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DVD ROM is a possibility I suppose. They did a DVD ROM mp3 for Dostoevsky's White Nights. But that story exists in public domain english translations (by Constance Garnett, for one), so all they had to do was find someone to read it. For Kobo Abe's work, they'd have to license the translation and hire someone to read it. Furthermore, White Nights is the only DVD ROM feature that I know of on any Criterion release. But the novels Face of Another and Woman in the Dunes are both 256 pages each, which isn't much more than The Man Who Fell to Earth's 224 (The Ruined Map is 304). Plus, they're both published by Vintage, who also published the Short Cuts book. So I think that the inclusion of the original novels in one or more Teshigahara releases is a distinct possibility.

BAMcinématek will screen a retrospective, Man of the Dunes: Hiroshi Teshigahara featuring new prints:

WITHOUT MAPS: DISCOVERING HIROSHI TESHIGAHARA

The son of Japan's foremost Ikebana (the art of flower-arranging) expert, Hiroshi Teshigahara has lived a dozen different lives as an artist: sculptor, painter, opera director, interior designer, writer, and more. His visual art background, combined with his taste for the eccentric, lead him to create films that flirted with the avant-garde (Pitfall, The Face of Another) and pushed the boundaries of what could be seen on Japanese screens (as in his classic Woman in the Dunes). All films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and in Japanese with English subtitles.
Films include: a week run, new print ANTONIO GAUDI (1984); new print PITFALL (OTOSHIANA); (1962) SUMMER SOLDIERS (1972); new print THE FACE OF ANOTHER (TANIN NO KAO) (1966); and new print WOMAN IN THE DUNES (SUNA NO ONNA) (1964)

More Screenings with New 35mm Prints

The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA will be running some Teshigahara films
Mar 31 to April 6.

"Woman in the Dunes" will play 3/31-4/2. According to the notes, this will be the 148 min version which I have not seen. I guess I'll be able to answer the questions from my last post.

How are the films "Pitfall", "Face of Another", and "Antonio Gaudi?"

Panda

I love ANTONIO GAUDI (he says, not having seen it for five years), but your mileage will completely vary depending on your interest in the subject matter - it's a doco on the architect and full of sinuous, long shots of his architecture.

I bought PITFALL from MOC because I loved WOMAN IN THE DUNES and GAUDI, and was pretty disappointed. It has its moments, as they say, but it was a bit too histrionic or something for me. That said, maybe I should give it another try with re-set expectations. Its photography is notable and full of extra-wide shots, so I'd be particularly keen to give it a big-screen shot.

I haven't seen THE FACE OF ANOTHER.

Face of Another is great. It's essentially a pyschological sci-fi film that explores the nature of identity. Well worth checking out.

Panda wrote:The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA will be running some Teshigahara films
Mar 31 to April 6.

"Woman in the Dunes" will play 3/31-4/2. According to the notes, this will be the 148 min version which I have not seen. I guess I'll be able to answer the questions from my last post.

How are the films "Pitfall", "Face of Another", and "Antonio Gaudi?"

They just showed all these films at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in new prints, and they all looked great....GAUDI, especially, looked stunning.

Perhaps Criterion has been waiting on the same (restored?) elements that the bfi will be using for (Criterion's) long-awaited transfer. I sold my Japanese Asmik disc quite a while back, when Milestone first indicated that Criterion had licensed the film.

On a related note, I have been very underwhelmed by many of the expensive bfi releases I've purchased over the years, so I doubt I'll purchase this one to tide me over.

Annie Mall wrote:I'm wildly speculating a mammoth boxset containing all the Kobo Abe films Teshigahara made (Woman in the Dunes, Face of Another, Pitfall and Man wihtout a Map) with Antonio Gaudi and the Zwerin docu among the many extras.

This wouldn't only be the boxset of 2006, but of all-time. I would be so buying this, no matter how expensive... at least 6 disks? 7 disks? And then a thick booklet to accompany it. I suppose that Suna no onna will be released eventually, in a boxset or not, so if I were to worry about something Teshigahara, it would be his Gaudí.

I still haven't bought the 2 MOC Teshigahara releases, keeping my fingers crossed for Criterion releases.

Shit, I forgot about the possibilities of Teshigahara in the collection. To have a delux edition of Woman in the Dunes (long rumoured to be in the making) would be exquisite. Wonder what's keeping it?

In what looks likely to signal upcoming Criterion releases next year, the DIA in Detroit is showing the following films this fall:

Pitfall
Woman in the Dunes
Face of Another
Antonio Gaudi

They've also got a handful of Mizoguchis, which is probably why we haven't seen any of them from Criterion yet, Sansho the Bailiff, etc.

Fallen Idol (we're getting a criterion of this already, but it fits the pattern of the DIA's scheduled films) & Pandora's Box are also being played in Nov. around the time of their scheduled DVD releases.

The reason I bring this up of course is that Detroit seems to be one of the "last stops" for touring prints, and in the past after I've had a chance to see these prints, Criterion's usually are out within 6-9 months. Examples of this are Au Hasard Balthazar, The Red Circle, Late Spring, and a handful of others.

BrightEyes23 wrote:Pitfall
Woman in the Dunes
Face of Another
Antonio Gaudi

Sounds like a quality Teshigahara/Kobo Abe box set. Hopefully they can get The Ruined Map, as well.

rwaits wrote:Teshigara made a documentary about Gaudi? What??

Yep; I saw it recently. It's quite good.

ANTONIO GAUDI is out on DVD (well, maybe it's OOP now, but there is/was a region 1 Image). Hardly reference quality, but then, neither was the print I saw theatrically back in '97.

