The Vagaries of Film Viewing (Started re: Potemkin)

[Dolores Martinez]

You need to think of Kurosawa's age in the 1920s (just in his teens!), but
also about his older brother who was a radical and a benshi.  I can imagine
an Embassy (or some sort of underground) screening,  but, as noted in
previous discussions, I can also imagine an encounter through articles with
stills and then memory playing tricks!
Lla

On 17 January 2011 16:37, <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:

> 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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