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PostED ON OCTOBER 17 2022

A magnificent documentary complements the rediscovery of filmmaker Kinuyo Tanaka, which took place last year at the Lumière Film Festival

When Kinuyo Tanaka decided to direct movies, she was a favourite actress of Kenji Mizoguchi, who had cast her in some fifteen films. The legendary director expressed his disapproval, not believing that the star, who had dropped out of primary school, was capable of becoming a filmmaker. As the scholar Ayako Saito eloquently explains, in this fascinating documentary on the second female director in the history of Japanese cinema, Mizoguchi was a ‘feminist’, but as defined by the era, meaning someone who had great affection for women...

History proved Mizoguchi wrong. The Lumière Film Festival 2021 was astounded to discover her films, and the subsequent retrospective held in select French theatres attracted 40,000 viewers. Kinuyo Tanaka (1910-1977) directed six singular films, where the female leads are finally three-dimensional characters of substance, a far cry from the submissive stereotypes portrayed by traditional Japanese cinema.

Tanaka, une femme dont on parle, 2022

Pascal Alex-Vincent, a leading specialist in Japanese cinema, traveled to Japan to retrace the path of the little-known actress-turned-director. After two films, one of which faithfully followed an Ozu script (‘The Moon Has Risen’, 1955), Tanaka shot what remains perhaps her masterpiece, ‘The Eternal Breasts’ (1955), a modern story inspired by the writings and life of poetess Fumiko Nakajō, who died of breast cancer at the age of 31. Later, her fifth film, ‘Girls of the Night’ (1961), portrayed the violent depictions of Japanese youth also addressed by her contemporaries, directors of the Japanese New Wave. Kinuyo Tanaka and Nagisa Oshima would even engage in a dialogue through newspapers.

Rich in remarkable iconography, this sensitive documentary, available in the box set of Kinuyo Tanaka's six films published by Carlotta (and on sale at the festival shops), concludes in a very moving way: an elderly couple, the former editor of Kobayashi, a filmmaker who was Tanaka's cousin, and a former assistant of Oshima, take care of the grave of the groundbreaking director who had long been forgotten, and who has finally been rediscovered.

Aurélien Ferenczi

Screenings:

Tanaka, une femme dont on parle  by Pascal-Alex Vincent (2022, 52min)

Villa Lumière Mon 17 2:30pm