Vitro Nasu

Yoshishige Yoshida

Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita,[1] before debuting as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi.[2] He was a central member of what came to be called the “Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague” along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda,[3] and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave,[4] a linkage which Yoshida himself disliked.[1] Like many of his New Wave cohorts, he felt restricted under the studio system. After Shōchiku’s re-editing of his Escape from Japan (1964), he left the studio to start his own production company,[1] for which he directed such films as Eros + Massacre.[2]
Between 1960 and 2004, Yoshida directed more than 20 films, some of which starred his wife, actress Mariko Okada.[1] After a long absence from the screen following the 1973 Coup d’État, he returned with A Promise, which was shown in the Un Certain Regard section the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.[5] Two years later, his film Wuthering Heights would compete for the Golden Palm at the 1988 Festival.[6] In 2002, Women in the Mirror followed after another hiatus of 14 years.[7] In addition to his theatrical films, Yoshida directed a series of documentaries for Japanese TV.
Yoshida named European cinema as a great influence on his work, most notably the directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, and pre-war French films like the works of Jean Renoir.[1] He also published a number of books on the topic of cinema, including one on his own cinematic work and an analysis of the films of Yasujirō Ozu.

Mariko Okada married to Yoshishige Yoshida is an actress who worked with her husband, Yasujiro Ozu, Juzo Itami and her father was a legendary silent film star Okada Tokihiko. (Both father and daughter were directed by Ozu).

Yoshishige Yoshida MUBI

Midnight Eye Interview Yoshishige Yoshida

“I do remember Nebraska idyllic images. Playing guns with my friends, or kick-the-can, or ditch, watching airplanes drone overhead on lazy Sunday afternoons, collecting June bugs in a jar on summer nights, playing statues, making mud slippers. … I know there are people who can’t dredge up a single pleasant memory of their childhood, and I can come up with a hundred from mine, some of them right off a calendar or out of ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ” wrote Dick Cavett in his autobiography, “Cavett,” in 1974.

Happy birthday Dick Cavett (wiki)

Anagram Brando Conversation (Previous Post)

Why Dick Cavett was the greatest talk show host of all time

Ingmar Bergman, Bibi Andersson & Dick Cavett on youtube here.

Dick Cavett’s Top 10 at Criterion

Mel Brooks, Frank Captra Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman on Dick Cavett Show

(Orson Welles Interviews Dick Cavett.)
Assorted hijinks an interview with Dick Cavett (Paris View)

(Photo by Diane Arbus 1966)

Lee Bontecou wiki

Lee Bontecou (January 15, 1931 – November 8, 2022) was an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world. She kept her work consistently in a recognizable style, and received broad recognition in the 1960s. Bontecou made abstract sculptures in the 1960s and 1970s and created vacuum-formed plastic fish, plants, and flower forms in the 1970s. Rich, organic shapes and powerful energy appear in her drawings, prints, and sculptures. Her work has been shown and collected in many major museums in the United States and in Europe.

Brave and Bold Lee Bontecou a Formidable Artist (Previous post)

Bullet Over Broadway Script by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath

David Shayne: Helen, have you thought about what I said before about the way I feel—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t speak.
David Shayne: But, I. . . I want to express—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t. . .speak. Don’t!
David Shayne: Just a few things that I want to tell you—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t. . .speak!
David Shayne: When we first met—
Helen Sinclair: No, no, don’t speak. Don’t speak. Please don’t speak. Please don’t speak. No. No. No. Go. Go, gentle Scorpio, go. Your Pisces wishes you every happy return.
David Shayne: Just one—
Helen Sinclair: Don’t speak!

(Douglas McGrath on Charlie Rose)
Douglas McGrath talked about Woody Allen and Robert Redford on Charlies Rose. McGrath was directed by Redford in “Quiz Show”, he described Redford having a great sense of ‘humor.

Douglas McGrath Dead, Oscr, Tony Nominated Writer Director (The Guardian obit)

Douglas McGrath wiki (February 2, 1958 – November 3, 2022)

McGrath would appear on screen for Allen seven times – Celebrity, Sweet And Lowdown, Small Time Crooks, Hollywood Ending, Cafe Society, Crisis In Six Scenes and Rifkin’s Festival. The last two featured McGrath in more prominent roles. On screen he was a calming figure that didn’t seem disturbed by Allen’s manic characters.

McGrath did lots of work without Allen. Most significantly he wrote the film Emma and the very successful Carole King musical Beautiful.

