Tag Archives: experimental cinema

Issue 54: The Art Theatre Guild of Japan


Funeral Parade of Roses

The Art Theatre Guild: The creative explosion of Japanese independent cinema in the 1960s

In conjunction with the BFI and Close-Up seasons, we focus on The Art Theatre Guild of Japan (ATG), which became the centre of a vibrant independent filmmaking scene in the late 60s. We have articles on Teshigahara’s ghostly coal mining drama Pitfall, Masao Adachi’s surreal dreamscape Galaxy, Funeral Parade of Roses, a stunning gay take on Oedipus, Buddhist incest tale This Transient Life, Lost Lovers, a portrait of post-war youth, and cine-poem Silence Has No Wings. Our Reel Sounds column focuses on Fluxus associate Yasunao Tone’s soundtrack for Galaxy.

In new cinema releases we review Muslim punk band movie The Taqwacores, acclaimed Japanese drama Villain, Lee Tamahori’s Uday Hussein dramatisation The Devil’s Double, James Marsh’s documentary Project Nim and Pedro Almod&#243var’s latest, The Skin I Live In, as part of our report on the Karlovy Vary festival.

New DVDs include Bill Morrison and J&#243hann J&#243hannsson’s The Miners’ Hymns, offbeat Romanian vampire mystery Strigoi, Mamoru Oshii’s intriguing anim&#233 Musashi, Chris Marker’s La jetée and Sergei Paradjanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates and we have a Comic Strip Review of Uruguayan horror film The Silent House. In Alter Ego, Nick Lake is blind swordsman Zatoichi. Our Dominion of Canada column returns with a look at male layabouts in Fellini’s I vitelloni and we preview the London Animation Festival.

PODCAST:
Kosmos: Russian scholar Sergei Kapterev (Institute of Cinema Art in Moscow) talks about Soviet science fiction, the connection between SF cinema and politics, the impact of the space race and the importance of Andrei Tarkovsky. Plus, in a Q&A recorded at SCI-FI-LONDON in 2010, Alex Fitch talks to Polish poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and SF writer/journalist Wojciech Orli&#324ski about cinematic adaptations of the work of Stanislaw Lem.