[KineJapan] Drive My Car

Tue Feb 1 16:01:39 EST 2022

It looks like the series of talks is being recorded--at least from what I
can gather from the recordings of the previous symposia in the series.

On Tue, Feb 1, 2022 at 10:37 AM Roger Macy via KineJapan <
kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

> I agree that the audition scenes are striking, particularly that of the
> signing mute character, but my memory is that Hamaguchi allowed himself
> some medium close-ups there.  I’m pretty sure I would have walked out of
> the (diegetically) ‘real’ theatre performance if confronted with an
> enormous screen for the surtitles with two very small actors at the bottom
> of it, who weren’t ‘speaking’ a common language.
>
> 5 pm PST is pretty late in old Europe but I’d be interested whether
> Hamaguchi felt a detachment, or commitment, to that style 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 into *Drive 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 like *Eureka,* 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
> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F217600%2FRecognizing_Others_in_a_New_Japanese_Cinema%3Femail_work_card%3Dtitle&data=04%7C01%7Ctug2%40connect.yale.edu%7C23ffb038eb5f4e1cc41008d9e5a5dbc4%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637793322789503154%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=haOHT8o1V1ooUF8UvG2xcZojiQ5zOdoYK%2BZD3OAx7J4%3D&reserved=0>)
>   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/*
> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-personal.umich.edu%2F~nornes%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ctug2%40connect.yale.edu%7C23ffb038eb5f4e1cc41008d9e5a5dbc4%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637793322789503154%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=i97gnXCiNQUQOZR3zujk04HrCNDgmyWonKkTAC%2BuDU0%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> *Department of Film, Television and Media 6348 North Quad 105 S. State
> Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285*
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>

-- 
*Miryam Sas*
Professor, Comparative Literature, Film & Media, Japanese Arts
University of California, Berkeley

*Feeling Media: Potentiality and the Afterlife of Art *(Duke University
Press, forthcoming Fall 2022 )
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20220201/e2d49b2b/attachment-0001.html>