- Document type
- Book review
- Published
- 16 February 2004
Eine Verrückte Seite. Stummfilm und filmische Avantgarde in Japan
- Author:
- Mariann Lewinsky
- Publisher:
- Chronos Verlag
A Crazy Page and Crossroads
- Author:
- D.A. Rajakaruna
- Publisher:
- Kandy Offset Printers Ltd
- Review by:
- Jasper Sharp
If you are particularly interested in Japanese silent film and you can read German, then worth a mention is Mariann Lewinsky's Eine verrückte Seite. Stummfilm und filmische Avantgarde in Japan. This 440 page book, whose title translates as "A Page of Madness. Silent and Avant-Garde cinema in Japan", was published in Zurich in 1997 and sounds absolutely fascinating. With half the book focusing on the early days of Japanese cinema in general, and the other half more specifically on Teinosuke Kinugasa's oft-neglected experimental classic Kurutta Ippeiji (A Page of Madness, 1926), it is probably worth getting for the stills alone, though unfortunately isn't available in English.
Availability
Eine Verrückte Seite. Stummfilm und filmische Avantgarde in Japan
Chronos Verlag
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There's more on Kinugasa in the form of A Crazy Page and Crossroads, containing the scripts of the director's two best known silent films translated by D.A. Rajakaruna of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. With the exceedingly modest cover price of $10, at first glance this book looks like a fairly cheap and inconsequential read. After all, what is the possible use of a book containing the screenplays for two silent films which are almost invariably described in terms of their visual impact, and aren't actually even readily available for viewing at this precise moment in time? As a matter of fact, in line with Mariann Lewinsky's statement that a benshi narration is crucial to the proper understanding of A Page of Madness, Rajakaruna's script adds another level of understanding to this stunning film and its successor, revealing that both films possess highly structured and sophisticated narratives and have a lot more going for them than mere technical innovation.
The preface, at a mere 12 pages long seems a little sketchy in some parts, and though containing some interesting excerpts from Japanese reviews of the time, doesn't go quite far enough in tackling such difficult issues as the films' European influences, the status of the Japanese literary avant-garde at the time, nor the debates surrounding the genesis of A Page of Madness' script. Interestingly, though Rajakaruna mentions that a script by Nobel Prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata was published subsequent to the film's release, he neglects to say whether his own translation is based on this work or whether it's just a series of notes jotted down whilst he was watching the film himself - a rather important factor when it comes to judging the value of such a book. Still at the price, for those interested in acquainting themselves further with these two great films, this is about the best there is available in the English language. In the same series, at the same price, is Ozu Yasujiro: Early Summer, which has the advantage over his other book in that this particular film actually contains dialogue, though the published screenplay itself contains little other information on either the film or its director.
Availability
A Crazy Page and Crossroads
Kandy Offset Printers Ltd