[KineJapan] Holder of Mizoguchi rights
Jasper Sharp
jasper_sharp at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 2 07:09:08 EDT 2014
I think you've hit upon an interesting point, Sten.Very few venues in Europe now are capable of projecting 35mm, having torn out all their projectors to be replaced with 35mm (even such an important archive as the Imperial War Museum in London no longer has the facilities to project from film), and even those places that can tend to be increasingly discouraging programmers from showing prints (in this recent interview I did with Mirai Mizue, he mentions the struggle he had persuading Berlin Film Festival to screen his new film WONDER from 35mm: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/free-anime-mizue-mirai-wizard-blobs-blocks)
But the other crucial aspect is that no Japanese studio is going to spend the money digitising films unless they actively want to promote particular directors or titles - so for example the Kinoshita retro at FilmEx a few years back seemed primarily an excuse to get this director back in the limelight again. Meanwhile Kurosawa and Ozu continue to be popular internationally, so there's an ongoing process of digitally "restoring" these works. And there was that digital restoration of JIGOKUMON a few years back which seemed motivated by the idea of getting this historically very important work back into the international eye.
However, two things strike me is that firstly Kadokawa don't really seem very interested in making Daiei's back catalogue available for overseas viewers, nor particularly knowledgeable about what they have. Secondly, someone whose word I would trust in the international sales wing of a major Japanese studio pointed out that under Japanese copyright law, with Mizoguchi dead now for over 50 years, his films are effectively public domain. So the money you are spending is really licensing the physical carrier medium of the films rather than the creative contents of the films themselves. If you can get hold of a print, you shouldn't have to pay Kadokawa, Kokusai Hoei, Shochiku or whoever just for licensing fees,. But if you want access a print, you will have to pay them for the print rental.
Now whether this is true, I can't guarantee, but it has interesting implications for what is selected for digital "restoration" to be made available for international festivals or retrospectives, therefore radically re-shaping the canon. If there's no money to be made from Mizoguchi's films, then no one will go to the bother of making them available in the way Shochiku did with Kinoshita's films. One suggestion though- you could screen from Bluray from the films Masters of Cinema have made available, and with most European cinemas only equipped with 2K projectors anyway, there would be no less quality than a DCP. In this instance, you'd be paying Eureka, I guess, for using their materials.
The Creeping Garden - A Real-Life Science-Fiction Story about Slime Moulds and the People Who Work With them. Currently in production, directed by Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp.
The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema (2011) is out now from Scarecrow Press
Midnight Eye - Visions of Japanese cinema
http://www.midnighteye.com
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 13:35:00 +0300
From: sten at niijanaa.net
To: kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu; quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au
CC: kinejapan-bounces+quentin.turnour=nfsa.gov.au at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: [KineJapan] Holder of Mizoguchi rights
Hello all,many thanks for your suggestions regarding the rights - Ill contact Kadokawa and Shochiku once the lineup has been verified.
As to difficulties with NFC and in response to Mark and Quentin - the biggest issue lies in the fact that since most of cinemas in Europe are now digitised to DCP projection, there is a scarce of venues which can show35mm, especially from the two-turret system as required by NFC to preserve the prints. Both print handling difficulties with platter based projection, and attractiveness of the venues (as filmotheques tend to cater to older audiences or fans) -- Sten-Kristian Saluveer Creative Director / PartnerNiijanaa Filmsph Japan + 818044345242ph Europe +3725165242sten at niijanaa.netSkype: stenskypewww.niijanaa.net
And of course, we all know the reluctance of Japanese distributors to digitalise the films even if there is a demand from market / fest circuit.
With best wishes,Sten
--
Sten-Kristian Saluveer
Sent with Airmail
On 2 Jun 2014 at 10:12:58, Quentin Turnour (quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au) wrote:
I probably don't want to revive
the last debate here about the NFC's openness to access requests -
the mention of their name seems to get a few amongst our community
a little itchy - but getting prints out of the Japan Foundation is
now harder than the NFC. The JF no longer typically consider
one-off print loans of their 35mm titles and access is normally
only in packages and as part of their annual funding
processes. You're only work around might be a good contact in a
local Embassy or Consulate willing to arrange a
loan.
You will find that sourcing prints from
most European archival sources (and I know there are quite a few
good sources in European archives and cinematheques) won't be cheap
either. As well Kadokawa's licensing fee (probably at least
USD600 per screening), most European archives will ask their own
access fees, with the BFI's starting at UKS100. Sadly its the
costs of doing retrospective screening business; we at the NFSA in
Australia have a few Mizoguchi prints and would also ask at least
AUD200 in addition to the licensing arrangement - with your
only work-around maybe being if you have the patronage of a FIAF
affliated archive who will allow you to waive the access fee. Also
remember that most film archives will place restrictions on how you
can project the prints. And in IHMO not a few of the continental
archives can be just as hard to contact as the NFC (or are even
harder to crack).
Janus films have Nth American rights a
number of Mizoguchis, but are unlikely to let them out beyond the
US and Canada.
Remember also that some of Mizoguchi's
key films were produced for at least released by other companies
beside Daiei. From memory OHARU was made for Shintoho (does Kokusai
Hoei now have their rights?) whilst, UTAMARO, 47 RONIN THE
STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS and a few other titles for
Shochiku.
Best wishes
Quentin Turnour, Manager, Arc
Canberra Cinema Programs,
National Film and Sound Archive of
Australia,
quentin.turnour at nfsa.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 6249 8159
Ph +61 2 6248 2054
Mob: + 61 4 428
368908
[Please note that I am often
absent Mondays]
From:
Rob
Smith <robixsmash at gmail.com>
To:
Japanese
Cinema Discussion Forum
<kinejapan at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>,
Date:
02/06/2014 04:24 PM
Subject:
Re:
[KineJapan] Holder of Mizoguchi rights
Sent by:
kinejapan-bounces+quentin.turnour=nfsa.gov.au at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
The museum of the moving image in New York has a
Mizoguchi retrospective going on right now. Perhaps their
programmer might be able to help.
http://www.movingimage.us/films/2014/05/02/detail/mizoguchi/
On Jun 2, 2014 2:22 AM, "Eija Niskanen"
<eija at helsinkicineaasia.fi> wrote:
Hi!
Finnish Audio-Visual Institute (former Finnish Film
Archive) has screened several Mizoguchi classics during the past
years - I subbed some of them into Finnish). You could contact them
to ask the print sources and they might even hold a print or
two.
www.kavi.fi
Eija
2014-06-02 8:47 GMT+03:00 Mark Roberts
<mroberts37 at mail-central.com>:
Dear Sten,
Others can add more detail, but I believe most
everything in the former Daiei catalog now belongs to
Kadokawa.
I understand your reservations about the NFC. They
no longer seem interested in working with festivals.
Have you considered the Japan Foundation as a
source?
Best Regards,
Mark Roberts
Research Fellow, UTCP
http://utcp.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/data/mark_roberts/index_en.php
On Jun 2, 2014, at 2:40 PM, Sten-Kristian Saluveer
(Gmail) wrote:
Dear Kinejapaners,
I hope you'd be able to help with a small help
request.
Namely, I am asked to help a colleague from the
Baltics with a small retrospective of Mizoguchi and wonder if
someone could point me to the Japanese rightsholder.
As far as I remember the latter films of his were
Daiei, but I'm not sure if his catalog was transferred to Kadokawa
later.
By any chance are there good quality prints in BFI
or other European archives as I fear dealing with NFC and their
print fees and procedures could be a bit too much for the
organizers.
With many thanks in advance
Sten Saluveer
—
Sent from Mailboxfor
iPhone
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