Here's a whiskey commercial Teshigahara did (presumably?) while shooting Bambu. It's in English, and about as seriously toned as it gets.

Steven H wrote:Here's a whiskey commercial Teshigahara did (presumably?) while shooting Bambu. It's in English, and about as seriously toned as it gets.

Not that I really needed to see it, but I'm a bit annoyed that Google Video isn't available in China. (Google probably first needs to deliver sacks of money to the right communist).

I enjoyed alot Pitfall and The Face of Another. Face of Another is of course more polished, as Teshigahara had alot more resources after the success of Woman in the Dunes. Some great camera angles in Face of Another. I also enjoyed the riffs on The Invisible Man, Frankenstein, and Eyes Without A Face.

The MoC transfer of The Face of Another looked super, I was a bit disappointed with the subtitles. Seemed that the English subtitles provided less dialogue than they could/should have, and there were grammar mistakes throughout.

Lemmy Caution wrote:The MoC transfer of The Face of Another looked super, I was a bit disappointed with the subtitles. Seemed that the English subtitles provided less dialogue than they could/should have, and there were grammar mistakes throughout.

I loved the film & appreciated the effort but I think folks get a little carried away describing the transfer which I thought was on the upside of OK-- washed telecine coloring & artifacting i e videotape burps & blocking every here & there.

Four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963)

Didn't find any info on IMDB about these. They not even listed. Either his filmography is incomplete or these were personal shorts Teshigahara has.

Other posters have touched on it and I have ranted against the auteur theory enough, but isn't it a little unfair for Criterion to give ownership of these films without including Kôbô Abe? If The Third Man, Our Man in Havana and The Fallen Idol were released together, I suspect that Graham Greene's name would be a tad more prominent.

Cinephrenic wrote:

Four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963)

Didn't find any info on IMDB about these. They not even listed. Either his filmography is incomplete or these were personal shorts Teshigahara has.

Ako appears on IMDB as a segment from La Fleur de l'âge, ou Les adolescentes. But you're right, the rest don't appeat at all...which shouldn't be too surprising considering....

Tribe

Commander Shears wrote:If The Third Man, Our Man in Havana and The Fallen Idol were released together, I suspect that Graham Greene's name would be a tad more prominent.

Actually, I doubt it. The re-release of The Third Man will be the first time Greene's contribution will be addressed with any significance. Criterion is unabashedly (and perhaps often to their detriment) director-centric.

On another note, I guess this box is Criterion's way of sticking it to those who bought the MoC versions of two of the titles.

eez28 wrote:So for those who have the R2 counterparts do you think I should get the criterion box or the R2 versions?

You should wait to see how the transfers look. I really like the Rayns commentaries on both MoC titles. It's hard to imagine that Criterion's video essays will give the same depth of information. On the other hand, the inclusion of the short films gives the Criterion the edge in terms of Teshigahara material, so I'll be double-dipping (especially since I've held off on the BFI Woman of the Dunes).

Matt wrote:On another note, I guess this box is Criterion's way of sticking it to those who bought the MoC versions of two of the titles.

My thoughts exactly. I knew Woman of the Dunes was coming from Criterion so I held off from the BFI. I just didn't expect I'd have to pay for the whole box set to get it.

RE: authorship and directors - it's funny that comes up since we have "Jean Cocteau's Les enfants terribles" released in July also.

tartarlamb wrote:Not to look the gift horse in the mouth, but where is Antonio Gaudi?

Or more appropriately, where is The Man Without a Map?

Cinephrenic wrote:

Four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963)

Didn't find any info on IMDB about these. They not even listed. Either his filmography is incomplete or these were personal shorts Teshigahara has.

From the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival website:

AKO—White Morning

JAPAN / 1965 / Japanese / B&W / 35mm / 29 min

Director: Teshigahara Hiroshi
Original story, Script: Abe Kobo
Photography: Ishimoto Yasuhiro
Music: Takemitsu Toru
Producer: Wakatsuki Shigeru
Cast: Irie Miki, Hasegawa Teruko, Matsushita Yoko
Production Company: Ninjin Club

Adapted for film by Abe Kobo from one of his own works, AKO—White Morning was made as the Japanese component of the omnibus work Fifteen-Year-Old Widows (Japan, Italy, France, Canada.) With Ako, a sixteen-year-old working in a bread factory, as its protagonist, White Morning is a cinema verité-style portrayal of what it was like being young in the sixties. Based around sketches of Ako's days off spent with her boyfriend, White Morning is a collage of daily work in the factory and young Ako's comments on her life. A soundtrack by Takemitsu Toru brings the images to life.

Tokyo 1958

JAPAN / 1958 / French, English, Japanese / Color, B&W / 16mm / 30 min

Directors, Script, Planning: Teshigahara Hiroshi, Hani Susumu, Matsuyama Zenzo, Kusakabe Kyushiro, Ogi Masahiro, Kawazu Yoshiro, Maruo Sadamu, Mushanokoji Kanzaburo, Sakisaka Ryuichiro
Photography: Kikuchi Shu, Segawa Hiroshi, Fujii Yoshitaka
Music: Hara Hiroo
Production: Cinema 58

This experimental film was entered in the World Experimental Film Competition held in Brussels, Belgium, and is the work of “Cinema 58,â€

Huh. Weird that they wouldn't include Antonio Gaudi if they had the rights to it. I mean, where else would they put that? I didn't really expect Man Without a Map considering the rumored copyright problems with it, but it's still very disappointing, especially considering that's my favorite Abe novel and I'd really love to see what Teshigahara did with it.

But anyway, I'm sure this will be great, and I'm sure I'm not the only one sick of CC/MOC overlap, and the short films pretty much make this a must-buy, especially since I held off on the BFI Woman so far.