Arts & Culture
Photo courtesy of Crierion
Kwaiden won a Special Jury Prize and the Cannes Film Festival
“The Floating World” continues with film festival
The Pointer
dneck184@uwsp.edu
The College of Fine Arts and Communication is presenting a series of Japanese films as part of their COFAC Creates program, titled “The Floating World.”
The program displays Japanese art and culture including Japanese prints, clothing and a film series, which is shown every Sunday.
The festival features three films that use a similar artistic style while telling very different narratives.
Last Sunday the film series began with Kwaidan, which literally translates to “Ghost Story.” The 1965 film won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.
The other two films in the series are “Double Suicide,” an adaptation of a puppet play about a young man’s obsession with a prostitute, and Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugestsu,” an epic ghost tragedy that is considered a masterpiece of Japanese film.
COFAC Creates is coordinated by a group of professors every year and features art that revolves around a specific chosen theme. Cortney Chaffin, an assistant professor of Asian art history said that this is the first year that the program has centered on one culture.
“We chose Japan because it’s really important for students to delve into the culture of East Asia,” she said.
She said the films were chosen because of their artistic styles, which coincided with the program’s display of Japanese prints, conveying the same time period and subject matter found in the artwork.
“All of the movies were selected because they related to the exhibition in one way or another,” she said.
Laurie Schmeling, an associate lecturer in the Division of Communication was also involved in selecting the films. Schmeling teaches a class titled “Introduction to the Art of Film.”
Schmeling said that the first film, “Kwaidan,” was selected because of its thematic similarities with the artwork and because it was a ghost story, appropriate for Halloween. She said that students are challenged by the films because of the language and styles of storytelling they use.
“I would say that it is a challenge for students because it’s a different style of storytelling. I think that they respond to the visual power of the films, which is prevalent especially in ‘Kwaidan,’” she said.
Student Joseph Mackey said that he attended because of an extra credit opportunity presented by Schmeling for the Introduction to Films class.
“It was kind of scary but kind of corny at the same time. It was well put together, and I like how there were four stories put into one,” he said.
Another student, Gina Camozzi said that she attended mainly out of her appreciation for Japanese films.
“I don’t really know a lot about Japanese art, but I’ve seen the woodblock prints and a lot of the stuff in the movie wasn’t realistic, but it looked just like the art and the Kabuki theatre and the prints,” she said.
This Sunday, the second film in the series, “Double Suicide” will be screened at 7pm in room 221 of the Noel Fine Arts Center. The third film, “Ugestsu” will be shown on Nov. 15 in the same room.
