Kawamoto-Norstein @ Forum des
Images, Day 2 (Part I)
Saturday, March 24, 2012
I rose early on
Saturday and hit the streets of Paris on foot to take in the sights before
great swarms of tourists descended. As a cineaste, one feels a sense of déjà vu
around every corner in Paris as I recognized landmarks and architectural
features from the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and many
others.
After brunch, I
headed to the Centre Pompidou because I had heard from Akino Kondoh (official
website)
about the event Planète Manga being held there until May 27th. The event is great for Parisians, for it
means that many wonderful animated films are being screened at the Pompidou
this spring from early anime like Kenzō
Masaoka’s The Spider and the Tulip
(read review) to Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo
Godfathers (read review), but unfortunately for me there
was no accompanying exhibition. I did
follow the manga sound effects painted on the floor to have a peek in the
Planète Manga salon where a workshop was being held for young people interested
in drawing their own manga.
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My trip to the
Pompidou was not in vain; however, for the bookstore there had an exciting
selection of French releases of manga and anime including everything from Akino
Kondoh’s Les insects en moi to a
photobook tie-in for the latest Gorō
Miyazaki film From Up on Poppy Hill
and from Paprika to Winter Days. There were a load of DVDs that I had to add
to my wish list for my budget could not stretch to buying them on this
trip. As the Cinéma du Réel was also on in the basement of the Pompidou, the bookstore had copies
of two trilingual (JP/FR/EN) DVDs of the films of Yuki Kawamura (official website), a Japanese filmmaker who is based in Paris. Rather than buy something for myself, I
decided to pick up something for the kids.
I passed on the over-priced Takashi
Murakami stuffed toys and went for the Nano
Blocks (official website).
In addition, the library housed in
the Centre Pompidou is running a free exhibition called Art Spiegelman Co-Mix featuring original art by one of the greatest
living comic artists. There was a wide
range of illustrative work on display from Maus-related materials (including a long interview Spiegelman did with his father in
the 1970s) to In the Shadow of No Towers
(post 9/11 theme) and his cover art for The
New Yorker. For those not able to
catch this exhibition at the Pompidou library, the next best thing is to
purchase the amazing books MetaMaus
(includes DVD) and Art Spiegelman Co-Mix.
I skipped the first screening at
Forum des Images on this day, for I have both the US and Japanese DVDs of
Kawamoto’s short puppet films (see: Kawamoto's Animated Shorts on DVD). Instead,
I took a stroll around the grounds of the Louvre to do a short photo shoot with
Sakadachi-kun. As my long time readers will know, I began
writing about alternative Japanese animation upon the discovery of Tomoyasu Murata’s films in late
2006. Sakadachi-kun (aka Handstand Boy)
is the central character in a series of films by Murata, and I have recently
started a tumblr called The Adventures of Sakadachi-kun where I feature photographs I have taken of my
figurine of Sakadachi-kun as he joins me in my travels. The titles of each photograph are a parody of
the titles of the Sakadachi-kun films.
At 16:30, I attended the screening
of Yuri Norstein’s major works: The
Heron and the Crane (1974), The
Hedgehog in the Fog (1975), Tale of Tales
(1979) and 30 minutes from The Overcoat
(unfinished). On more than one occasion
over the weekend, Norstein voiced his delight in being able to screen his works
on 35mm. He had been told that 35mm
films were being thrown in the garbage and he feels that it is the best medium
for watching not only his films, but films in general. In introducing this programme of shorts,
Norstein likened our experience to having his whole life in capsule form.
Another theme that Norstein raised
over the weekend was the cultural importance of art. At this screening he said that we are living
in very difficult times and that in such times art is what brings people
together. This was certainly true at the
Forum des Images where the audiences were really captivated by the films. There was applause between each film and an
enthusiastic standing ovation at the end.
The audience seemed to adore Tale
of Tales in particular.
It is truly a magical experience
watching Norstein’s films in a cinema projected on 35mm. It is difficult to find words to describe the
different between the colours and textures on film as opposed to in a digital
format – for it is a difference that one can not only see but feel. The only drawback to seeing the works on film
was of course the wear and tear of age on the film. In The
Heron and the Crane in particular the white of the background and the white
of the two birds washed together as some detail had been lost due to age. In contrast, The Hedgehog in the Fog and Tale
of Tales looked amazing on film as one can see the details of the textures
and layering very clearly in this format.
 |
| Good Night, Children |
 |
| Sugar ad |
The main programme of short films
was followed by the four commercials Norstein did for a Russian sugar company
in the mid-1990s and clips from the animation that he did for the Russian television
programme Good Night, Children. Before and after the screenings, Norstein
voiced his regret at having to do commercial work to make a living. He seemed nostalgic for the USSR days
when there was a higher regard for the role of an artist in society.
After the screening, someone in the
audience asked him if there is any modern animation that he likes and he
replied that nothing really interests him about computer animation. He did say that he had respect for Pixar, but
he seemed to feel that computers were leading the art rather than merely being
at the service of art.
by Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
PREVIOUSLY: Kawamoto-Norstein @Forum des Images, Day 1
