Setsuko Hara

Non so voi, ma io tutte le mattine faccio colazione con Setsuko Hara.
Qualche anno fa, al museo The Eye di Amsterdam, ho trovato questo meraviglioso poster del film Banshun (Late Spring) di Yasujiro Ozu, con una foto in bianco e nero di Setsuko Hara che sorride, una tazza di té poggiata sul tavolo davanti a lei. L’ho appesa nel mio soggiorno, dove faccio colazione, e vedere quel sorriso luminoso ogni mattina mi fa pensare che il mondo sia un posto davvero bello:

Nelle ultime due settimane, lo ammetto, qui a Parigi si fa un po’ fatica a crederci, che il mondo sia un posto bello. 
E adesso che Setsuko Hara ci ha lasciato, ancora di più (per la verità l’attrice è mancata lo scorso 5 Settembre, ma la notizia è stata data solo il 25 Novembre).
Nata nel 1920 a Yokohama, Setsuko Hara è diventata famosa grazie a due film interpretati per Akira Kurosawa ma, soprattutto, per la sua lunga collaborazione con il regista Yasujiro Ozu. Alla morte di quest’ultimo, nel 1963, la Hara si è ritirata dalle scene e se ne è andata a vivere sola (non si è mai sposata) a Kamakura, rifiutando qualsiasi intervista e qualsiasi fotografia. Non a caso è stata definita la "Greta Garbo Giapponese".
Come una vera diva degli anni ’50, ma con uno stile tutto nipponico, si è eclissata dal mondo, lasciandoci in eredità i suoi meravigliosi ruoli di figlia (prima) e madre (poi) nei film di Ozu. L'eleganza con cui cammina a piccoli passi sul tatami delle case in stile tradizionale giapponese, il modo assolutamente irresistibile di sorridere, reclinando leggermente la testa di lato, il timbro dolcissimo di voce, me fanno un'icona di bellezza senza tempo e senza rivali:

L'altra sera mi è venuta voglia di rivedere Akibiyori (Late Autumn), che mi sembrava il film perfetto considerata la stagione e la malinconia di questo periodo, e infatti lo era.
Ogni inquadratura di Ozu è una piccola magia, un quadro dal nitore e dall'essenzialità risplendenti, dove ogni oggetto sembra trovare la sua ragione d'essere, la sua collocazione più intima e sincera. 
E non ho potuto fare a meno di pensare che quando quello che ci circonda appare brutto, meschino, insensato, brutale, basta regalarsi - non dico tanto - 10 minuti di inquadrature di Ozu. 
Meglio ancora se illuminate dal sorriso di Setsuko Hara.
E passa la paura.
L'unico antidoto possibile contro il male assoluto.
La vera bellezza che salverà il mondo (se siamo ancora in tempo...)

Cronenberg at The Eye

I have fallen in love with The Eye few years ago, when I saw it for the first time.
I like everything, there: the building, the space, the cinemas, the bookshop, the bar, the exhibitions they make. So, every time I go back to Amsterdam, I can't help myself: I have to take the boat just outside the station and run towards my favorite museum in town.
If, on top of that, they decide to program an exhibition about one of my favorite film-makers (David Cronenberg) having a picture of Jeremy Irons on the poster, well, that's when The Eye easily becomes my favorite museum in the world!

Divided into sections corresponding to every single Cronenberg's production, the exhibition illustrates the incredible journey of this Toronto native movie-maker: from the first horror-gore-scientifics films of the '70s to the sharp and pitiless vision of this year Maps to the Stars, every movie is explained and illustrated. What I didn't expected, was the incredible amount of objects coming from the set of his movies. I was just crazy about it. It was like touching all those amazing and terrifying things that Cronenberg invented and created in the course of his career. For instance, wouldn't you be happy of being in front of The Fly's telepod??!

Even if the creature coming out of it, luckily enough, wasn't there to welcome us:

Believe it or not, the inspiration for the design of the telepod came from the cylinder's shape of Cronenerg's vintage Ducati motorcycle!!! The evidence:

And what about the nice writing machines from Naked Lunch?

Or the pistol made of bone and gristle from eXistenZ?

But don't worry, there were also less frightening things, like the mug from the diner of A History of Violence:

Or the suitcase for tattoos-makers from Eastern Promises... anybody for a tattoo made by Nikolai? (a bit scary, uhm?):

And, in case of a car accident, I'm sure you want to try one of those nice rib cages from Crash...

But of course, my most beloved objects were coming from Cronenerg's masterpiece, Dead Ringers, a 1988 movie about two gynecologists twin brothers, both (!) played by Jeremy Irons. If you are a woman, the side effect of this movie is that you don't go to see a gynecologist for at least three-four months after its vision, because you're simply too scared that your doctor could use the following instruments to "visit" you:

To my big surprise, in the exhibition there was also the reproduction of Jeremy Iron's bust (I don't remember exactly which was the purpose of it, but I'm very glad they had to do it). 
Look at these perfect proportions!

Irons and Cronenberg worked together again in 1993, for a movie that I consider one of the most underestimated of cinema history: M Butterfly, which tells the (real) story of a British diplomate that fell in love in the China of the '60s with a a Chinese Opera singer (to find out only too late that the woman was, in fact, a man). One day I'll write a post about it. I simply adore that movie. In the exhibition there was a nice polaroid of Irons on set during a dress rehearsal:

Anyway, looking at this exhibition was absolutely clear that the constant theme of all Cronenerg's cinema is mutation, under all its forms. It was fascinating, scary and intriguing at the same time. I just felt like watching again and again all his movies (the museum programmed a complete retrospective during the time of the exhibition, that unfortunately will end next Sunday).
Last but not least, The Eye re-created the bar of the Naked Lunch, with a Mugwump seated at the counter waiting to drink and have a chat with people passing by.
A film-maker, for instance:

Or a cinema-blogger:

And in case you don't like this kind of bar and customers:

You can always opt for The Eye's lovely bar and restaurant:

You'd probably need a drink after a plunge in Cronenberg's world...

Un grazie di cuore a Linda, Gaetano e la mitica Moneypenny per la loro calorosa accoglienza!

The EYE

It is not a mystery that two of the things I love most in life are cinema and travels.
This is why visiting a place to see something related to movies represents one of the greatest pleasures, for me. If, on top of that, some friends are involved, then it is just perfect.
Last week-end I went to Amsterdam to see the city’s new cinema museum, EYE (a particularly appropriate name, since I’m still struggling with my own!).
Linda and Gaetano, my lovely friends living there, talked to me about this place a while ago and I was very eager to see it. Located on the Northern part of the city, the museum can be reached by boat from Amsterdam Central Station (t is a ride of just three minutes and it doesn’t cost a penny). Made by Viennese firm of architects Delugan Meissl Associated, the building is quite amazing: it looks like a big white whale lying down on IJ River. We went there towards the end of the afternoon, and it was quite fascinating to see the city lights from there and to pass from the cold and dark outside to the warm and bright inside (the belly of the whale).

 

The four floors contain different facilities: in the basement there is an exhibition space and a cinema (67 seats, Art Deco Style, mainly used for screening classics and silent films), at the entrance floor, the biggest one, there is the box office, a shop, two cinemas (both having 130 seats, but one is called the Black Box, because everything is so black that nothing distracts the viewer from the screen, while the other can be transformed into a large empty space for installations and events) and a bar-restaurant with a terrace, at the first floor there are more exhibition and workshop spaces and on the top floor there is the biggest cinema (315 seats, having a built-in cinema organ to provide live musical accompaniment to silent films!).

 

 

EYE doesn’t have a permanent exhibition, it organizes four major exhibitions per year and it has a collection of more than 40.000 titles, from avant-garde movies to Hollywood classics until the contemporary indie works: in the basement there are lovely small cabins where people can watch movies choosing from this wide selection.
I really wanted to see a film there or in one of the cinemas, but I had already seen all the movies they were showing at the moment (the side effects of being a cinema freak) and I didn’t have enough time (the basement closes at 6 pm) to enjoy an old movie in those little yellow nests.
I enjoyed browsing through the exhibition, though, and of course I stopped by at the shop, where I managed to ruin myself buying cinema post-cards, a book about Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock and a couple of issues of Sight & Sound magazine. 

 

I have to say I was very impressed by the space of the bar-restaurant.
It is huge, and usually big places are cold and gloomy, but here it is exactly the opposite and it is even cosy. Since it was apéro time, my friends and I asked for a table. To my surprise, the woman at the counter told us that we could wait for one or that we can have our drinks at the bar and seat down on the wooden stairs leading to the cinema 1. In fact, we decided for this second option and it was a great idea. From where we were seated, we had a lovely view of the restaurant, the terrace and the city of Amsterdam in the distance. More and more people were doing like us, and in no time the stairs were very crowded. When the movie of cinema 1 was over, everybody came down the stairs and stopped for drinks. There was such a lovely atmosphere, I could have stayed there for ever.

 

 

In fact, as usual, it doesn’t matter if it is Paris, Amsterdam or Hong Kong: home is where a cinema is… but if you happen to be in Amsterdam, don’t forget to see its EYE!