[KineJapan] Terayama on García Márquez

Fri May 8 08:42:25 EDT 2020

Dear Lorenzo and Roger,

My apologies for suggesting that Terayama met García Márquez after he was already dead, although you’re right, that is the kind of mythical tale Terayama would probably want written into the histories! I dug through some old notes and found some text I wrote on Saraba for an ATG retrospective many years ago. Here’s the relevant information:

---------------
            Terayama Shūji’s ATG application for funding to shoot a film version of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s One-Hundred Years of Solitude was accepted in 1981 and he immediately began preparations to shoot the picture.  The location chosen was Okinawa and Terayama’s health was in such bad shape by then that he directed much of the film from a chaise lounge.  He died, after a long struggle with nephritis, on May 5, 1983 without having completed the final edits.

            The editing was completed in 1984 and the film could have been screened in Japan under its planned title, Hyakunen no kodoku (One-Hundred Years of Solitude), but those who had worked on it wanted to make another run at Cannes—Den’en ni shisu had been entered in competition at Cannes but Terayama came home empty handed.  It had already been announced as in production under the original title in the ATG’s monthly magazine, Art Theatre.  Terayama had not yet contacted Garcia-Marquez, however, to get permission to use the title of his novel.  Hiroko Govaers, Terayama’s agent in France, contacted Garcia-Marquez before the film was submitted to the festival and was able to show him the final edit (without subtitles) in her Paris apartment.  He did not dislike the film, but felt that it had too little connection to his novel to share its title and asked that it be given another name.  The title decided on was Saraba hakobune (Farewell to the Ark).  There are elements from the novel in the film, such as the cockfight near the beginning and the modern gadgetry scattered throughout, but the majority of Terayama’s version concerns the loss of language by the protagonist, and his effort to regain it by labeling everything in his home with the word that names it.
-----------------

Steve

On May 8, 2020, at 5:54 AM, kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

Dear Roger,

Thanks, this is also a good piece of information!

Terayama died in 1983 and the film was released in 1984, coming to Cannes in 1985. So it is impossible that Terayama was present in that hypothetical screening in Cannes. We would have here a funny and surreal story say of both authors…

Does anyone know, then, the extent to which the editing belongs to Terayama, did he give indications to Yamaji Sachiko for this?

Best,

<image001.jpg>
Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano
Vicedecano de Extensión Universitaria y Relaciones Internacionales
Vice-Dean of University Extension and International Relations
Profesor Titular/Professor
Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación
Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación y Sociología
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Edificio de Gestión - Decanato
Camino del Molino s/n, 28943 Fuenlabrada
+34 91 488 73 11
lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano at urjc.es<mailto:lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano at urjc.es>
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researchgate.net/profile/Lorenzo_Torres<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lorenzo_Torres>
Lorenzo Torres Academia.edu<https://urjc.academia.edu/ljtorres>

De: KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> En nombre de Roger Macy via KineJapan
Enviado el: miércoles, 6 de mayo de 2020 13:57
Para: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>>
CC: Roger Macy <macyroger at yahoo.co.uk<mailto:macyroger at yahoo.co.uk>>
Asunto: Re: [KineJapan] Terayama on García Márquez

Dear Lorenzo and Steve,

I contacted Tony Rayns when I saw this question, due to his dealings and knowledge of Terayama, and he kindly offered this :-

About Saraba Hakobune:  I saw Terayama's three-ring-circus of a stage production in Tokyo (it took place on three widely distanced stages set up in a cavernous warehouse on Tokyo Bay), which the film derives from, and I did ask Terayama if he'd formally acquired the rights to adapt Garcia Marquez -- since the play was still called 100 Years of Solitude.  He told me that he did clear it with the publisher of the Japanese translation, which was probably true.

I never asked Madame Govaers about the film rights, so I never heard the anecdote which Prof Bordwell's colleague Steve Ridgely reports.  It rings true to me that Govaers would have shown the film to Garcia Marquez and asked his permission, but it's not possible that Terayama was present because his nephritis killed him in the very early stages of the post-production. Terayama would probably have wanted to keep Garcia Marquez's title, and the money-minded Govaers would definitely have wanted to market Terayama's last film as 100 Years of Solitude.  It also rings true that Garcia Marquez (always famously cagey about film adaptations of his work) would have judged the film a very free adaptation and asked for a title change.  Incidentally, the film's post-production wasn't finished until nearly a year after Terayama's death.

Roger

On Tuesday, 5 May 2020, 19:32:05 BST, Steve Ridgely via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:

Hi Lorenzo,

I asked Hiroko Govaers about this when I interviewed her in Paris (summer of 2002). She said that she and Terayama screened the film that would be released as Saraba hakobune before Cannes for García Márquez (I think in her apartment) as a way of asking his permission to use the title of his novel. But he felt that the narrative was too much of a departure, and asked them to release it under a different name. She presented it to me as an amicable exchange.

Steve Ridgely
UW-Madison

On May 5, 2020, at 12:05 PM, Lorenzo Javier Torres Hortelano via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>> wrote:

Dear friends,

I’m writing an article on the Terayama’s film adaptation on García Márquez’ Cien años de soledad.

It is a very free and unknown adaptation and, apparently, Terayama did not ask the Colombian for permission, or did he not like the result: do you know any reliable sources that clarify the subject?

Thank you in advance and encouragement with the pandemic,

<image001.jpg>
Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano
Vicedecano de Extensión Universitaria y Relaciones Internacionales
Vice-Dean of University Extension and International Relations
Profesor Titular/Professor
Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación
Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación y Sociología
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Edificio de Gestión - Decanato
Camino del Molino s/n, 28943 Fuenlabrada
+34 91 488 73 11
lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano at urjc.es<mailto:lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano at urjc.es>
gestion2.urjc.es/pdi/ver/lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano<https://gestion2.urjc.es/pdi/ver/lorenzojavier.torres.hortelano>
researchgate.net/profile/Lorenzo_Torres<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lorenzo_Torres>
Lorenzo Torres Academia.edu<https://urjc.academia.edu/ljtorres>
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