[KineJapan] Review of Kaneto Shindo's The Naked Island

[Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via KineJapan]

Pauline Kael wrote a very long review of "Fitzcarraldo," paired up with a
review of Les Blank's doc "Burden of Dreams." It's been years since I read
it, but I still remember her descriptions of Herzog the madman dragging his
boat up the mountain, and for what?

As Mark Harris pointed out, there may be critics with more adventurous
tastes, but few, if any, had the prose power of Kael. And she was a
champion of Ichikawa Kon, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa (mainly their work in the
50s).

Ken Provencher

On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 2:53 AM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via
KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> Nice work!
>
> Pauline Kael, who was born on a California chicken farm, was the
> quintessential rural girl with a yen for the city. She dissed Georges
> Rouquier's 1946 farm documentary "Farrebique" in a manner similar to that
> in which she put down Shindo's film, strongly conveying her feeling that
> country life was so boring that she could not imagine why anyone would make
> films about it. Throughout her career, she was utterly indifferent to the
> landscape tradition in cinema and all genres which partake in it (e.g.,
> Westerns). The snarky comment "It's pictorial, all right" is quite
> characteristic.
>
> Although undeniably a brilliant prose writer, Kael is not exactly the most
> reliable guide to world cinema. Although at least she showed an interest in
> it in her early career, reflected in the capsule reviews in "Kiss Kiss Bang
> Bang". By her later years, she scarcely paid attention to any non-American
> films at all (Stuart Byron once called her out on this). I don't believe
> she ever wrote a full-length review of a Fassbinder or a Herzog film, for
> example.
>
> Best regards,
> Mark R. Harris
>
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 11:15 AM, Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum via
> KineJapan <kinejapan at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear KineJapaners:
>>
>> I want to direct your attention to a film review
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__worldcinemaparadise.com_2016_05_30_the-2Dtruthful-2Dfakery-2Dof-2Dkaneto-2Dshindo-2Da-2Dreview-2Dof-2Dthe-2Dnaked-2Disland&d=DQIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=e7qMG9KFq7WNnPQWULWHJA&m=Yp54HjiGcG8DWlw4DDFM8012Whv1yhcNjKmWkRnSpG4&s=_7JWTnNAsVUVncd3bRPg5veFL2mYKSINDVBagVstk6w&e= >
>> I wrote which has just been published on Stuart Galbraith IV's web
>> publication, World Cinema Paradise. The film is The Naked Island (Hadaka no
>> shima, 1960) by Kaneto Shindō, which has just been released on DVD and
>> Blu-ray by Criterion.
>>
>> Any feedback would be appreciated.
>>
>> John David Baldwin
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Mark R. Harris
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