The Cruel Stories of Nagisa Oshima in NY April 1-14

Tools    





http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1017

Check the link. If you live in the NY area, there's a retrospective of Nagisa Oshima films going on at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from April 1st - 14th (darn, looks like I missed seeing one of my favorites on the big screen yesterday: The Sun's Burial). A lot of these are hard to find films by a real master of the avant garde/New Wave in Japan. Looks like a few of my favorites aren't getting shown but I have to strongly emphasize the importance of seeing Three Resurrected Drunkards (Tue, April 7 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm). That movie is awesome.

Trailer:



I'm going to jump at the chance to see that one again and try catching a few of these that I missed at the NY Film Festival last fall. if anyone else in the area is interested and would like to meet up as well, drop me a private message.



I've caught two of these shows so far.

The first was Pleasures of the Flesh (1966), which is billed as a scathing satire of consumerism, though as such I didn't find it all that interesting. The premise, about a suicidal murderer's misguided attempts to buy female companionship, was promising and it has some really lovely compositions but it was definitely less ambitious and entertainingly provocative than I've come to expect from Oshima and it plays out rather predictably (wow, you mean all of this leaves him feeling unfulfilled) and the ironic twist isn't much of a consolation.



Boy (1969)

Somewhat sensationalized trailer (that rather perversely tries to sell the film as a beautifully photographed [it is.] travel guid to Japan [is it?])
.



Today's is The Ceremony (1971), which I caught at the Lincoln film society last August. That one is definitely worth seeing, but be ready for something weird and perverse. The big selling point of the movie for me is the scene where the completely spineless hero of the film attempts to consummate his sham wedding by dressing a pillow up as the absent bride, before attempting the rape of his devious, overbearing grandfather. Good stuff.

A tentative


Tomorrow is Three Resurrected Drunkards, which I wrote a little bit about here.