[KineJapan] Terayama on García Márquez

Fri May 8 08:52:23 EDT 2020

"Terayama met García Márquez after he was already dead"

I don't think this is improbable. I would like to believe it happened.

On Fri, May 8, 2020 at 8:42 AM Steve Ridgely via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> 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 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
> 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>
>
>
> *De:* KineJapan <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>
> *CC:* Roger Macy <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> 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> 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
> 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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