British in 1946.

In 1947, it was the same, except for 1 Russian film, Stone Flower.

In 1948, 5 of the 10 Foreign Best were French,  the first French ones since 1940. 

In 1949, out of the Foreign Best Ten, two were Italian, Vivere in Pace and Paisa, 
and 3 were French. 

In 1950, three - Bicycle Thieves Open City, and Shoeshine - were Italian, 2 were 
French, and the Usual Remaining 5 were US. 

In 1951, 7 were US or UK, 2 French, and 1 Italian.

In 1952, 3 were US, 4 were French, 1 - Miracle in Milan - was Italian, Froeken 
Julie was Swedish, and the last, The River, was directed by Jean Renoir, but acted 
in English, and set in India. 

In 1953, 8 were in English, 1 was French - Forbidden Games, and 1 was Bunuel's 
Los Olvidados.

Though so many foreign films were shown in Japa, 1946-1953, it's unlikely that 
most Japanese audiences saw many of them.

But it's also very likely that someone like Kurosawa, along with the KJ Judges and 
a select no. of people in Tokyo, got to see all of them. It's also more than likely 
that he got to see foreign films, some in US facilities, that many Japanese had no 
way to see at all then.

For those who'd like to go deeper, check for errors, etc., these dates and nos. are 
from Kinema Junpo Besuto Ten, 1924-2006, ISBN 978-4-87376-656-0.

The whole book is filled with terrific information about Japanese Best Ten  Films 
over the course of ca. 80 yrs. - minus some war years. They stopped having 
Foreign Bests after 1940, and there were no Best 10s at all after 1942, until they 
were resumed in 1946.

Best Regards,

M. McCaskey
Georgetown Univ.



      
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