(Toby Jones as Capote and Daniel Craig as Perry)

Douglas MacGraths messy “Infamous” improves upon Capotes

Pierre Soulages Painter of Black Dies at 102 (Hyperallergic.com)

(Johan Coltrane – thanks to Pascal Blanchard for this photo)

Pierre Soulages Wiki

Collections
Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris)[19]
Honolulu Museum of Art
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musée Soulages (Rodez)
Museum of Modern Art (New York)[20]
Museum of Modern Art (Rio de Janeiro)
National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York)[21]
Tate Gallery (London)

Museum Dedicated to Pierre Soulages

Angela Lansbury

(Angela Lansbury was in “Blue Hawaii” with Elvis)

Lansbury had a prolific career in film, theatre and television. She was one of the last film stars of the golden age of Hollywood, having been a contract player with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s. She acted alongside actors such as Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, Orson Welles, Bette Davis and Maggie Smith in such classic films as Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Harvey Girls (1946), State of the Union (1948), The Court Jester (1956), The Long, Hot Summer (1958), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Death on the Nile (1978).

She is also known for her roles in classic children’s films as Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Last Unicorn (1982), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Anastasia (1997), Fantasia 2000 (2000), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Grinch (2018) and Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Lansbury is also known for her iconic work in Broadway musicals working Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1978), Gypsy (1973), and A Little Night Music (2009–2010). She also starred in Jerry Herman’s Mame (1966), and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I (1978). She is also known for her performances in plays such as the Terrence McNally play Deuce (2007), the Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit (2014), the Gore Vidal political drama The Best Man (2012). She gained international fame for her role as mystery writer turned sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the CBS crime series Murder, She Wrote (1984–1996).

Tim Robbins & Angela Lansbury
TIm Robbins born Oct 16, 1958. (Happy birthday Tim Robbins)
Angela Lansbury (16 October 1925 – 11 October 2022)

A Pioneer Composer Ichiyanagi dies, 89 years old

Avant-garde pianist and composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, who studied with John Cage and went on to lead Japan’s advances in experimental modern music, has died

Toshi Ichiyanagi (wiki)

One of the leading composers in Japan during the postwar era, Ichiyanagi worked in a range of genres, composing Western-style operas and orchestral and chamber works, as well as compositions using traditional Japanese instruments.[1] Ichiyanagi is known for incorporating avant-garde techniques into his works, such as chance music, extended technique, and nontraditional scoring.[1] Ichiyanagi was married to artist Yoko Ono from 1956 to 1962.

John Cage, T.Ichiyanagi
and David Tudor, Great Budhha in Tokyo)

See photo John Cage Shock vol 3 here.

Grove Atlantic – “Also a Poet”

Ada Calhoun – Also a Poet (her homepage)

Also A Poet
Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me
“Also a Poet is packaged as a love triangle: father, daughter and O’Hara. It’s actually a tetrahedron from which all kinds of creative characters pop forth. It’s a big valentine to New York City past and present, and a contribution to literary scholarship, molten with soul.” — New York Times

Ada Colhoun was named after Ada Katz, wife of Alex Katz who painted many portraits of Frank O’Hara and his wife.

(Rembrandt Polish Rider was Frank O’Hara’s favorite painting)

In “Having a Coke with You,” as in much of his work, the poet admixes life and art. Here, life seems to come out on top: person over portrait (except maybe Rembrandt’s Polish Rider in the Frick). Scroll down to see a video of Frank O’Hara reciting “Having a Coke with YOu’

“Variations on a Theme” Ada Calhoun’s favorite poem by William Carlos Williams

Washington Post interview

British writer Hilary Mantel photographed at home.

Hilary Mantel author of Wolf Hall dies

She saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed,’ her agent says of Booker prize-winning author who died on Thursday
Hilary Mantel remembered: ‘She was the queen of literature’
‘The pen is in our hands. A happy ending is ours to write’: Hilary Mantel in her own words

I always treasure my last meeting with Hilary Mantel

(Thomas Brodie Sangster and Mark Rylance in Wolf Hall)

J.L.G.

Une Catastrophe Jean Luc Godard!

Tributes from Mik Leigh, Claire Denis, Kelly Reichard, Paul Schrader etc..

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Messidor is an original, unpredictable, and disturbing film about two alienated young women in search of freedom from society. The film, in its poetic sweep, is reminiscent of Terrence Malik’s Badlands and could have been a prototype for Thelma and Louise.”

Bulle Ogier from La Salamandre.

Alain Tanner

Influenced by his involvement with the British “Free Cinema” movement in London and with the French New Wave during his years in Paris, Tanner is best known for his movies Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000 (Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000), Dans la ville blanche (In the White City) and Messidor. (via wiki)

See his filmography (via MUBI)

“My films have always represented a balancing act between those films whose objective is the discourse, the concept, and those which start from the material, from emotions, behaviour and locations.”

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Requiem

John Berger wrote the script for La Salamandre (1971); The Middle of the World (1974); and Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976)

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Ryusuke Hamaguchi photographed by Mark Selige

Drive My Car at Criterion

In Conversation Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Hidetoshi Nishiima – Adapting Drive My Car for Screen

The Playlist Interview

Actor embraces grief Chekov and a red Saab for “Drive My Car” (LA times)

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(Hidetoshi Nishijima in Dolls directed by Takeshi Kitano)