Wait?! What? We're not original?

*NOTE* NO MOVIE NIGHT LAST NIGHT


from a New York Times article (Dave Kehr, 7.25.08)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/movies/25wmovies.html

JAPANESE SCREEN CLASSICS (Wednesday and Thursday)
This collection of 24 Japanese films was presented at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as a tribute to Kashiko Kawakita, who until her death in 1993 was a tireless campaigner on behalf of bringing Japanese films to the world and the world cinema to Japan. In 1982 she created the nonprofit Japan Film Library Council (now known as the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute), an organization dedicated to keeping the leading Japanese directors’ work in circulation; the eight filmmakers united here are all better known today because of her support.

The series begins on Wednesday with Akira Kurosawa’s famous “Rashomon” (1950) at 5 p.m. and continues that day with Kon Ichikawa’s seldom-seen period drama “Her Brother” (1960) at 7 p.m. and Kaneto Shindo’s portrait of an aging stage actress, “A Last Note” (1995), at 9 p.m. Thursday brings a 1976 entry from Yoji Yamada’s long-running “Tora-san” series, “Tora-san’s Sunrise and Sunset,” at 6:15, and Nagisa Oshima’s radical 1966 take on the lovers-on-the-run genre, “Violence at Noon,” at 8:30. The series continues through Aug. 14, with work by Sumiko Handeda, Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki to come. Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street, (212) 875-5600, filmlinc.org; $11. (Kehr)


ALSO: another neat link to a book on japanese sex cineama
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/behind-the-pink-curtain.shtml

Devin's E-mail, because it has questions.

Hey everybody! Leave comments!

Also we were thinking maybe "Awesome Sets" (or some clever-er title) for the next theme... three beautiful location sets, (outdoors and urban) and three convincing stage sets. What do you think?


So a couple things i was thinking of before we get into the next movie night.

What is the clever title for this movie run?
Some that i was thinking of were:

After the Bombs, Came... Japanese Films of the 50's!

No Best Foreign Film Award Needed for... Japanese Films of the 50's!

Yeah i know these are kind of long, but at least they have more flare than...Japanese films of the 50's (yawn).

Also i was thinking it would be cool to do games of sorts before the movie. (We tend to do 6 degree's after the movie.) For next movie night i was thinking everyone could make a list of "who would you cast if America made a shity remake of Rashomon?" Yeah? No? Something thing fun to go from one night to the next? Think it over.

Also I like the idea of someone introducing the movie, kind of like what i did at Rashomon. It doesn't have to be an intro like Altman or anything, but some bit of trivia or whatever. Hell we could have more than one person do an intro too. Yeah? No? Think it over.

One other thing i was thinking of was we should do a rotation of who chooses the theme. So if i think of one, i cant use another until everyone has made one. Then everyone could submit suggestions for what movies should be in the next theme. And then we all vote on all the films submitted and the top 6 go into the theme. Yeah? No? Think it over.

Well that's all i got right now.

See everyone on Thursday!

Devin

Ugetsu (Monogatari) aka "This isn't Africa, get that off your head."

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#3)

Released: 1954 (b&w)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Actors:

• Masayuki Mori (Genjurô)
• Machiko Kyô (Lady Wakasa) same as in Rashamon
  
• Kinuyo Tanaka (Miyagi)
• Eitarô Ozawa (To^bei) (as Sakae Ozawa)

Nominated for an Oscar for best b&w Costume Design in 1956.
Won 2 Mainichi Film Concours awards in 1954 (Art Direction and Sound Recording).
This film is listed as Drama/Fantasy so watch out for some awesome twists!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046478/

@ the Crow's Nest
Present: Chris, Devin, Big John, Lincoln, Matt

Gojira

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#2)

Released: 1954 (b&w)
Director: Ishiro Honda
Tagline: The legend begins...
Actors:

• Akira Takarada (Hideto Ogata)
• Momoko Kôchi (Emiko Yamane)
• Akihiko Hirata (Daisuke Serizawa-hakase)
• Takashi Shimura (Kyohei Yamane-hakase)
• Fuyuki Murakami (Professor Tanabe)

Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira).
There is a TON of interesting triva about this film on imdb.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/


@ the Crow's Nest
Society members present: Chelsea, Devin, Jenny, Big John, Lincoln, Matt, Zach

Rashomon

Theme: Japanese films of the 1950's (#1)

Released: 1950 (b&w)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Tagline: The husband, the wife...or the bandit?
Actors:

• Toshirô Mifune (Tajômaru)
• Machiko Kyô (Masako Kanazawa)
• Masayuki Mori (Takehiro Kanazawa)
• Takashi Shimura (Woodcutter)
• Minoru Chiaki (Priest)
• Kichijiro Ueda (Commoner)

Won Best Actress award in 1951 at the Mainichi Film Concours in Tokyo, Japan.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042876/

@ the Crow's Nest
Society members present: Chelsea, Chris, Devin, Jason Adams, Jenny, Big John, Zach
Notes: Jen swooned over Humphrey Bogart. There was low to average making fun of this movie.

Go to town with your comments kids!
Coming up Thursday the 18th, GODZILLA!

Post the First

We've successfully concluded the first of what should be many many nights of movie-watching, movie-bashing, six-degrees-of'ing and general cinematic camaraderie.

If you missed the first night this is how it works:

A) We decide on a theme (could be a genre of movie or a loose theme that ties them all together. serious, wacky, whatever).
B) We pick 6 films within that theme.
C) We watch them over the course of 2 weeks. Monday, Thursday and Sunday are our proposed nights.

Then we talk about what we saw, try to learn something and everyone is welcome to post to the blog or comment. Keeping a record of our discourse is definitely a really important part of the Society so if you got somethin' to say, by all means do so! Everyone won't be at every movie night so this is a good way for everyone to catch up as well. You all will be able to both comment and start a blog but it will be easiest if we stick to just one blog per movie, k?

By Sunday we hope to have an official name, at which point the blog address will most likely change. So everybody think of something good. As is custom in our group the funnier, snootier and more obscure the better!