By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Naomi Kawase

Posted Wednesday, May 7th, 2014 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Naomi Kawase
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The seventh in a series of snapshots outlining the nineteen directors in the 67th Palme d’Or Competition.

Background: Japanese; born Nara, Japan 1969.

KawaseNaomiKnown for / style: Shara (2003), The Mourning Forest (2007), Hanezu (2011); a filmography that includes documentaries (many of them short); tender, delicate narratives; writing novels in addition to scripts; reflections on being raised by her grandparents; films that are inspired by personal stories in her life; working with non-professional actors; images that reflect a reverence for the natural world and the elements.

Notable accolades: When Kawase won the Camera d’Or for her first narrative feature (Suzaku, 1997) it was the beginning of a major festival career. Since then, she’s won the Grand Prix at Cannes (The Mourning Forest), two FIPRESCI prizes (Hotaru, 2000 and Suzaku), and was the recipient of a “Filmmakers of the Present” award at Locarno.

Previous Cannes appearances: Kawase has had three films in Competition: Sharasojyu (2003), The Mourning Forest (2007), and Hanezu (2011). Suzaku (1997) played in a parallel section, where it won the Camera d’Or.

Still-The-Water

Film she’s bringing to Cannes: Still the Water (Japanese: Futatsume no mado), a coming-of-age romance. From the distributor notes: “On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, traditions about nature remain eternal. During the full-moon night of traditional dances in August, 16-year-old Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko will attempt to help him understand this mysterious discovery. Together, Kaito and Kyoko will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life, death and love.” Continuing her career theme of elemental veneration, Still the Water’s title liquid will be a major motif.

MG_5707-STILL-THE-WATER-©-2014-«-FUTATSUME-NO-MADO»-Japanese-Film-Partners-Comme-des-Cinémas-Arte-France-Cinéma-LM.

Could it win the Palme? Kawase’s sensitive style is mature, emotionally stirring, and pitch-perfect for the Palme. Is it reductive to think Jane Campion, the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or, would want to induct someone new to her  club? Probably, but the thought remains nonetheless. The jury’s favorite film will be the winning film—full stop. But the images released from Still the Water hint at something beautiful, and Kawase has come very close to winning before. Make no mistake: she is a favorite to win.

Why you should care: “We don’t have many very original films in Japan,” Kawase said in an 2013 interview commissioned by Cannes. “Perhaps this is due to the fact that it is a country with a very marked and very specific culture.” If you feel similarly, Still the Water is a no-brainer. Otherwise, it will be neat to see Kawase compete against Jean-Luc Godard, a hero of hers. “Godard [and the nouvelle vague]’s way of filming life really influenced my style, my way of depicting reality,” Kawase said in the same interview.

Follow Jake Howell on Twitter: @Jake_Howell

Previous Entries:
Tommy Lee Jones
Atom Egoyan
Bennett Miller
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David Cronenberg
Nuri Bilge Ceylan

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Naomi Kawase

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon