Digitisations, Restorations and Revivals (19) - OCEAN WAVES, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Kim Ki-young, Scorsese, COLLEGE

Associate Editor (Restorations and Revivals) Simon Taaffe has come across the following screenings and other information. Click on the links for times, more detail etc where indicated.

The American Cinematheque is situated in Los Angeles. Its website claims it is “the only public, alternative screening organization in town that offers such a wide variety of film & video programming from all over the world on a weekly basis! Members enjoy discounted tickets for foreign films, classic films, American Independents, documentaries, experimental work, short subjects, animation, special formats, in-person tributes to directors and actors, rare films, "lost" films, collectors’ prints and more! Memberships also make excellent gifts for film-lovers!”

Ocean Waves, Japanese DVD cover 

The Cinematheque worked with the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles to develop the historic Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, as a permanent home. It is a state-of-the-art theatre within a building steeped in movie history. (Sigh!!!!!) 

Among its current program is OCEAN WAVES (Japan, 1993), “the first Studio Ghibli film directed by someone other than studio founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, as director Tomomi Mochizuki led a talented staff of younger employees in an adaptation of Saeko Himuro’s best-selling novel. Full of shots bathed in a palette of pleasingly soft pastel colors and rich in the unexpected visual details typical of Studio Ghibli’s most revered works, OCEAN WAVES is an accomplished teenage drama and a true discovery. Not available in any North American home viewing formats. New 4K restoration. For more details, in case you can get there, click here.

Singin’ in the Rain at the Golden Age Cinema In her contribution to the Defending Cinephilia posts legendary Sydney cinephile Tina Kaufman made mention of the program offering from Sydney’s best kept secret, the Golden Age Cinema. Here’s an opportunity to experience the venue when it presents one of the greatest of all film musicals  Singing in the Rain.

Kim Ki-Young

Harvard Film Archive Kim Ki-young is one of the great figures of Korean cinema. Click on his name for the Wikipedia entry. He is best known for the original version of The Housemaid (South Korea, 1960), recently re-made and turned into an international festival hit.  The Harvard Film Archive, as part of a series titled Ha Gil-Jong and the Revitalization of the Korean Cinema is screening the remarkable I-eo Island (I-eodo) (South Korea, 1977). The screening notes on the Museum website tell us “Kim Ki-Young’s visionary cinema surged to a delirious peak with the greatest of his 1970s films, I-eodo, a remarkable study of primal desire and the death drive that was revered as a “transcendent” masterpiece by Ha Gil-Jong. Kim Ki-Young’s penchant for crazed, almost absurdist, narratives is given full range in I-eodo, which follows the unthinkable consequences of a zealous hotel developer’s misguided decision to name his Jeju Island resort after the mythical I-eo Island.

Martin Scorsese

At the BFI London Martin Scorsese selects a season of films restored by his Film Foundation

Institut Lumiere in Lyon

A special screening in the Auditorium de Lyon (France) of a restoration of Buster Keaton’s and James Horne’s College (USA, 1927).   Details are: Accompagnement par l’Orchestre national de Lyon
Direction : Timothy Brock 
Nouvelle musique de Timothy Brock, co-commande de l’Auditorium-ONL, de l’Institut Lumière et de Lobster Films.

Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films advises “Cette projection sera l’une des toutes premières au monde sur grand écran de la nouvelle restauration, dans son aspect original, invisible depuis 1927.” Full details here. (Sorry about my lack of desire to translate from the French)

College