[KineJapan] Drive My Car

[Roger Macy]

I agree that the audition scenes are striking, particularlythat of the signing mute character, but my memory is that Hamaguchi allowed himselfsome medium close-ups there.  I’m prettysure I would have walked out of the (diegetically) ‘real’ theatre performance ifconfronted with an enormous screen for the surtitles with two very small actorsat the bottom of it, who weren’t ‘speaking’ a common language.

5 pm PST is pretty late in old Europebut I’d be interested whether Hamaguchi felt a detachment, or commitment, to thatstyle of theatre direction.

Roger


    On Tuesday, 1 February 2022, 17:28:25 GMT, Goddard, Timothy via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  
 
 
Dear Marcus,
 
  
 
Glad to hear that you liked the film so much. I saw it at Lincoln Center in New York back in early December, and it had a similar effect on me.
 
  
 
Hamaguchi will be participating in a webinar organized by Japan House Los Angeles this evening that might be of interest to you and other KineJapan members:
 
  
 
https://www.japanhousela.com/events/ma-in-japanese-film/
 
  
 
He’ll be joined in conversation by Hitoshi Abe of UCLA and Ken Tadashi Oshima of UW.
 
  
 
—Tug
 
  
 
—
 
Dr. Timothy Unverzagt Goddard高大同
 
Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
 
Yale University
 
320 York Street, Room 112
 
New Haven, CT 06511
 
https://eall.yale.edu/people/timothy-unverzagt-goddard
 
  
 
From:KineJapan <kinejapan-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Markus Nornes via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Date: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 at 12:11 PM
To: Japanese Cinema Discussion Forum <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu>
Cc: Markus Nornes <nornes at umich.edu>
Subject: [KineJapan] Drive My Car
 
I finally saw Drive My Car the other day. It's one of those films that dwells inside you long afterwards. Loved it.
 
  
 
The rhythm and pace of the film is really special. Actors deliver lines in a slightly flat tone and regular cadence. They break into "acting" when they audition, in advanced rehearsal or on stage, which is probably what makes those scenes so striking. I have to admit I hate films-about-theater, and one reason is the style of performance comes off as so stilted and wrong (have yet to see Hamaguchi's Intimacies, but I'd probably dislike it). But this was one film-about-theater that quite mysteriously _worked_. 
 
  
 
Hamaguchi builds a curious self-reflexivity intoDrive My Car. The weird style of rehearsal built into the narrative was also what he subjected his actors to in preproduction. And, judging from comments by a couple of them, they really didn't know what to make of it (the actors are disciplined if they deliver lines with any degree of emoting). 
 
  
 
There is a key line delivered by a mute character to the theater director that goes something like, "Unlike the others, I always have to struggle with words and communicating meaning, so I understand how what matters is not always in the words. I understand what you are doing." This is definitely what's going on in this film; at the same time, I couldn't help noticing the climax is ultimately...wordy. 
 
  
 
So this got me wondering. Drive My Car would seem to embody the legacy of what Aaron called the "detached style" of 90s/turn of the century Japanese film—films likeEureka, another quiet film about trauma, memory, and healing. I won't rehearse Aaron's argument here (if you haven't encountered it,here is a nice gloss)   But I suspect Aaron has something to say about this? 
 
  
 
I'm very curious about how other people are experiencing this film. 
 
  
 
Fun Fact: I drove that very car back in the late 80s, and sold it to none other than Darrell Davis. 
 
  
 
Markus
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
 


 
--- 
 

 
Markus Nornes
 
Professor of Asian Cinema
 
Interim Chair, Dept. of Asian Languages and Culture
 


Department of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
 




 
 




Homepage:http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nornes/
Department of Film, Television and Media
6348 North Quad
105 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
 


  
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