JAPANESE “LITERATURE IN FILM” SERIES PRESENTED AT BARD COLLEGE

Director Jun Ichikawa Introduces His Film, Tony Takitani; Series Includes Screenings of Maborosi and Kwaidan

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College and the Division of Languages and Literature present a Japanese Literature in Film Series at Bard College. Screenings of films are featured, as well as a lecture by Jun Ichikawa, director of Tony Takitani (2004). All films are screened in the Avery Film Center, and are free and open to the public.

Jun Ichikawa, whose work has been screened and awarded prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival and Montreal World Film Festival, introduces his film adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story “Tony Takitani” on Friday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m. A reception follows the film at 7:30 p.m.

“Tony Takitani explores the borders between solitude and loneliness, hunger and consumption, memory and loss. Ichikawa has made a film that’s more a visual poem than a narrative, and all the more exquisite for it,” writes Neva Chonin of the San Francisco Chronicle. Takitani is a lonely technical illustrator who finds happiness when he marries the beautiful and stylish Eiko. When he asks her to stem her addiction to designer clothing, the consequences are tragic.

Ichikawa made a name for himself by directing distinguished and well-known commercials; he was awarded the grand prize at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 1985, a prize which he went on to win for 3 years in a row. Soon after this, he directed his first feature film, Bu Su, in 1987. His other films include Tsugumi (1990), Byoin de shinu to iu kote (Dying at a Hospital, 1993), Tokyo kyodai (Tokyo Siblings, 1995), Tadon to Chikuwa (1995), Tokiwaso no seishun (Tokiwa: The Manga Apartment, 1996), Tokyo Marigold (2001), Tokyo Yakyoku (Tokyo Lullaby, 1997), and Ryoma no Tsuma to sono Otto to Aijin (Ryoma’s Wife, Her Husband, and Lover, 2002).

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s film Maborosi (1995) is screened on Wednesday, April 25, at 7:00 p.m. and Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964) on Friday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m.

The Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Bard in China have sponsored this series. For further information, call 845-758-6822 or e-mail nakayasu@bard.edu.

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(04.16.2007)

This event was last updated on 05-06-2007

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