[KineJapan] Film fests of yore in Yurakucho/Hibiya

Roger Macy macyroger at yahoo.co.uk
Mon Sep 21 15:09:46 EDT 2020


 Anne, just in case you hadn't spotted it Agantuk is on Mubi, where it was featured during July, when I watched it, but is still available to view from the library. The Stranger

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The Stranger

A well-off family is paid an unexpected visit by a man claiming to be the matriarch’s long-lost uncle. The initi...
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Roger

    On Monday, 21 September 2020, 19:42:37 BST, Anne McKnight via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  
 
 Thanks Jonathan and Markus~
Fortunately, I only have to deal with actual empirical fact insofar as it helps me understand what Kurosawa is saying. He says it was the Chanter (which maybe I should render Chanté in English-ish to capture the retro-elegance?) so his memory recall is what I am going with. His line is mostly rhetorical, I think—about situating himself in a mediascape where he has an identity that does not pander, is old-school in daring to be vulgar, etc…but I need to see the programming in the surrounding areas to make that call of where he is dragging his contrarian feet…
Markus, sadly, USC Library does not seem to have kept up the connection, as they only have 5 issues from 1979~81. Or it may well be that they have them in a pile somewhere, and they have not been catalogued. That reminds me that Rebecca Corbett has just started as librarian there and may well know...
What I am most concerned with is how that theatre sits in the cluster of theatres in that area, with their respective repertoires of both Japanese and foreign/“Western" films. In the way that, say Yosumi Shunya’s book on sakariba gives the general vibe of street/theatre life in various neighborhoods...
Indeed, PIA or TIFF archives would help me figure that out, as I could see what was regular programing, and what was special event/festival…TIFF on-line archive is interesting—also, a blast from the past to see the juxtapositions…
It doesn’t look like there was any kind of a Kurosawa fest at TIFF. No screening of his stuff at all from 1989~1992, while Obayashi, Kumai and Shindo all do have films. I did come across a really fascinating Satyajit Ray film that Kurosawa mentions, though (The Stranger/Agantuk), in the same taidan I am translating. 
Jonathan, at UCI library, PIA does not come up in a search, so are you suggesting I should skim through the film journals from 1990~1 or thereabouts to look at general news items?
All this for a footnote, if an intriguing one, and thanks for the resources!
Anne

On Sep 20, 2020, at 17:46, Jonathan M. Hall <jonathanmarkhall at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Anne,
I think TIFF was only six years old in 1991, and Kurosawa definitely presented at it in person that year. But was the Chanter the actual venue? I seem to remember it was one of them.
http://history.tiff-jp.net/en/overviews?no=4
If only these weren’t pandemic times, this might help:
https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-ea/ldpd_7755896/dsc/16

I do remember a festival, but which one. 
By the way, one more local resource: UC Irvine has an excellent collection of film journals of the period, which I helped the library acquire through a NEAC grant. That would be the easiest place. And those periodicals are loanable. So a colleague there might request curbside loan for you if inter-library loan doesn’t work. 
With best wishes, Jonathan 

On Sunday, September 20, 2020, Anne McKnight via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

Hi all~
I’m wondering if anyone who has pounded the pavements and darkened the doors of the theatres in the Yurakucho area might know of any film fests particularly associated with the Hibiya Chanter (日比谷シャンテ) theatre? I ask because Kurosawa Akira was in about 1991 miffed that one of his films (The Bad Sleep Well) was not included at the retrospective of his films that screened there; he hints that it is too déclassé for the time and place. The whole Kurosawa feature was probably a part of a larger festival, as he does refer to a フェスティバル. If I had access to PIA I would go back and look at the listings, but I don’t, so if anyone has a memory of being there or reading about festivals that took place in Hibiya, or strolling by the marquees even, I would very much enjoy hearing about these events.
Thanks!
Anne


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