Japanese cinema

When I lived in other places, e.g., in Edinburgh, I used to go to the cinema regularly, actually mostly to the legendary Filmhouse and to the Cameo. Unfortunately, around here (Uppsala, Sweden) most cinemas, besides being very expensive, just show very low quality films. This restriction forced me to seek alternative venues. And so I discovered Japanese cinema. For long time now, I've been watching free Japanese films of bygone times, those films that are, of course, available for free on the Internet. And so I compiled a list which I would like to share:

My Japanese cinema list

In it, one can find films by Kenji Mizoguchi (such as Ugetsu Monogatari, Sansho the Bailiff and the Crucified Lovers, all highly recommended), by Hiroshi Simizu (such as Mr Thank You, a real must) and by Yasujiro Ozu (such as Late Spring, Ohayo [Good Morning], which one should watch at least twice). Unfortunately, Tokyo Story, one of the greatest films ever made, is not available with English subtitles.

Japan has a long history in film, starting from 1897. Most people know Akira Kurosawa and, more recently, Takeshi Kitano, but the films in my list go back to the roots of the Japanese cinema. Perhaps the reason that Japan has had such a stunning cinematic production can be traced to its long tradition in theatre that produced the genres of Gagaku, Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki. But I can't say for sure because I'm neither an expert nor I have much knowledge about the these genres other than a cursory one. Nevertheless, last year, I did manage to visit the great exhibition of 19th-century Japanese Kabuki theatre woodblock prints at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

"Offensive" art in Sweden

Some Swedes find certain types of art offensive. And they take action. They remove it, change it, or vandalize it. Here are four examples.

1. Recently, the Swedish parliament removed this painting by the baroque artist G E Schröder

because it "offended feminists and Muslims".

2. A few years ago, a group of Swedish vandals smashed the photographs in an exhibition "History of Sex" by the New York Artist Andres Serano in an art gallery in Lund. While destroying the photographs, they shouted “we don’t support this,” plus an expletive. A woman tried to stop them but was frightened by the axes carried by the perpetrators. 

3. A couple of years ago, when it was decided that some pedestrian crossing signs should be changed to female one, some Swedes found the female clip art too offensive (it had short skirt and pointed breasts) and replaced it by another female with shorter breasts and longer skirt. Full report on this in my previous posting.

4. Recently, I was told that some people removed some lovely portraits of 18th c. astronomers (like Celsius) from the department of astronomy at Uppsala University because they were men. According to those who removed the paintings, there should have been women too. Unfortunately, there were no women professors 2 centuries ago.

Marcel Duchamp on Takis

Some time ago, the famous Dadaist/surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp wrote a note of admiration on the work of Takis, pointing out, in particular, his oeuvre on magnetic fields:

Of course, he is not referring to me, but to Takis, the artist  whose work can be seen in La Défense, Paris. He  used magnetism as a tool for his installations. I remember some of that from the Berkeley Art Museum. I also remember a stamp, issued by France in 1993, exhibiting a ... rather abstract work by Takis. I used to own the stamp.