WOMAN IN THE DUNES (1964) by Hiroshi Teshigahara

🍄🫠🏖 Psychedelic Summer will continue on August 24 with DREAMS (1990) by Akira Kurosawa!

Please enjoy this slight detour, lead by fellow GFSer Barry! 😁

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I [Barry] am quite thrilled at the chance to discuss this film with you. It impacted me very young, and still entrances me.

“It’s our pleasure to present the 1964 Japanese film, “Woman in the Dunes,” directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and based upon the novel by Kobo Abe. This film won the jury prize at Cannes, and it’s considered one of the great classics of the Japanese New Wave. It’s also one of those great modernist films that fits in the tradition of storytelling we associate with Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, and Eugène Ionesco. In short, this is an absurd story that’s extraordinary and surprising in a whole set of ways.”
Source: Woman in the Dunes | City Cinematheque channel (30 minutes, on YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmoQVYuqR1I
(Suggested to view this after seeing the film.)

Teshigahara directed his sophomore effort with a storm that continues to choke viewers with its desolate landscape and allegory of existence. Brian Susbielles (InSession Film)

From The New York Times 1964 review (this contains spoilers):
(this film) is crowded with harsh and subtle details of the personal relations of the two (main characters). But it is in the projection of these details, which have strong emotional and psychological significances, that the director, Hiroshi Teshigahara, has packed a bewitching poetry and power.
https://archive.is/5Gcw4

Join us Sunday, August 10th at 10am at the Red Brick Cafe, to chat and discuss Woman in the Dunes!

Available here in HD for free:
Suna no onna (aka Woman in the Dunes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Saj1ozpGjO8

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Suggested for after viewing the film:
Woman in the Dunes Video Essay by James Quandt (29 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI2NnOQNcbQ

A terrific contribution from the Criterion release of Woman in the Dunes. For me, this provides beautiful connections between the visual approaches favoured by the director with the thematic elements coming from the author of the novel, and how they worked together. Terrific analysis of visuals. There are key still images which frame the film, found at the opening and closing which are made clear for those who were not immersed in Japanese culture, circa 1964. This and much more.

Enjoy!