Kawamoto-Norstein @ Forum des Images, Day 1
On Friday, March 23rd, I took the
ICE train from Frankfurt to Paris to attend the event Kawamoto-Norstein: The Puppet Master
and the Painter Animator at Forum des Images. The opening
event was an exciting affair for not only was the legendary Russian animator Yuri Norstein there as a guest, but the
Canadian pinscreen animator Jacques
Drouin and one half of the Brothers
Quay were also in the audience.
Drouin was one of the 35 animators who contributed a stanza to Winter Days (read review), and this was a rare opportunity to see the
film on 35mm.
The event was hosted by Isabelle Vanini (Forum des Images
programmer) and Ilan Nguyen (Tokyo
University of the Arts). Kihachirō Kawamoto, in whose memory
this event was dedicated, had been to Forum des Images on three occasions. On one of these occasions, he presented Winter Days. This 2003 event was captured on video and we
got to watch footage of Kawamoto introducing the film. This was followed by Kawamoto’s Self Portrait (read review) and as part of the introduction to
Winter Days, Norstein shared some of
his memories and impressions of Kawamoto.
Norstein spoke of the great pleasure
that Kawamoto took in making films with friends, and he joked that he had once
seen a photo of Kawamoto at aged 3 and that it struck him that Kawamoto had
never aged. He still looked exactly the
same. Norstein felt that Kawamoto never
grew up. He retained his sense of
childlike joy, and this could be heard in his infectious laugh.
As Norstein spoke, a photograph of
the two men together holding a puppet from Winter Days was projected on the
screen behind him. Kawamoto apparently
gave this puppet to Norstein as a gift.
The last time that Norstein and Kawamoto spoke together,
Kawamoto expressed an interested in making a film about the life of the Chinese
poet Li Po. I found this interesting because Kawamoto had
made a short short animation for an Absolute Vodka internet campaign in 1997 (read review) in which the poet drinks vodka
under flowering cherry blossoms.
Kawamoto came up with the idea of
adapting the renku poem Winter Days after a discussion with
Norstein in which Norstein expressed a wish to someday adapt the haiku poems of Bashō into animation. This
is why Norstein was honoured with the task of adapting the first stanza of Winter Days. It was Norstein’s own idea to introduce an encounter between Chikusai and Basho in his interpretation of the first stanza. Read more about this at Anipages.
Kawamoto was delighted with the idea, and Norstein said that his
contribution was well received by Japanese audiences though he himself was not
fully convinced because he is a perfectionist and always thinks he can do
better.
I have watched Winter Days on DVD many times but this was my first time watching
it on 35mm. It’s a very different
experience watching it on 35mm – the colours are so different, the luminosity
of the image is different, my awareness of depth of frame was heightened, and I
noticed many interesting textures in some of the films that I had not before. The screening was followed by the
“Making Of” documentary that appears on the DVD and this was in turn followed
by questions from the general public.
During the discussions, a slideshow of rare images of Kawamoto
screened.
One audience member was struck by
the music that was used in Winter Days. The composition masterfully acts not only as
an accompaniment to the action of each stanza, but also aids in creating a
sense of continuity between each short short.
Norstein was unable to answer this question, but Nguyen was able to
identify to composer as Shinichirō Ikebe,
who also did the soundtrack to Kawamoto’s short film Tabi (1973). Ikebe is, of
course, well known to fans of Japanese cinema for his work composing the
soundtracks to many Akira Kurosawa
films (Kagemusha, Madadayo, Dreams,
etc.). He has also worked on several Shōhei Imamura films such as Vengeance is Mine (1979), The Battle of Narayama (1983), The Eel (1997), and Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001). Hayao
Miyazaki’s anime TV series Future Boy
Conan (1978) was also scored by Ikebe.
One audience member seemed
disgruntled that Winter Days appeared
to only have had men work on it. This
false impression was given by the Making Of documentary, which only features
male animators. There was footage taken
of the female animators at work among the extras on the Japanese DVD, but this
didn’t make it into the edited Making Of doc which due to time constraints only
included 17 animators. There is an
expensive box set edition of Winter Days
available in Japan, and I have heard that it contains extended interviews with
all participants.
 |
| Okuyama working on Winter Days |
Several notable female animators
worked on Winter Days:
Noriko Morita does
a lot of collaborative dance performances, often bringing together animation,
music, and dance in innovative video installation performances. See her profile at Monstra this year.
Reiko Okuyama
and her husband Yoichi Kotabe
collaborated on one stanza using Okuyama’s distinctive copperplate engraving
technique. Okuyama, who sadly passed
away in 2007, worked on many classic Toei Doga animated films and series. (read more about her).
Maya Yonesho, a stop motion animator who divides her time between Europe and Japan (read more about her).
Uruma Delvi, a husband and wife team specializing in flash animation. Check out their official website.
Azuru Ishiiki,
who in addition to working as an animator is known as a Shimai dancer (see image of her dancing, see her JAA profile)
I.K.I.F. (half
of which is female animator Sonoko
Ishida). I.K.I.F. have done special effects on loads of anime films from Pat Labor to Doraemon.
Stop motion animation pioneer Fusako Yusaki, who has lived and worked
in Italy since the 1960s. (read more about her)
I should also mention that many male animators have women (often their partners/spouses or former students) working as assistants
on their films. Most notably, Yuri
Norstein’s wife Francheska Yarbusova
and Kōji Yamamura’s wife Sanae Yamamura – both of whom are very
talented artists in their own rights.
Someone asked Norstein about how he
overcame the language barrier in order to communicate with Kawamoto. He explained that he had a translator, but he
also joked that after drinking sake,
one understands everything. I was
impressed by how spry Norstein was for someone of his age. He became especially animated when talking
about Kawamoto, and I really felt that a lot of the complements that he paid to
Kawamoto (eternally youthful, full of good humour and joie de vivre) could also
be applied to Norstein himself. He
deflected an impertinent question about his ongoing adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat with
a joke. My French is a bit rusty, but it was something about how he is only the pilot of the plane. The implication being, I suppose, that the pilot is not in control of the weather and turbulence he might encounter along the way.
All in all, it was a very pleasant
and informative evening – followed by a wine and cheese where I got to chat a
little bit with Alexis Hunot of Zewebanim and met some of his students. I also met Marc Aguesse of Catsuka. More on my animation weekend in Paris in
coming instalments.
by Catherine Munroe Hotes 2012
